J94 MOSCOW. 
chap, nary for young priests near the city. We had 
, long wished for an opportunity of conversing 
with this remarkable man. He was preceptor 
to the Emperor Paul ; and is known to the 
world by his correspondence with Monsieui 
Convent of Upon our arrival at the convent, we 
Perrera. were told he was then walking in a small gar- 
den, the care of which constituted his principal 
pleasure; and the employment characterized 
the simplicity and the innocence of his life. As 
we entered the garden, we found him seated 
upon a turf bank, beneath the windows of the 
refectory, attended by a bishop, an old man his 
vicar, the abb6 of the monastery, and some 
other of the monks. We could scarcely believe 
our eyes, when they told us it was Plato : for 
although we had often seen him in his archiepis- 
copal vestments, his rural dress had made such 
an alteration, that we did not know him. He 
was habited in a striped silk bed-gown, with a 
night-cap upon his head like the silk nets com- 
monly worn by Italian postillions ; having also 
a pair of woollen stockings upon his legs, the 
feet of which were of coarse linen, fastened on 
with twine in a most uncouth manner. He was 
without shoes, but a pair of yellow slippers lay 
at some distance. By his side, upon the bank, 
was placed his broad-brimmed straw hat, offering 
a correct model of the Athenian pilous, and such 
