the Continent. An exile and a prisoner as I was, their example
betrayed me into some irregularities of wine, of play, and of idle
excursions: but I soon felt the impossibility of associating with
them on equal terms; and after the departure of my first
acquaintance, I held a cold and civil correspondence with their
successors. This seclusion from English society was attended with
the most solid benefits. In the Pays de Vaud, the French language
is used with less imperfection than in most of the distant provinces
of France: in Pavilliard's family, necessity compelled me to listen
and to speak; and if I was at first disheartened by the apparent
slowness, in a few months I was astonished by the rapidity of my
progress. My pronunciation was formed by the constant repetition of
the same sounds; the variety of words and idioms, the rules of
grammar, and distinctions of genders, were impressed in my memory
ease and freedom were obtained by practice; correctness and elegance
by labour; and before I was recalled home, French, in which I
spontaneously thought, was more familiar than English to my ear, my
tongue, and my pen. The first effect of this opening knowledge was
the revival of my love of reading, which had been chilled at Oxford;
and I soon turned over, without much choice, almost all the French
books in my tutor's library. Even these amusements were productive
of real advantage: my taste and judgment were now somewhat riper. I
was introduced to a new mode of style and literature: by the
comparison of manners and opinions, my views were enlarged, my
prejudices were corrected, and a copious voluntary abstract of the
Histoire de l'Eglise et de l'Empire, by le Sueur, may be placed in a
middle line between my childish and my manly studies. As soon as I
was able to converse with the natives, I began to feel some
satisfaction in their company my awkward timidity was polished and
emboldened; and I frequented, for the first time, assemblies of men