ut I am tempted to distinguish the last
eight months of the year 1755, as the period of the most extraordinary
diligence and rapid progress. In my French and Latin translations
I adopted an excellent method, which, from my own success, I would
recommend to the imitation of students. I chose some classic writer,
such as Cicero and Vertot, the most approved for purity and elegance of
style. I translated, for instance, an epistle of Cicero into French;
and after throwing it aside, till the words and phrases were obliterated
from my memory, I re-translated my French into such Latin as I could
find; and then compared each sentence of my imperfect version, with the
ease, the grace, the propriety of the Roman orator. A similar experiment
was made on several pages of the Revolutions of Vertot; I turned them
into Latin, returned them after a sufficient interval into my own
French, and again scrutinized the resemblance or dissimilitude of the
copy and the original. By degrees I was less ashamed, by degrees I was
more satisfied with myself; and I persevered in the practice of these
double translations, which filled several books, till I had acquired the
knowledge or both idioms, and the command at least of a correct style.
This useful exercise of writing was accompanied and succeeded by the
more pleasing occupation of reading the best authors. The perusal of
the Roman classics was at once my exercise and reward. Dr. Middleton's
History, which I then appreciated above its true value, naturally
directed the to the writings of Cicero. The most perfect editions, that
of Olivet, which may adorn the shelves of the rich, that of Ernesti,
which should lie on the table of the learned, were not in my power. For
the familiar epistles I used the text and English commentary of Bishop
Ross: but my general edition was that of Verburgius, published at
Amsterdam in two large volumes in folio, with an indifferent choice of
various notes. I read, with application and pleasure, all the epistles,
all the orations, and the most important treatises of rhetoric and
philosophy; and as I read, I applauded the observation of Quintilian,
that every student may judge of his own proficiency, by the satisfaction
which he receives from the Roman orator. I tasted the beauties of
language, I breathed the spirit of freedom, and I imbibed from his
precepts and examples the public and private sense of a man. Cicero in
Latin, and Xenophon in Greek, are indeed the two an