The gentry of the province who assemble there have only sufficient wealth to live and not enough to spoil them; they cannot give way to ambition, but follow, through necessity, the counsel of Cyneas, devoting their youth to a military employment, and returning home to grow old in peace; an arrangement over which honor and reason equally preside.

The women are handsome, yet do not stand in need of beauty, since they possess all those qualifications which enhance its value and even supply the want of it.

It is remarkable, that being obliged by my profession to see a number of young girls, I do not recollect one at Chambery but what was charming: it will be said I was disposed to find them so, and perhaps there maybe some truth in the surmise.

I cannot remember my young scholars without pleasure.

Why, in naming the most amiable, cannot I recall them and myself also to that happy age in which our moments, pleasing as innocent, were passed with such happiness together?
The first was Mademoiselle de Mallarede, my neighbor, and sister to a pupil of Monsieur Gaime.