550 G I B 
enibelliriiec] by the virtues and talents of her mind. Her 
fortune was humble, but her family was relpefbable. 
Her mother, a native of France, had preferred her reli¬ 
gion to her country. The profeiTion of her father did 
not exting'tiifh the moderation and philofophy of his 
temper, and he lived contented with a fmall falary and 
laborious duty, in the obfcure lot of minifter of Crafiy, 
in the mountains that feparate the Pays de Vaud from 
the county of Burgundy. In the folitude of a fequeflered 
village, he bellowed a liberal and even learned education 
on his only daughter. She furpafled his hopes by her 
proficiency in the fciences and languages ; and in her 
fliort vifits to fome relations at Laufanne, the.wit, the 
beauty, and the erudition, of mademoifelle Curchod, 
were the theme of univerfal applaufe. The report of 
fuch a prodigy awakened my curiofity: I faw, and loved. 
I found her learned without pedantry, lively in conver- 
fation, pure in fentinient, and elegant in manners ; and 
the firll hidden emotion was fortified by the habits and 
knowledge of a more familiar acquaintance. She per¬ 
mitted me to make her two or three vifits at her father’s 
houfe. I pafi'ed fome happy days there in the moun¬ 
tains of Burgundy, and her parents honourably encou¬ 
raged tile connedlion. In a calm retirement the gay 
vanity of youtbi no longer fluttered in her bolbm : file 
liftened to the voice of truth and paffion, and I might 
prefume to hope that I had made fome impreflion on a 
virtuous heart. At Crafly and Laufanne I indulged my 
dream of felicity ; but on my return to England I foon 
difcovered that my father would not hear of this flrange 
alliance, and that without his confent I wasmyfelf delli- 
tute and helplefs. After a painful Itruggle I yielded to 
my fate ; I iighed as a lover, I obeyed as a fon; my 
wound was inlenlibly healed by time, abfence, and the 
habits of a new life. My cure was accelerated by a 
faithful report of the tranquillity and cheerfulnefs of the 
lady herfelf; and my love fubfided in friendlhip and 
elfeem. The minifter of Cralfy foon afterwards died, 
his fiipend died with him; his daughter retired to Ge¬ 
neva, where, by teaching young ladies, Ihe earned a 
hard fubliltence for herlelf and her mother: but in her 
lowed diltrefs (he maintained a fpotlefs reputation and a 
dignified behaviour. A rich banker of Paris, a citizen 
of Geneva, had the good fortune and good fenfe to dif- 
cover and polfefs this inedimable treafure ; and in the 
capital of talle and luxury flie refided the temptations 
of wealth as Ihe had fudained the hardfliips of indigence, 
'i he genius of her hufband has exalted him to the molt 
confpicuous dation in Europe. In every change of proi- 
perity and difgrace, he has reclined on the bofom of a 
faithful friend; for mademoifelle Curchod became the 
wife of M. Necker, the minifter and legiflator of the 
French monarchy.” 
It is impollible not to paufe after the perufal of this 
paflage, to contemplate the drange reverfes of fortune 
which we meet with in the events of real life; and to 
be filled with melancholy reflexions on the lubfequent 
fate and fortunes of Sufan Curchod and her hudaand. 
See the article France, vol. vii. p. 747-777. In the 
midd of thefe ferious emotions, however, it is impollible 
not to admire the writer who clefcribes his own youth¬ 
ful love with the fame dately and unbending dignity of 
dyle, in which he related the converfion of Conllantine, 
the impodure of Mohammed, the conqueds of Timur, 
the laws of Jultiniaii, or the licentious amours of Theo¬ 
dora, in his highly didinguilhed work. 
His banilhment at Laufanne, which he has judly re¬ 
garded as the incident to which he was chiefly indebted 
for all he afterwards gained as a thinker and writer, ter¬ 
minated in April, 1758. He was received by his father 
with ad'eblion and friendlhip ; and he found in a mother, 
in-law a new relative, who in time conciliated his good- 
Avill and confidence. Though the gaieties of London 
for a time gave an interruption to his literary courfej yet 
BON. 
he foon began to lay the foundation of a copious library,, 
and prepared for his fird appearance before the public 
as an author. He undertook the arduous talk of writing 
a work which required great elegance of fiyie, in a fo¬ 
reign language, which, indeed, had for fome years been 
more familiar to him than his native tongue. His EJfai 
fur VEtude de la Litterature, was printed in 1761, in one 
volume i2mo. It was a very refpedlable juvenile per¬ 
formance, and was highly praifed in foreign journals, 
and by his friends abroad. That it lliould bear no 
marks of being written by a foreigner, was not to be ex¬ 
pected ; but it difplayed a very uncommon degree of 
facility and correctnefs in that language for one to whom 
it was only the acquilition of a few years. It however 
excited little attention at home, where French works 
were lefs read than tliey are at prefent. 
Mr. Gibbon about this time took a captain’s commif- 
fion in the fouth battalion of the Hampfliire militia ; in 
which he afterwards became lieutenant-colonel com¬ 
mandant. Of the progrefs of his military acquirements 
he thus fpeaks : “ The lofs of fo many bufy and idle 
hours was not compenfated by any elegant pleafure ; and 
my temper was infenfibly foured by the I'ociety of our 
ruftic officers. In every (late there exifis, however, a 
balance of good and evil. The habits of a fedentary 
life were ufefully broken by the duties of an aftive pro- 
feffion : in the healthful exercife of the field 1 hunted 
with a battalion, inllead of a pack; and at that time I 
Was ready, at any hour of the day or night, to fly from 
quarters to London, from London to quarters, on the 
flightell call of private or regimental bufinefs. But my 
principal obligation to the militia, was the making me 
an Englifliman, and a foldier. After my foreign educa¬ 
tion, with my referved temper, I Ihould long have con, 
tinned a ftranger in my native country, had I not been 
lliaken in this various feene of new faces and new friends: 
had not experience forced me to feel the charaClers of 
our leading men, the ftate of parties, the forms of office, 
and the operation of our civil and military fyllem. In 
this peaceful fervice I imbibed the rudiments of the lan¬ 
guage and fcience of taCtics, which opened a new field of 
lludy and obfervation. I diligently read, and meditated, 
the Memoires Militaires of Quintus Icilius, (Guichardt,) 
the only writer who has united the merits of a profelfor 
and a veteran. The difeipline and evolutions of a mo¬ 
dern battalion gave me a clearer notion of the phalanx 
and the legion ; and the captain of the Hampfliire gre¬ 
nadiers (tlie reader may fmile) has not been ufelels to 
the hillorian of the Roman empire.” 
While thus engaged in military fervice, Mr. Gibbon’s 
tent and quarters were often encumbered with the unu- 
lual furniture of Greek and Latin books ; and though in 
a fchool fo unfavourable to literature, his bent of mind 
was continually turned to Itudy. On May 8, 1762, he 
thus delineates his own charadter: “ This was my birth¬ 
day, on which I entered into the twenty-lixth year of 
my age. This gave me occalion to look a little into 
myfelf, and confider impartially my good and bad qua¬ 
lities. It appeared tome, upon this inquiry, that my 
charadter was virtuous, incapable of a bale action, and 
formed for generous ones ; but that it was proud, vio¬ 
lent, and difagreeable in fociety. Thefe qualities I 
inuft endeavour to cultivate, extirpate, or reflrain, ac¬ 
cording to their difi'erent tendency. Wit I have none. 
My imagination is rather firong than pleafing. My me¬ 
mory both capacious and retentive. I'he Ihining quali¬ 
ties of my underltanding are extenfivenefs and penetre- 
tion ; "but I want both quicknefs and exadbiefs. As to 
my lituation in life, though I may foinetimes repine at 
it, it perhaps is the belt adapted to my character. I 
can command all the conveniences of lile, and I can 
command too that independence, (that firit earthly blef- 
fing,) wliicli is hardly to be met with in a higher or a 
lovver fortune. When I talk of my fituation, I rauft 
exclude 
