we ever afterwards continued on the same terms of
easy and equal politeness. He applauded the success of my education;
every word and action was expressive of the most cordial affection; and
our lives would have passed without a cloud, if his oeconomy had been
equal to his fortune, or if his fortune had been equal to his desires.
During my absence he had married his second wife, Miss Dorothea Patton,
who was introduced to me with the most unfavourable prejudice. I
considered his second marriage as an act of displeasure, and I was
disposed to hate the rival of my mother. But the injustice was in my own
fancy, and the imaginary monster was an amiable and deserving woman.
I could not be mistaken in the first view of her understanding, her
knowledge, and the elegant spirit of her conversation: her polite
welcome, and her assiduous care to study and gratify my wishes,
announced at least that the surface would be smooth; and my suspicions
of art and falsehood were gradually dispelled by the full discovery of
her warm and exquisite sensibility. After some reserve on my side, our
minds associated in confidence and friendship; and as Mrs. Gibbon had
neither children nor the hopes of children, we more easily adopted
the tender names and genuine characters of mother and of son. By the
indulgence of these parents, I was left at liberty to consult my taste
or reason in the choice of place, of company, and of amusements; and
my excursions were bounded only by the limits of the island, and the
measure of my income. Some faint efforts were made to procure me the
employment of secretary to a foreign embassy; and I listened to a scheme
which would again have transported me to the continent. Mrs. Gibbon,
with seeming wisdom, exhorted me to take chambers in the Temple, and
devote my leisure to the study of the law. I cannot repent of having
neglected her advice. Few men, without the spur of necessity, have
resolution to force their way, through the thorns and thickets of that
gloomy labyrinth. Nature had not endowed me with the bold and ready
eloquence which makes itself heard amidst the tumult of the bar; and
I should probably have been diverted from the labours of literature,
without acquiring the fame or fortune of a successful pleader. I had no
need to call to my aid the regular duties of a profession; every day,
every hour, was agreeably filled; nor have I known, like so many of my
countrymen, the tediousness of an idle life.

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