530 



Memoirs of Mr. Necker, by his Daughter. 



[Jan. 1, 



had feen frightful examples of precipitate 

 burials \vh>n engaged with the hofpitals, 

 and her imagination had been ftruck with 

 them. Siie was always ftrongly bent on 

 having her aflies united with my father's, 

 and her pafficn for him made her ardently 

 cling to this intent. In my opinion, no- 

 thing of this kind (hould allonifh a mind 

 fufficiently thoughtful te enter into the 

 idea of death in the midft of life. Men 

 are per aps in the lig'nt in general to fcek 

 in the diltraftion of bu(;ntf» an oblivion 

 of the hunr.an dtfliny ; fur its contempla- 

 tion is revolting to thofe who know not 

 how to live occupied with vulgar interelts 

 and common ideas ; but when religii^n, 

 love, or misfortune, fix us in folitude, and 

 two beings who love each other advance 

 together towards the tomb, nothing, I 

 own, is more natural than that imagina- 

 tion and fenfibility which endeavours to 

 fmooth the idea of death, and feems in 

 iome meafure to deceive itfelf as to the 

 reparation it impofes. 



It is Madame Necker's teftamentary 

 wifhes that I explain here. One only fen- 

 timent could guide her hufband, which 

 was to fulfil them in all things. He did 

 nothing in this refpett either for himfclf 

 or her which flie did not difiate. Guar- 

 dian of her tomb for ten y--ais, the inte- 

 refts of the moment never diltrafled him 

 from her memory. I poffels two compo- 

 fitions of my father, writtsn for himfelf 

 only, at the time of my mother's death. 

 In one of them he retraces all the mo- 

 tives he has to regret her j and in the 

 ether he interrogates himfelf on the proofs 

 of afpcflion he had given her while fhe 

 lived, in order to conibat the inconceiv- 

 able apprehendun he harboured of rot 

 having been fufficiently mir.dful of her 

 happinefs. He brought to his mind every 

 poifible circuiTiltance in which he might 

 hare afflifled her or made her happv, and 

 f(Othesor torments himicif accoiding as 

 he is fatisfied cr not with his inward ir- 

 tentions. He is fcrupulous towards his 

 imagination, as Will a^ his recolieflions. 

 Hi» words, his a6^ions, the vvhoie tenor 

 of his life, does nt t fatijfy him ; he te- 

 tires into the fanifuary ci his heart to 

 judge of the attention he has experierced. 

 I knowv no wlicre, in hi.'tory or in ro- 

 mance, a perfedion of tenti^rrrels to be 

 compared with this. Thefif coinpofiiions 

 reveal new faculties of the heart j a love 

 pure as that which is divine ; agitated as 

 thit which is earthly ; full of delicacy and 

 pafiion j full of remorfe where no faults 

 have been committed. 



Undoubtedly my f«the pitferved a 



conftant veneration, a profound attach- 

 ment, towards my mother to her laft hour { 

 but I have enjoyed fome years during 

 which I and my children have almoft en- 

 gioffdd among us this exalted man, as 

 perfei5t in his domeftic affeflions as in hi« 

 molt elevated conceptions. He wrote to 

 me laft winter, " That he felt himfelf bet- 

 ter adapted for a priv-tte than a public 

 man, he felt fo mucli pleafure in his family 

 attachments !" All that fiirrounded him 

 feit the influence of his perfeft goodnefs ; 

 beneficence, generofity, willing attentions 

 to focieiy ; all had their place in his breaft, 

 and none were negleilcd. 



When the French entered Switzerland, 

 my father, by one of the laws of the 

 reign of terror, was found, although a 

 foreigner (Geneva not being then united 

 with F ance), on the lift of emigrants. — 

 He had been infcritied there in 1793, at 

 the time he defended the King, and wil- 

 fully expofed himfelf by this ailion to the 

 jof's of the whole of his fortune in France. 

 Many perfons were uneal'y at Mr. Neck- 

 er's fituation at Coppet, the firft frontier- 

 town that the French army were to occupy. 

 He would not retire, and we remained in 

 our refidence, trurting to the inftruftions 

 that the Direftory might have given, and 

 to the perfonal fentiroents of the French 

 ■ officers. We were not deceived in either 

 of thefe hopes. The French generals 

 fliewed my father the moft flattering and 

 grateful regard, and the Direftory unani- 

 moufly erafed his name fro;n the lift.— 

 Still there was fome caufe of inquietude, 

 at a m.oment when, by the letter of ttie 

 law, eveiy man infcribed on the lift of 

 emigrsnts, and found in the terr tory oc- 

 cupied by the French armies, was fentenc- 

 ed to fuffer death. But my father, who 

 exaggerated every danger that concerned 

 my mother or myfelf, would not fuffer me 

 to make the fhadow of an cbjeif ion to his 

 rdoiution of remaining at Coppet. Co- 

 riofity havng attradled our tenants to the 

 road, we weie entirely alone at the cri- 

 tical moment of the arrival of the French 

 in Switzerland. 



For fome days previous to this my fa- 

 ther's fiift concern had been to lojk out 

 among his papers and burn all thofe 

 which might commi; any perfons, even by 

 the tukgies of which he himfelf was the 

 ohje^l. I will relate one tait among 3 

 thoufand of his punflilioos delicacy in all 

 that regarded others. A poor fellow of 

 Vefoul had written to him fome years be- 

 fore, when he pafTed through that town, 

 difdaiming the wrongs of hi» fellow-citi- 

 zen* tovrviicis him : lie e.xprcfTss binr.fcit 



with 



