* "Ce ne sont point les philosophes qui connoissent le mieux les hommes.  Ils ne les voient qu’a travers les prejuges, et je ne fache aucun etat ou l’on en ait tant."—­J.  J. Rousseau. ["It is not among philosophers that we are to look for the most perfect knowledge of human nature.—­They view it only through the prejudices of philosophy, and I know of no profession where prejudices are more abundant.”]

Providence, Jan. 29.

We are now quite domesticated here, though in a very miserable way, without fire, and with our mattresses, on the boards; but we nevertheless adopt the spirit of the country, and a total absence of comfort does not prevent us from amusing ourselves.  My friend knits, and draws landscapes on the backs of cards; and I have established a correspondence with an old bookseller, who sends me treatises of chemistry and fortifications, instead of poetry and memoirs.  I endeavoured at first to borrow books of our companions, but this resource was soon exhausted, and the whole prison supplied little more than a novel of Florian’s, Le Voyage du jeune Anarcharsis, and some of the philosophical romances of Voltaire.—­They say it ennuyes them to read; and I observe, that those who read at all, take their books into the garden, and prefer the most crowded walks.  These studious persons, who seem to surpass Crambe himself in the faculty of abstraction, smile and bow at every comma, without any appearance of derangement from such frequent interruptions.

Time passes sorrowly, rather than slowly; and my thoughts, without being amused, are employed.  The novelty of our situation, the past, the future, all offer so many subjects of reflection, that my mind has more occasion for repose than amusement.  My only external resource is conversing with our fellow-prisoners, and learning the causes of their detention.  These relations furnish me with a sort of “abstract of the times,” and mark the character of the government better than circumstances of more apparent consequence; for what are battles, sieges, and political machinations, but as they ultimately affect the happiness of society?  And when I learn that the lives, the liberty, and property of no class are secure from violation, it is not necessary one should be at Paris to form an opinion of this period of the revolution, and of those who conduct it.

The persecution which has hitherto been chiefly directed against the Noblesse, has now a little subsided, and seems turned against religion and commerce.  People are daily arrested for assisting at private masses, concealing images, or even for being possessors of religious books.  Merchants are sent here as monopolizers, and retailers, under various pretexts, in order to give the committees an opportunity of pillaging their shops.  It is not uncommon to see people of the town who are our guards one day, become our fellow-prisoners the next; and a few weeks since, the son of an old gentleman who has been some time here, after being on guard the whole day, instead of being relieved at the usual hour, was joined by his wife and children, under the escort of a couple of dragoons, who delivered the whole family into the custody of our keeper; and this appears to have happened without any other motive than his having presented a petition to Dumont in behalf of his father.