ADVERTISEMENT. Ill 



take np my refidence at their country-feats, and to 

 enjoy tliofe rural fcenes, of which, as they are 

 pleafed to fay, 1 am fo paffionatelyfond. Yes, 

 undoubtedly, I fliould dearly love a country refi- 

 dence, but a refidence which 1 could call my own, 

 and not another man's. 



I made the beil acknowledgment in my power, 

 to tenders of fervice fo flattering ; but could avail 

 myfelf only of the good-will which they breathed. 

 Benevolence is the flower of friendfliip, and it's 

 perfume always lafts while you let it remain on 

 the ftem, without gathering it. The affliâied fa- 

 ther of a family has informed me, that my Studies 

 were to him the fvveeteft fource of confolation in 

 his diilrefs. An Atheift, of a city far diftant from 

 Paris, has paid me frequent vifits, flruck even to 

 admiration, as he faid, at the harmonies of plants 

 which I had indicated, and of which he had recog- 

 nized the exiftence in Nature. 



Perfonages of real importance, and others who 

 wifhed to pafs for fuch, have endeavoured to allure 

 me to them, by holding out gilded profpeds of 

 melioration of fortune : but as long as I can attain 

 the rare felicity of being beloved, and, what is of 

 flill greater importance to me, the power of being 

 ufeful, fo long ihall I fly, if I can, the calamity fo 

 common, and fo humiliating, of being under pro- 



a 2 tection. 



