dies is proposed, and even pursued, in that numerous seminary: learning has been made a duty, a pleasure, and even a fashion; and several young gentlemen do honour to the college in which they have been educated. According to the will of the donor, the profit of the second part of Lord Clarendon's History has been applied to the establishment of a riding-school, that the polite exercises might be taught, I know not with what success, in the university. The Vinerian professorship is of far more serious importance; the laws of his country are the first science of an Englishman of rank and fortune, who is called to be a magistrate, and may hope to be a legis lator. This judicious institution was coldly entertained by the graver doctors, who complained (I have heard the complaint) that it would take the young people from their books: but Mr. Viner's benefaction is not unprofitable, since it has at least produced the excellent Commentaries of Sir William Blackstone.

*

After carrying me to Putney, to the house of his friend, Mr. Mallet, by whose philosophy I was rather scandalized than reclaimed, it was necessary for my father to form a new plan of education, and to devise some method which, if possible, might effect the cure of my spiritual malady. After much debate it was determined, from the advice and personal experience of Mr. Eliot (now Lord Eliot), to fix me, during some years, at Lausanne, in Switzerland. Mr. Frey, a Swiss gentleman of Basle, undertook the conduct of the journey: we left London the 19th of June, crossed the sea from Dover to Calais, travelled post through several provinces of France, by the direct road of St. Quentin, Rheims, Langres, and Besançon, and arrived the 30th of June at Lausanne, where I was immediately settled under the roof and tuition of Mr. Pavilliard, a calvinist minister.

The first marks of my father's displeasure rather astonished than afflicted me when he threatened to banish, and disown, and disinherit a rebellious son, I cherished a secret hope that he would not be able or willing to effect his menaces; and the pride of conscience encouraged me to sustain the honourable and important part which I was now acting. My spirits were raised and kept alive by the rapid motion of my journey, the new and various scenes of the Continent, and the civility of Mr. Frey, a man of sense, who was not ignorant of books or the world. But after he had resigned me into Pavilliard's hands, and I was fixed in my new habitation, I had leisure to contemplate the strange and melancholy prospect before me. My first complaint arose from my ignorance of the language. In my childhood I had once studied the French grammar, and I could English youths to those of Scotland, and utterly excludes many from any sort of academical instruction. If a charge be true, which I have heard insisted on, that the heads of our colleges in Oxford and Cambridge are vain of having under their care chiefly men of opulence, who may be supposed exempt from the necessity of economical control, they are indeed highly censurable; since the mischief of allowing early habits of expense and dissipation is great, in various respects, even to those possessed of large property; and the most serious evil from this indulgence must happen to youths of humbler fortune, who certainly form the majority of students both at Oxford and Cambridge.-S.

The author of a life of Bacon, which has been rated above its value; of some forgotten poems and plays; and of the pathetic ballad of William and Margaret.-S.

imperfectly understand the easy prose of a familiar subject. But when I was thus suddenly cast on a foreign land, I found myself deprived of the use of speech and of hearing; and, during some weeks, incapable not only of enjoying the pleasures of conversation, but even of asking or answering a question in the common intercourse of life. To a home-bred Englishman every object, every custom was offensive; but the native of any country might have been disgusted with the general aspect of his lodging and entertainmeut. I had now exchanged my elegant apartment in Magdalen College for a narrow, gloomy street, the most unfrequented of an unhandsome town, for an old inconvenient house, and for a small chamber ill-contrived and ill-furnished, which, on the approach of winter, instead of a companionable fire, must be warmed by the dull and invisible heat of a stove. From a man I was again degraded to the dependence of a school-boy. Mr. Pavilliard managed my expenses, which had been reduced to a diminutive state: I received a small monthly allowance for my pocket-money; and, helpless and awkward as I have ever been, I no longer enjoyed the indispensable comfort of a servant. My condition seemed as destitute of hope, as it was devoid of pleasure: I was separated for an indefinite, which appeared an infinite, term from my native country; and I had lost all connexion with my catholic friends. I have since reflected with surprise, that as the Romish clergy of every part of Europe maintain a close correspondence with each other, they never attempted, by letters or messages, to rescue me from the hands of the heretics, or at least to confirm my zeal and constancy in the profession of the faith. Such was my first introduction to Lausanne; a place where I spent nearly five years with pleasure and profit, which I afterwards revisited without compulsion, and which I have finally selected as the most grateful retreat for the decline of my life.

But it is the peculiar felicity of youth that the most unpleasing objects and events seldom make a deep or lasting impression; it forgets the past, enjoys the present, and anticipates the future. At the flexible age of sixteen I soon learned to endure, and gradually to adopt, the new forms of arbitrary manners: the real hardships of my situation were alienated by time. Had I been sent abroad in a more splendid style, such as the fortune and bounty of my father might have supplied, I might have returned home with the same stock of language and science, which our countrymen usually import from the Continent. An exile and a prisoner as I was, their example betrayed me into some irregularities of wine, of play, and of idle excursions: but I soon felt the impossibility of associating with them on equal terms; and after the departure of my first acquaintance, I held a cold and civil correspondence with their successors. This seclusion from English society was attended with the most solid benefits. In the Pays de Vaud, the French language is used with less imperfection than in most of the distant provinces of France in Pavilliard's family, necessity compelled me to listen and to speak; and if I was at first disheartened by the apparent slowness, in a few months I was astonished by the rapidity of my

progress. My pronunciation was formed by the constant repetition of the same sounds; the variety of words and idioms, the rules of grammar, and distinctions of genders, were impressed in my memory: ease and freedom were obtained by practice; correctness and elegance by labour; and before I was recalled home, French, in which I spontaneously thought, was more familiar than English to my ear, my tongue, and my pen. The first effect of this opening knowledge was the revival of my love of reading, which had been chilled at Oxford; and I soon turned over, without much choice, almost all the French books in my tutor's library. Even these amusements were productive of real advantage: my taste and judgment were now somewhat riper. I was introduced to a new mode of style and literature by the comparison of manners and opinions, my views were enlarged, my prejudices were corrected, and a copious voluntary abstract of the Histoire de l'Eglise et de l'Empire, by Le Sueur, may be placed in a middle line between my childish and my manly studies. As soon as I was able to converse with the natives, I began to feel some satisfaction in their company: my awkward timidity was polished and emboldened; and I frequented, for the first time, assemblies of men and women. The acquaintance of the Pavilliards prepared me by degrees for more elegant society. I was received with kindness and indulgence in the best families of Lausanne; and it was in one of these that I formed an intimate and lasting connexion with Mr. Deyverdun, a young man of an amiable temper and excellent understanding. In the arts of fencing and dancing, small indeed was my proficiency; and some months were idly wasted in the riding-school. My unfitness to bodily exercise reconciled me to a sedentary life, and the horse, the favourite of my countrymen, never contributed to the pleasures of my youth.

My obligations to the lessons of Mr. Pavilliard, gratitude will not suffer me to forget: he was endowed with a clear head and a warm heart; his innate benevolence had assuaged the spirit of the church; he was rational, because he was moderate in the course of his studies he had acquired a just though superficial knowledge of most branches of literature; by long practice, he was skilled in the arts of teaching; and he laboured with assiduous patience to know the character, gain the affection, and open the mind of his English pupil.* As soon as we began to understand each other, he gently led me, from a blind and undistinguishing love of reading, into the path of instruction. I consented with pleasure that a portion of the morning hours should be consecrated to a plan of modern history and geography, and to the critical perusal of the French and Latin classics; and at each step I felt myself invigorated by the habits of

*Translated Extract of a Letter from Mr. Pavilliard to Edward Gibbon, Esq. "Lausanne, July 25, 1753. "Mr. Gibbon is, thank God, very well; and appears to me to be very comfortable at our house; I have even reason to think that he feels some attachment to myself, of which I am very glad, and which I shall strenuously endeavour to increase; because then he will have more confidence in me, and in what I intend to say to him.

"I have not yet ventured to speak to him upon religious topics, for I am not sufficiently acquainted with the English language to support a long conversation in it,

application and method. His prudence repressed and dissembled some youthful sallies; and as soon as I was confirmed in the habits of industry and temperance, he gave the reins into my own hands. His favourable report of my behaviour and progress gradually obtained some latitude of action and expense; and he wished to alleviate the hardships of my lodging and entertainment. The principles of philosophy were associated with the examples of taste; and by a singular chance, the book, as well as the man, which contributed the most effectually to my education, has a stronger claim on my gratitude than on my admiration. Mr. De Crousaz, the adversary of Bayle and Pope, is not distinguished by lively fancy or profound reflection; and even in his own country, at the end of a few years, his name and writings are almost obliterated. But his philosophy had been formed in the school of Locke, his divinity in that of Limborch and Le Clerc; in a long and laborious life, several generations of pupils were taught to think, and even to write; his lessons rescued the academy of Lausanne from calvinistic prejudice; and he had the rare merit of diffusing a more liberal spirit among the clergy and people of the Pays de Vaud. His system of logic, which in the last editions has swelled to six tedious and prolix volumes, may be praised as a clear and methodical abridgment of the art of reasoning, from our simple ideas to the most complex operations of the human understanding. This system I studied, and meditated, and abstracted, till I have obtained the free command of an universal instrument, which I soon presumed to exercise on my catholic opinions. Pavilliard was not unmindful that his first task, his most important duty, was to reclaim me from the errors of popery. The intermixture of sects has rendered the Swiss clergy acute and learned on the topics of controversy; and I have some of his letters in which he celebrates the dexterity of his attack, and my gradual concessions, after a firm and well-managed defence.* I was willing, and I am now willing, to allow him a handsome share of the honour of my conversion: yet I must observe, that it was principally effected by my private reflections; and I still remember my solitary transport at the discovery of a philosophical argument against the though I can read English authors with considerable facility; and Mr. Gibbon does not understand enough French, though he is making rapid progress in it.

"I am much pleased with the politeness and suavity of your son's disposition, and I flatter myself I shall always be able to speak favourably of him to you. He applies closely to reading."

From the Same to the Same.

"Lausanne, August 13, 1753. "Mr. Gibbon is, thank God, in good health; I feel an affection for him, and am exceedingly attached to him, because he is mild and quiet. Respecting his religious sentiments, though I have not yet said anything to him on the subject, I have reason to hope he will open his eyes to the truth. I think so, because, when he was in my study, he made choice of two controversial books, and took them to peruse in his chamber. He has enjoined me to present you his most humble respects, and to ask you to allow him to learn riding; which exercise will, he thinks, contribute to his bodily strength." * Mr. Pavilliard has described to me the astonishment with which he gazed on Mr. Gibbon standing before him: a thin little figure, with a large head, disputing and urging, with the greatest ability, all the best arguments that had ever been used in favour of popery. Mr. Gibbon many years ago became very fat and corpulent, but he had uncommonly small bones, and was very slightly made.-S.

doctrine of transubstantiation; that the text of scripture which seems to inculcate the real presence, is attested only by a single sense-our sight; while the real presence itself is disproved by three of our senses-the sight, the touch, and the taste. The various articles of the Romish creed disappeared like a dream; and after a full conviction, on Christmas-day, 1754, I received the sacrament in the church of Lausanne. It was here that I suspended my religious inquiries, acquiescing with implicit belief in the tenets and mysteries, which are adopted by the general consent of Catholics and Protestants.*

*Letter from Mr. Pavilliard to Edward Gibbon, Esq.

"Sir, "June 26th, 1754. "I hope you will pardon my long silence, on account of the news which I now have to communicate to you. My delay has been owing neither to forgetfulness nor to negli. gence, but I have, from week to week, been expecting to be able to announce to you that your son had entirely renounced the false ideas that he had embraced; but it was necessary to dispute every inch of ground; and I have not found in him a man of fickle disposition, or one who passes rapidly from one opinion to another. Often when I had confuted all his reasonings upon any particular point, in such a manner as to leave him nothing to reply (which he has frankly acknowledged), he has told me that he did not believe there was no answer that might be made to me. Whereupon I did not deem it right to push it too far, and to extort an acknowledgment from him that his heart would disavow; I therefore gave him time for reflection; all my books were at his service; I returned to the charge when he had informed me that he had studied the matter as well as he possibly could; and thus at last I established a truth.

"I felt persuaded that, when I had overthrown the principal errors of the Romish church, I should only have to show him that the remainder are consequences from these, and that they are no longer tenable when the fundamental doctrines are overturned; but, as I have already said, I was deceived in this, and it was necessary to treat of each tenet in all its extent. By the grace of God, my time has not been lost, and now, if he may, perhaps, still retain some remains of his pernicious errors, yet he is no longer a member of the Romish church. This, then, is how we stand.

"I have overthrown the infallibility of the church; I have proved that St. Peter was never the prince of the apostles, and that, even if he was, the pope is not his successor; that it is doubtful whether St. Peter ever was at Rome, and, supposing that he was, he never was bishop of that city; that transubstantiation is a human invention, and of recent introduction into the church; that the adoration of the host and the denial of the cup are contrary to the word of God; that there are saints, but we know not who they are, and therefore we cannot pray to them; that the respect and worship paid to relics is improper; that there is no purgatory, and that the doctrine of indulgences is erroneous; that Lent and the Friday and Saturday fasts are ridiculous at the present day, and in the manner in which they are prescribed by the Romish church; and that the charges brought against us of diversity in our doctrine, and of having for reformers only persons of scandalous conduct and immoral life, are entirely false.

"You will easily perceive, sir, that these subjects require a long discussion, and that some time was necessary for your son to think over my arguments and to seek for answers. I have asked him several times whether my arguments and proofs appeared to him to be convincing; and he has always assured me that they were, in such a manner that, as I told him himself a little while ago, I dare myself aver that he is no longer a Roman Catholic. I flatter myself that, after having obtained the victory on these points, I shall, with the help of God, be sure of him on the rest; so that I expect to tell you in a little time that the work is accomplished. I ought, however, to inform you that, though I have found your son very firm in his opinions, yet I have found him reasonable and open to conviction, and not what is called a quibbler. With respect to the subject of the Friday and Saturday fasts; a long time after I wrote you word that he had not mentioned that he wished to observe it, about the beginning of March, I observed one Friday that he did not eat any meat; I spoke to him privately to know the reason of it, fearing it might be through indisposition. He answered that he had done it purposely, and that he thought it incumbent upon him to conform to a practice of the church of which he was a member. We conversed some time upon the subject; he told me he merely looked upon it as a good custom indeed, and worthy of observance, though not holy in itself nor of divine institution. I did not think proper to