Lausanne1909 |
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Abbé Raynal agreeable beautiful Benjamin Constant Berne Bernese Bishop Bonstetten Canton of Vaud Catholic CHAPTER Charlotte charm Château CHEXBRES church Constant the inconstant Coppet cosmopolitan Counter-Reformation CULLY d'Haussonville Deyverdun diary Dukes of Savoy English colony Evian famous father fearful scene feeling Francis de Sales French shore friendship Geneva Gibbon gout happiness HARDWICKE LEWIS heart husband intimacy Juste Olivier lady Laharpe Lausanne letters literary live lover luxury Madame de Charrière Madame de Staël Madame Dutertre Madame Necker Mademoiselle Curchod marriage marry melancholy Minister Montolieu moral Morges never Nyon Olivier Paris passed passion Pastor perhaps Prince professor Protestant refuse regrets religion religious Revolution RHONE VALLEY Ripaille road Sainte-Beuve schools seems sentimental society soldier speak story stranger Swiss shore Switzerland things tion Tissot took Vevey Vinet Viret Voltaire VUFFLENS Vulliemin woman women writes wrote young Yverdon
Popular passages
Page 29 - After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent. I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame.
Page 29 - It was on the day, or rather night, of the 27th of June 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent.
Page 14 - I need not blush at recollecting the object of my choice ; and though my love was disappointed of success, I am rather proud that I was once capable of feeling such a pure and exalted sentiment.
Page 15 - Curchod were embellished by the virtues and talents of the mind. Her fortune was humble, but her family was respectable. Her mother, a native of France, had preferred her religion to her country. The profession of her father did not extinguish the moderation and philosophy of his temper, and he lived content, with a small salary and laborious duty, in the obscure lot of minister of Grassy, in the mountains that separate the Pays de Vaud from the county of Burgundy. In the solitude of a sequestered...
Page 16 - Grassy and Lausanne I indulged my dream of felicity : but on my return to England, I soon discovered that my father would not hear of this strange alliance, and that without his consent I was myself destitute and helpless. After a painful struggle, I yielded to my fate : I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son ; my wound was insensibly healed by time, absence, and the habits of a newr life.
Page 15 - I found her learned without pedantry, lively in conversation, pure in sentiment, and elegant in manners; and the first sudden emotion was fortified by the habits and knowledge of a more familiar acquaintance. She permitted me to make her two or three visits at her father's house. I passed some happy days there, in the mountains of Burgundy, and her parents honourably encouraged the connection.
Page 26 - Abbé de Bourbon, a natural son of Lewis the Fifteenth, the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick, Prince Henry of Prussia, and a dozen Counts, Barons, and extraordinary persons, among whom was a natural son of the Empress of Russia Are you satisfied with this list?
Page 15 - Crassy, in the mountains that separate the Pays de Vaud from the County of Burgundy. In the solitude of a sequestered village he bestowed a liberal, and even learned, education on his only daughter; she surpassed his hopes by her proficiency in the sciences and languages; and in her short visits to some relations at Lausanne, the wit and beauty and erudition of Mademoiselle Curchod were the theme of universal applause. The report of such a prodigy awakened my curiosity; I saw and loved. I found her...
Page 16 - Lausanne I indulged my dream of felicity: but on my return to England, I soon discovered that my father would not hear of this strange alliance, and that, without his consent, I was myself destitute and helpless. After a painful struggle I yielded to my fate; I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son; my wound was insensibly healed by time, absence, and the habits of a new life. My cure was accelerated by a faithful report of the tranquillity and cheerfulness of the lady herself, and my love subsided...
Page 15 - In a calm retirement the gay vanity of youth no longer fluttered in her bosom; she listened to the voice of truth and passion, and I might presume to hope that I had made some impression on a virtuous heart.