FRAGMENT. 2^^ 



him, thofe efpecially in which the happinefs of 

 Mankind was interefted, his foul foared alofc, his 

 fentiments became impreffive, his ideas profound, 

 his images fubUme, and his fpoken, as ardent as 

 his written, expreffion. 



But what I prized ftill more highly than even 

 his genius, was his probity. He was one of the 

 few hterary charaders, tried in the furnace of af- 

 fiiftion, to whom you might, with perfed: fecurity^ 

 communicate your moft fecret thoughts. You 

 had nothing to fear from his malignity, if he 

 deemed them to be wrong, nor from his perfidy, 

 if they appeared to him to be right. 



One afternoon, then, that we were enjoying our 

 repofe, in the Bois de Boulogne, I led the conver- 

 fation to a fubjeél which I have had much at heart, 

 ever fin ce I came to the ufe of reafon. We had 

 jufb been fpeaking of Plittarch's lives of eminent 

 men, of Amy ot' s Tranflation, a Work which he 

 very highly prized, in which he had been taught 

 to read when a child, and which, if I am not mif- 

 taken, has been the germ of his eloquence, and of 

 his antique virtues ; fo much influence does the 

 firft education exercife over the reft of life i I faid 

 to him then : 



VOL. Y, T I could 



