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 alleviate my anguish; but this hope was disappointed; no change of scene could change the feelings of my soul; no company could amuse, no prospect delight; upon the loveliest productions of Nature I often gazed with a vacant eye—prospects which, in the early days of youth, when expectation sat smiling at my heart, I had often contemplated with a degree of rapturous enthusiasm which seemed to raise me from earth to heaven, and inspiring me with a sublime devotion, made me look up through Nature's works to Nature's God.

"Not all the attention, the hospitality I received at V, to which chance alone conducted me, could dissipate the thoughts that corroded my peace; but, as if I had a presentiment of your coming to it, I could not bring myself to leave it. Strange and inconsistent you found me: that strangeness, that inconsistency, was owing to a passion which I wished to conquer, yet could not forbear nourishing—which I wished, yet dreaded, to have returned, conscious as I