kind of building which they call a palace. Good reasoning this; but
how are we to contrive so to govern the imagination? I began to
try, and sometimes I thought I had succeeded to a miracle; but at
others the enchantress triumphed, and I was unexpectedly astonished
to find tears starting into my eyes.



CHAPTER VIII.



I am so far fortunate, I often said, that they have given me a
dungeon on the ground floor, near the court, where that dear boy
comes within a few steps of me, to converse in our own mute
language. We made immense progress in it; we expressed a thousand
various feelings I had no idea we could do, by the natural
expressions of the eye, the gesture, and the whole countenance.
Wonderful human intelligence! How graceful were his motions! how
beautiful his smile! how quickly he corrected whatever expression I
saw of his that seemed to displease me! How well he understands I
love him, when he plays with any of his companions! Standing only
at my window to observe him, it seemed as if I possessed a kind of
influence over his mind, favourable to his education. By dint of
repeating the mutual exercise of signs, we should be enabled to
perfect the communication of our ideas. The more instruction he
gets, the more gentle and kind he becomes, the more he will be
attached to me. To him I shall be the genius of reason and of good;
he will learn to confide his sorrows to me, his pleasures, all he
feels and wishes; I will console, elevate, and direct him in his