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(5) page 62.

If Pope had ever looked into this treatise (Crousaz on Logic) he could not have committed so gross a mistake as to introduce the author into the Dunciad among Locke's Aristotelian opponents, a distinction for which Crousaz was probably indebted to his acute strictures on those passages in the Essay on Man, which seem favourable to fatalism.

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Each staunch Polemic, stubborn as a rock,

Each fierce logician, still expelling Locke,

Came whip and spur, and dash'd through thin and thick,
On German Crousaz and Dutch Burgursdyk.

Warburton, with his usual scurrility towards all Pope's adversaries, as well as his own, has called Crousaz a blundering Swiss; but a very different estimate of his works has been formed by Gibbon, who seems to have studied his works much more carefully than the Right Reverend Commentator on the DunciadDugald Stewart, Preface to Encyclop., part ii. p. 12.-M.

(6) page 63.

FROM EDWARD GIBBON TO MRS. PORTEN.

Now for myself. As my father has given me leave to make a journey round Switzerland, we set out to-morrow. Buy a map of Switzerland, it will cost you but a shilling, and follow me. I go by Iverdun, Neufchâtel, Bienne or Biel, Soleurre or Solothurn, Bale or Basil, Bade, Zurich, Lucerne, and Bern. The voyage will be of about four weeks, so that I hope to find a letter from you waiting for me. As my father had given me leave to learn what I had a mind, I have learned to ride, and learn actually to dance and draw. Besides that, I often give ten or twelve hours a day to my studies. I find a great many agreeable people here; see them sometimes, and can say upon the whole, without vanity, that though I am the Englishman here who spends the least money, I am he who is the most generally liked. I told you that my father had promised to send me into France and Italy. I have thanked him for it; but if he would follow my plan, he won't do it yet a while. I never liked young travellers; they go too raw to make any great remarks, and they lose a time which is (in my opinion) the most precious part of a man's life. My scheme would be, to spend this winter at Lausanne : for though it is a very good place to acquire the air of good company and the French tongue, we have no good professors. To spend (I say) the winter at Lausanne; go into England to see my friends for a couple of months, and after that, finish my studies, either at Cambridge (for after what has passed one cannot think of Oxford), or at an university in Holland. If you liked the scheme, could you not propose it to my father by Metcalf, or somebody who has a certain credit over him? I forgot to ask you whether, in case my father writes to tell me of his marriage, would you advise me to compliment my mother-in-law? I think so. My health is so very regular, that I have nothing to say about it.

I have been the whole day writing you this letter; the preparations for our voyage gave me a thousand interruptions. Besides that, I was obliged to write in English. This last reason will seem a paradox, but I assure you the French is much more familiar to me.

Lausanne, Sept. 20, 1755.

I am, etc.

E. GIBBON.

March 1757.

March 8th.
June.

August. Sept. 15th. Oct. 15th.

Nov. 1st.

Nov. 17th.
Jan. 1758.

Jan. 23d.

(7) page 67.

EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL.

I wrote some critical observations upon Plautus.
I wrote a long dissertation on some lines of Virgil.

I saw Mademoiselle Curchod-Omnia vincit amor, et nos
cedamus amori.

I went to Crassy, and staid two days.

I went to Geneva.

I came back to Lausanne, having passed through Crassy.

I went to visit M. de Watteville at Loin, and saw Mademoiselle
Curchod in my way through Rolle.

I went to Crassy, and staid there six days.

In the three first months of this year I read Ovid's Metamor-
phoses, finished the conic sections with M. de Traytorrens,
and went as far as the infinite series, I likewise read Sir
Isaac Newton's Chronology, and wrote my critical observa-
tions upon it.

I saw Alzire acted by the society at Monrepos. Voltaire acted
Alvarez; D'Hermanches, Zamore; de St. Cierge, Gusman;
M. de Gentil, Monteze; and Madame Denys, Alzire.

(8) page 68.

The letter in which Gibbon communicated to Mademoiselle Curchod the opposition of his father to their marriage, still exists in manuscript. The first pages are tender and melancholy, as might be expected from an unhappy lover; the latter became by degrees calm and reasonable, and the letter concludes with these words, "C'est pourquoi, Mademoiselle, j'ai l'honneur d'élre votre très humble et très obéissant serviteur, Edouard Gibbon." He truly loved Mademoiselle Curchod; but every one loves according to his character, and that of Gibbon was incapable of a despairing passion. -- M. Suard's Memoir.

(9) page 68.

From a letter dated at Motiers, the 4th of June 1763, and addressed to M. ~~ca.-You have given me a commission for Mademoiselle Curchod, of which I shall acquit myself ill, precisely on account of my esteem for her. The coldness of Mr. Gibbon makes me think ill of him. I have again read his book. It is deformed by the perpetual affectation and pursuit of brilliancy. Mr. Gibbon is no man for me. I cannot think him well adapted to Mademoiselle Curchod. He that does not know her value is unworthy of her; he that knows it, and can desert her, is a man to be despised. She does not know what she is about; this man serves her more effectually than her own heart. I should a thousand times rather see him leave her free and poor among us, than bring her to be rich and miserable in England. In truth, I hope Mr. Gibbon may not come here. I should wish to dissemble, but I could not; I should wish to do well, and I feel that I should spoil all.

(10) page 68.

"The Curchod (Madame Necker) I saw at Paris. She was very fond of me, and the husband particularly civil. Could they insult me more cruelly? Ask me every evening to supper; go to bed, and leave me alone with his wife---what

an impertinent security! it is making an old lover of mighty little consequence. She is as handsome as ever, and much genteeler; seems pleased with her fortune rather than proud of it. I was (perhaps indiscreetly enough) exalting Nanette d'Illens's good luck and the fortune. What fortune? (said she, with an air of contempt)-not above twenty thousand livres a year. I smiled, and she caught herself immediately. What airs I give myself in despising twenty thousand livres a-year, who a year ago looked upon eight hundred as the summit of my wishes.'"

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There is a very pleasing and friendly letter from Madame Necker to Gibbon, Misc. Works, vol. ii. p. 169. A second, chiefly on the first volume of his History, page 176. In a third, p. 193., occurs the following flattering description of Gibbon's powers of conversation :-" Votre entretien, Monsieur, a toujours été un grand plaisir de ma vie, car vous réunissez l'intérêt pour les petites choses, l'enthousiasme pour les grandes, l'abondance des idées à l'attention pour celles des autres, et une légère causticité, âme de la conversation, à l'indulgence du moment, la sûreté du caractère, et le courage de l'amitié." See likewise, p. 245, and 440 to 469. Mme. Necker concludes one of her letters with the following significant quotation from Zaïre :

"Généreux, bienfaisant, juste, plein de vertus,

S'il étoit né Chrétien, que seroit-il de plus."

Page 454.

It is curious to speculate on the effect which an union with a female of such pure dignity of character and calm religious principle, might have had on the character and opinions of Gibbon.

CHAPTER V.

Mr. Gibbon's manner of spending his time.-He publishes his first Work, Essai sur l'Étude de la Littérature.-Some Observations on the Plan, and the Character of the Performance.-Character of Dr. Maty.-The Author's manner of passing his Time in the Hampshire Militia, and Reflections upon it. He resumes his Studies; determines to write upon some Historical Subject; considers various Subjects, and makes Remarks upon them for that purpose.

In the prayers of the church our personal concerns are judiciously reduced to the threefold distinction of mind, body, and estate. The sentiments of the mind excite and exercise our social sympathy. The review of my moral and literary character is the most interesting to myself and to the public; and I may expatiate, without reproach, on my private studies; since they have produced the public writings, which can alone entitle me to the esteem and friendship of my readers. The experience of the world inculcates a discreet reserve on the subject of our person and estate, and we soon learn that a free disclosure of our riches or poverty would provoke the malice of envy, or encourage the insolence of contempt.

The only person in England whom I was impatient to see was my aunt Porten, the affectionate guardian of my tender years. I hastened to her house in College-street, Westminster; and the evening was spent in the effusions of joy and confidence. It was not without some awe and apprehension that I approached the presence of my father. My infancy, to speak the truth, had been neglected at home; the severity of his look and language at our last parting still dwelt on my memory; nor could I form any notion of his character, or my probable reception. They were both more agreeable than I could expect. The domestic discipline of our ancestors has been relaxed by the philosophy and softness of the age; and if iny father remembered that he had trembled before a stern parent, it was only to adopt with his own son an opposite mode of behaviour. He received me as a man and a friend; all coas aint was banished at our first interview, and we ever afterw. ds continued on the same terms of easy and equal politeness. I e applauded the success of my education; every word and action was expressive of the most cordial affection; and our lives would have passed without a cloud, if his economy had been equal to his fortune, or if his fortune had been equal to his desires. During my absence he had married his second wife, Miss Dorothea Patton, who was introduced to me with the most unfavourable prejudice. I considered his second marriage as an act of displeasure, and I was disposed to

hate the rival of my mother. But the injustice was in my own fancy, and the imaginary monster was an amiable and deserving woman. I could not be mistaken in the first view of her understanding, her knowledge, and the elegant spirit of her conversation her polite welcome, and her assiduous care to study and gratify my wishes, announced at least that the surface would be smooth; and my suspicions of art and falsehood were gradually dispelled by the full discovery of her warm and exquisite sensibility. After some reserve on my side, our minds associated in confidence and friendship; and as Mrs. Gibbon had neither children nor the hopes of children, we more easily adopted the tender names and genuine characters of mother and of son. By the indulgence of these parents, I was left at liberty to consult my taste or reason in the choice of place, of company, and of amusements; and my excursions were bounded only by the limits of the island, and the measure of my income. Some faint efforts were made to procure me the employment of secretary to a foreign embassy; and I listened to a scheme which would again have transported me to the continent. Mrs. Gibbon, with seeming wisdom, exhorted me to take chambers in the Temple, and devote my leisure to the study of the law. I cannot repent of having neglected her advice. Few men, without the spur of necessity, have resolution to force their way through the thorns and thickets of that gloomy labyrinth. Nature had not endowed me with the bold and ready eloquence which makes itself heard amidst the tumult of the bar; and I should probably have been diverted from the labours of literature, without acquiring the fame or fortune of a successful pleader. I had no need to call to my aid the regular duties of a profession; every day, every hour, was agreeably filled; nor have I known, like so many of my countrymen, the tediousness of an idle life.

Of the two years (May, 1758-May, 1760) between my return to England and the embodying of the Hampshire militia, I passed about nine months in London, and the remainder in the country. The metropolis affords nusements, which

are open to all. It is itself an astonishi und perpetual spectacle to the curious eye; and each taste, each sense may be gratified by the variety of objects which will occur in the long circuit of a morning walk. I assiduously frequented the theatres, at a very propitious æra of the stage, when a constellation of excellent actors, both in tragedy and comedy, was eclipsed by the meridian brightness of Garrick in the maturity of his judgment, and vigour of his performance. The pleasures of a town-life are within the reach of every man who is regardless of his health,

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