1450. The arms of the Gibbons' were used at an era when the college of Heralds religiously guarded the diftinctions of blood and name: a lion rampant gurdant, between three fcallop-fhells argent, on a field azure. Such is the device with which the age of chivalry hath distinguished his family, one of whom, John Gibbon, was every way qualified and circumstanced by his appointment to the office of blue-mantle, foon after the restoration, to embellish and illuftrate thefe fignets. However, it is no difgrace that the father of John was a member of the clothworkers' company, and his brother Robert did not aspire above the station of a linen draper, in Leadenhall-street. Edward, the first we meet with of that name, was appointed one of the Commiffioners of the Cuftoms, under the Tory adminiftration of Queen Anne, and a Director of the South Sea Company in 1716; in the fatal catastrophe of which, fixty thousand pounds, the well earned labours of thirty years, were blafted in a fingle day. This gentleman, who was Mr. Gibbon's grandfather, appears not to have been involved in the villainy of that scheme; though a pittance of ten thousand pounds was the largest fum that an irritated parliament could be induced to allow from the wreck of a princely fortune. On these ruins, with the skill and credit of which parliament had not been able to defpoil him, old Mr. Gibbon erected the edifice of a new fortune: the labours of fixteen years were amply rewarded; for there is reafon to believe that the fecond ftructure was not much inferior to the first.

Edward Gibbon (the fecond), father of the subject of these memoirs, received his education at Westminfter-school, afterwards at Emanuel College, Cambridge, and is reprefented by the fon as making the tour of Europe, without many of those benefits the not over fanguine parent might hope for and expect from this fashionable route. He married Judith, youngest daughter of Mr. James Porten, a London merchant,

and

and fifter to Sir Stanier Porten. The produce of this union were five brothers, befides Edward, all of whom died young, and a fifter, whofe life was fomewhat prolonged. For this fifter, whom he perfectly remembers, Mr. Gibbon expreffes much affection. He fays, further, "the relation of brother and fifter, especially if they do not marry, appear to me of a very fingular nature. It is a familiar and tender friendship with a female much about our own age; an affection, perhaps, foftened by the fecret influence of fex, but pure from. any mixture of fenfual defire, the fole fpecies of platonic love that can be indulged with truth, and without danger *."

Though the first-born of this fhort-lived race, Mr. Gibbon did not poffefs much fuperior ftrength of body with the right of primogeniture. From the moment of his birth, at Putney, in the county of Surry, the 27th April, 1737, to his ninth year, the chance of death was multiplied against his infant exiftence. Continual ficknefs and frequent pregnancy, prevented his mother from paying the ufual attention to this fickly plant; but the maternal office was fupplied by his aunt, Mrs. Catherine Porten, at the mention of whofe name his manly cheek confeffed the tribute of gratitude. To her foftering hand he attributes a life of painful existence. His grateful heart often returns to the mention of this amiable woman; and biography becomes ufeful, when enriched with fuch fentiments as the following: "My weakness excited her pity; her attachment was fortified by labour and fuccefs; and if there be any who rejoice that I live, to that dear and excellent woman must they hold themselves indebted."

After the ufual rudiments of education at home, or at a day-school in Putney; mafter of reading, writing,

*"Without danger"-What is here meant it is not ealy to understand. The question is not now whether Platonic love be poffible; but if this be the "fole fpecies," or not?

and arithmetic, he became the private pupil of Mr. John Kirkby. This clergyman's misfortunes infpire in his favour a fentiment of pity and efteem. Mr. Gibbon tranfcribed the following account from his own words: 66 During my abode in my native county of Cumberland, in quality of an indigent curate, I used now and then in a fummer, when the pleasantnefs of the feafon invited, to take a folitary walk to the feafhore, which lies about two miles from the town where I lived. Here I would amufe myfelf, one while in viewing at large the agreeable profpect which furrounded me, and another while (confining my fight to nearer objects) in admiring the vast variety of beautiful fhells thrown upon the beach; fome of the choicest of which I always picked up, to divert my little ones upon my return. One time among the reft, taking fuch a journey in my head, I fat down upon the declivity of the beach, with my face to the fea, which was now come up within a few yards of my feet; when, immediately, the fad thoughts of the wretched condition of my family, and the unfuccessfulness of all endeavours to amend it, came crowding into my mind, which drove me into a deep melancholy, and ever and anon forced tears from my eyes." "Diftrefs at last forced him," fays Mr. Gibbon, "to leave the country. His learning and virtue introduced him to my father; and at Putney he might have found, at least, a temporary fhelter, had not an act of indifcretion again driven him into the world. One day, reading prayers in the parish church, he moft unluckily forgot the name of King George; his patron, a loyal fubject, difmiffed him with fome reluctance, and a decent reward; and how the poor man ended his days I have not been able to learn."

Thus was an ingenious and moral man, driven to feek his bread, or death, in latter life, on account of an accidental omiffion; and the life of Automathes, a romance, and an English Latin grammar, are the only

remains

remains of his skill; while his having exercised about eighteen months in the office of domestic tutor to Mr. Gibbon, fecured him a page in the pupil's MS.

"In my ninth year," fays Mr. Gibbon, " in a lucid interval of comparative health, I was fent to Kingston upon Thames, to a fchool of about feventy boys, which was kept by Dr. Wooddefon and his affiftants. Every time I have fince paffed over Putney Common, I have always noticed the fpot where my mother, as we drove along, admonished me that I was now going into the world, and must now think and act for myfelf. My timid referve was astonished by the crowd and tumult of the fchool; the want of ftrength and activity difqualified me for the fports of the play-field; nor have I forgotten how often, in the year forty-fix, I was reviled and buffetted for the fins of my Tory ancestors. By the common methods of difcipline, at the expence of many tears, and fome blood, I purchafed the knowledge of Latin fyntax; and not long fince I was poffeffed of the dirty volumes of Phædrus and Cornelius Nepos, which I painfully conftrued, and darkly underftood."

His ftudies at Kingston fchool were too frequently interrupted by fick nefs, and finally terminated at the end of two years, by his mother's death, in December 1747. He was too young to feel the importance of this lofs; and his memory retained but faintly the image of her perfon and converfation. His father became inconfolable, and the tranfport of grief feemed to threaten his life or his reafon. "I can never forget the scene of our first interview, fome weeks after the fatal event; the awful filence, the mid-day tapers, his fighs and tears, his praises of my mother, and the fervour with which he preffed and bleffed me as the fole pledge of their loves. The form of paffion infenfibly fubfided into calmer melancholy. After fome unfuccefsful trials, he renounced the tumults of London, and the hofpitality

I 3

lity of Putney; and buried himself in the rural, or rather ruftic retirement of Buriton; from which, during several years, he seldom emerged."

With the commencement of his eleventh year, Mr. Gibbon imbibed that invincible love of reading which he retained to the last moment of his existence. Mrs. Porten became the true mother of his mind as well as of his health; and he felt a melancholy kind of pleasure in acknowledging his obligations to that excellent wo man : "Her natural good fenfe was improved by the perufal of the best books in the English language; and if her reason was fometimes clouded by prejudice, her fentiments were never difguifed by hypocrify or affectation." To the nephew's candour we owe this account of Mr. Gibbon's aunt; and we are gratified by an acquaintance, from his own pen, with that juvenile line of reading, the germ of his future hiftory, which her indulgence permitted him to purfue: "Her tenderness, the frankness of her temper, and my innate rifing curiofity, foon removed all diftance between us : like friends of an equal age, we freely converfed on every topic, familiar or abstruse; and it was her delight and reward to obferve the firft fhoots of my young ideas. Pain and langour were often foothed by the voice of inftruction and amusement; and to her kind leffons I afcribe my early love of reading, which I would not exchange for the treasures of India. I fhould perhaps be aftonished, were it poffible to ascertain the date, at which a favourite tale was engraved, by frequent repetition, in my memory; the Cavern of the Winds; the Palace of Felicity; and the fatal moment, at the end of three months or centuries, when Prince Adolphus is overtaken by Time, who had worn out fo many pair of wings in the purfuit. Before I left Kingston fchool, I was well acquainted with Pope's Homer and the Arabian Nights Entertainments, two books which will always please by the