Lord Sheffield records how Gibbon "became a warm and zealous advocate for every sort of old establishment. In a circle where French affairs were the topic, and some Portuguese present, he, seemingly with seriousness, argued in favour of the Inquisition at Lisbon, and said he would not, at the present moment, give up even that old establishment" (Misc. Works, i., 328).

"It is by no means true that unbelievers are usually tolerant. They are not disposed (and why should they?) to endanger the present state of things by suffering a religion of which they believe nothing to be disturbed by another of which they believe as little. They are ready themselves to conform to anything; and are oftentimes among the foremost to procure conformity from others by any method which they think likely to be efficacious" (Paley's Evidences, ed. 1796, i., 32).

64. BERNE'S GOVERNMENT OF VAUD (p. 239).

Gibbon wrote on April 4, 1792, that two popular leaders had been con demned to five-and-twenty years' imprisonment in the fortress of Arbourg. It is not believed that the proofs and proceedings against them will be published; an awkward circumstance, which it does not seem easy to justify. Some (though none of note) are taken up, several are fled, many more are suspected and suspicious. All are silent; but it is the silence of fear and discontent; and the secret hatred which rankled against government begins to point against the few who are known to be well-affected' (Corres., ii., 293).

Writing of the law-suit 'with which he was threatened, he says: "The administration of justice at Berne (the last appeal) depends too much on favour and intrigue. . . . I must have gone to Berne, have solicited my judges in person; a vile custom !" (lb., ii., 203, 205.)

says:

In his Introduction à l'Histoire Générale de la République des Suisses, he "Berne apporta dans les conseils des Suisses une politique plus ferme, plus réfléchie et plus éclairée; mais elle y apporta en même temps ses desseins intéressés, le goût des conquêtes, et une ambition moins soumise aux lois de la justice qu'à celles de la prudence" (Misc. Works, iii., 329).

Torture was used in some of the Swiss States at all events as late as 1779 (Ann. Reg., 1779, ii., 16).

Vaud was freed by the French from dependence on Berne in 1798, and was made a sovereign canton in 1803 (Penny Cyclo., xxvi., 161).

65. CONDEMNED TO IGNORANCE AND POVERTY (p. 239).

"Such is the constitution of civil society that, whilst a few persons are distinguished by riches, by honours, and by knowledge, the body of the people is condemned to obscurity, ignorance, and poverty" (The Decline, ii., 65). In another passage-a passage that reveals the great historian's ignorance of his countrymen-he says that "the illiterate peasant rooted to a single spot, and confined to a few years of existence, surpasses but very little his fellow-labourer the ox in the exercise of his mental faculties (ib., i., 218).

It is true that in another place he greatly exaggerates the extent of popular education. Speaking of Charlemagne, he says: "In his mature age the Emperor strove to acquire the practice of writing, which every peasant now learns in his infancy »* (ib., v., 286).

In writing of the Arabs' "perfection of language," and the abundance of their synonyms, he continues: "This copious dictionary was entrusted to the memory of an illiterate people " (ib., v., 325).

Johnson would not have had any class "condemned to ignorance and poverty". "Though it should be granted," he wrote, "that those who are born to poverty and drudgery should not be deprived by an improper education of the opiate of ignorance, even this concession will not be of much use to direct our practice, unless it be determined who are those that are born to poverty. To entail irreversible poverty upon generation after generation, only because the ancestor happened to be poor, is in itself cruel, if not unjust, and is wholly contrary to the maxims of a commercial nation, which always .. offer every individual a chance of mending his condition by his diligence. Those who communicate literature to the son of a poor man consider him as one not born to poverty, but to the necessity of deriving a better fortune from himself" (Johnson's Works, vi., 56; see also Johnson's Letters, ii., 437).

66. GIBBON'S THOUGHTS OF MARRIAGE (p. 241).

In 1763, and again in 1764, he told his father that he did not think of ever marrying (Corres., i., 46, 70). In 1784 he wrote to Lady Sheffield: "Should you be very much surprised to hear of my being married? Amazing as it may seem, I do assure you that the event is less improbable than it would have appeared to myself a twelvemonth ago" (Corres., ii., 118). Seven years later he wrote to his step-mother: "At fifty-four a man should never think of altering the whole system of his life and habits" (ib., ii., 248). "I was not very strongly pressed by my family or passions," he said, to propagate the name and race of the Gibbons" (Auto., p. 275). For his "passions Auto., pp. 60, 150, 159, 205, 244, 263, 274, and Corres., i., 70; see also ante, pp. 105, 153, n. 4.

see

Miss Holroyd describes a lady, Mme. de Montolieu, "who had put Mr. Gibbon's liberty in danger. It never occurs to him that she might have refused him" (Girlhood, &c., p. 115). For his confession that he was in some danger" see Corres., ii., 154.

It was before this lady that he fell on his knees as a lover, according to Mme. de Genlis, "une assez méchante langue, il est vrai," to borrow SainteBeuve's description of her (Causeries, viii., 468). She wrote: "Avec cette figure et ce visage étrange qu'on lui connait, M. Gibbon est infiniment galant, et il est devenu amoureux d'une très-aimable personne, madame de Crouzas. Un jour, se trouvant tête à tête avec elle, pour la première fois, il voulut saisir un moment si favorable, et tout à coup il se jeta à ses genoux en lui déclarant son amour dans les termes les plus passionnés. Madame de Crouzas lui répondit de manière à lui ôter la tentation de renouveler cette jolie scène. M. Gibbon prit un air consterné, et cependant il restait à genoux, malgré l'invitation réitérée de se remettre sur sa chaise; il était immobile et gardait le silence. Mais, Monsieur, répéta Madame de Crousaz, relevez-vous done. — Hélas! Madame, répondit enfin ce malheureux amant, je ne peux pas Madame de Crousaz sonna, et dit au domestique qui survint: Releves monsieur Gibbon" (Souvenirs de Félicie, par Mme. de Genlis, ed. 1857, p. 176).

Mme. de Genlis' daughter said that her mother had made "a confusion of persons" (Read's Hist. Studies, ii., 350). General Read quotes The Gent. Mag., 1843, p. 506, and The Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti to prove that the lady was Lady Elizabeth Foster, afterwards Duchess of Devonshire. In The Gent. Mag. it is stated that she was at Lausanne in June, 1787. She was there in 1784; "poorly in health," Gibbon wrote to Lady Sheffield, "but still adorable (nay, do not frown!), and I enjoyed some delightful hours by her bedside"; and she was there again in 1792 (Corres., ii., 117, 310). His letters to her are not those of a man who had made himself ridiculous before her. He would not have recalled to her his "aged and gouty limbs" (Misc.

Works, ii., 472). On the death of Lady Sheffield he wrote to her: "I am sure that your feeling, affectionate mind will not be surprised to hear that I set out for England next week" (Corres., ii., 380).

The whole story is probably an invention.

67. THE CHANCES OF LIFE AND DEATH (p. 243).

Mr. Buffon, from our disregard of the possibility of death within the four and twenty hours, concludes that a chance which falls below or rises above ten thousand to one will never affect the hopes or fears of a reasonable man." The fact is true, but our courage is the effect of thoughtlessness, rather than of reflection. If a public lottery were drawn for the choice of an immediate victim, and if our name were inscribed on one of the ten thousand tickets, should we be perfectly easy? (Footnote by Gibbon.)

Après y avoir réfléchi, j'ai pensé que de toutes les probabilités morales possibles, celle qui affecte le plus l'homme en général, c'est la crainte de la mort, et j'ai senti dès-lors que toute crainte, ou toute espérance dont la probabilité serait égale à celle qui produit la crainte de la mort, peut dans le moral être prise pour l'unité à laquelle on doit rapporter la mesure des autres craintes. Je cherche donc quelle est réellement la probabilité qu'un homme qui se porte bien, et qui par conséquent n'a nulle crainte de la mort, meure méanmoins dans les vingt-quatre heures. En consultant les tables de mortalité, je vois qu'on en peut déduire qu'il n'y a que 10,189 à parier contre un qu'un homme de cinquante-six ans vivra plus d'un jour. Or comme tout homme de cet âge, où la raison a acquis toute sa maturité et l'expérience toute sa force, n'a néanmoins nulle crainte de la mort dans les vingt-quatre heures, quoiqu'il n'y ait que 10,189 à parier contre un qu'il ne mourra pas dans ce court intervalle de temps; j'en conclus que toute probabilité égale ou plus petite, doit être regardée comme nulle, et que toute crainte ou toute espérance qui se trouve au-dessous de dix mille ne doit ni nous affecter, ni même nous occuper un seul instant le cœur ou la tête.'

The mathematician Bernoulli, after pointing out to Buffon that "l'exemp tion de frayeur n'est assurément pas dans ceux qui sont déjà malades,' continues: "Je ne combats pas votre principe, mais il paraît plutôt conduire a rooboo qu'à ro000 (Hist. Nat., &c., ed. 1777; Supplément, iv., 56.

The passage in the text is dated March 2, 1791 (Auto., p. 349). Gibbon was within eight weeks of his fifty-fourth birthday. His expectation of life he derived from Buffon, who says: Pour une personne de cinquante-quatre ans on peut parier 2,786 contre 2,588 qu'elle vivra 14 ans de plus. On peut parier 2,969 contre 2,405 qu'elle ne vivra pas 16 ans de plus" (Supplément, iv., 224). The expectation of life at fifty-four, calculated on the mortality of 1871-80, is sixteen years and a half (Whitaker's Almanack, 1899, p. 691).

These fond hopes of Gibbon came into my mind when, in Sainte-Beuve, I read that fine passage where Bossuet describes life as that "qui nous manquera tout à coup comme un faux ami, lorsqu'elle semblera nous promettre plus de repos" (Causeries, x., 201).

68. LIFE'S AUTUMNAL FELICITY (p. 244).

'Quelqu'un demandait au philosophe Fontenelle, âgé de quatre-vingt quinze ans, quelles étaient les vingt années de sa vie qu'il regrettait le plus; il répondit qu'il regrettait peu de chose, que' néanmoins l'âge où il avait été le plus heureux était de cinquante-cinq à soixante-quinze ans ; il fit cet aveu de bonne foi, et il prouva son dire par des vérités sensibles et consolantes. A cinquante-cinq ans la fortune est établie, la réputation faite, la considératior

obtenue, l'état de la vie fixe, les prétentions évanouies ou remplies, les projets avortés ou mûris, la plupart des passions calmées ou du moins refroidies," &c. (Buffon, Hist. Nat., Supplément, iv., 413).

Napoleon Bonaparte, in the letter mentioned ante, p. 221, n. 4, quoted Fontenelle's saying that "the two great qualities necessary to live long were a good body and a bad heart" (Read's Hist. Studies, ii., 199).

Voltaire wrote to Mme. du Deffand in his seventieth year (Euvres, lii., 239): "Rarement le dernier âge de la vie est-il bien agréable; on a toujours espéré assez vainement de jouir de la vie; et à la fin, tout ce qu'on peut faire, c'est de la supporter". Seven years later he wrote to Lord Chesterfield: "Je me borne à croire que, si vous avez du soleil dans la belle maison que vous avez bâtie, vous aurez des momens tolérables; c'est tout ce qu'on peut espérer à l'âge où nous sommes. Cicéron écrivit un beau traité sur la vieillesse, mais il ne prouva point son livre par les faits; ses dernières années furent trèsmalheureuses" (Chesterfield's Misc. Works, iii., 399).

Hume, a few months before his death, writing of the previous year when his health was being slowly undermined by disease, said: "Were I to name a period of my life which I should most choose to pass over again, I might be tempted to point to this later period. I possess the same ardour as ever in study, and the same gaiety in company" (Letters to Strahan, Preface, p. 32). Bowring wrote of Jeremy Bentham: "It was principally in the latter portion of his life that his felicity was almost untroubled. The many discomforts of the early half of his existence were often contrasted by him with the quiet and habitual pleasures of his later years" (Bentham's Works, I., 25).

"An healthy old fellow that is not a fool is the happiest creature living" (The Guardian, No. 26).

INDEX

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