that every line of the poem is ftill engraved in fresh and indelible characters. The highest gratification which I derived from Voltaire's refidence at Laufanne, was the uncommon circumftance of hearing a great poet declaim his own productions on the ftage. He had formed a company of gentlemen and ladies, fome of whom were not deftitute of talents. A decent theatre was framed at Monrepos, a country houfe at the end of a fuburb; dreffes and fcenes were provided at the expenfe of the actors; and the author directed the rehearsals with the zeal and attention of paternal love. In two fucceffive winters his tragedies of Zayre, Alzire, Zulime, and his fentimental comedy of the Enfant Prodigue, were played at the theatre of Monrepos. Voltaire reprefented the characters beft adapted to his years, Lufignan, Alvarez, Benaffar, Euphemon. His declamation was fashioned to the pomp and cadence of the old stage; and he expreffed the enthusiasm of poetry, rather than the feelings of nature. My ardor, which foon became confpicuous, feldom failed of procuring me a ticket. The habits of pleafure fortified my tafte for the French theatre, and that taste has perhaps abated my idolatry for the gigantic genius of Shakspeare, which is inculcated from our infancy as the firft duty of an Englishman. The wit and philofophy of Voltaire, his table and theatre, refined, in a visible degree, the manners of Lausanne; and, however addicted to ftudy, I enjoyed my fhare of the amufements of fociety. After the representation of Monrepos I fometimes

fupped with the actors. I was now familiar in fome, and acquainted in many houfes; and my evenings were generally devoted to cards and converfation, either in private parties or numerous affemblies.

I

I hesitate, from the apprehenfion of ridicule, when I approach the delicate fubject of my early love. By this word I do not mean the polite attention, the gallantry, without hope or defign, which has originated in the fpirit of chivalry, and is interwoven with the texture of French manners. understand by this paffion the union of defire, friend. fhip, and tenderness, which is inflamed by a single female, which prefers her to the rest of her fex, and which feeks her poffeffion as the fupreme or the fole happiness of our being. I need not blush at recollecting the object of my choice; and though my love was disappointed of fuccefs, I am rather proud that I was once capable of feeling fuch a pure and exalted fentiment. The perfonal attractions of Mademoiselle Sufan Curchod were embellished by the virtues and talents of the mind. Her fortune was humble, but her family was refpectable. Her mother, a native of France, had preferred her religion to her country. The profeffion of her father did not extinguish the moderation and philofophy of his temper, and he lived content with a small falary and laborious duty, in the obfcure lot of minifter of Craffy, in the mountains that feparate the Pays de Vaud from the county of Burgundy' In the folitude of a fequeftered village he bestowed a liberal, and even learned, education on his only daughter. She furpassed his hopes by her proficiency in the fciences and languages; and in her short

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vifits to fome relations at Lausanne, the wit, the beauty, and erudition of Mademoiselle Curchod were the theme of universal applause. The report of fuch a prodigy awakened my curiofity; I faw and loved. I found her learned without pedantry, lively in converfation, pure in fentiment, and ele gant in manners; and the firft fudden emotion was fortified by the habits and knowledge of a more familiar acquaintance. She permitted me to make her two or three vifits at her father's houfe. I paffed fome happy days there, in the mountains of Burgundy, and her parents honorably encouraged the connexion. In a calm retirement the gay vanity of youth no longer fluttered in her bofom; fhe lif tened to the voice of truth and paffion, and I might prefume to hope that I had made fome impreffion on a virtuous heart. At Craffy and Lausanne I in dulged my dream of felicity: but on my return to England, I foon difcovered that my father would not hear of this ftrange alliance, and that without his confent I was myself deftitute and helpless. After a painful struggle I yielded to my fate: I fighed as a lover, I obeyed as a fon"; my wound was infenfibly healed by time, absence, and the habits of a new life. My cure was accelerated by a faithful report of the tranquillity and cheerfulness of the lady herself, and my love fubfided in friendship and esteem. The minifter of Craffy soon afterwards died; his ftipend died with him: his daughter retired to Geneva, where by teaching young ladies, fhe earned a hard fubfiftence for herself and her mother; but in her loweft diftrefs fhe maintained

a fpotlefs reputation, and a dignified behaviour. A rich banker of Paris, a citizen of Geneva, had the good fortune and good fenfe to discover and poffefs this ineftimable treafure; and in the capital of taste and luxury fhe refifted the temptations of wealth, as fhe had fuftained the hardships of indigence. The genius of her husband has exalted him to the moft confpicuous ftation in Europe. In every change of profperity and difgrace he has reclined on the bofom of a faithful friend; and Mademoiselle Curchod is now the wife of M. Necker, the minister, and perhaps the legiflator, of the French monarchy.

Whatfoever have been the fruits of my education, they must be afcribed to the fortunate banishment which placed me at Laufanne. I have fometimes applied to my own fate the verses of Pindar, which remind an Olympic champion that his victory was the confequence of his exile; and that at home, like a domestic fowl, his days might have rolled away inactive or inglorious.

If my childish revolt against the religion of my country had not ftripped me in time of my academic gown, the five important years, fo liberally improved in the ftudies and converfation of Laufanne, would have been steeped in port and prejudice among the monks of Oxford.. Had the

fatigue of idlenefs compelled me to read, the path of learning would not have been enlightened by a ray of philofophic freedom. I fhould have grown to manhood ignorant of the life and language of Europe, and my knowledge of the world would have been confined to an English cloifter. But my religious error fixed me at Laufanne, in a state of banishment and difgrace. The rigid courfe of dif cipline and abftinence, to which I was condemned, invigorated the conftitution of my mind and body; poverty and pride estranged me from my countrymen. One, mifchief, however, and in their eyes a ferious and irreparable mifchief, was derived from the fuccefs of my Swifs education: I had ceafed to be an Englishman. At the flexible period of youth, from the age of fixteen to twenty-one, my opinions, habits, and fentiments were caft in a foreign mould; the faint and diftant remembrance of England was almoft obliterated; my native language was grown lefs familiar; and I fhould have cheerfully accepted the offer of a moderate independence on the terms of perpetual exile. By the good fense and temper of Pavilliard my yoke was infenfibly lightened: he left me mafter of my time and actions; but he could neither change my fituation nor increase my allowance, and with the progrefs of my years and reafon I impatiently fighed for the moment of my deliverance. At length, in the Spring of the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight, my father fignified his permiffion and his pleasure that I fhould immediately return home. We were then in the midst of a war: the