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430 have been uneasy about your friend's long absence from home, but I find that he improves considerably in respect to talents and that his mind strengthens. He lives in perpetual pursuit of information, and his mind appears constantly employed, which makes him happy, and what else are we to look for? My younger son is a quite different character. A very happy temper, with, I would say if I were not afraid of rating him too high, a strong natural judgment. His brother loves him very tenderly, as he may well do his brother who has acted a very noble part by him. Let me now say a word with regard to yourself. You may depend upon it that if I have one quality beyond another it is sincerity, and that in no part of my life I was ever capable of failing in it. I hope and trust that some settlement will take place in France, in which case however happy I may be to see you in England, I should be sorry you thought of quitting it, because I am persuaded from all I have seen and read, nothing can supply the place of early habits and long connections; but if the Reign of Terror should return, you may be assured of finding a home here, and that I will do everything in my power to make it as natural to you as possible. … I expect that peace will revive us here as well as elsewhere, and that I shall be enabled to pursue for some years before I die the dictates of an unshackled mind. I have a very great desire as soon as the peace takes place to see the bonne ville de Paris once more after such wonderful events, and to pass a winter afterwards in some warm climate, arranging so as to pass some little time at Paris going, and more returning. I wish you would have the goodness to make a plan for me how I can see and not be seen. I do not want to make connections, much less to intrigue, or to be active in any pursuit, but my curiosity will be insatiable, as long as it can be gratified in a quiet way. I beg you will write to me a plan in the greatest possible detail, it will serve me at least to dream upon.

"I have not changed an atom of the principles I