pretended good services, I resolved in future to have no other
connections than those of simple benevolence. These, without the least
constraint upon liberty, constitute the pleasure of society, of which
equality is the basis. I had of them as many as were necessary to enable
me to taste of the charm of liberty without being subject to the
dependence of it; and as soon as I had made an experiment of this manner
of life, I felt it was the most proper to my age, to end my days in
peace, far removed from the agitations, quarrels and cavillings in which
I had just been half submerged.

During my residence at the Hermitage, and after my settlement at
Montmorency, I had made in the neighborhood some agreeable acquaintance,
and which did not subject me to any inconvenience. The principal of
these was young Loiseau de Mauleon, who, then beginning to plead at the
bar, did not yet know what rank he would one day hold there. I for my
part was not in the least doubt about the matter. I soon pointed out to
him the illustrious career in the midst of which he is now seen, and
predicted that, if he laid down to himself rigid rules for the choice of
causes, and never became the defender of anything but virtue and justice,
his genius, elevated by this sublime sentiment, would be equal to that of
the greatest orators. He followed my advice, and now feels the good
effects of it. His defence of M. de Portes is worthy of Demosthenes. He
came every year within a quarter of a league of the Hermitage to pass the
vacation at St. Brice, in the fife of Mauleon, belonging to his mother,
and where the great Bossuet had formerly lodged. This is a fief, of
which a like succession of proprietors would render nobility difficult to
support.

I had also for a neighbor in the same village of St. Brice, the
bookseller Guerin, a man of wit, learning, of an amiable disposition, and