! 
336] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
ca 
ing this great author, a library of 
eloquence and reason, I formed a 
more extensive plan of reviewing 
the Latin classics, under the four 
divisions of, 1. historians, 2, poets, 
3- orators, and 4. philosophers, in 
a chronological series, trom the 
days of Plautus and Sallust, to the 
decline of the language and empire 
of Rome; and this plan, in the last 
twenty-seven months of my resi- 
dence at Lausanne (January, 1756 
—April, 1758), I zearly accom- 
plished. Nor was this review, 
however -rapid, either hasty or su- 
perficial. I indulged myself in a 
second “and even a third perusal of 
Terence, Virgil, Horace, Tacitus, 
&c. and studied to imbibe the sense 
and spirit most congenial to my 
own. I never suffered a difficult 
or corrupt passage to escape, till I 
had viewed it in every light of 
which it was susceptible: though 
often: disappointed, I always con- 
sulted the most learned or ingeni- 
ous commentators, Torrentius and 
Dacier on. Horace, Catrou and Ser- 
vius on Virgil, Lipsius on Tacitus, 
Mezeriac on Ovid, &c. and in the 
ardour of my inquiries, I embraced 
a large circle of historical and cri- 
tical erudition. My abstraéts of 
each beok were made in the French 
language: my observatiens often 
branched into particular essays; 
and I can still read, without con- 
tempt, a dissertation of eight folio 
pages on eight lines (287—294) of 
the fourth Georgic ot Virgi!. Mr. 
Deyverdun, my friend, whese name 
will be frequently repeated, had. 
joined with equal zeal, though not 
with equal perseverance, in the 
same undertaking. To him every 
thought, every composition, was 
instantly communicated ; with him 
1 enjoyed the benefits of a tree 
conversation on the topics of our 
common studies. 
But it is scarcely possible for a 
mind endowed with any a¢tive cu- 
riosity to be long conversant with 
the Latin classics, without aspiring: 
to know the Greek originals, whom 
they celebrate as their masters, and 
of whom they so warmly recom. 
mend the study and imitation : 
Pos exemplaria Graca 
aa 
NoPurnd versate manu, versate diurna- 
It was now that I regretted 
the early years which had been 
wasted in sickness or idleness, of | 
mere idle reading; that I con- 
demned the perverse method of our 
schoolmasters; who, by first teach- 
ing the mother language, might 
descend with so much ease and per- 
spicuity to the origin and etymo- 
logy of a derivativeidiom. Inthe 
nineteenth year of my age I deter- 
mined to supply this defect; and 
the lessons of Pavilliard again con- 
tributed to smooth the entrance of 
the way, the Greek alphabet, the 
grammar, and the pronunciation 
according to the French accent. 
At my earnest request we presumed 
to open the Iliad; and 1 had the 
pleasure of beholding, though 
darkly and through a glass, the 
true image of Homer, whom 
had long since admired in an Eng- 
lish dress. After my tutor had left 
me to myself, I worked my way 
through about half the-Iliad, and 
afterwards interpreted sionea largé 
portion.of Xenophon and. Herc- 
dotus, But my ardour, destitute of 
aid and emulation, was gradually 
cooled, and, from the barren task 
of searching words ina lexicon, I 
withdrew. to the free and familiar 
conversation of Virgil and Tacitus. 
Yet in my residence:at Lausanne f 
had laid a solid foundagion, which 
enabled 
20 fo on” 2. 
—s. 
