This is what I imagined at the
first sketch; the rest was not added until afterwards.
I for a long time confined myself to this vague plan, because it was
sufficient to fill my imagination with agreeable objects, and my heart
with sentiments in which it delighted. These fictions, by frequently
presenting themselves, at length gained a consistence, and took in
my mind a determined form. I then had an inclination to express upon
paper some of the situations fancy presented to me, and,
recollecting everything I had felt during my youth, thus, in some
measure, gave an object to that desire of loving, which I had never
been able to satisfy, and by which I felt myself consumed.
I first wrote a few incoherent letters, and when I afterwards wished
to give them connection, I frequently found a difficulty in doing
it. What is scarcely credible, although most strictly true, is my
having written the first two parts almost wholly in this manner,
without having any plan formed, and not foreseeing I should one day be
tempted to make it a regular work. For this reason the two parts
afterwards formed of materials not prepared for the place in which
they are disposed, are full of unmeaning expressions not found in
the others.
In the midst of my reveries I had a visit from Madam d'Houdetot, the
first she had ever made me, but which unfortunately was not the
last, as will hereafter appear. The Comtesse d'Houdetot was the
daughter of the late M. de Bellegarde, a farmer-general, sister to
M.
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