rame,--"I would not waste
these precious moments in talking of myself.

"My father and mother were people of fashion; married by their parents.
He was fond of the turf, she of the card-table. I, and two or three
other children since dead, were kept at home till we became intolerable.
My father and mother had a visible dislike to each other, continually
displayed; the servants were of the depraved kind usually found in the
houses of people of fortune. My brothers and parents all dying, I was
left to the care of guardians; and sent to Eton. I never knew the sweets
of domestic affection, but I felt the want of indulgence and frivolous
respect at school. I will not disgust you with a recital of the vices of
my youth, which can scarcely be comprehended by female delicacy. I was
taught to love by a creature I am ashamed to mention; and the other
women with whom I afterwards became intimate, were of a class of which
you can have no knowledge. I formed my acquaintance with them at the
theaters; and, when vivacity danced in their eyes, I was not easily
disgusted by the vulgarity which flowed from their lips. Having spent,
a few years after I was of age, [the whole of] a considerable patrimony,
excepting a few hundreds, I had no resource but to purchase a commission
in a new-raised regiment, destined to subjugate America. The regret
I felt to renounce a life of pleasure, was counter-balanced by the
curiosity I had to see America, or rather to travel; [nor had any
of those circumstances occurred to my youth, which might have been
calculated] to bind my country to my heart. I shall not trouble you with
the details of a military life. My blood was still kept in motion; till,
towards the close of the contest, I was wounded and taken prisoner.

"Confined to my bed, or chair, by a lingering cure, my only refuge from
the preying activity of my mind, was books, which I read with great
avidity, profiting by the conversation of my host, a man of sound
understanding. My political sentiments now underwent a total change;
and, dazzled by the hospitality of the Americans, I determined to take
up my abode with freedom. I, therefore, with my usual impetuosity, sold
my commission, and travelled into the interior parts of the country, to
lay out my money to advantage. Added to this, I did not much like the
puritanical manners of the large towns. Inequality of condition was
there most disgustingly galling. The only pleasure wealth afforded, was
to