1S0,5.] 



Memoirs of Mr. Neder, ly his Daughter. 



139 



felf-pofleffion were confpicuous only in en- 

 countering difficulties worthy of his 

 flrength. His greatnefs increafed with 

 circumftajices, he was proud with the 

 powerful, he drew refoiution from danger, 

 he poflefied at once the nobleft pride and 

 the trued modelfy ; nobody could more 

 efFe6lively oppofe injuftice with all the dig- 

 nity of confcious reftitude : but in the 

 midft of his friends, or in examining his 

 own heart, he was always comparing him- 

 fclf with his notions of every kind of per- 

 feftion ; and my life has been fpent in 

 pleading, when we converfcd, againft his 

 felf-diftruft, againft thofe imaginary re- 

 proaches which he applied to occafions 

 where he had difplayed mod of talent or of 

 virtue. Such had been his charafler from 

 his earli^ft youth. In beginning with a 

 iketchof that part of my father's life which 

 preceded both my birth, and my intimacy 

 with him, I mult be often allowed to recall 

 the latter years, during which I fo well 

 knew him : a perfeft unity charafterifed 

 the life of Mr. Necker; his youth re. 

 fembled his age, his profperity was like 

 his adverfity ; the whole of his exiflence 

 was illumined by the fame ray, the fame 

 refpefl for morals and for divinity, for 

 religion and for integrity, diie£led his fate, 

 and I am perfuaded I know as well as his 

 cotemporaries what he was at thirty, be- 

 caufe he was the fame at fixty. 



From his youth he anticipated experi- 

 ence by rcfleftion, and he is indebted to 

 the puritj of his mind for preferving his 

 imaginati.n and his fcnfibility in his de- 

 cline. He married about twenty years 

 after his .irrival at Paris ; he chofe a wo- 

 man of peifeft virtue, and of highly culti- 

 vated mind, born of parents in every way 

 refpeclable, but whom the repeal of the 

 editl of Nantes had deprived of all the 

 property their family poffcfi'ed j thus my 

 father a ftcond time created every thing 

 around him. From the moment of his 

 marriage to that of his death, the thought 

 of my mother has been the ruling one of 

 his life. His attention to his wife's bap. 

 pinefs was not that of public men in ge- 

 neral 5 it was not by a few diftant aflions, 

 which it is faid is all that is due to the 

 fubordinate condition of women ; it was 

 by the conltant exprefTion of the moft ten. 

 dtr and delicate fcntiment. My mother, 

 who was pafTionate in all her affci^ions, 

 Would have been very miferable iiad fhe 

 only made what is commonly called an ex- 

 cellent niarriige j had (he been united with 

 > man merely good, merely generous ; it 

 was necelTary fhe fhould find in the heart 

 Pl' her firlt fritnd tkat iubliiiic kniibility 



which belongs only to fuperior minds, and 

 which a fuperior mind almoft always de- 

 Uroys, by infpiring far other defires and 

 propenfities than belong to domeftic life : 

 flie wanted a fmgle being ; (he has found 

 him, (lie has palt her life with him. God 

 has fpared her the misfortune of furviving 

 him : peace and refpeft to her a(hes ! (he 

 had a greater claim to be happy than her 

 daughter. 



A fhort time after my father's marriage, 

 he was appointed mniilter of the republic 

 of Geneva, at Paris. In accepting this 

 employment he refufed the emoluments 

 attached to it j from that time he feems to 

 have made it a fyftem to accept cf no kind 

 of remuneration for the places he (illed. 

 When he was minifter of ftate, he was ac- 

 cufed of pride, becaufehe was the firft in- 

 fiance of a miniftei in France, or perhaps 

 any where elfe, who refufed the great emo- 

 luments attached to this place, and con 

 fumed a part of his capital to make the 

 appearance it requited*. No emotion of 

 pride prompted my father to adopt this 

 refoiution ; but called upon by h>s love of 

 order, and by the bad condition of the 

 finances of France to fupprefs many em- 

 ployments, to reduce many emoluments, 

 he could not fupport the idea, that any 

 one whole fortune he had diminifhed, 

 fliould ftait a comparifon between the gains 

 of the miniller with the lofs to wliich this 

 very minister fuhjefted others ; he felt 

 himl'elf (lengthened in the reform of abufes, 

 in having himfelf given the example of the 

 entire facrifice of perfonal confiderations. 

 This fimple, but delicate motive was the 

 fok caufe of a renunciation which may 

 have been deemed extraordinary. 



What has always peculiarly ftruck me 

 in my father was, that there was no effort 

 in any thing he did ; when he made the 

 greateif facrifices, they were impelled by 

 motives fo profound, and fo powerful, that 

 he hiinfelf was always, and others were 

 .'bmeiimes, inlenfibleof much of their me- 

 rit. There was no ftruggle, no repug- 

 nance; you were induced to conceive like 

 him that he could not aft otherwife than 

 he did. The king was at firft artonifhed 

 at Mr. Necker'4 refufiil to accept of ;iny 

 kind of emolument for his j>lace ; but in 

 the end the king was (b well accuftomed to 

 it, that Mr, Necker was named minifter a 



• Mr. Necker was aflTuredly the beft of fa- 

 thers that ever exifted,and yet he was forced to 

 appropriate 100,000 Uvres of his remes v/a- 

 gcret, to make up the neceflary cxpence of his 

 place. 



S 1 fecond 



