ood necessary to sustain life, have
little or no imagination to call forth the curiosity necessary to
fructify the faint glimmerings of mind which entitle them to rank as
lords of the creation. Had they either they could not contentedly remain
rooted in the clods they so indolently cultivate.

Whilst the sailors went to seek for the sluggish inhabitants, these
conclusions occurred to me; and, recollecting the extreme fondness which
the Parisians ever testify for novelty, their very curiosity appeared to
me a proof of the progress they had made in refinement. Yes, in the art
of living--in the art of escaping from the cares which embarrass the
first steps towards the attainment of the pleasures of social life.

The pilots informed the sailors that they were under the direction of a
lieutenant retired from the service, who spoke English; adding that they
could do nothing without his orders, and even the offer of money could
hardly conquer their laziness and prevail on them to accompany us to his
dwelling. They would not go with me alone, which I wanted them to have
done, because I wished to dismiss the sailors as soon as possible. Once
more we rowed off, they following tardily, till, turning round another
bold protuberance of the rocks, we saw a boat making towards us, and soon
learnt that it was the lieutenant himself, coming with some earnestness
to see who we were.

To save the sailors any further toil, I had my baggage instantly removed
into his boat; for, as he could speak English, a previous parley was not
necessary, though Marguerite's respect for me could hardly keep her from
expressing the fear, strongly marked on her countenance, which my putting
ourselves into the power of a strange man excited. He pointed out his
cottage; and, drawing near to it, I was not sorry to see a female figure,
though I had not, like Marguerite, been thinking of robberies, murders,
or the other evil which instantly, as the sailors would have said, runs
foul of a woman's imagination.

On entering I was still better pleased to find a clean house, with some
degree of rural elegance. The beds were of muslin, coarse it is true,
but dazzlingly white; and the floor was strewed over with little sprigs
of juniper (the custom, as I afterwards found, of the country), which
formed a contrast with the curtains, and produced an agreeable sensation
of freshness, to soften the ardour of noon. Still nothing was so
pleasing as the alacrity of h