atest acts of friendship
are made snares to us, and we are made tempters of one another! My dear
friend," said he, "your offer is so sincere, has such kindness in it, is
so disinterested in itself, and is so calculated for my advantage, that
I must have very little knowledge of the world, if I did not both wonder
at it, and acknowledge the obligation I have upon me to you for it: but
did you believe I was sincere in what I have so often said to you of my
contempt of the world? Did you believe I spoke my very soul to you, and
that I had really maintained that degree of felicity here, that had
placed me above all that the world could give me, or do for me? Did you
believe I was sincere, when I told you I would not go back, if I was
recalled even to be all that once I was in the court, and with the
favour of the czar my master? Did you believe me, my friend, to be an
honest man, or did you think me to be a boasting hypocrite?" Here he
stopped, as if he would hear what I would say; but, indeed, I soon after
perceived, that he stopped because his spirits were in motion: his heart
was full of struggles, and he could not go on. I was, I confess,
astonished at the thing, as well as at the man, and I used some
arguments with him to urge him to set himself free; that he ought to
look upon this as a door opened by Heaven for his deliverance, and a
summons by Providence, who has the care and good disposition of all
events, to do himself good, and to render himself useful in the world.

He had by this time recovered himself. "How do you know, Sir," said he,
warmly, "but that, instead of a summons from Heaven, it may be a feint
of another instrument, representing, in all the alluring colours to me,
the show of felicity as a deliverance, which may in itself be my snare,
and tend directly to my ruin? Here I am free from the temptation of
returning to my former miserable greatness; there I am not sure, but
that all the seeds of pride, ambition, avarice, and luxury, which I know
remain in my nature, may revive and take root, and, in a word, again
overwhelm me; and then the happy prisoner, whom you see now master of
his soul's liberty, shall be the miserable slave of his own senses, in
the full possession of all personal liberty. Dear Sir, let me remain in
this blessed confinement, banished from the crimes of life, rather than
purchase a show of freedom at the expense of the liberty of my reason,
and at the expense of the future happiness