You ask me, my dear Viscount, how I shall proceed in order to give my son that true courage, which is so essential a quality in men, and above all in a soldier? Custom familiarizes one to the most frightful and dangerous things. If the use of fire was unknown to us the first time we saw it, to what a degree should we be alarmed by its destructive qualities, when we found a single spark sufficient to destroy a whole town! What precautions should we make use of to preserve ourselves in our houses, and what terror would a firebrand falling on the floor, or a lighted candle on a table covered with papers, cause in us! We feel nothing of this, however, because custom has inured us to it; though we are not so indifferent about things of infinitely less consequence. For example, the generality of women have an invincible aversion to spiders, toads, snakes, &c. whilst the sight of these creatures make no kind of impression on the mind of the most timid peasant, because they meet with such things continually. The country, where people are least afraid of thunder, is precisely that, where it does most mischief. I remember, in going from Rome to Naples, I slept in a Convent, on which the thunder falls regularly two or three times a year. That very night there was a dreadful storm, and I observed the Monks paid no more attention to it than if they had not heard it. I saw all the environs of Mount Vesuvius stripped of their verdure, and covered with lava; frightful and memorable remains of this most dreadful of plagues! Yet on this very lava, I saw a number of houses built, even at the foot of the mountain, and touching that formidable place, which carries death in its bosom. The owners of these lands trample under their feet the ashes of the unfortunate inhabitants of Pompeia.