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 bum 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 mys teries, 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, aud 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

Such, from my arrival at Lausanne, during the first eighteen or twenty months (July, 1753-March, 1755), were my useful studies, the foundation of all my future improvements. But every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and more important, from himself. He will not, like the fanatics of the last age, define the moment of grace; but he cannot forget the æra of his life, in which his mind has expanded to its proper form and dimensions. My worthy tutor had the good sense and modesty to discern how far he could be useful: as soon as he felt that I advanced beyond his speed and measure, he wisely left me to my genius; and the hours of lesson were soon lost in the voluntary labour of the whole morning, and sometimes of the whole day. The desire of prolonging my time, gradually confirmed the salutary habit of early rising; to which I have always adhered, with some regard to seasons and situations: but it is happy for my eyes and my health, that my temperate ardour has never been seduced to trespass on the hours of the night. During the last three years of my residence at Lausanne, I may assume the merit of serious and solid application; but I am tempted to distinguish the last eight months of the year 1755, as the period of the most extraordinary diligence and rapid progress. In my French and Latin translations I adopted an excellent method, which, from my own success, I would recommend to the imitation of students. I chose some classic writer, such as Cicero and Vertot, the most approved for purity and elegance of style. I translated, for instance, an epistle of Cicero into French; and after throwing it aside, till the words and phrases were obliterated from my memory, I re-translated my French into such Latin as I could find; and then compared each sentence of my imperfect version, with the ease, the

insist upon it at that time, or to force him to act against his conscience; I have since treated upon this point, which is certainly one of the least important and fundamental; and yet I have found a considerable time necessary to undeceive him, and to make him understand that he was wrong to subject himself to the practice of a church that he did not account to be infallible; that even if this custom had some utility at its institution, yet now it had none of any sort, since it did not in any way contribute to purity of morals; that thus there was no reason either in the institution of the practice or in the practice itself, that made it incumbent on him to observe it; that at the present time it was merely a matter of interest, since dispensations were to be bought with money for eating flesh, &c.; so that I have brought him back to christian liberty with great difficulty, and only within a few weeks since.

"I have requested him to write to you, to apprize you of his sentiments and of his state of health; and I believe he has done so.'

JOURNAL, December, 1755.]-In finishing this year, I must remark how favourable it was to my studies. In the space of eight months, from the beginning of April, I learned the principles of drawing; made myself complete master of the French and Latin languages, with which I was very superficially acquainted before, and wrote and translated a great deal in both; read Cicero's Epistles ad Familiares, his Brutus, all his Orations, his Dialogues de Amicitiâ and de Senectute; Terence, twice; and Pliny's Epistles. In French, Giannone's History of Naples, and the Abbé Banier's Mythology, and M. de Boehat's Mémoires sur la Suisse, and wrote a very ample relation of my tour. I likewise began to study Greek, and went through the grammar. I began to make very large collections of what I read. But what I esteem most of all, from the perusal and meditation of De Crousaz's Logic, I not only understood the principles of that science, but formed my mind to a habit of thinking and reasoning I had no idea of before.

grace, the propriety of the Roman orator. A similar experiment was made on several pages of the Revolutions of Vertot; I turned them into Latin, re-turned them after a sufficient interval into my own French, and again scrutinized the resemblance or dissimilitude of the copy and the original. By degrees I was less ashamed, by degrees I was more satisfied with myself: and I persevered in the practice of these double translations, which filled several books, till I had acquired the knowledge of both idioms, and the command at least of a correct style. This useful exercise of writing was accompanied and succeeded by the more pleasing occupation of reading the best authors. The perusal of the Roman classics was at once my exercise and reward. Dr. Middleton's History, which I then appreciated above its true value, naturally directed me to the writings of Cicero. The most perfect editions, that of Olivet, which may adorn the shelves of the rich, that of Ernesti, which should lie on the table of the learned, were not in my power. For the Familiar Epistles I used the text and English commentary of Bishop Ross: but my general edition was that of Verburgius, published at Amsterdam in two large volumes in folio, with an indifferent choice of various notes. I read, with application and pleasure, all the epistles, all the orations, and the most important treatises of rhetoric and philosophy; and as I read, I applauded the observation of Quintilian, that every student may judge of his own proficiency, by the satisfaction which he receives from the Roman orator. I tasted the beauties of language, I breathed the spirit of freedom, and I imbibed from his precepts and examples the public and private sense of a man. Cicero in Latin, and Xenophon in Greek, are indeed the two ancients whom I would first propose to a liberal scholar; not only for the merit of their style and sentiments, but for the admirable lessons, which may be applied almost to every situation of public and private life. Cicero's Epistles may in particular afford the models of every form of correspondence, from the careless effusions of tenderness and friendship, to the well-guarded declaration of discreet and dignified resentment. After finishing this great author, a library of eloquence and reason, I formed a more extensive plan of reviewing the Latin classics, under the four divisions of, 1. Historians, 2. Poets, 3. Orators, and 4. Philosophers, in a chronological series, from the days of Plautus and Sallust, to the decline of the language and empire of Rome: and this plan, in the last twenty-seven months of my residence at Lausanne (January, 1756-April, 1758), I nearly accomplished. Nor was this review, however rapid, either hasty or superficial. I indulged myself in a second, and even a third perusal of Terence, Virgil, Horace, Tacitus, &c., and studied to imbibe the sense and spirit most congenial to my own. I never suffered a difficult or corrupt passage to escape, till I had viewed it in every light of which it was susceptible: though often disappointed, I always

*

JOURNAL, January, 1756.]—I determined to read over the Latin authors in order; and read this year, Virgil, Sallust, Livy, Velleius Paterculus, Valerius Maximus, Tacitus, Suetonius, Quintus Curtius, Justin, Florus, Plautus, Terence, and Lucretius. I also read and meditated Locke upon the Understanding.

consulted the most learned or ingenious commentators, Torrentius and Dacier on Horace, Catrou and Servius on Virgil, Lipsius on Tacitus, Mezeriac on Ovid, &c.; and in the ardour of my inquiries, I embraced a large circle of historical and critical erudition. My abstracts of each book were made in the French language: my observations often branched into particular essays; and I can still read, without contempt, a dissertation of eight folio pages on eight lines (287-294) of the fourth Georgic of Virgil. Mr. Deyverdun, my friend, whose name will be frequently repeated, had joined with equal zeal, though not with equal perseverance, in the same undertaking. To him every thought, every composition, was instantly communicated; with him I enjoyed the benefits of a free conversation on the topics of our common studies.

But it is scarcely possible for a mind endowed with any active curiosity to be long conversant with the Latin classics, without aspiring to know the Greek originals, whom they celebrate as their masters, and of whom they so warmly recommend the study and imitation;

Vos exemplaria Græca

Nocturnâ versate manu, versate diurnâ.

It was now that I regretted the early years which had been wasted in sickness or idleness, or mere idle reading; that I condemned the perverse method of our schoolmasters, who, by first teaching the mother-language, might descend with so much ease and perspicuity to the origin and etymology of a derivative idiom. In the nineteenth year of my age I determined to supply this defect; and the lessons of Pavilliard again contributed to smooth the entrance of the way, the Greek alphabet, the grammar, and the pronunciation according to the French accent. At my earnest request we presumed to open the Iliad; and I had the pleasure of beholding, though darkly and through a glass, the true image of Homer, whom I had long since admired in an English dress. After my tutor had left me to myself, I worked my way through about half the Iliad, and afterwards interpreted alone a large portion of Xenophon and Herodotus. But my ardour, destitute of aid and emulation, was gradually cooled, and, from the barren task of searching words in a lexicon, I withdrew to the free and familiar conversation of Virgil and Tacitus. Yet in my residence at Lausanne I had laid a solid foundation, which enabled me, in a more propitious season, to prosecute the study of Grecian literature.

From a blind idea of the usefulness of such abstract science, my father had been desirous, and even pressing, that I should devote some time to the mathematics;* nor could I refuse to comply with

Extract of a Letter from Mr. Pavilliard to Edward Gibbon, Esq. "Sir, "January 12, 1757. You wished that your son should apply himself to Algebra; his taste for literature made him fearful lest it should injure his favourite studies; I have persuaded him that he formed a wrong idea of that province of mathematics; and the obedience he owes you, added to my arguments, has determined him to go through a course of it. I did not think that, with this repugnance, he would have made any great progress in it; I was deceived; all that he does, he does well; he is punctual at his lessons, applies