But far beyond all other impulses of
my heart was a leaning toward the adorable half of humankind. My heart
was completely tinder, and was eternally lighted up by some goddess or
other; and, as in every other warfare in this world, my fortune was
various; sometimes I was received with favour, and sometimes I was
mortified with a repulse. At the plough, scythe, or reap-hook I feared
no competitor, and thus I set absolute want at defiance; and as I never
cared further for my labours than while I was in actual exercise, I
spent the evenings in the way after my own heart.
Another circumstance in my life which made some alteration in my mind
and manners was that I spent my nineteenth summer on a smuggling coast,
a good distance from home, at a noted school, to learn mensuration,
surveying, dialling, etc., in which I made a pretty good progress. But
I made a greater progress in the knowledge of mankind. The contraband
trade was at that time very successful, and it sometimes happened to me
to fall with those who carried it on. Scenes of swaggering riot and
roaring dissipation were, till this time, new to me; but I was no enemy
to social life.
My reading meantime was enlarged with the very important addition of
Thomson's and Shenstone's Works.
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