Mr. Gibbon's account of his journey to, and arrival at, Lausanne.-The flate of Mr. Deyverdun's Mirabeau's work, Sur la Monarchie Pruffienne, and his Correfpondence Secrète characterized.—Mr. Deyverdun's death. Reflections on that event. Mr. Gibbon thinks of purchasing Mr. Deyverdun's eftate at Laufanne.-Reflections Private circumflances difcuffed.-Farther reflec- Account of Monfieur Necker.-Character of Mr. Burke's book on the French revolution.—Mr. Gibbon propofes a declaration to be figned by the moft confiderable men of all parties.-Ob- fervations on Lord Sheffield's election for Brif- tol.-Reflections on own his fituation at Lau- fanne.-Invitation from Mr. Gibbon to Lord Sheffield and his family to vifit him at Laufanne. 229 Narrative continued by Lord Sheffield.—An ac- count of his visit to Lausanne.-Letter from Mr. Gibbon to the Honorable Mifs Holroyd.- Ac- count of a vifit to M. Necker. Political reflections.-Slave Trade.-Jockey Club. -Mr. Grey's motion.-Conduct of the French towards Geneva. French affairs. Second letter to the Honorable Mifs Holroyd.-Her account (in anfwer) of the Maffacre aux Carmes. Account of General Montefquieu.-Revolu- Perfonal reflections on Mr. Gibbon's fituation.- Mr. de Severy's death. Reflections on public affairs.-Lady Sheffield's death.-Mr. Gibbon returns to England upon that évènt. Narrative continued by Lord Sheffield.-Account of Mr. Gibbon's health; his diforder,-Ab- と 135 1 Ó F MY LIFE AND WRITINGS. 解 IN the fifty-fecond year of my age, after the com pletion of an arduous and fuccefsful work, I now propose to employ fome moments of my leifure in reviewing the fimple tranfactions of a private and literary life. Truth, naked, unblufhing truth, the first virtue of more serious history, must be the fole recommendation of this perfonal narrative. The ftyle fhall be fimple and familiar: but style is the image of character; and the habits of correct writing may produce, without labor or defign, the appearance of art and study. My own amufement is my motive, and will be my reward: and if these sheets are communicated to fome difcreet and indulgent friends, they will be fecreted from the public eye till the author fhall be removed beyond the reach of criticism or ridicule '. A lively defire of knowing and of recording our ancestors fo generally prevails, that it muft depend on the influence of fome common principle in the minds of men. We seem to have lived in the persons of our forefathers; it is the labor and reward of vanity to extend the term of this ideal longevity. Our imagination is always active to enlarge the narrow circle in which Nature has confined us. Fifty or a hundred years may be allotted to an individual, but we step forwards beyond death with such hopes VOL. I. B as religion and philofophy will fuggeft; and we fill up the filent vacancy that precedes our birth, by affociating ourselves to the authors of our existence. Our calmer judgment will rather tend to moderate, than to fupprefs, the pride of an ancient and worthy race. The fatyrift may laugh, the philofopher may preach; but Reafon herfelf will refpect the prejudices and habits, which have been confecrated by the experience of mankind. Wherever the diftinction of birth is allowed to form a fuperior order in the ftate, education and example should always, and will often, produce among them a dignity of fentiment and propriety of conduct, which is guarded from difhonor by their own and the public esteem. If we read of fome illuftrious line fo ancient that it has no beginning, fo worthy that it ought to have no end, we fympathize in its various fortunes; nor can we blame the generous enthusiasm, or even the harmless vanity, of those who are allied to the honors of its name. For my own part, could I draw my pedigree from a ge neral, a statesman, or a celebrated author, I fhould Atudy their lives with the diligence of filial love. In the investigation of paft events, our curiofity is ftimulated by the immediate or indirect reference to ourselves; but in the estimate of honor we should learn to value the gifts of Nature above thofe of Fortune; to esteem in our ancestors the qualities that best promote the interests of society; and to pronounce the defcendant of a king less truly noble than the offspring of a man of genius, whofe writings will inftruct or delight the lateft pofterity. The family of Confucius is, in my opinion, the most illuftrious in the world. After a painful afcent of eight or ten centuries, our barons and princes of Europe are loft in the darkness of the middle ages; but, in the vast equality of the empire of China, the posterity of Confucius have maintained, above two thousand two hundred years, their peaceful honors and perpetual fucceffion. The chief of the family is ftill revered, by the fovereign and the people, as the lively image of the wifeft of mankind. The nobility of the Spencers has been illuftrated and enriched by the trophies of Marlborough; but I exhort them to confider the Fairy Queen as the most precious jewel of their coronet. I have expofed my private feelings, as I shall always do, without fcruple or reserve. That these fentiments are just, or at least natural, I am inclined to believe fince I do not feel myself interested in the cause; for I can derive from my ancestors neither glory nor shame. Yet a fincere and fimple narrative of my own life may amufe fome of my leifure hours; but it will fubject me, and perhaps with juftice, to the imputation of vanity. I may judge, however, from the experience both of paft and of the prefent times, that the public are always curious to know the men, who have left behind them any image of their minds: the moft fcanty accounts of such men are compiled with diligence, and perufed with eagerness; and the ftudent of every clafs may derive a leffon, or an example, from the lives moft fimilar to his own. My name may hereafter be placed among the thou fand articles of a Biographia Britannica; and I must be confcious, that no one is fo well qualified, as myself, to describe the series of my thoughts and actions. The authority of my mafters, of the grave Thuanus, and the philofophic Hume, might be fufficient to justify my defign; but it would not be difficult to produce a long lift of ancients and moderns, who, in various forms, have exhibited their own portraits. Such portraits are often the most interesting, and sometimes the only interesting parts of their writings; and, if they be fincere, we seldom complain of the minutenefs or prolixity of these perfonal memorials. The lives of the younger Pliny, of Petrarch, and of Erafmus, are expreffed in the epiftles, which they themselves have given to the world. The effays of Montagne and Sir William Temple bring us home to the houses and bofoms of the authors: we fmile without contempt at the headftrong paffions of Benevenuto Cellini, and the gay follies of Colley Cibber. The confeffions of St. Auf tin and Rouffeau difclofe the secrets of the human heart: the commentaries of the learned Huet have furvived his evangelical demonftration; and the memoirs of Goldoni are more truly dramatic than his Italian comedies. The heretic and the churchman are strongly marked in the characters and fortunes of Whiston and Bishop Newton; and even the dullness of Michael de Marolles and Anthony Wood acquires fome value from the faithful reprefentation of men and manners. That I am equal or fuperior to fome of thefe, the effects of modesty or affectation cannot force me to diffemble. |