friendship which is far more valuable to me than the ephemeral success
which a journal might obtain. It is sufficient for me to know that
this relation, intended for a few friends only, will never extend
beyond their circle: it even possesses two very great advantages over
many celebrated books: these are, that the public not being concerned
in this work it cannot need a preface, and that the dedication of
affection cannot require an epistle.

It would be too poetical to place myself at once in another
hemisphere, and too minute to dwell upon the particulars of my birth,
which soon followed the death of my father at Minden;~[2] of my
education in Auvergne, with tender and revered relations; of my
removal, at twelve years of age to a college at Paris,~[3] where I
soon lost my virtuous mother,~[4] and where the death of her father
rendered me rich, although I had been born, comparatively speaking,
poor; of some schoolboy successes, inspired by the love of glory and
somewhat disturbed by that of liberty; of my entrance into the
regiment of the black musketeers, which only interrupted my studies on
review days; and finally, of my marriage, at the age of sixteen,
preceded by a residence at the academy of Versailles.~[5] I have still
less to say relating to my entrance into the world; to the short
favour I enjoyed as constituting one member of a youthful society; to
some promises to the regiment de Noailles; and to the unfavourable
opinion entertained of me owing to my habitual silence when I did not
think the subjects discussing worthy of being canvassed. The bad
effects produced by disguised self-love and an observing disposition,
were not softened by a natural simplicity of manner, which, without
being improper on any great occasion, rendered it impossible for me to
bend to the graces of the court, or to the charms of a supper in the
capital.