nd civil
correspondence with their successors. This seclusion from English
society was attended with the most solid benefits. In the Pays de Vaud,
the French language is used with less imperfection than in most of the
distant provinces of France: in Pavilliard's family, necessity compelled
me to listen and to speak; and if I was at first disheartened by the
apparent slowness, in a few months I was astonished by the rapidity of
my progress. My pronunciation was formed by the constant repetition of
the same sounds; the variety of words and idioms, the rules of grammar,
and distinctions of genders, were impressed in my memory ease and
freedom were obtained by practice; correctness and elegance by labour;
and before I was recalled home, French, in which I spontaneously
thought, was more familiar than English to my ear, my tongue, and my
pen. The first effect of this opening knowledge was the revival of my
love of reading, which had been chilled at Oxford; and I soon turned
over, without much choice, almost all the French books in my tutor's
library. Even these amusements were productive of real advantage: my
taste and judgment were now somewhat riper. I was introduced to a new
mode of style and literature: by the comparison of manners and opinions,
my views were enlarged, my prejudices were corrected, and a copious
voluntary abstract of the Histoire de l'Eglise et de l'Empire, by le
Sueur, may be placed in a middle line between my childish and my manly
studies. As soon as I was able to converse with the natives, I began to
feel some satisfaction in their company my awkward timidity was polished
and emboldened; and I frequented, for the first time, assemblies of men
and women. The acquaintance of the Pavilliards prepared me by degrees
for more elegant society. I was received with kindness and indulgence in
the best families of Lausanne; and it was in one of these that I formed
an intimate and lasting connection with Mr. Deyverdun, a young man of an
amiable temper and excellent understanding. In the arts of fencing and
dancing, small indeed was my proficiency; and some months were idly
wasted in the riding-school. My unfitness to bodily exercise reconciled
me to a sedentary life, and the horse, the favourite of my countrymen,
never contributed to the pleasures of my youth.

My obligations to the lessons of Mr. Pavilliard, gratitude will not
suffer me to forget: he was endowed with a clear head and a warm heart;
his innate ben