respective works, the schools of argument and objection, I carefully went through the Effay on Human Underftanding, and occafionally confulted the most interefting articles of the Philofophic Dictionary. In the infancy of my reafon I turned over, as an idle amufement, the most ferious and important treatife in its maturity, the moft trifling performance could exercife my taste or judgment; and more than once I have been led by a novel into a deep and inftructive train of thinking. But I cannot forbear to mention three particular books, fince they may have remotely contributed to form the hiftorian of the Roman empire. 1. From the Provincial Letters of Pafcal, which almost every year I have perufed with new pleafure, I learned to manage the weapon of grave and temperate irony, even on fubjects of ecclefiaftical folemnity. 2. The Life of Julian, by the Abbé de la Bleterie, firft introduced me to the man and the times; and I should be glad to recover my first effay on the truth of the miracle which stopped the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerufalem. 3. In Giannone's Civil History of Naples, I obferved with a critical eye the progrefs and abufe of facerdotal power, and the revolutions of Italy in the darker ages. This various reading, which I now conducted with difcretion, was digefted, according to the precept and model of Mr. Locke, into a large commonplace book; a practice, however, which I do not ftrenuouЛly recommend. The action of the pen will doubtlefs imprint an idea on the mind as well as on the paper: but I much question whether the benefits of this laborious me1 thod are adequate to the wafte of time; and I must agree with Dr. Johnson, (Idler, No. 74.) that what is twice "read, is commonly better remembered, than what is trànà "fcribed." During two years, if I forget fome boyith excurfions of a day or a week, I was fixed at Laufanne; but at the end of the third fummer, my father confented that I should make the tour of Switzerland with Pavilliard; and our short absence of one month (September 21ft-OAober 20th, 1755) was a reward and relaxation of my affiduous ftudies*. The fashion of climbing the mountains and reviewing the Glaciers, had not yet been introduced by foreign travellers, who seek the fublime beauties of nature. But the political face of the country is not lefs diverfi fied * From EDWARD GIBBON to Mrs. PORTEN. Now for myself. As my father has given me leave to make a journey round Switzerland, we fet out to-morrow. Buy a map of Switzerland, it will coft you but a fhilling, and follow me. I go by Iverdun, Neufchâtel, Bienne or Biel, Soleurre or Solothurn, Bale or Bafil, Bade, Zurich, Lucerne, and Bern. The voyage will be of about four weeks; fo 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. Befides that, I often give ten or twelve hours a day to my studies. I find a great many agreeable people here; fee them fometimes, and can fay upon the whole, without vanity, that though I am the Englishman here who spends the leaft money, I am he who is the most generally liked. I told you that my father had promised to fend 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 fcheme would be, to fpend 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 profeffors. To spend (1 fay) the winter at Lausanne ; go into England to see my friends a couple of months, and after that, finish my studies, either at Cambridge (for after what has paffed one cannot think of Oxford), or at an University in Holland. If you liked the scheme, could you not propofe 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 fo. My health is so very regular, that I have nothing to say about it. I have been the whole day writing you voyage gave me a thousand interruptions. this letter; the preparations for our Befides that, I was obliged to write in English. This last reason will seem a paradox, but I affure you the French is much more familiar to me. I am, &c. LAUSANNE, E. GIBBON. fied by the forms and fpirit of fo many various republics, from the jealous government of the few to the licentious freedom of the many. I contemplated with pleafure the new profpects of men and manners; though my converfation with the natives would have been more free and inftructive, had I poffeffed the German, as well as the French language. We paffed through most of the principal towns of Switzerland; Neufchâtel, Bienne, Soleurre, Arau, Baden, Zurich, Bafil, and Bern. In every place we vifited the churches, arfenals, libraries, and all the most eminent perfons; and after my return, I di gested my notes in fourteen or fifteen sheets of a French journal, which I dispatched to my father, as a proof that my time and his money had not been mis-fpent. Had I found this journal among his papers, I might be tempted to felect fome paffages: but I will not transcribe the printed accounts, and it may be fufficient to notice a remarkable fpot, which left a deep and lafting impreffion on my memory. From Zurich we proceeded to the Benedictine Abbey of Einfidlen, more commonly ftyled Our Lady of the Hermits, I was aftonished by the profuse oftentation of riches in the pooreft corner of Europe; amidft a favage scene of woods and mountains, a palace appears to have been erected by magic; and it was erected by the potent magic of religion. A crowd of palmers and votaries was proftrate before the altar. The title and worship of the Mother of God provoked my indig nation; and the lively naked image of fuperftition fuggefted to me, as in the fame place it had done to Zuinglius, the moft preffing argument for the reformation of the church. About two years after this tour, I paffed at Geneva a useful and agreeable month; but this excurfion, and fome fhort vifits in the Pais de Vaud, did not materially interrupt my ftudious and fedentary life at Laufanne. My thirst of improvement, and the languid ftate of science at Laufanne, foon prompted me to folicit a literary correfpondence correfpondence with feveral men of learning, whom I had not an opportunity of personally confulting. 1. In the perufal of Livy, (xxx. 44.) I had been ftopped by a fentence in a speech of Hannibal, which cannot be reconciled by any torture with his character or argument, The commentators diffemble, or confefs their perplexity. It occurred to me, that the change of a fingle letter, by fubftituting otio instead of odio, might reftore a clear and confiftent fenfe; but I wifhed to weigh my emendation in fcales lefs partial than my own. I addreffed myself to M. Crevier, the fucceffor of Rollin, and a profeffor in the university of Paris, who had published a large and valuable edition of Livy, His anfwer was speedy and -polite; he praised my ingenuity, and adopted my conjecture. 2. I maintained a Latin correspondence, at first anonymous, and afterwards in my own name, with Profeffor Breitinger of Zurich, the learned editor of a Septuagint Bible. In our frequent letters we difcuffed many queftions of antiquity, many paffages of the Latin claffics. I propofed my interpretations and amendments. His cenfures, for he did not fpare my boldness of conjecture, were sharp and strong; and I was encouraged by the confciousness of my strength, when I could ftand in free debate against a critic of fuch eminence and erudition. 3. I correfponded on fimilar topics with the celebrated Profeffor Matthew Gefner, of the university of Gottingen; and he accepted, as courteously as the two former, the invitation of an unknown youth. But his abilities might poffibly be decayed; his elaborate letters were feeble and prolix; and when I asked his proper direction, the vain old man covered half a sheet of paper with the foolish enumeration of his titles and offices. 4. Thefe Profef fors of Paris, Zurich, and Gottingen, were rangers, whom I prefumed to addrefs on the credit of their name; but See Appendix, Letters, No. I. Ditto, N. IV. and V. but Mr. Allamand*, Minifter at Bex, was my personal friend, with whom I maintained a more free and interefting correfpondence. He was a mafter of language, of fcience, and, above all, of difpute; and his acute and flexible logic could fupport, with equal addrefs, and perhaps with equal indifference, the adverfe fides of every poffible question. His fpirit was active, but his pen had been indolent. Mr. Allamand had expofed himfelf to much fcandal and reproach, by an anonymous letter (1745) to the Proteftants of France; in which he labours to perfuade them that public worship is the exclufive right and duty of the state, and that their numerous affemblies of diffenters and rebels were not authorised by the law or the gospel. His ftyle is animated, his arguments fpecious; and if the papift may feem to lurk under the matk of a proteftant, the philofopher is concealed under the difguife of a papift. After fome trials in France and Holland, which were defeated by his fortune or his character, a genius that might have enlightened or deluded the world, was buried in a country living, unknown to fame, and difcontented with mankind. Eft facrificulus in pago, et rufticos decipit. As often as private or ecclefiaftical business called him to Lausanne, I enjoyed the pleafure and benefit of his converfation, and we were mutually flattered by our attention to each other. Our correfpondence, in his abfence, chiefly turned on Locke's metaphyfics, which he attacked, and I defended; the origin of ideas, the principles of evidence; and the doctrine of liberty; And found no end, in wandering mazes loft. By fencing with fo fkilful a mafter, I acquired fome dexterity in the ufe of my philofophic weapons; but I was ftill the flave of education and prejudice. He had fome mea See Appendix, Letters, No. II, and III. fures |