ance of reciprocal
civilities. 3. Instead of a small house between a street and a
stable-yard, I began to occupy a spacious and convenient mansion,
connected on the north side with the city, and open on the south to a
beautiful and boundless horizon. A garden of four acres had been laid
out by the taste of Mr. Deyverdun: from the garden a rich scenery of
meadows and vineyards descends to the Leman Lake, and the prospect far
beyond the Lake is crowned by the stupendous mountains of Savoy. My
books and my acquaintance had been first united in London; but this
happy position of my library in town and country was finally reserved
for Lausanne. Possessed of every comfort in this triple alliance, I
could not be tempted to change my habitation with the changes of the
seasons.

My friends had been kindly apprehensive that I should not be able to
exist in a Swiss town at the foot of the Alps, after having so long
conversed with the first men of the first cities of the world. Such
lofty connections may attract the curious, and gratify the vain; but
I am too modest, or too proud, to rate my own value by that of my
associates; and whatsoever may be the fame of learning or genius,
experience has shown the that the cheaper qualifications of politeness
and good sense are of more useful currency in the commerce of life. By
many, conversation is esteemed as a theatre or a school: but, after
the morning has been occupied by the labours of the library, I wish to
unbend rather than to exercise my mind; and in the interval between tea
and supper I am far from disdaining the innocent amusement of a game
at cards. Lausanne is peopled by a numerous gentry, whose companionable
idleness is seldom disturbed by the pursuits of avarice or ambition: the
women, though confined to a domestic education, are endowed for the most
part with more taste and knowledge than their husbands and brothers: but
the decent freedom of both sexes is equally remote from the extremes
of simplicity and refinement. I shall add as a misfortune rather than
a merit, that the situation and beauty of the Pays de Vaud, the long
habits of the English, the medical reputation of Dr. Tissot, and the
fashion of viewing the mountains and Glaciers, have opened us on all
sides to the incursions of foreigners. The visits of Mr. and Madame
Necker, of Prince Henry of Prussia, and of Mr. Fox, may form some
pleasing exceptions; but, in general, Lausanne has appeared most
agreeable in my e