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For, among other things, he had been advised to make me relish learning and duty by unforced inclination and by my own desire, and to train my mind in all gentleness and liberty, without severity or compulsion. Let me say, he carried this to such an over-scrupulous degree that, because some people hold that it disturbs the delicate brains of children to waken them with a start in the morning, and to rouse them suddenly and violently from sleep (which is much deeper with them than with us), he caused me to be awakened by the sound of some instrument; and he was never without a man who performed that service for me.^[1]

This example will suffice to judge of the rest, and to commend the circumspection and affection of so excellent a father, who is not to be discredited if the fruits he gathered did not correspond to such careful cultivation. Two things were the cause of this: in the first place, the sterile and unsuitable soil; for, although I had strong and sound health, and also a gentle and docile nature, I was withal so heavy and sluggish and sleepy that they could not rouse me from my slothfulness, even to make me play. What I saw, I saw clearly, and beneath that dull exterior I nourished bold fancies, and thoughts of a height above my age. My intellect was slow, and went only as far as it was led; my comprehension was tardy, my imagination weak; and on top of every thing I had an incredible lack of memory. From all this it is no wonder that he could draw forth nothing of value. In the second place, like those urged by a frantic desire for a cure who allow themselves to follow all sorts of advice, the good old man, being extremely afraid of failing in a thing that he had so much at heart, allowed himself at last to be led by the common opinion, which, like the cranes, always follows those who go in front, and fell in with the general custom, no longer having about him the persons who had given him those first institutions, which he had brought from Italy; and he sent me at about six years of age to the college of Guienne, which was then very flourishing and the best in France. And there, it is not possible to have greater care than he took, both in the choice of competent private