days there in the mountains of Burgundy, and her parents honourably encouraged the connexion. In a calm retirement the gay vanity of youth no longer fluttered in her bosom; she listened to the voice of truth and passion, and I might presume to hope that I had made some impression on a virtuous heart. At Crassy and Lausanne I indulged my dream of felicity; but, on my return to England, I soon discovered that my father would not hear of this strange alliance, and that without his consent I was myself destitute and helpless. After a painful struggle, I yielded to my fate; I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son; my wound was insensibly healed by time, absence, and the habits of a new life. My cure was accelerated by a faithful report of the tranquillity and cheerfulness of the lady herself, and my love subsided in friendship and esteem. The minister of Crassy soon afterward died; his stipend died with him; his daughter retired to Geneva, where, by teaching young ladies, she earned a hard subsistence for herself and her mother; but in her lowest distress she maintained a spotless reputation, and a dignified behaviour. A rich banker of Paris, a citizen of Geneva, had the good fortune and good sense to discover and possess this inestimable treasure; and in the capital of taste and luxury she resisted the temptations of wealth, as she had sustained the hardships of indigence. The genius of her husband has exalted him to the most conspicuous station in Europe. In every change of prosperity and disgrace he has reclined on the bosom of a faithful friend; and mademoiselle Curchod is now the wife of M. Necker, the minister, and perhaps the legislator, of the French monarchy."

Gibbon had been absent from home almost five years, when his father, hearing of his restoration to the Protestant church, the improvement made in his studies, and the good behaviour he maintained, was pleased to desire his return. He took leave of Lausanne on the 11th of April, 1758, with a mixed emotion of pleasure and pain. On his arrival in England, he hastened to the house of his aunt Porten, with whom was indulged a mutual effusion of joy and confidence. The meeting with his father was more ceremonious, though it proved very agreeable. "He received me (says the historian) as a man and a friend; all constraint was banished at our first interview, and we ever after continued on the same terms of easy politeness." His father had married a second

wife during his absence, and the son was disposed to consider the change as an act of displeasure, which excited many strong prejudices against her: it appears, however, that she was an amiable and excellent woman, and deservedly gained and secured his permanent respect. Some endeavours were used to obtain for Gibbon the situation of secretary to a foreign embassy, but without effect: his stepmother suggested the study of the law, which he declined.

Of the two years he had been in England, only nine months were passed in London-the other time was spent in the retired walks, and amidst the usual enjoyments, of a country life. Of the former he writes thus:

"The metropolis affords many amusements, which are open to all. It is itself an astonishing and 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 era 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, his money, and his company. By the contagion of example I was sometimes seduced; but the better habits, which I had formed at Lausanne, induced me to seek a more elegant and rational society; and if my search was less easy and successful than I might have hoped, I shall at present impute the failure to the disadvantages of my situation and character. Had the rank and fortune of my parents given them an annual establishment in London, their own house would have introduced me to a numerous and polite circle of acquaintance. But my father's taste had always preferred the highest and the lowest company, for which he was equally qualified; and, after a twelve years' retirement, he was no longer in the memory of the great, with whom he had associated. I found myself a stranger in the midst of a vast and unknown city; and at my entrance into life I was reduced to some dull family parties, and some scattered connexions, which were not such as I should have chosen for myself. The most useful friends of my father were the Mallets: they received me with civility and kindness, at first on his account, and afterward on my own; and (if I may use

lord Chesterfield's words) I was soon domesticated in their house. Mr. Mallet, a name among the English poets, is praised by an unforgiving enemy for the ease and elegance of his conversation, and his wife was not destitute of wit or learning. By his assistance I was introduced to lady Hervey, the mother of the present earl of Bristol. Her age and infirmities confined her at home; her dinners were select; in the evening her house was open to the best company of both sexes and all nations; nor was I displeased at her preference and affectation of the manners, the language, and the literature of France. But my progress in the English world was in general left to my own efforts, and those efforts were languid and slow. I had not been endowed by art or nature with those happy gifts of confidence and address which unlock every door and every bosom; nor would it be reasonable to complain of the just consequences of my sickly childhood, foreign education, and reserved temper. While coaches were rattling through Bond-street, I have passed many a solitary evening in my lodging with my books. My studies were sometimes interrupted by a sigh which I breathed towards Lausanne; and on the approach of spring I withdrew without reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure." A mind in love with intellectual pursuits, can derive but little enjoyment from the puerile customs adopted by the votaries of fashion, and in such scenes always acts rather by constraint than free choice. Gibbon preferred the tranquillity of his father's residence in Hampshire to the tumultuous gratifications of the metropolis, and availed himself, as often as possible, of the comforts he found beneath the parental roof. The old mansion was in a decayed state, and had been converted into the convenience of a modern habitation. "Our immediate neighbourhood (he states) was rare and rustic; but from the verge of our hills, as far as Chichester and Goodwood, the western district of Sussex was interspersed with noble seats and hospitable families, with whom we cultivated a friendly, and might have enjoyed a very frequent, intercourse. As my stay at Buriton was always voluntary, I was received and dismissed with smiles; but the comforts of my retirement did not depend on the ordinary pleasures of the country. My father could never inspire me with his love and knowledge of farming. I never handled a gun, I seldom

mounted a horse; and my philosophic walks were soon terminated by a shady bench, where I was long detained by the sedentary amusement of reading or meditation. At home I occupied a pleasant and spacious apartment; the library on the same floor was soon considered as my peculiar domain; and I might say with truth, that I was never less alone than when by myself. My sole complaint, which I piously suppressed, arose from the kind restraint imposed on the freedom. of my time. By the habit of early rising, I always secured a sacred portion of the day, and many scattered moments were stolen and employed by my studious industry. But the family hours of breakfast, of dinner, of tea, and of supper, were regular and long: after breakfast, Mrs. Gibbon expected my company in her dressing-room; after tea my father claimed my conversation and the perusal of the newspapers; and in the midst of an interesting work I was often. called down to receive the visit of some idle neighbours. Their dinners and visits required in due season a similar return, and I dreaded the period of the full moon, which was usually reserved for our more distant excursions.". His father's study contained some valuable editions of the classics, and many English publications of modern date: to this collection he never neglected to make a judicious addition, whenever his means furnished an opportunity. The English writers, since the Revolution, commonly occupied his leisure: this appeared to him the best method to recover the purity of his own language from the corruption contracted by the use of a foreign idiom. To Swift and Addison he chiefly directed his attention: the style of the first displays a manly, original vigour; that of the latter is adorned with the graces of elegance and mildness.

In the spring of 1761 he ventured to make his appearance as an Author. He published a small volume, entitled Essai sur l'Etude de la Litterature; which was begun at Lausanne, and finished in his own country. In France, and other places abroad, it gained the most flattering commendations, whilst the writer's countrymen received it with cold indifference; owing, it is probable, to the French language being little known. He would not permit his bookseller to reprint it, though a new edition, some years afterward, was much desired its scarcity, and the rising fame of the Author, enhanced the value from half-a-crown to thirty shillings.

When the Essay was published Mr. Gibbon was induced to enter upon a mode of life not very agreeable to his taste and general habits. A regiment of militia had been raised in Hampshire, and he was appointed to the office of captain. In the spirit of loyal enthusiasm he had overlooked the fatigues of military duties, and as little calculated, that the bloodless campaign would last two years and a half. This new profession, however, was not altogether unprofitable to him. "After my foreign education (he says), with my reserved temper, I should long have continued a stranger in my native country, had I not been shaken in this various scene of new faces and new friends; had not experience forced me to feel the characters of our leading men, the state of parties, the forms of office, and the operation of our civil and military system. In this peaceful service, I imbibed the rudiments of the language and science of tactics, which opened a new field of study and observation. I diligently read, and meditated, the Memoires Militaires of Quintus Icilius (Mr. Guichardt), the only writer who has united the merits of a professor and a veteran. The discipline and evolutions of a modern battalion, gave me a clearer notion of the phalanx and the legion; and the captain of the Hampshire grenadiers (the reader may smile), has not been useless to the historian of the Roman Empire."

At the restoration of peace in 1762-3, his regiment was broken up, and he resumed his studies upon a more regular and systematic plan. He was undetermined, at first, whether to direct his mental energies to the mathematics or the Greek language, both of which he had neglected since he left Lausanne: at length he decided in favour of Greek, and to it he gave a vigorous application.. But, whatever might be the nature of his studies, the object he had in view was invariably the same from early youth he aspired to the character of an historian!

The tour of Europe having been long considered as essentially necessary to complete the education of an English gentleman, he now contemplated this design, and succeeded in obtaining the consent of his father. From the duke de Nivernois, Mr. Walpole, lady Hervey, &c. he received recommendatory letters to their private or literary friends, though his Essay had already justly entitled him to the gratitude and civility of the French nation. On coming to Paris he