melancholy, followed by an absolute loathing of his usual studies. Music
all through life affected him most powerfully, and he states that his
tragedies were almost invariably planned by him when under its
influence. It was about this time that he composed his first sonnet,
which was made up of whole or mutilated verses of Metastasio and
Ariosto, the only two Italian poets of whom he knew any thing. It was in
praise of a certain lady to whom his uncle was paying his addresses, and
whom he himself admired. Several persons, including the lady herself,
praised it, so that he already fancied himself a poet. His uncle,
however, a military man, and no votary of the Muses, laughed at him so
much, that his poetical vein was soon dried up, and he did not renew his
attempts in the line till he was more than twenty-five years old. "How
many good or bad verses did my uncle suffocate, together with my
first-born sonnet!"

He next studied physics and ethics--the former under the celebrated
Beccaria, but not a single definition remained in his head. These
studies, however, as well as those in civil and canon law, which he had
commenced, were interrupted by a violent illness, which rendered it
necessary for him to have his head shaved, and to wear a wig. His
companions, at first, tormented him greatly about this wig, and used to
tear it from his head; but he soon succeeded in appeasing the public
indignation, by being always the first to throw the unhappy ornament in
question up in the air, calling it by every opprobrious epithet. From
that time he remained the least persecuted wig-wearer among the two or
three who were in this predicament.

He now took lessons on the piano, and in geography, fencing, and
dancing. He imbibed the most invincible dislike to the latter, which he
attributed to the grimaces and extraordinary contortions of the master,
a Frenchman just arrived from Paris. He dates from this period that
extreme hatred of the French nation which remained with him through
life, and which was one of the strangest features in his character. His
uncle died this year (1763), and as he was now fourteen, the age at
which, by the laws of Piedmont, minors are freed from the care of their
guardians, and are placed under curators, who leave them masters of
their income, and can only prevent the alienation of their real estates,
he found himself possessed of considerable property, which was still
farther increased by his uncle's fortune