favour I was strongly prejudiced, and to converse with some authors whose conversation, as I fondly imagined, must be far more pleasing and instructive than their writings. The moment was happily chosen. At the close of a successful war the British name was respected on the continent :

Clarum et venerabile nomen

Gentibus.

Our opinions, our fashions, even our games, were adopted in France; a ray of national glory illuminated each individual, and every Englishman was supposed to be born a patriot and a philosopher. For myself, I carried a personal recommendation; my name and my Essay were already known; the compliment of having written in the French language entitled me to some returns of civility and gratitude. I was considered as a man of letters, who wrote for amusement. Before my departure I had obtained from the duke de Nivernois, lady Hervey, the Mallets, Mr Walpole, &c., many letters of recommendation to their private or literary friends. Of these epistles the reception and success were determined by the character and situation of the persons by whom and to whom they were addressed: the seed was sometimes cast on a barren rock, and it sometimes multiplied an hundred-fold in the production of new shoots, spreading branches, and exquisite fruit. But upon the whole, I had reason to praise the national urbanity, which from the court has diffused its gentle influence to the shop, the cottage, and the schools. Of the men of genius of the age, Montesquieu and Fontenelle were no more; Voltaire resided on his own estate near Geneva; Rousseau in It is obvious, indeed, that they have not been built for eternity, since in twenty years the greater part of the beams are decayed. We next cast a glance at the church of St Sulpice, of which the façade (the pretext and the fruit of so many lotteries) is not yet finished.

the preceding year had been driven from his hermitage of Montmorency; and I blush at my having neglected to seek in this journey the acquaintance of Buffon. Among the men of letters whom I saw, d'Alembert and Diderot held the foremost rank in merit, or at least in fame. I shall content myself with enumerating the well known names of the count de Caylus, of the abbé de la Bleterie, Barthelemy, Reynal, Arnaud, of messieurs de la Condamine, du Clos, de Ste Palaye, de Bougainville, Caperonnier, de Guignes, Suard, &c., without attempting to discriminate the shades of their characters, or the degrees of our connection. Alone, in a morning visit, I commonly found the artist and authors of Paris less vain, and more reasonable, than in the circles of their equals, with whom they mingle in the houses of the rich. Four days in a week I had a place, without invitation, at the hospitable tables of mesdames Geoffrin and du Bocage, of the celebrated Helvetius, and of the baron d'Olbach. In these symposia the pleasures of the table were improved by lively and liberal conversation; the company was select, though various and voluntary.*

*JOURNAL, Février 23, 1768.]-Je fis une visite à l'abbé de la Bleterie, qui veut me mener chez la duchesse d'Aiguillon; je me fis écrire chez M. de Bougainville que j'ai grande envie de connoître, et me rendis ensuite chez le baron d'Olbach, ami de M. Helvétius. C'étoit ma première visite, et le premier pas dans une fort bonne maison. Le baron a de l'esprit et des connoissances, et surtout il donne souvent et fort bien à dîner.

Février 24.]-L'abbé Barthelemy est fort aimable et n'a de l'antiquaire qu'une très grande érudition. Je finis la soirée par un souper très agréable chez madame Bontems avec M. le marquis de Mirabeau. Cet homme est singulier; il a assez d'imagination pour dix autres, et pas assez de sens rassis pour lui seul. Je lui ai fait beaucoup de questions sur les titres de la noblesse Françoise: mais tout ce que j'en ai pu comprendre, c'est que personne n'a là dessus des idées bien nettes.

The society of madame du Bocage was more soft and moderate than that of her rivals, and the evening

Mai 1763.]-Muni d'une double lettre de recommendation pour M. le comte de Caylus, je m'étois imaginé que je trouverois réunis en lui l'homme de lettres et l'homme de qualité. Je le vis trois ou quatre fois, et je vis un homme simple, uni, bon, et qui me témoignoit une bonté extrême. Si je n'en ai point profité, je l'attribue moins à son caractère qu'à son genre de vie. Il sé lève de grand matin, court les atteliers des artistes pendant tout le jour, et rentre, chez lui à six heures du soir pour ce mettre en robe de chambre, et s'enfermer dans son cabinet. Le moyen de voir ses amis?

Si ces recommendations étoient stériles, il y en eut d'autres qui devinrent aussi fécondes par leurs suites, qu'elles étoient agréables en elles mêmes. Dans une capitale comme Paris, il est nécessaire, il est juste que des lettres de recommendation vous ayent distingué de la foule. Mais dès que la glace est rompue, vos connoissances se multiplient, et vos nouveaux amis se font un plaisir de vous en procurer d'autres plus nouveaux encore. Heureux effet de ce caractère léger et aimable du François, qui a établi dans Paris une douceur et une liberté dans la société, inconnues à l'antiquité, et encore ignorées des autres nations. A Londres il faut faire son chemin dans les maisons qui ne s'ouvrent qu'avec peine. Là on croit vous faire plaisir en vous recevant. Ici on croit s'en faire à soi-même. Aussi je connois plus de maisons à Paris qu'à Londres: le fait n'est pas vraisemblable, mais il est vrai.

[TRANSLATION.]

JOURNAL, February 23, 1763.]-I paid a visit to the abbé de la Bleterie, who would take me to the house of the duchess of Aiguillon; I left a card at the residence of M. Bougainville, whom I have a great desire to know, and finally called on the baron d'Olbach, the friend of M. Helvetius. The baron possesses wit and information, and above all, gives frequent and excellent dinners.

February 24.]-The abbé Barthelemy is very amiable, and has nothing of the antiquary but hie great erudition. I finished the evening by a very agreeable supper at the

conversations of M. de Forcemagne were supported by the good sense and learning of the principal members of the academy of Inscriptions. The opera and the Italians I occasionally visited; but the French theatre, both in tragedy and comedy, was my daily and favourite amusement. Two famous actresses then divided the public applause. For my own part, preferred the consummate art of the Clairon to the intemperate sallies of the Dumesnil, which were exhouse of madame Bontems with the marquis de Mirabeau. This singular man has enough of imagination for ten persons, and not sufficient sense for himself alone. I put many questions to him on the titles of the French nobility; but all that I was able to comprehend on the subject is, that no person clearly understands it.

May 1763.]-Furnished with a double letter of recommendation to the count de Caylus, I expected to find in him an union of the man of quality and the man of letters. I saw him two or three times, and found him a simple, plain, good man, who received me with extreme kindness. If I have not profited by him, I attribute it less to his character than his manner of living. He rises early in the morning, visits the studies of artists all the day, and returns home at six o'clock in the evening to put on a robe-de-chambre and shut himself up in his cabinet. Where is the opportunity to receive friends?

If this introduction proved fruitless, there have been others as fertile in consequences as agreeable in themselves. In a capital like Paris it is proper and necessary to have some letters of recommendation to distinguish you from the crowd; but as soon as the ice is broken, your acquaintances multiply, and your new friends take a pleasure in introducing you to others still more new. Happy effect of the light and amiable character of the French, who have established in Paris a freedom and ease in society unknown to antiquity, and still unpractised by other nations! At London a way must be made into people's houses, the doors of which are with difficulty opened, and their owners think they confer a favour by receiving you. Here they think that they confer one upon themselves. Thus I know more houses in Paris than in London. The fact seems improbable, but it is true.

tolled by her admirers, as the genuine voice of nature and passion. Fourteen weeks insensibly stole away; but had I been rich and independent, I should have prolonged, and perhaps have fixed, my residence at Paris.

Between the expensive style of Paris and of Italy it was prudent to interpose some months of tranquil simplicity; and at the thoughts of Lausanne I again lived in the pleasures and studies of my early youth. Shaping my course through Dijon and Besançon, in the last of which places I was kindly entertained by my cousin Acton, I arrived in the month of May 1763 on the banks of the Leman Lake. It had been my intention to pass the Alps in the autumn, but such are the simple attractions of the place, that the year had almost expired before my departure from Lausanne in the ensuing spring. An absence of five years had not made much alteration in manners, or even in persons. My old friends, of both sexes, hailed my voluntary return-the most genuine proof of my attachment. They had been flattered by the present of my book, the produce of their soil; and the good Pavilliard shed tears of joy as he embraced a pupil whose literary merit he might fairly impute to his own labours.* To my old list I added some new acquaint

* Lausanne, Août 17, 1763.]-Après dîner je suis allé en ville. J'ai monté au château, où il y avoit une journée embarrassante. C******** C****** et mademoiselle de ******* y étoient toutes les deux. Je me suis décidé pour C. Elle a eu toutes les attentions. L'autre en a paru piquée. Avec quel sérieux la vanité des femmes traite ces misères ! J'ai soupé chez Pavilliard.

Août 18.]-Je suis allé dîner à Mésery. M. le comte de Golofskin et sa femme. Le comte est d'une famille très distinguée en Russie. Les dernières révolutions de cet empire leur avoient ôté leurs biens, à l'exception de la terre de Mona, qu'ils avoient achetée au Pays de Vaud. La mort de l'impératrice Elizabeth les leur rendit; mais le comte préfère sagement la retraite d'un pays libre aux orages du