idle and unprofitable of his whole life; but why they were fo idle and unprofitable, we cannot learn from his Memoirs. If he ftill pursued his defultory course of reading, they could not be altogether unprofitable, although they might be idle as to the purposes of academical ftudies. To the careleffness of his tutors, indeed, he appears to have had fome reafon to object; but he allows that he was disposed to gaiety and to late hours, and therefore complains, with little justice, that he was not taught what he was disposed to neglect. In his examination of the history of our universities, he would bring us back to the tyranny of priests and monks; but he who cannot distinguish between the priests and monks of a barbarous age, and the clergy of the present period, wants at least one of the qualifications of a hiftorian. It is the more to be regretted that he has recorded his prejudices against the universities, because those prejudices appear to have been conceived in his maturer years. This is, at least, suspicious. When he fat down to write his Memoirs, the Memoirs of an eminent and accomplished scholar, he found a blank which is feldom found in the biography of English scholars, the early displays of genius, the laudable emulation, and the well-earned honours; he found that he owed no fame to his academical refidence, and therefore determined that no fame fhould be derivable from an university education.

When he first left Magdalen College, he informs us, that his taste for books began to revive; and that "unprovided `with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of compofition, he refolved to write a book." The title of this firft eflay was "The Age of Sefoftris," the sheets of which he afterwards destroyed. On his return to college, want of advice, experience, and occupation, betrayed him into improprieties of conduct, late hours, ill-chofen company, and inconfiderate expence. Industry became afterwards fo much a habit with Mr Gib

bon, that we are not to wonder if he wishes to bestow a fhare of the blame of his youthful idleness on the negli gence of his tutors, or the conftitution of his college*.

In the frame of his mind, however, there appears to have been originally a confiderable proportion of juvenile arrogance and caprice. At the age of fixteen, his reading became of the religious kind; and after bewildering himfelf in the errors of the church of Rome, he was converted to its doctrines, if that can be called a converfion, which was rather the adoption of certain opinions by a boy, who had never studied thofe of his own church. This change, in whatever light it may be confidered, he imputes principally to the works of Parfons the Jefuit, who, in his opinion, had urged all the best arguments in favour of the Roman Catholic religion.

Fortified with these, on the 8th of June 1753, he folemnly abjured, what he calls the errors of heresy, before a catholic priest in London, and immediately announced the important event to his father in a very laboured epiftle. His father regretted the change, but divulged the fecret, and thus rendered his return to Magdalen College impoffible. At an advanced age, and when he had learned to treat all religions with equal indifference, our author speaks of this converfion with a vain respect; declaring himself not afhamed to have been entangled by the sophistry which seduced the acute and manly underftandings of Chillingworth and Bayle. But perhaps refemblance is more clofe in the tranfition which, he adds, they made from superstition to scepticism †.

* Old Daniel Parker, the bookfeller at Oxford, gives us a few traits of Gibbon when at college. "I knew him perfonally. He was a fingular character, and but little connected with the young gentlemen of his college They admit at Magdalen College only men of fortune; no commoners. One uncommon book for a young man I remember selling to him- Le Bibliotheque Orientale D'Herbelot, which he seems much to have used for authorities for his Eaftern Roman Hiftory." Gent. Mag. vol. Ixiv. p. 119.

+ Chillingworth certainly became a Socinian in his latter days.

His father was now advifed to fend him for fome time to Lausanne in Switzerland, where he was placed, with a moderate allowance, under the care of Mr. Pavilliard, a Calvinist minifter. Mr. Pavilliard was inftructed to reclaim his pupil from the errors of popery; but as he could not speak English, nor Mr. Gibbon French, fome time elapsed before much converfation of any kind became practicable. When their mutual industry had removed this obftacle, Mr. Pavilliard first secured the attention and attachment of his pupil by kindness, then directed his ftudies into a regular plan, and placed within his power fuch means of information as might remove the errors into which he had fallen. This judicious method foon proved successful; on Christmas day, 1754, after " a full conviction," Mr. Gibbon received the facrament in the church of Lausanne: and here it was, he informs us, that he suspended his religious inquiries, acquiefcing, with implicit belief, in the tenets and mysteries which are adopted by the general confent of Catholics and Proteftants.

His advantages, in other refpects, were fo important during his refidence at Laufanne, that here, for the first time, he appears to have commenced the regular process of inftruction which laid the foundation of all his future improvements. His thirst for general knowledge returned; and while he was not hindered from gratifying his curiofity in his former defultory manner, certain hours were appropriated for certain ftudies. His reading had now a fixed object, and that attained, he felt the value of the acquifition, and became more reconciled to regularity and system. He opened new stores of learning and tafte by acquiring a knowledge of the Greek, Latin, and French languages. Of this proficiency, although his tutor ought not to be robbed of his fhare of the merit, it is evident that Mr. Gibbon's unwearied induftry and laudable avidity of knowledge were at this time uncommon, and bespoke a mind capable of the highest attainments, and deserv

ing of the highest honours within the compass of lite

rature.

To mathematics only he fhewed a reluctance; contenting himself with understanding the principles of that science. At this early age it is probable he defifted merely from finding no pleasure in mathematical studies, and nothing to gratify curiofity; but as in his more mature years he determined to undervalue the purfuits which he did not choofe to follow, he takes an opportunity to pass a reflection on the utility of mathematics, with which few will probably agree. He accufes this fcience of "hardening the mind by the habit of rigid demonstration, so destructive of the finer feelings of moral evidence, which must determine the actions and opinions of our lives." So eafy is it to find a plausible excuse for neglecting what we want the power or the inclination to follow.

To his claffical acquirements, while at Lausanne, he added the study of Grotius and Puffendorff, Locke and Montefquieu; and he mentions Pascal's Provincial Letters, La Bleterie's Life of Julian, and Giannone's Civil History of Naples, as having remotely contributed to form the hiftorian of the Roman empire. From Pascal, he tells us, that he learned to manage the weapon of grave and temperate irony, even on fubjects of ecclefiaftical folemnity; forgetting that irony, in every shape, is beneath the dignity of the historical style, and fubjects the hiftorian to the fufpicion that his courage and his argument are exhausted. It is more to his credit, that at this time he established a correfpondence with feveral literary characters to whom he looked for inftruction and direction: with Crevier and Breitinger, Gefner and Allemand; and that, by the acuteness of his remarks, and his zeal for knowledge, he proved himself not unworthy of their confidence. He had an opportunity alfo of seeing Voltaire, who received him as an English youth,

but

but without any peculiar notice or distinction. Voltaire diffused gaiety around him, by erecting a temporary theatre, on which he performed his own favourite characters; and Mr. Gibbon became fo enamoured of the French stage, as to lose much of his veneration for Shakspeare. He was now familiar in fome, and acquainted in many families, and his evenings were generally devoted to cards and converfation, either in private parties or more numerous affemblies.

During this alternation of study and pleasure, he became enamoured of a Mademoiselle Sufan Curchod, a young lady whose personal attractions were embellished by her virtues and talents. His addresses were favoured by her and by her parents, but his father, on being confulted, expreffed the utmost reluctance to this "ftrange alliance," and Mr. Gibbon yielded to his pleasure. His wound, he tells us, was infenfibly healed by time, and the lady was not unhappy; fhe afterwards became the wife of the celebrated M. Neckar *.

* In a note at the conclufion of Mr. Gibbon's account of his courtship, he refers to the works of Rouffeau, vol. xxxiii. The paffage thus referred to for which I am indebted to the Monthly Review, is as follows. It is taken from a letter of Rouffeau dated June 1763. "You have given me a commiffion for Mademoiselle Curchod, of which I fhall acquit myself ill, precifely on account of my efteem for her. The coldness of Mr. Gibbon makes one 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 defert her, is a man to be defpifed. She does not know what the is about; this man ferves her more effectually than her own heart. I fhould a thousand times rather fee him leave her, free and poor among us, than bring her to be rich, and miferable in England. In truth I hope that Mr. Gibbon may not come here. I should wish to diffemble, but I could not: I fhould wish to do well, and I feel that I should spoil all." Mr. Gibbon adds to this reference, "As an author I fhall not appeal from the judgment, or tafte, or caprice of Jean Jaques but that extraordinary man, whom I admire and pity, fhould have been less precipitate in condemning the moral character and conduct of a ftranger."