340 | 
ings was thus thrown open to him. 
The daughter made: an impression 
‘on him, but the circumstances of 
the lovers were not favourable to an 
-union, till through the activity 
and friendship of the burgomasters 
eHeidegger and Hirzel, he was en- 
abled’ to ‘accomplish his wishes. 
‘The. question then became, how 
the married: couple were to live? 
‘The pen is but a slender depen- 
dence any where, and still less in 
Switzerland.. ‘lke poet hed tco 
-Iuch spirit to be, dependent on 
others; and he determined to pvr- 
_sue the arts no longer as an amuse- 
-menty but asa means of procuring 
a livelihood. 
Painting and. engraving alter- 
‘nately filled that time which was 
not occupied with poetry ;. and in 
these arts, if he did not arrive at 
the greatest eminence, he was dis- 
‘tinguished by that simplicity, that 
-elegance, that singularity, which 
are the characteristics of his poetry. 
His wife was not idle; besides the 
-eare of his house and the education 
of his children, for which no one 
was’ better qualified, the: whole 
-burthen of the shop (for our poet 
was bookseller as well as poet, en- 
-graver, and painter) was laid upon 
her shoulders. 
In his. manners, Gessner was 
chearful, lively, and at times play- 
ful; fond of his wife; fond of his 
-children. He had small preten- 
sions. to. learning, yet he could 
_read the Latin poets in the original ; 
and of the Greek, he preferred the 
- Latin translations to the French. In 
his early years, he led either a |o- 
Llitary life, or confined himself to 
cmen of taste and literature: as he 
-grew older, he accustomed himself 
-to»general conversation; and in his 
- tater years, his house was the centre 
” 
three es 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1706. 
point of the men of the first rank 
for talents or fortune in ‘Zurich, 
Here they met twice a week,:and 
formed a conversaxione of a kind 
seldom, if ever, to be met with in 
great cities, and very rarely in any 
place ; the politics of England de- 
stroy such meetings in London. 
Gessner with his friends enjoyed 
that simplicity of manners which 
makes society agreeable ; and in his 
rural residence, in the summer, 2 
little way out of town, they brought 
back the memory almost of the 
Golden Age. 
He died of an apoplexy on the 
‘ad of March, 1788; leaving a wi- 
dow, three children, and a sister 
behind. His youngest son was 
married to a daughter of his father’s 
friend Wieland, His «fellow citi- 
zens have ereéted a statue in me- 
mory of him on the banks of the 
Limmot, where it meets the 
Sihl. 
Some particulars of the Death of Con. 
dorcet, from Bottiger on Yhe state 
of Letters, Sc. in France. 
AMONG tthe Girondists. pro- 
scribed by Robespierre on the 31st 
of May, Condorcet was the very 
first on the list, and was obliged to 
skulk in the most hidden corners to 
elude the persecutions of the furi- 
ous Jacobins. A lady, to whom 
he was known only by name, be- 
came, at the instance of a common 
friend, his generous protectress ; 
concealing him inher house at Paris, 
at the most imminemst hazard, till 
the latter end of April 17945 when 
the apprehension of general. domi- 
ciliary visits so much increased, and 
the risk of exposing both himself 
and his- patroness became so press- 
ing ou the mind of Condorcet, 
.that. he resolved to quit Paris. 
Without 
