This step, ridiculous as it may appear, procured me a kind of
consideration, which I found extremely useful. Some supposed I had
resources which I did not possess; others, seeing me totally given up to
music, judged of my abilities by the sacrifice I had made, and concluded
that with such a passion for the art, I must possess it in a superior
degree. In a nation of blind men, those with one eye are kings. I
passed here for an excellent master, because all the rest were very bad
ones. Possessing taste in singing, and being favored by my age and
figure, I soon procured more scholars than were sufficient to compensate
for the losses of my secretary's pay. It is certain, that had it been
reasonable to consider the pleasure of my situation only, it was
impossible to pass more speedily from one extreme to the other. At our
measuring, I was confined eight hours in the day to the most
unentertaining employment, with yet more disagreeable company. Shut up
in a melancholy counting-house, empoisoned by the smell and respiration
of a number of clowns, the major part of whom were ill-combed and very
dirty, what with attention, bad air, constraint and weariness, I was
sometimes so far overcome as to occasion a vertigo. Instead of this,
behold me admitted into the fashionable world, sought after in the first
houses, and everywhere received with an air of satisfaction; amiable and
gay young ladies awaiting my arrival, and welcoming me with pleasure;
I see nothing but charming objects, smell nothing but roses and orange
flowers; singing, chatting, laughter, and amusements, perpetually succeed
each other. It must be allowed, that reckoning all these advantages, no
hesitation was necessary in the choice; in fact, I was so content with
mine, that I never once repented it; nor do I even now, when, free from
the irrational motives that influenced me at that time, I weigh in the
scale of reason every action of my life.