months of the year 1755, as the period of the most extraordinary
diligence and rapid progress. In my French and Latin translations I
adopted an excellent method, which, from my own success, I would
recommend to the imitation of students. I chose some classic
writer, such as Cicero and Vertot, the most approved for purity and
elegance of style. I translated, for instance, an epistle of Cicero
into French; and after throwing it aside, till the words and phrases
were obliterated from my memory, I re-translated my French into such
Latin as I could find; and then compared each sentence of my
imperfect version, with the ease, the grace, the propriety of the
Roman orator. A similar experiment was made on several pages of the
Revolutions of Vertot; I turned them into Latin, returned them after
a sufficient interval into my own French, and again scrutinized the
resemblance or dissimilitude of the copy and the original. By
degrees I was less ashamed, by degrees I was more satisfied with
myself; and I persevered in the practice of these double
translations, which filled several books, till I had acquired the
knowledge or both idioms, and the command at least of a correct
style. This useful exercise of writing was accompanied and
succeeded by the more pleasing occupation of reading the best
authors. The perusal of the Roman classics was at once my exercise
and reward. Dr. Middleton's History, which I then appreciated above
its true value, naturally directed the to the writings of Cicero.
The most perfect editions, that of Olivet, which may adorn the
shelves of the rich, that of Ernesti, which should lie on the table
of the learned, were not in my power. For the familiar epistles I
used the text and English commentary of Bishop Ross: but my general
edition was that of Verburgius, published at Amsterdam in two large
volumes in folio, with an indifferent choice of various notes. I
read, with application and pleasure, all the epistles, all the