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Write to me, my friend, I beseach you in a less melancholy style. I would
set you an example, but that I fear, in my present situation is impossible
but I shall always be prepared to smile at the elegant vivacities of my
dearest William, and to applaud the effusions of his wit and gayety. They are
rays which illume the gloomy atmosphere by which I am frequently surrounded
whose approach I hail with the utmost pleasure, and whose departure I
observe withou the utmost regret. I wish thou wouldest teach me to be witty
to tell, with suitable gravity, a mirthful tale, and to give to the thread-bare
Jest its original texture and the gloss of Novelty. These accomplishments are of
wonderful Advantage, they will render him, who, in other respects is incorrigi
bly obstinate or stupid, an agreable companion, and without them, the
man of real Genius and Sagacity will scarcely be able to find an hearer
Set yourself seriously to my work, my friend. Take me under your tuition
and, thou Man of infinite jest, endow with a small portion of that
exaustless, overflowing and superabundant gayety, which renders thee so
pleasing and vexatious a Companion, thy teachable and humble Scholer
Shall I not, thinkest thou, listen to thy lectures with the most uninte=
=rupted attention and indefatigable patience? Shall I not, in my
progress to excellence, to word-dissecting, pun-contriving excellence speedily
outstrip my Master, and degrade him, in his turn, to the station of a
pupil? Ah! that a slight acquaintance with my friend will shew to
be impossible, and as, in the scale of the Universe, on which he, with
so much subtlety, expatiated on Tuesday Evening, the Soul of man will
be to all eternity approaching, without ever reaching the divinity, so I,
to compare small things with great, shall doubtless be continually winging
nearer the perfection of my Master, without ever arriving at an absolute
equallity with him.

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I am fearfull that you were displeased with my last letter, and that my
stupid raillery was not perfectly acceptable to you. In your intercourse
with me you will find me liable to numberless faults, but I shall
never scruple to repair them, as soon as they are discovered; my friend
shall never be angry with me longer than while I am ignorant of his
Anger, and I shall always make use of the most compendious process
to Oust resentment from his bosom.

I am now in the midst of a delightful Country, which the
purity of manners and the political and domestic felicity of the Inha=
bitants, the fertility of the soil and the beauties of the Landscape
have combined to render a paradise. Here am I immured in pleasing
and inchanting solitude, banqueting on classical literature, or conversing
with rural Simplicity. I will not give you a minute description of
my dwelling nor an account of the characters of those with whom I am
a fellow-tenant. I shall only mention that I life ^{‸ live} with an honest and
thrifty husbandman, riot dayly in the innocent and healthful
luxury of wine cheese and butter, and am (would you think it?)
preceptor to my landlord's younger daughter, who, poss‸esing a fine
understanding, a taste for reading and a delicate constitution her father
is determined shall become a woman of importance. I am affraid
my friend that my destiny is fixed, my matrimonial destiny I
mean, and that I shall live and die at the feet of Jacquelette
I will not attempt to describe this innocent and fascinating creature
It will be sufficient to observe that her age is no more than fourteen,
that there is a mature dignity and gracefullness in her manner, that
her shape though small almost to diminutiveness, is the model of elegance
and Symmetry, and that her face has charms to the task of describing
which my pencil is inadequate. I have frequently accompaned her


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on a visit to her relations in Franche Compte, for her father, places
so implicit a relyance on the honour of his guest, that he willingly
intrusts her to my care; O my friend! What charms have Innocence &
beauty on a susceptable heart! I have taught her the Parisian
French. The diallect of this country, as you may easily imagine is extreamly
remote from the Standard of purity, but my beautious scholer
prattles French and Italian, with the justest and most polished
accent. Her voice, to which the softest and most delicious music is
incompararably inferior, gives new graces to those languages, and her
idiom is truely classical. How easily, my dearest friend, are our best-
concerted scheemes which being ^defeated? I have almost intirely forgotten the
purpose that brought me hither, and spend the almost all my hours
sitting on the banks of the lake ^{‸ lake} with Ma petite Epouse , for thus I
always distinguish her from her equally beautiful but less accomplished
Sisters, relating to her my travels and Adventures, and tracing my
journeys on a Map of Europe or America before me, or in reading and
explaining to her some entertaining Authour.

On my last visit to Geneva I became acquainted with a young
English Gentleman, between whom and Myself there is such a conformity of
disposition as naturally produces friendship. He is a beautiful and
graceful youth, of an opulent and respectable family, who have
placed ^{‸ in} him so much confidence in his discretion, that though no more
than eighteen he is suffered to ramble over Europe without a
conductor. He has resided in Italy and notwithstanding a fiery
constitution and imperious passions he has escaped with Impunity
His opinions are somewhat peculiar to himself, for instead of changing
Eton for Oxford, in imitation of others, he is determined to finish his educati
in this country, and to be his own preceptor in Philosophy and Politics


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For this purpose I have procured him a lodging in this village, and he
will, in a short time come hither with his books and devote his whole
time ^{‸ to} study and to books. me, his friend and only associate. He is a
young man of great talents, capacious memory and lofty Ambition
He designs to quallify himself for an Orator and Politician, and for
a seat in the british Legislature, to which his rank and fortune
will advance him as soon as he becomes of age. His Elocution ^{‸ is} rich
rapid and harmonious [gap] his probity remarkably great, and his
powers of reasoning wonderful. We are scarcely ever of the same opinion
and our life when together, is one continual controversy, but our disputes
never weaken or interupt our friendship, and are rather exercises of
the Understanding than investigations of truth. I never fail to urge
every objection against his at scheme which my imagination suggests
and am at length so accustomed to contradict him, that as soon as is
sentiments are known, I instantly and by a kind of involuntary impulse
espouse and defend an opposite opinion. I have exausted every topic
of argument and ridicule, to shew the absurdity of the method which
he pursues for acquiring knowledge. He is a great admirer of Antiquity
and spends many hours in reading and translating the political
and Rhetorical performances of Greece and Rome: He despises the
French and Italian manners and literatures, and defends all his
doctrines with surprising energy and subtlty. This is sufficient to
make me of a different opinion, and I incessantly assail his structures
with every kind of Argument and every Engine of dispute; our
debates are, in consequence, in the highest degree, warm and animated
but never clamorous nor acrimonious nor irregular. Each entertains
the utmost good will for the other, and, notwithstanding our perpetual
altercations, our friendship is dayly increasing. As soon as he comes hither


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I am dayly to accompany him and his book into the most retired
Recesses, where we are to read and converse with each other, for our
mutual improvement. He is to read to me his translations and
imitations of the greek and Roman Orators, and to recite them with
suitable tones and Attitudes, and I am to point out defects in his style
pronunciation and delivery. But he shall not engross the whole of
my time, a considerable part of it must be devoted to Jacquelette
—and and not the smallest portion to meditation and composition St
on subjects more congenial ^{‸ to my} disposition and taste than those which
Stanton (my friend) honours with his attention and regard.
I wish you would furnish me with a subject to write and
think upon, but suffer me, I intreat you, to hear often from you,
and convince me, by the only means, which the spacious interval
between ^{‸ us} renders practicable, that you have not forgotten that there
exists such a person as