he aspect of a regular and
beautiful city, the work of Stanislaus, who, after the storms of Polish
royalty, reposed in the love and gratitude of his new subjects of
Lorraine. In our halt at Maestricht I visited Mr. de Beaufort, a learned
critic, who was known to me by his specious arguments against the five
first centuries of the Roman History. After dropping my regimental
companions, I stepped aside to visit Rotterdam and the Hague. I wished
to have observed a country, the monument of freedom and industry; but
my days were numbered, and a longer delay would have been ungraceful.
I hastened to embark at the Brill, landed the next day at Harwich, and
proceeded to London, where my father awaited my arrival. The whole term
of my first absence from England was four years ten months and fifteen
days.

In the prayers of the church our personal concerns are judiciously
reduced to the threefold distinction of mind, body, and estate. The
sentiments of the mind excite and exercise our social sympathy. The
review of my moral and literary character is the most interesting to
myself and to the public; and I may expatiate, without reproach, on my
private studies; since they have produced the public writings, which
can alone entitle me to the esteem and friendship of my readers. The
experience of the world inculcates a discreet reserve on the subject of
our person and estate, and we soon learn that a free disclosure of our
riches or poverty would provoke the malice of envy, or encourage the
insolence of contempt.

The only person in England whom I was impatient to see was my aunt
Porten, the affectionate guardian of my tender years. I hastened to her
house in College-street, Westminster; and the evening was spent in
the effusions of joy and confidence. It was not without some awe and
apprehension that I approached the presence of my father. My infancy,
to speak the truth, had been neglected at home; the severity of his look
and language at our last parting still dwelt on my memory; nor could I
form any notion of his character, or my probable reception. They were
both more agreeable than I could expect. The domestic discipline of our
ancestors has been relaxed by the philosophy and softness of the age;
and if my father remembered that he had trembled before a stern parent,
it was only to adopt with his own son an opposite mode of behaviour. He
received me as a man and a friend; all constraint was banished at our
first interview, and