The more I considered the proposed undertaking, and the further I
advanced in the examination of the papers I had in my hands, the greater
I found the necessity of studying, in the country, the people for whom
institutions were to be made, the soil they inhabited, and all the
relative circumstances by which it was necessary to appropriate to them
that institution. I daily perceived more clearly the impossibility of
acquiring at a distance all the information necessary to guide me. This
I wrote to M. Buttafuoco, and he felt as I did. Although I did not form
the precise resolution of going to Corsica. I considered a good deal of
the means necessary to make that voyage. I mentioned it to M. Dastier,
who having formerly served in the island under M. de Maillebois, was
necessarily acquainted with it. He used every effort to dissuade me from
this intention, and I confess the frightful description he gave me of the
Corsicans and their country, considerably abated the desire I had of
going to live amongst them.

But when the persecutions of Motiers made me think of quitting
Switzerland, this desire was again strengthened by the hope of at length
finding amongst these islanders the repose refused me in every other
place. One thing only alarmed me, which was my unfitness for the active
life to which I was going to be condemned, and the aversion I had always
had to it. My disposition, proper for meditating at leisure and in
solitude, was not so for speaking and acting, and treating of affairs
with men. Nature, which had endowed me with the first talent, had
refused me the last. Yet I felt that, even without taking a direct and
active part in public affairs, I should as soon as I was in Corsica,
be under the necessity of yielding to the desires of the people, and of
frequently conferring with the chiefs. The object even of the voyage
required that, instead of seeking retirement, I should in the heart of