Gibbon. 
266 
cit beliefin the tenets and mysteries which are adopted 
by the general consent of Catholics and Protestants.” 
The incident next in importance, which distinguish-. 
es Mr Gibbon’s residence at Lausanne, was the honour- 
able attachment which he formed for the accomplished 
Mademoiselle Susan Curchod, the daughter of an ob- 
scure Protestant clergyman in the neighbourhood, The 
lady favoured his addresses, but they were opposed by 
his father,on whom he found himself completely de- 
pendent, and to whose veto he submitted with a degree 
of apparent sang froid, not easy to be explained consist- 
ently with the professed warmth of his affection. This 
interesting female attained afterwards a melancholy 
eminence as the wife of Neckar. As the sensitive Rous- 
seau speaks in terms of keen disapprobation of the’ con- 
duct of Gibbon on this occasion, it is fair to state, that 
the latter afterwards renewed his intimacy with her as 
the wife of the celebrated ex-minister, and lived for 
many years on a footing of easy-and affectionate fami- 
liarity with herself and her husband. 
At length, after an absence of nearly five years, he 
was permitted to return to England about the bi 
ning of summer 1758. . In: the interval, his father had 
formed a new connection by marriage, and our learned 
stranger was received with a degree of kindness which 
filled him with satisfaction, After two years passed in 
study oramusement, his father and he rashly offered 
their services in the Hampshire militia, in which they 
were appointed major and captain, and kept under 
arms and in constant service for nearly two years. Du- 
ring this time, young Gibbon, though deeply disap- 
ointed at the sacrifice he had made, and of which he 
ad by no means anticipated the extent, endeavoured to 
acquire a knowledge both of the art of war and of Bri- 
tish tactics, and acknowledges, with great honesty, that 
* the captain of the Hampshire militia has not been use- 
less to the historian of the Roman empire !” 
When at Lausanne, he meditated, and began, the com- 
position of a small work, entitled Essai sur Etude de la 
Literature, which he finished in England, and publish- 
ed, with a dedication to his father, in 1761. This work 
was written in French, a language in which his daily 
habits of conversation and study when at Lausanne, 
had rendered him more adroit than in his vernacular 
tongue. ~ His chief object in this coup d’essai, was to 
revive on the continent, and especially in France, the 
decaying taste for the languages and literature of Greece 
and Rome. This juvenile production was well received, 
both at home and abroad. _ After the peace of 1763, he 
again went to the continent, and on his way to ‘his fa- 
vourite Lausanne he visited Paris, where he remained 
for three months, and_ was introduced to the acquaint- 
ance of D’Alembert, Diderot, and many other of the li- 
terati of the day. Having passed through Dijon and 
Besancon, he arrived at Lausanne in May 1762, and, 
fascinated with the renewal of the scenes, studies, and 
associates of his early years, he remained there till the 
following spring. Having prepared himself, by exten- 
sive study, for a projected tour through Italy, he set out 
in April 1764, and going by Parma and Florence, pro- 
eeeded through Sienna to Rome, on entering which re- 
nowned city he was almost overwhelmed with emo- 
tions of enthusiasm. It was at Rome, on the 15th of 
October, that, as he sat musing amidst the ruins of the 
capital, while the bare-footed friars were singing vespers 
in the Temple of Jupiter, that, as he informs us, he con- 
ceived the idea of writing the Decline and Fall of the 
Roman Empire! He proceeded south to Naples, re- 
visited Rome and Paris, and arrived at his father’s house 
in June 1765. Every spring he attended the monthly  Gik 
meeting of the militia, and was promoted to the rank of 
lieutenant-colonel commandant. Wearied with the de- 
tails of this service, he resi his command in’ 1770, 
An annual visit at Buriton, from his much-loved friend 
M. Deyverdun of Lausanne, formed the most agreée- 
able enjoyment of his life cuter period ; and, with. 
the aid and encouragement of that learned and’e 
scholar, he proceeded some length in preparing a/his- 
tory of the rise and progress of liberty and in ence 
in his adopted country, Switzerland, - The great diffi- 
culty of. procuring materials, and his ignorance of the, 
German language, induced him to desist from the com. 
pletion of this interesting design... In, 1767. and.1768,. 
e in his turn materially assisted, M. Deyverdun in the. 
publication of a work intended. to be annual, entitled,, 
Memoires Literaires de la Grande Bretagne. This work, 
of which the third volume was nearly ready, was’ dis- 
continued, in consequence of Mr Dey verdun agreeing to, 
accompany on his travels as tutor, ayoung friend-of Mr 
Gibbon’s. The next publication of Mr Gibbon, is an, 
able and spirited, but most severe answer to that. chap-. 
ter in Warburton’s “ Divine Legation of Moses,” which: 
represents the sixth book of the Aineid as containing a. 
veiled account of the initiation of Aineas, in the charac~ 
ter of alawgiver, into the Eleusinian mysteries. . This; 
essay was published in English anonymously early. in, 
1770; and the author, with great ingenuity, shews, that 
the sixth book is not an os aay but a fable founded 
on the popular belief, and that there is nota — of 
probability in the hypothesis of Warburton. |The Bi- 
shop and his friends remained. silent under this attack, 
the voice of the learned pronounced that Gibbon 
was master of the field. 7 
The grand project of “the History of the Decline and 
Fall of the Roman Empire,” which had been formed in 
the interesting circumstances already alluded to, was 
ever present to the mind of the author, though its ex- 
ecution was for some time delayed ; and theem 
ment of his father’s affairs, as well as the decline of his 
health, prevented Mr Gibbon from pursuing his studies 
with his usual ardour. In co r auto his father 
died, and during the two,succeedi ears, the arrange- 
ment of his affairs peuple’ aha of his time and at- 
tention. . Finding himself at length comfortably. settled 
in a house in London, furnished with a valuable library, 
and having long prepared for the task, he entered seri- 
ously on the composition of his great work ; and when 
he published the first volume in quarto, his success was 
so great, that the first impression was exhausted in a 
few days, and a second and third edition were speedily 
called for. Letters of compliments flowed in upon him 
from various quarters. . These were speedily succeeded 
by the strictures, attacks, and confutations of those who 
were offended with his 15th and 16th chapters, which 
contain an unfair and insidious account of the rise and 
progress of Chriphansy: The principal assailants were 
Dr Waison, now Bishop of daff, Taylor of Nor- 
wich, Mr Milner of Hull, Lord Hales, Mr Davies of. 
Oxford, and Dr Priestley. That he was much stung 
by these publications, he does not attempt to deny. But 
the only one of them which he answered from the pre: 
was the pamphlet of Mr Davies, because, as Mr Gi 
alleges, he had attacked not so much. the faith as the 
Jidelity of the historian. This answer is entitled, A Vin- 
dication of some Passages in the 15th and 16th Chapters 
ofthe History, -&e. mt if he does not shew great can- 
our in his defence, the praise of ingenuity and learn- 
ing will not be denied to him. After the lapse of a con- 
