f attending his public or private course, I preferred in my
closet the lessons of his masters, and my own reason. Without being
disgusted by Grotius or Puffendorf, I studied in their writings the
duties of a man, the rights of a citizen, the theory of justice (it
is, alas! a theory), and the laws of peace and war, which have had some
influence on the practice of modern Europe. My fatigues were alleviated
by the good sense of their commentator Barbeyrac. Locke's Treatise of
Government instructed me in the knowledge of Whig principles, which
are rather founded in reason than experience; but my delight was in the
frequent perusal of Montesquieu, whose energy of style, and boldness of
hypothesis, were powerful to awaken and stimulate the genius of the age.
The logic of De Crousaz had prepared me to engage with his master Locke
and his antagonist Bayle; of whom the former may be used as a
bridle, and the latter applied as a spur, to the curiosity of a young
philosopher. According to the nature of their respective works, the
schools of argument and objection, I carefully went through the Essay
on Human Understanding, and occasionally consulted the most interesting
articles of the Philosophic Dictionary. In the infancy of my reason
I turned over, as an idle amusement, the most serious and important
treatise: in its maturity, the most trifling performance could exercise
my taste or judgment, and more than once I have been led by a novel
into a deep and instructive train of thinking. But I cannot forbear to
mention three particular books, since they may have remotely contributed
to form the historian of the Roman empire. 1. From the Provincial
Letters of Pascal, which almost every year I have perused with new
pleasure, I learned to manage the weapon of grave and temperate irony,
even on subjects of ecclesiastical solemnity. 2. The Life of Julian, by
the Abbe de la Bleterie, first introduced me to the man and the times;
and I should be glad to recover my first essay on the truth of the
miracle which stopped the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem. 3. In
Giannone's Civil History of Naples I observed with a critical eye the
progress and abuse of sacerdotal power, and the revolutions of Italy
in the darker ages. This various reading, which I now conducted with
discretion, was digested, according to the precept and model of Mr.
Locke, into a large common-place book; a practice, however, which I do
not strenuously recommend. The actio