"The volume of [Plutarch's Lives,]
<'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.] <'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]
<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.