who, without knowing the foundation of the story, undeceived and satisfied them.  These Jesuits told us the whole affair, and I acquainted them with the cause of it, which altogether furnished us with a hearty laugh.  However, I resolved for the future to make my observations without light, and consult my planisphere in the house.  Those who have read Venetian magic, in the ’Letters from the Mountain’, may find that I long since had the reputation of being a conjurer.

Such was the life I led at Charmettes when I had no rural employments, for they ever had the preference, and in those that did not exceed my strength, I worked like a peasant; but my extreme weakness left me little except the will; besides, as I have before observed, I wished to do two things at once, and therefore did neither well.  I obstinately persisted in forcing my memory to retain a great deal by heart, and for that purpose, I always carried some book with me, which, while at work, I studied with inconceivable labor.  I was continually repeating something, and am really amazed that the fatigue of these vain and continual efforts did not render me entirely stupid.  I must have learned and relearned the Eclogues of Virgil twenty times over, though at this time I cannot recollect a single line of them.  I have lost or spoiled a great number of books by a custom I had of carrying them with me into the dove-house, the garden, orchard or vineyard, when, being busy about something else, I laid my book at the foot of a tree, on the hedge, or the first place that came to hand, and frequently left them there, finding them a fortnight after, perhaps, rotted to pieces, or eaten by the ants or snails; and this ardor for learning became so far a madness that it rendered me almost stupid, and I was perpetually muttering some passage or other to myself.

The writings of Port-Royal, and those of the Oratory, being what I most read, had made me half a Jansenist, and, notwithstanding all my confidence, their harsh theology sometimes alarmed me.  A dread of hell, which till then I had never much apprehended, by little and little disturbed my security, and had not Madam de Warrens tranquillized my soul, would at length have been too much for me.  My confessor, who was hers likewise, contributed all in his power to keep up my hopes.  This was a Jesuit, named Father Hemet; a good and wise old man, whose memory I shall ever hold in veneration.  Though a Jesuit, he had the simplicity of a child, and his manners, less relaxed than gentle, were precisely what was necessary to balance the melancholy impressions made on me by Jansenism.  This good man and his companion, Father Coppier, came frequently to visit us at Charmette, though the road was very rough and tedious for men of their age.  These visits were very comfortable to me, which may the Almighty return to their souls, for they were so old that I cannot suppose them yet living.  I sometimes went to see them at Chambery, became acquainted at their convent, and had free access to the library.  The remembrance of that happy time is so connected with the idea of those Jesuits, that I love one on account of the other, and though I have ever thought their doctrines dangerous, could never find myself in a disposition to hate them cordially.