chandelle. But now for your letter.

George's subject is not the first in course, but it has taken the first
place in my thoughts. I do assure you that I am not his puff. What I
tell you of his reading is literally true; but it is not reading that
expresses it, for I could have said as much if he had read nothing but
the History of Cinder Breech and that kind of biography. He read with
me English History, and stopped for information, and showed an uncommon
thirst for it. He asked me as many questions in the History of George
1st concerning the South Sea Scheme, the prosecution of Lord
Macclesfield, and the Barrier Treaty, as another boy would have asked
me about Robinson Crusoe. He likes other books too, and it is agreeable
to hear him talk of them. For which reason I should be glad, if you
approved of it, that he had a choice of books, to a certain amount
--a little library--as many as would fill a small bookcase. Mr. Raikes
tells me that he is remarkably careful of his books, and therefore
was not displeased that those which you gave him I had well bound,
and that it was a fair edition. An early love of books will produce
a desire to read, which amusements may suppress for a time, but is a
constant resource against ennui. I have been years without looking
in a book, and God knows in my long life how few I have read; but
when it has happened that I could, par force, do nothing else, I
have collected together a number, began a piece of history, and have
thought at last the day too short, because I wanted to read more;
and this I attribute to having once read, although it was but a
very little. Rollin was the first author I read by choice. . . .

I am in hopes that your kindness to Storer will take place; il en est
digne, soyez en assure, sur ma parole. I never doubted, I was quite
persuaded indeed, that you would do what you have done, and properly