158 



Memoirs of Mr, Necker, by his Daughter. [Sept. 1, 



motive for diftuibing the facred folemnity 

 of thf tomb. Yes, it is me they mult at- 

 tack, and me alone, for whatever may 

 wound them in ihisfketch. I am here, I 

 am yet alive ; let them direfl their (hafts 

 to the laft relic of that fo much envied fa- 

 mily j but let them lefpefl a memory 

 which every honeft mind muft reveie, a 

 memory which will leave in the period of 

 the laft century a track bright and ethe- 

 real, commencing in tiie earth, but conti- 

 nuing in heaven. 



Had Mr. Necker been but an obfcure 

 citizen of the lepublic of Geneva, had he 

 notpafTedhis life amidftall the fedu>lionsof 

 France, amid all thole druggies of inlerelf, 

 which give birth to glory and to power, 

 ftill 1 fhould think that as a private cha- 

 rafter he muft have been the aiionllhrnent 

 and admiration of all fnch as had been his 

 near nbfeivers j but what does not fuch a 

 chatafter infpire, when we behold it, 

 emerging in all its purity and elevation, 

 its mildnefs and delicacy, from the t>;m- 

 perts of public life, (rom fituations which 

 offered every opportunity to an unbounded 

 ambition, from a career in (liort, which 

 would have engendered a thouland ftrong 

 and vindi(5live paflions, a tlioufand haifli 

 and callous fentimcnts, in the greater part 

 of mankind ! 



It was at the age of fifteen that my 

 father arrived at Paris, with a very limit- 

 ed fortune, which his parents intended he 

 (hould improve by trade. Since that pe- 

 riod, he has not only been his own euule 

 in the world, but has founded that" for- 

 tune, which has been the fupport of his 

 whole family; fuch as we are, we all owe 

 to him whitever we poflels ; happinefs, 

 foriune, fame, a^l thale brilliant advan- 

 tages which attended my early years, are 

 all debts to my father ; and even at this 

 moment, when I have loft every thing, it 

 is in continually invoking him, in recall- 

 ing every hour his ideas, that I ftill derive 

 ftrength to fulfil a few duties, and bring 

 myfelf to fpeak of him. 



Nearly twenty years elapfed between his 

 arrival at Pa' is and his marriage, and du- 

 ring that time an habitu?.! application lb 

 abforbed him, that he erjoyed lew of the 

 pleafuresof life. Sometimes, in chattering 

 with me in his retirement, he retraced this 

 period of his life, the remembrance of 

 which deeply afFcfted me ; a period when 

 I pi6fured him to myfelf, fo young, fo 

 amiable, and lb infulated ! when it ap- 

 peared to me that our deftinies might have 

 ■ united, had fate made us cotemporary. 

 The ftudy and practice of commerce had 

 unfylaed in Mr. Ntcker the faculties and 



information requifite for the great officea 

 he has fince filled ; buf the talents of a 

 writer, which he P' fiefTed fo eminently, 

 certainly was not nourilhed by the life he 

 led for five and twenty years ! In fa<5f , is 

 it not a circumftance unexampleJ, that the 

 firft of calculators, a man wlioieauthority 

 in finance has become clafTical, fliuuld at 

 the fame time be one of the molt dil'.in- 

 guilhed profe writers in France, for the 

 brilliancy and grandeur of his imagination! 

 This union of oppofite qualities has many 

 other inltances m the charafler of Mr. 

 Necker, and it may be confideied as the 

 principal trait which marks a iuperior be- 

 ing ; for thole qualities which are formed 

 at the expence ot each other, have no^ the 

 ftamp ot true moral greatnefs ; a feeble 

 tree may throw all its lap into one fhoot, 

 but the oak of the forelt can difperfe its 

 vigour to all its branches, and its fhadow 

 is deep and extenfive. 



There is fcarcely a merchant of confe- 

 quence in Europe, who is ignorant of Mft 

 Necker's fag.icity in the direflion of bufi- 

 nefs, although he always decided againft 

 his intereft, in all circumftances admitting 

 of the linallcft doubt. He has often told 

 me that he might have made an immenfe 

 fortune, if he had not earlv quitted trade, 

 and if he could have impn-^ed himfelf with 

 the idea, that very great wealth would 

 have made him very happy. "It has never 

 beet) my lot," he has told me olten, " to 

 covet ardently either money, reputation, 

 or power ; for had I been pafTionately de- 

 voted to either of thefe objefts, the means 

 of attaining them were at hand." My 

 father had that elevated fenfibility which 

 is incompitiblc with an ardent ambition 

 for any of the good things of this world ; 

 he thirfted only for gloiy ; there is Ibme- 

 thing aiirial in glory, which leems to form 

 as it were the fhadowy boundary betwt-H 

 the thoughts of heaven and thofe of the 

 earth. 



It was in the fittings of the India Com- 

 pany that the fupericrity of Mr. Necker's 

 genius firft made iticlf known : he made 

 feveral extempore addreffes, and, on this 

 occalion as on many others, it was to be 

 remarked that be fpoke very forcibly 

 whenever he was warmly intereited, when- 

 ever a neivous though'', and above all a 

 lofty fentiment animated him ; but even to 

 the clofe of his life, I have feenhim evince 

 great timidity. I have I'een his noble 

 countenance redden, when it happened 

 that he had particularly attracted atten- 

 tion by fome recital, of which the grace 

 of his expreflions or of his plealantry con- 

 ftitutcd the chief merit i his powers and 



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