ABSTRACT
I hastened, as I have already said, from Paris, and plunged amidst the wild and desolate scenery of Mount Jura. a The next intended stage of my travels was Switzerland, and I pursued the road which led to that country. The first anxiety I felt was to escape from France. That kingdom had been the theatre of my sufferings and my disgrace. There first I had felt my mind agitated with those emotions which are destined to have so mighty an influence on the fate of man. But how agitated? I had loved. I had not loved innocence; I had not loved the chaste simplicity of the female character: my affections had not gone forth toward any object, which might refine and elevate my soul, which might free me from the impurities I had contracted among the debauchees of the university, restore me to peace with myself, and prepare me to act an honourable part on the theatre of society. Unfortunately my initiation had been in the polluted tracts of adulterous commerce. My mind had been acted upon with vehemence, but not improved. What true sympathy and affection can arise between persons of opposite sexes, when the basis upon which their intimacy is founded is crime? – when all decorum and character are trampled under foot, and nothing is aimed at but licentious pleasure, / at the expense of all our best duties, and all that is truly honourable in human life?
