rtune, who is called to be a
magistrate, and may hope to be a legislator. This judicious institution
was coldly entertained by the graver doctors, who complained (I have
heard the complaint) that it would take the young people from their
books: but Mr. Viner's benefaction is not unprofitable, since it has at
least produced the excellent commentaries of Sir William Blackstone.

After carrying me to Putney, to the house of his friend Mr. Mallet,
by whose philosophy I was rather scandalized than reclaimed, it was
necessary for my father to form a new plan of education, and to devise
some method which, if possible, might effect the cure of my spiritual
malady. After much debate it was determined, from the advice and
personal experience of Mr. Eliot (now Lord Eliot) to fix me, during some
years, at Lausanne in Switzerland. Mr. Frey, a Swiss gentleman of Basil,
undertook the conduct of the journey: we left London the 19th of June,
crossed the sea from Dover to Calais, travelled post through several
provinces of France, by the direct road of St. Quentin, Rheims, Langres,
and Besancon, and arrived the 30th of June at Lausanne, where I was
immediately settled under the roof and tuition of Mr. Pavilliard, a
Calvinist minister.

The first marks of my father's displeasure rather astonished than
afflicted me: when he threatened to banish, and disown, and disinherit
a rebellious son, I cherished a secret hope that he would not be able or
willing to effect his menaces; and the pride of conscience encouraged me
to sustain the honourable and important part which I was now acting. My
spirits were raised and kept alive by the rapid motion of my journey,
the new and various scenes of the Continent, and the civility of Mr.
Frey, a man of sense, who was not ignorant of books or the world. But
after he had resigned me into Pavilliard's hands, and I was fixed in my
new habitation, I had leisure to contemplate the strange and melancholy
prospect before me. My first complaint arose from my ignorance of the
language. In my childhood I had once studied the French grammar, and I
could imperfectly understand the easy prose of a familiar subject. But
when I was thus suddenly cast on a foreign land, I found myself deprived
of the use of speech and of hearing; and, during some weeks, incapable
not only of enjoying the pleasures of conversation, but even of
asking or answering a question in the common intercourse of life. To a
home-bred Englishman ever