Smitten with my two charming models, I drew my own portrait in the
lover and the friend, as much as it was possible to do it; but I
made him young and amiable, giving him, at the same time, the
virtues and the defects which I felt in myself.
That I might place my characters in a residence proper for them, I
successively passed in review the most beautiful places I had seen
in my travels. But I found no grove sufficiently delightful, no
landscape that pleased me. The valleys of Thessaly would have
satisfied me had I but once had a sight of them; but my imagination,
fatigued with invention, wished for some real place which might
serve it as a point to rest upon, and create in me an illusion with
respect to the real existence of the inhabitants I intended to place
there. I thought a good while upon the Borromean Islands, the
delightful prospect of which had transported me, but I found in them
too much art and ornament for my lovers. I however wanted a lake,
and I concluded by making choice of that about which my heart has
never ceased to wander. I fixed myself upon that part of the banks
of this lake where my wishes have long since placed my residence in
the imaginary happiness to which fate has confined me. The native
place of my poor mamma had still for me a charm. The contrast of the
situations, the richness and variety of the sites, the magnificence,
the majesty of the whole, which ravishes the senses, affects the
heart, and elevates the mind, determined me to give it the preference,
and I placed my young pupils at Vervey.
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