Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/205

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My companions in captivity having money at their disposal, were able to furnish themselves amply with books, and to lend them to me; their number, however, for a lonely man, shut up during two years, was not, as may be seen, very considerable. It may be thought, perhaps, that a man, sheltered from every kind of distraction, ought to derive much more benefit from his reading than he who lives in the world; but that does not seem to be the case, except when retirement is voluntary. When it is forced, when the mind is restless, the memory disturbed, and the attention fixed always on our sufferings, reading is not sufficiently enjoyed, and only indifferently profitable. I should, however, be