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tator Barbeyrac: Locke's treatise of Government instructed me in the knowledge of Whig principles, which are rather founded in reason than in experience; but my delight was in the frequent perusal of Montesquieu, whose energy of style and boldness of hypothesis were powerful to awaken and stimulate the Genius of the Age. The logic of de Crousaz had prepared me to engage with his master Locke and his antagonist Bayle, of whom the former may be used as a bridle, and the latter as a bridle* to the curiosity of a young philosopher. According to the nature of their respective works, the schools of argument and objection, I carefully went through the Essay on human understanding, and occasionally consulted the most interesting articles of the Philosophic dictionary. In the infancy of my reason I turned over, as an idle amusement, the most serious and important treatise: in its maturity the most trifling performance could exercise my taste or judgement; and more than once I have been led by a novel into a deep and instructive train of thinking. But I cannot forbear to mention three particular books, since they may have remotely contributed to form the historian of the Roman Empire. 1. From the provincial letters of Pascal, which almost every year I have perused with new pleasure, I learned to manage the weapon of grave and temperate irony, even on subjects of Ecclesiastical solemnity. 2. The life of Julian, by the Abbé de la Bleterie, first introduced me to the man and the times; and I should be glad to recover my first essay on the truth of the miracle which stopped the rebuilding of the temple of Jerusalem. 3. In Giannone's Civil history of Naples I observed with a critical eye the progress and abuse of Sacerdotal power, and the Revolutions of Italy in the darker ages. This various reading, which I now conducted with skill and discretion, was digested, according to the precept and model of Mr. Locke, into a large Commonplace-book; a practise, however, which I do not strenuously recommend. The action of the pen will doubtless imprint an idea on the

*"Spur" in Memoir C, p. 200.

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mind as well as on the paper; but I much question whether the benefits of this laborious method are adequate to the waste of time, and I must agree with Dr. Johnson * "that what is twice read is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed."

During two years, if I forget some boyish excursions of a day or a week, I was fixed at Lausanne; but at the end of the third summer my father consented that I should make the tour of Switzerland with Pavilliard, and our short absence of one month (September 21-October 20th, 1755) was a reward and relaxation of my assiduous studies. The fashion of climbing the mountains and viewing the Glaciers had not yet been introduced by foreign travellers, who seek the sublime beauties of Nature. But the political face of the Country is not less diversified by the forms and spirit of so many various Republics, from the jealous government of the few to the licentious freedom of the many. I contemplated with pleasure the new prospects of men and manners; though my conversation with the natives would have been more free and instructive, had I possessed the German as well as the French language. We passed through most of the principal towns of Switzerland - Neufchâtel, Bienne, Soleurre, Arau, Baden, Zurich, Basil, and Bern: in every place we visited the Churches, arsenals, libraries, and all the most eminent persons; and after my return I digested my notes in fourteen or fifteen sheets of a French journal, which I dispatched to my father as a proof that my time and his money had not been mispent. Had I found this journal among his papers, I might be tempted to select some passages; but I will not transcribe the printed accounts, and it may be sufficient to notice a remarkable spot, which left a deep and lasting impression on my memory. From Zurich we proceeded on a pilgrimage not of devotion, but of curiosity, to the Benedictine Abbey of Einsidlen, more commonly styled our Lady of the Hermits. I was astonished by the profuse ostentation of * Idler, No. 74.

riches in the poorest corner of Europe: amidst a savage scene of woods and mountains, a palace appears to have been erected by Magic; and it was erected by the potent magic of Religion. A crowd of palmers and votaries was prostrate before the Altar: the title and worship of the Mother of God provoked my indignation; and the lively naked image of superstition suggested to me, as in the same place it had done to Zuinglius, the most pressing argument for the reformation of the Church. About two years after this tour, I passed at Geneva an useful and agreable month; but this excursion, and some short visits in the Pays de Vaud, did not materially interrupt my studious and sedentary life at Lausanne.

My thirst of improvement, and the languid state of science at Lausanne, soon prompted me to solicit a litterary correspondence with several men of learning, whom I had not an opportunity of personally consulting.

1. In the perusal of Livy (xxx. 44) I had been stopped by a sentence in a speech of Hannibal,* which cannot be reconciled by any torture with his character or argument. The commentators dissemble or confess their perplexity: it occurred to me that the change of a single letter by substituting Otio instead of Odio might restore a clear and consistent sense; but I wished to weigh my emendation in scales less partial than my own. I addressed myself to Mr. Crevier,† the successor of Rollin, and a Professor in the University of Paris, who had published a large and valuable Edition of Livy: his answer was speedy and polite; he praised my ingenuity, and adopted my conjecture, which I must still applaud as easy and happy. 2. I maintained a Latin correspondence, at first anonymous, and afterwards in my own

*"Tunc flesse decuit, quum adempta nobis arma, incensæ naves, interdictum externis bellis, illo enim vulnere concidimus. Nec esse in vos odio vestro consultum ab Romanis credatis."

† Jean Baptiste Louis Crevier (1693-1765), Professor of Rhetoric at the College of Beauvais.

name, with Professor Breitinger,* of Zurich, the learned Editor of a Septuagint Bible: in our frequent letters we discussed many questions of antiquity, many passages of the Latin Classics. I proposed my interpretations and amendments: his censures, for he did not spare my boldness of conjecture, were sharp and strong; and I was encouraged by the consciousness of my strength, when I could stand in free debate against a critic of such eminence and erudition. 3. I corresponded on similar topics with the celebrated Professor Matthew Gesner,† of the University of Gottingen, and he accepted as courteously as the two former the invitation of an unknown Youth. But his abilities might possibly be decayed; his elaborate letters were feeble and prolix; and when I asked his proper direction, the vain old man covered half a sheet of paper with the foolish enumeration of his titles and offices. 4. These professors of Paris, Zurich, and Gottingen were strangers whom I presumed to address on the credit of their name; but Mr. Allamand,‡ Minister at Bex, was my personal friend, with whom I maintained a more free and interesting correspondence. He was a master of language, of science, and, above all, of dispute; and his acute and flexible logic could support with equal address, and perhaps with equal indifference, the adverse sides of every possible question. His spirit was active, but his pen had been indolent. Mr. Allamand had exposed himself to much scandal and reproach by an anonymous letter (1745) to the Protestants of France, in which he labours to persuade them that public worship is the exclusive right and duty of the State, and that their numerous assemblies of dissenters

*Johann Jacob Breitinger, born at Zurich, 1701; Professor of Hebrew and Greek; died 1776.

† Johann Matthias Gesner (1691-1761), Professor of Eloquence and Poetry, Göttingen.

This writer is scarcely known except by this mention of him; he was Protestant minister at Bex, and published anonymously, in 1745, Une Lettre sur les assemblées des religionnaires en Languedoc, ecrite à un gentilhomme protestant de cette province, par M.D.L., F.D.M. (Rotterdam on title-page).

and rebels are not authorized by the law or the Gospel. His style is animated, his arguments are specious; and if the papist may seem to lurk under the mask of a protestant, the philosopher is concealed under the disguise of a papist. After some tryals in France and Holland, which were defeated by his fortune or his character, a Genius that might have enlightened or deluded the World was buried in a Country living, unknown to fame and discontented with mankind. "Est sacrificulus in pago et rusticos decipit." As often as private or Ecclesiastical business called him to Lausanne, I enjoyed the pleasure and benefit of his conversation, and we were mutually flattered by our attention to each other. Our correspondence in his absence chiefly turned on Locke's Metaphysics, which he attacked and I defended; the origin of ideas, the principles of evidence, and the doctrine of liberty.

"And found no end, in wandering mazes lost."

By fencing with so skilfull a master, I acquired some dexterity in the use of my philosophic weapons; but I was still the slave of education and prejudice; he had some measures to keep; and I much suspect that he never shewed me the true colours of his secret scepticism.

Before I was recalled from Switzerland I had the satisfaction of seeing the most extraordinary man of the age-a poet, an historian, a Philosopher, who has filled thirty quartos, of prose and verse, with his various productions, often excellent and always entertaining: need I add the name of Voltaire? After forfeiting, by his own misconduct, the friendship of the first of Kings, he retired, at the age of sixty, with a plentiful fortune, to a free and beautiful country, and resided two winters (1757 and 1758) in the town or neighbourhood of Lausanne. My desire of beholding Voltaire, whom I then rated above his real magnitude, was easily gratified: he received me with civility as an English youth; but I cannot boast of any peculiar notice or distinction - "Virgilium vidi

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