th of M. Roland's mother.--Situation of La
Platiere.--Description of La Platiere.--Surrounding scenery.--Years
of happiness.--Mode of life.--Eudora.--Domestic duties.--Literary
employments.--Pleasant rambles.--Distinguished guests.--Rural
pleasures.--Knowledge of medicine.--Kindness to the
peasantry.--Gratitude of the peasantry.--Popular rights.

When Jane was in the convent, she became acquainted with a young lady
from Amiens, Sophia Cannet. They formed for each other a strong
attachment, and commenced a correspondence which continued for many
years. There was a gentleman in Amiens by the name of Roland de la
Platiere, born of an opulent family, and holding the quite important
office of inspector of manufactures. His time was mainly occupied in
traveling and study. Being deeply interested in all subjects relating
to political economy, he had devoted much attention to that noble
science, and had written several treatises upon commerce, mechanics,
and agriculture, which had given him, in the literary and scientific
world, no little celebrity. He frequently visited the father of
Sophia. She often spoke to him of her friend Jane, showed him her
portrait, and read to him extracts from her glowing letters. The calm
philosopher became very much interested in the enthusiastic maiden,
and entreated Sophia to give him a letter of introduction to her,
upon one of his annual visits to Paris. Sophia had also often written
to Jane of her father's friend, whom she regarded with so much
reverence.

One day Jane was sitting alone in her desolate home, absorbed in
pensive musings, when M. Roland entered, bearing a letter of
introduction to her from Sophia. "You will receive this letter," her
friend wrote, "by the hand of the philosopher of whom I have so often
written to you. M. Roland is an enlightened man, of antique manners,
without reproach, except for his passion for the ancients, his
contempt for the moderns, and his too high estimation of his own
virtue."

The gentleman thus introduced to her was about forty years old. He was
tall, slender, and well formed, with a little stoop in his gait, and
manifested in his manners that self-possession which is the result of
conscious worth and intellectual power, while, at the same time, he
exhibited that slight and not displeasing awkwardness which one
unavoidably acquires in hours devoted to silence and study. Still,
Madame Roland says, in her description of his person, that he was