forry to say that he values my understanding and talents much more highly than that mind, for which alone I value myself-which alone is the fource of talents, of happiness, of mifery, of every thing-which makes me all I am, and is folely mine. Any body may know all that I know. LETTER LI. May 25, I HAD a fcheme in my head, which I intended to conceal from you till it was accomplished; -now that it has failed, I may as well tell it to you. I had a mind to go into the army; I had long been defirous of it, and it was my chief reason for coming here with the prince. He is a general in the fervice of the As we were walking juft now, I communicated my defign to him: he did not approve it; and it would have been madness not to have yielded to his reafons. LET. LETTER LII. June 11. AY what you please, I can stay SAY in this place no longer. What fhould I do here? I am weary of it. The prince, it is true, treats me in all refpects as his equal,. but ftill I am not at my eafe here.. Befides, we are at bottom very dif ferent men. He has a good underftanding, but quite of the common kind; and the pleafure I have in his converfation, is only fuch as I receive from reading a well-written book. I fhall ftay a week more here, and then travel about again. What VOL. II: D What I have done beft, fince I came to this place, are fome drawings. The prince has fome tafte for the arts, and would have more, if it was not cramped by cold rules and technical terms. I often lofe all patience, when with a glowing imagination I am giving to art and nature the moft lively expreffion, and he ftops me with learned criticifms, upon which he highly values himfelf. LET. LETTER LIII. WHER June 18. HERE am I going? I will tell you in confidence: I am obliged to continue here a fortnight longer; after that I thought it would be expedient for me to fee the mines of But it is no fuch thing; I only deceive myself : the real truth is, that I wish to be near Charlotte again. I am not the dupe of my heart, but I obey its dictates. D 2 LET |