of certainty, the circumstances on which the
formation of the character and taste depend. Swift has given us a list
of the books which he read during two years of his life; we can trace
the ideas that he acquired from them in his Laputa, and other parts of
Gulliver's travels. Gibbon's journal of his studies, and his account
of universities, are very instructive to young students. So is the
life of Franklin, written by himself. Madame Roland has left a history
of her education; and in the books she read in her early years, we see
the formation of her character. Plutarch's Lives, she tells us, first
kindled republican enthusiasm in her mind; and she regrets that, in
forming her ideas of universal liberty, she had only a partial view of
affairs. She corrected these enthusiastic ideas during the last
moments of her life in prison. Had the impression which her study of
the Roman history made upon her mind been known to an able preceptor,
it might have been corrected in her early education. When she was led
to execution, she exclaimed, as she passed the statue of Liberty, "Oh
Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!"[126]

Formerly it was wisely said, "Tell me what company a man keeps, and I
will tell you what he is;" but since literature has spread a new
influence over the world, we must add, "Tell me what company a man has
kept, and what books he has read, and I will tell you what he is."

FOOTNOTES:

[101] V. Academie della Crusca.

[102] Marmontel. "On ne se guerit pas d'un defaut qui plait."

[103] We have heard that such a translation was begun.

[104] V. Hor. 2 Epist. lib. ii.

[105] V. Sympathy and Sensibility.

[106] V. A letter of Mr. Wyndham's to Mr. Repton, in Repton, on
Landscape Gardening.

[107] The Critic.

[108] Professor Stewart.

[109] Berquin.

[110] V. Sympathy and Sensibility.

[111] Chapter on Invention and Memory.

[112] V. Guthrie's Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar,
page 186.

[113] Ibid, page 398.

[114] L'idee, par exemple, que j'ai de Pierre, est singuliere ou
individuelle, et comme l'idee d'homme est generale par rapport aux
idees de noble et de roturier, elle est particuliere par rapport a
l'idee d'animal. Lecons Preliminaires, vol. i. p. 43.

[115] Ainsi lorsque, de plusieurs sensations qui se font en meme temps
sur vous, la direction des organs vous en fait remarquer une, de
maniere que vous ne remarquez plus les autres, cette sensation devient
ce