If my own laziness did not deprive me of any right to complain, I
should say perhaps that it was a great while since I had heard either
from you or my father. I have indeed the satisfaction of knowing my
father was well the 26th of May, and I hope he is by this time one
of the Honorable Verdurers of the forrest of Beer. Pray, a propos
of English and county news, who is our Lord Lieutenant? I had the
mortification of seeing in the paper that the Duke of Bolton was
turned out (I mean had resigned) and that the Marquis of Caernarvon
was appointed in his room. _I hope_ it is not true.
[Sidenote: HIS OLD LOVE FOR SUZANNE CURCHOD.]
You have often heard me talk of Lausanne and of the pleasure I should
have in seeing it again. Our imagination generally improves upon
those agreable prospects; but I can assure you, my ideas had not
heightened any part of this. A beautifull country, great leisure
for study, and a very agreable society, make me pass my time very
much to my satisfaction. I have found all my old friends here very
glad to see me, and my countrymen, who only know the outside of the
companies, are amazed at the number of family parties I am asked
to every day. Those countrymen (whom I do not reckon as a very
important part of my happiness) consist only in a Mr. Sidney and
a Mr. Guise.[52] The former (Mrs. Perry's son) is a meer boy, and
the second (a Sir John Guise of Gloucestershire's son) is a very
sensible well-bred man. Pavillard and I were really glad to see one
another. He shewed me his snuff-box which he always carries in a
wooden case for fear of spoiling it. I was at first uneasy about my
lodging. I did not chuse to see the leg of mutton roasted a second
time with a gash in it, and yet I was afraid of disobliging my old
friend. Luckily he had got into a new house and had no room for me;
so that he himself assisted me in settling in a very agreable family
which I was very well acquainted with before. The Husband[53] who is
much of a gentleman keeps the Academy, his wife is a charming woman;
and the apartments and table are both cheap and good. I should like
extremely to pass the winter here, if my father would give me leave.
Give me leave to add (for I am sensible you may have suspicions) that
no woman is the least concerned in my desire, and that as to any old
inclinations,[54] they are so far from subsisting that no one can be
more opposite to them at present than myself. This I assure you of
upon my word of honor. I hope after that I need say nothing more.
I have just drawn a bill of fifty pounds sterling upon my father.
I shall do my utmost to endeavour at Economy, and I hope here my
endeavours will be successfull.
Present, Dear Madam, my love and duty to my father and my sincerest
compliments to your brothers. Pray let me hear from you or my father
soon.
I am, Dear Madam,
Most affectionately yours,
E. GIBBON.
[52] William (afterwards Sir William) Guise, subsequently M.P.
for Gloucestershire, only son of Sir John Guise, Bart., died
without issue, April 6, 1783.
[53] M. de Mesery.
[54] In Gibbon's Journal at Lausanne, in June, 1757, occurs the
entry: "I saw Mademoiselle Curchod--_Omnia vincit amor, et nos
cedamus amori_." He was, in fact, shortly afterwards engaged
to Suzanne Curchod, daughter and only child of the Minister of
Crassy, a hamlet at the foot of the lower slopes of the Jura,
between Geneva and Lausanne. Both the lovers were born in 1737,
and were in their twenty-first year. At Lausanne, at the _Société
du Printemps_ and the _Académie de la Poudrière_, of which
Suzanne Curchod was the founder and the president, she frequently
met Gibbon, and the attachment, on her side at least, was strong
and genuine; on his it seems to have always had a touch of
affectation. The account given by Julie von Bondeli (E. Bodemann,
_Julie von Bondeli_, pp. 217, 218: Hanover, 1874) of Gibbon's
passion has the exaggeration of unreality. He was seen, says
this friend of Wieland and Rousseau, stopping the country people
near Lausanne, and demanding, at the point of a naked dagger,
whether a more adorable creature existed than Suzanne Curchod.
Gibbon wrote her several letters, some of which are quoted by M.
d'Haussonville in his _Salon de Madame Necker_, and addressed
to her indifferent verses. The following lines seem to be an
expansion of the entry in his Journal:--
"Tôt ou tard il faut aimer,
C'est en vain qu'on façonne;
Tout fléchit sous l'amour
Il n'exempte personne,
Car Gib. a succombé en ce jour
Aux attraits d'une beauté
Qui parmi les douceurs d'un tranquil silence
Reposait sur un fauteuil," etc., etc.
They became engaged, and Gibbon implored her to marry him
without waiting for the sanction of his father. This, however,
she refused to do. When Gibbon left Lausanne in 1758, she wrote
to him once; then all correspondence between them seems to have
ceased, though Gibbon says that he wrote to her twice on his
journey and once on his return to England. He also sent her his
_Essai_ with a dedicatory letter in 1761. In August, 1762, he
wrote to break off the engagement, on the ground of his father's
opposition, in a letter quoted by M. d'Haussonville (_Le Salon de
Madame Necker_, pp. 57, 58). In 1763 Gibbon came to Lausanne, and
there received from Mademoiselle Curchod a letter in reply, which
showed, so far as words could prove anything, that she had never
ceased to love him. Her friend, the Pastor Moultou, endeavoured
to interest J. J. Rousseau in the story, and to make him speak
to Gibbon on the subject. But Rousseau declined to interfere,
saying that Gibbon was too cold-blooded a young man for his taste
or for Mademoiselle Curchod's happiness. In Gibbon's unpublished
diary, he thus comments on the receipt of this letter, September
22, 1763: "J'ai reçu une lettre des moins attendûes. C'etoit de
Mademoiselle C. Fille dangereux et artificielle! Elle fait une
apologie de sa conduite depuis le premier moment, qu'elle m'a
connû, sa constance pour moi, son mepris pour M. de Montplaisir,
et la fidelité delicate et soutenue qu'elle a cru voir dans la
lettre où je lui annoncois qu'il n'y avoit plus d'espérance.
Ses voyages à Lausanne, les adorateurs qu'elle y a eû, et la
complaisance avec laquelle elle les a ecouté formoient l'article
le plus difficile à justifier. Ni d'Eyverdun (dit elle), ni
personne n'ont effacé pendant un instant mon image de son cœur.
Elle s'amusoit à Lausanne sans y attacher. Je le veux. Mais ces
amusements la convainquent toujours de la dissimulation la plus
odieuse, et, si l'infidelité est quelquefois une foiblesse, la
duplicité est toujours un vice. Cette affaire singulière dans
toutes ses parties m'a été très utile; elle m'a ouvert les yeux
sur le caractère des femmes, et elle me servira longtemps de
preservatif contre les seductions de l'amour." Mademoiselle
Curchod came to Lausanne in February, 1764, and again met Gibbon;
"Elle me badine sur mon ton de petit maître. Elle a du voir cent
fois que tout étoit fini sans retour." "Nous badinons," he says
again in the same month, "trés librement sur nôtre tendresse
passée, et je lui fais comprendre tout clairement que je suis
an fait de son inconstance." Gibbon's continued coldness at
length convinced Mademoiselle Curchod that his affection for her
was entirely extinguished, and she took her leave of him in an
indignant letter, quoted by M. d'Haussonville, as she undoubtedly
thought, for ever. In this farewell letter she repudiates the
suggestion of her inconstancy: "Si l'on vous a dit que j'aie
écouté un seul moment M. d'Eyverdun, j'ai ses lettres, vous
connoissez sa main, un coup d'œil suffit pour me justifier."
Mademoiselle Curchod married, at the end of 1764, Jacques Necker,
and became the mother of Madame de Stäel-Holstein.
27.
_To his Stepmother._
Lausanne, August the 6th, 1763.