528 



Memoirs of Mr. Necker^ by his Daughter. [Jan. 1, 



glancei which perhaps will never be found 

 again ; for all men of diftinftion, are go- 

 verned by that fujitiior quality v.-hich dif- 

 tingtiifties them. 



My father, in his moft fimple letters, 

 had, not a ftyle ; for he was too natural to 

 beftow on letters that fort of attention 

 •fhich is ncceflary to form what is properly 

 a ftyle, th^t is to fay, a manner implying 

 fomething of care and (latelinefs,— but he 

 had always that propriety of exprefficn, 

 which is not, to my thinking, a fimple in- 

 telleftual merit j that fort of propriety 

 which fuppoles a IcinJ of celeftial temper 

 of minddiifating t very word. When he 

 wifhcd, what was rarely the cafe, to make 

 a v< rono; felt, coming either from a nation 

 cr an individual, from his child or from 

 his enemy, he exprifTed himfelf with fo 

 much moderaticn, with fomuch delicacy, 

 that, if I may judge fiom myfelf, the 

 heart was overwhelmed. What he forbore 

 to fay, appeared with fo much more force ; 

 and, far from retrcnchi'^g his words, his 

 omiflions are raturally added, as well as 

 his favours, which he never recalled, and 

 his glcry, which he fernied to ftTget, only 

 to challenge ourafftftion and juliice.* 



Mr. Necker has been cenfured for 'oo 

 much pomp, and confequently unifr.rmitv, 

 in his writings. This fault, if it ex'ft, 

 will certainly riot appear in the thoughts 

 which I now publifh, and which he cr'm- 

 po/td at his leil'-re without any immediate 

 intention of making ihem kiicwn. But 

 in the works my father has prir'fed, he 

 ftill confidered his charafler as a pub- 

 Kc man, and he maintained in them 

 conftantly, by habit and by expediency, 

 ihe dignity of this charafler. Still it ap- 

 pears tome, that, through all this necef- 

 lary dignity in the » ritings of Mr, Necker, 



* I will here cite a pafl'age from one of his 

 Ifttets, which will convey fome idea of this 

 temperance and delicacy in his manner.^ 

 Some infurgent peafants of the Fays de Vaud 

 burnt, two years ago, fome titles of feignorial 

 property, and the government, after this in- 

 furreftion, required of the proprietors of th'fe 

 burnt titles to write officially the complaints 

 they had to make againft the rebels • — " I 

 have nothing particular to fay againft them 

 (my father exprefled himfelf) : they behaved 

 with decency, their cUfs confidered (^le gt7:re 

 aJmn') " What rtficAions occur on this 

 fimple phrafe ! The goodnefs and the pride 

 which forbears in its own caufe to arcufe even 

 the guilty ; and in that phrafe, /<? ^(V.-ri tiJti::!, 

 all the cenfure of a juft man exprefled with 

 grace and referve, which ferves as a leffon for 

 the weakncfs of governors, as well as lof the 

 T.olencc of the goveined. 



thofe variouJ kinds of ability which are 

 more dillinflly fcen in his detached 

 thouglus, is perceptible. There is no 

 talent, even to that "f feizing with promp- 

 titude whatever is ridiculous in men and 

 things, which may not eafily be difcerned 

 in his moft: grave political writings. He 

 indulges in this variety of ftyle as much 

 as may be without impairing his confc- 

 ^uence as a (tatelman ; and it did not be- 

 come Mr. Necker to facrifice this confide- 

 ration to the higheft literary merit. 



One of the moft remarkable (jualities in 

 Mr. Necker's ftyle is a perfeil harmony. 

 He could not endure harfh and abrupt 

 phrafcs ; and he cnmpofed no piece of 

 eloquence without reading it aloud in his 

 chamber. Harmony is certainly one of 

 the great charms of ftyle- Such is the 

 analogy between phyfical and moral na- 

 ture, that all theaffertions of the foul have 

 a fuitable inflef^ion of voice, a melody of 

 words according with the fenfe of the 

 wcrds themfelves. The general com- 

 plexion of my father'* impreflions was a 

 noble dignity j and in cblerving the har- 

 mony ot his ftyle, the charafter of this ex- 

 preflion will be felt. Still I believe that 

 it he co'jld have brought himfelf to break 

 his phi ales oftener, to afftime fometimes a 

 familiir tone, to defcend withTiis readers 

 cccaficnally, that they might the more 

 ftrongly feel his movements of elevation, 

 he would perhaps have infpired lefs re- 

 {pe&, his Itjle would not have been fo 

 clallical, but the ordinary reader would 

 have felt more fenfibly the multiplicity of 

 his ideas. Scmie attention is re^uifite to 

 appreciate with difcrimination all the in- 

 ftances of neatnefs, ingenuity, and origi- 

 nality, in the uniform ftatelinefs of hie 

 ftyle. If B.fTuet had not been unequal, 

 perhaps his fine paflages would create lefs 

 aftoniftiment. The continuity of excel- 

 lence of every kind fcarceiy ever obtains 

 continuity of admiration. 



This harmony replete with magnifi- 

 cence, which appears in almoft all the 

 known works of Mr. Necker, afl"umet a 

 chara4ler entirely different in the novel he 

 wrote, and which concludes this collec- 

 tion. He |;ave a loole in this produftion 

 to his tender and fufceptible feelings, to a 

 (implicity which was natural to him, and 

 to an eloquence as glowing as it is grace- 

 ful. In the perufal of this novel, parti- 

 cularly, the reader will perceive the inte. 

 terior of his bofom, and the dcfpair occa- 

 floneil ! y his lofs. It is now preciftly 

 eighteen months ago, when, talking wjrh 

 him of romances and their difficulty, I 

 took the libeity of deliring him to write 



one. 



