It is perhaps an indifferent sign
of a disposition to keep his word, that, having introduced himself in the
third person singular, he proceeds in the second paragraph to make use of
the first. But it appears to him that the seeming modesty connected with
the former mode of writing is overbalanced by the inconvenience of
stiffness and affectation which attends it during a narrative of some
length, and which may be observed less or more in every work in which the
third person is used, from the Commentaries of Caesar to the
Autobiography of Alexander the Corrector.
I must refer to a very early period of my life, were I to point out my
first achievements as a tale-teller; but I believe some of my old
schoolfellows can still bear witness that I had a distinguished character
for that talent, at a time when the applause of my companions was my
recompense for the disgraces and punishments which the future
romance-writer incurred for being idle himself, and keeping others idle,
during hours that should have been employed on our tasks. The chief
enjoyment of my holidays was to escape with a chosen friend, who had the
same taste with myself, and alternately to recite to each other such wild
adventures as we were able to devise.
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