982 SWABEY DIARY. 
necessity to make himself a man of knowledge, should have become a 
philosopher, an artisan, a warrior, and a politician, and moreover under 
the disadvantage of being in a country where manufactures and politics 
were not at all, and philosophy and war scarcely known, is extraor- 
dinary. His character and life are the greatest examples of the benefit 
the human mind derives from being above prejudice, and at the same 
time a more extraordinary instance of the difficulty, or indeed of the 
impossibility, of being divested of early religious predilection. Religious 
bigotry and its attendant tyranny appear to have been the only imper- 
fection in his scheme of government. As refinement is a plant that 
can only flourish in its natural soil, we must remember before we con- 
demn his want of it that he was really a true native of the Russias; he 
was, however, so well aware of this.truth that he imported from the 
more advanced nations of Hurope, wholesale to his infant capital, the 
seeds of politeness and civilization, which are now become natives of 
St. Petersburgh. 
17th February.—lt took such a few hours to read all the English 
books that could be mustered, that I was obliged again to have re- 
course to my friend Gil Blas de Santillane, it certainly contains the 
most faithful picture of Spanish character, and that even without any 
high colouring. Such adventures as its hero met with I believe daily 
to take place in Spain, where jealousy and intrigue are the common 
pursuits of all ranks in society. 
18th February.—I went to see a convent about a league from Mello 
in company with an old gentleman, and had the usual happiness of 
seeing the nuns through the gratings, ete. In returning I had a good 
deal of conversation with the old man, and ventured to talk about the 
cruelty of immuring unfortunate youth in these diabolical cells. I 
need not say that the practice could not be justified by argument; he 
however dryly told me that his only daughter, standing in the way of 
his nephew’s inheriting his property, was to go there next year, as he 
was determined to have a male heir. I do not even conceive that a 
young woman choosing a voluntary abdication of the world is the more 
entitled to heavenly favour for making a desperate resolution, generally 
the result of some temporary delusion, for where is the merit in virtue, 
if there is no temptation to vice ; the heart can sin in the convent with 
as much freedom as it can in the mazes of the world. 
L9th February.—W ent out coursing and killed a brace of hares. 
20th February.—Reports seem to say that the French are with- 
drawing the troops from the Peninsula. I think the time may come 
when it will be necessary for them to do so, but do not give the least 
credit to the present report. 
The report was however correct from the cause as specified 
below—(F.4.W.) 
“ Owing to the disastrous Russian campaign, and the vast combi- 
nation now formed against him, Napoleon had organized a 
new and enormous army, even larger than that employed in 
the campaign of 1812, But the Emperor wanted old officers 
