"The volume of 'Plutarch's Lives,' which I possessed, contained
the histories of the first founders of the ancient republics.
This book had a far different effect upon me from the 'Sorrows
of Werter.' I learned from Werter's imaginations despondency and
gloom: but Plutarch taught me high thoughts; he elevated me
above the wretched sphere of my own reflections, to admire and
love the heroes of past ages. Many things I read surpassed my
understanding and experience. I had a very confused knowledge of
kingdoms, wide extents of country, mighty rivers, and boundless
seas. But I was perfectly unacquainted with towns, and large
assemblages of men. The cottage of my protectors had been the
only school in which I had studied human nature; but this book
developed new and mightier scenes of action. I read of men
concerned in public affairs, governing or massacring their
species. I felt the greatest ardour for virtue rise within me,
and abhorrence for vice, as far as I understood the
signification of those terms, relative as they were, as I
applied them, to pleasure and pain alone. Induced by these
feelings, I was of course led to admire peaceable law givers,
Numa, Solon, and Lycurgus, in preference to Romulus and Theseus.
The patriarchal lives of my protectors caused these impressions
to take a firm hold on my mind; perhaps, if my first
introduction to humanity had been made by a young soldier,
burning for glory and slaughter, I should have been imbued with
different sensations.