I was never less alone than when by myself. 6

On the approach of spring I withdraw without reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure.

Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: The first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.

It was Rome, on the fifteenth of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefoot friars were singing vespers in the Temple of…