Part 2 (1/2)
CHAPTER V
LITERARY SCHEMES--THE HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND--DISSERTATION ON THE SIXTH aeNEID--FATHER'S DEATH--SETTLEMENT IN LONDON
Gibbon now (June, 1765) returned to his father's house, and remained there till the latter's death in 1770 He describes these five years as having been the least pleasant and satisfactory of his whole life
The reasons were not far to seek The unthrifty habits of the elder Gibbon were now producing their natural result He was saddled with debt, froes, readily consented to by his son, and the sale of the house at Putney, only partially relieved hie of poverty before hile-hearted loyalty and now becae is not often a profitable invest discovery cannot be made by the sincere scholar He is conscious of labour and protracted effort, which the prosperous professional man and tradesman who pass him on their road to wealth with a smile of scornful pity have never known He has forsaken coe, and the busy world meets him with a blank stare, and surmises shrewdly that he is but an idler, with an odd taste for wasting his time over books It says much for Gibbon's robustness of spirit that he did not break down in these trying years, that he did not weakly take fright at his prospect, and make hasty and violent efforts to mend it On the contrary, he res of the mind With diminished cheerfulness perhaps, but with no abatement of zeal, he pursued his course and his studies, thereby proving that he belonged to the select class of the strong and worthy who, penetrated with the loveliness of science, will not be turned away from it
His first effort to redeem the time was a project of a history of Switzerland His choice was decided by two circumstances: (1) his love for a country which he had made his own by adoption; (2) by the fact that he had in his friend Deyverdun, a felloorker who could render him most valuable assistance Gibbon never knew Ger e reflect what German literature amounted to, in those days; and he soon discovered that the most valuable authorities of his projected ere in the Gerue, and translated a mass of documents for the use of his friend They laboured for two years in collectingon the ”reeable task of composition” And even then he considered the preparation insufficient, as no doubt it was He felt he could not do justice to his subject; uninformed as he was ”by the scholars and statesmen, and remote from the archives and libraries of the Swiss republic” Such a beginning was not of good augury for the success of the undertaking He never wrote es of the projected work, and these, as they were in French, were subners in London, before whom the MS was read The author was unknown, and Gibbon attended theobserved ”to the free strictures and unfavourable sentence of his judges” He admits that the momentary sensation was painful; but the condehts: and he declares that he did not regret the loss of a slight and superficial essay, though it ”had cost some expense, much labour, and more time” He says in his Mee to say, was ahis papers after his death, and though not published by Lord Sheffield in the first two volumes of his Miscellaneous Works, which the latter edited in 1796, they appeared in the supplee for ourselves of their value One sees at once why and how they failed to satisfy their author'sto that style of historical writing which consists in the rhetorical transcription and adorninal authorities, but in which the writer never gets close enough to his subject to apply the touchstone of a clear and trenchant criticism Such criticism indeed was not common in Switzerland in his day, and one cannot bla the researches of ators But his historical sense was aroused to suspicion by the story of Williaether, one may pronounce the sketch to be pleasantly written in a flowing, picturesque narrative, and showing immense advance in style beyond the essay on the Study of Literature David Hued him to persevere, and the advice was justified under the circuret that it was not followed
After the failure of this scheme Gibbon, still in connection with Deyverdun, planned a periodical work under the title of _Mene_ Only two volumes ever appeared, and the speculation does not seem to have met with much success
Gibbon ”presumes to say that their h they produced more reputation than emoluives a fair picture of the literary and social condition of England at the time The heavy review articles are interspersed hat is intended to be lighter matter on the fashi+ons, foibles, and prominent characters of the day
Gibbon owns the authorshi+p of the first article on Lord Lyttelton's history of Henry the Second, and his hand is discernible in the account of the fourth volume of Lardner's work _On the Credibility of the Gospel History_ The first has no merit beyond a faithful report
The latter is written with our, and shows the interest that he already took in Christian antiquities Other articles, evidently frolish theatre and Beau Nash of Bath, are the liveliest in the collection The azine was avowedly intended for Continental readers, andenough But it died before it had time to make itself known[6]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 6: Two volumes appeared of the _Memoires Litteraires_ Of these only the first is to be found in the British Museues Here is the Table des Matieres:--(1) Histoire de Henri II, par Milord Lyttelton; (2) Le Nouveau Guide de Bath; (3) Essai sur l'Histoire de la Societe Civile, par M Ferguson; (4) Conclusions des Meie (5) Recueil des Tees Anciens, par Lardner; (6) Le Confessional; (7) Transactions Philosophiques; (8) Le Gouverneur, par D L F Spectacles, Beaux Arts, Nouvelles Litteraires]
When the _Meain left without a definite object to concentrate his energy, and with his work still to seek One ht wonder why he did not seriously prepare for the _Decline and Fall_ It must have been chiefly at this time that it was ”conte doubt whether the distance would ever be lessened and the work achieved, or even begun The probability is he had too little peace ofthat required calm and protracted labour
”While so many ofwith a rapid step in the various roads of honour or fortune I stood alone, ie of our doan to apprehend that in ht be left without the fruits of either industry or inheritance” Perhaps a reasonable apprehension of poverty isthan the reality In the latter case prompt action is so imperatively coence of regrets; but when indigence seey is apt to be produced out of which only the most practical characters can rouse themselves, and these are not, as a rule, scholars by nature We need not be surprised that Gibbon during these years did nothing serious, and postponed undertaking his great work The inspiration needed to acco and arduous course as it implied could not be kindled in a mind harassed by pecuniary cares The fervent heat of a poet's ihtly in poverty as in opulence, but the gentle yet prolonged enthusiasm of the historian is likely to be quenched when the resources of life are too insecure[7]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 7: Scholarshi+p has been frequently cultivated areat poverty; but from the time of Thucydides, the owner of mines, to Grote, the banker, historians seem to have been in, at least, easy circumstances]
It is perhaps not wholly fanciful to suspect that Gibbon's next literary effort was suggested and determined by the inward discomposure he felt at this time By nature he was not a controversialist; not that he wanted the abilities to support that character, but his e to takeother men But at this point in his life he made an exception, and an unprovoked exception When he wrote his famous vindication of the first volu in self-defence, and repelling savage attacks upon his historical veracity But in his _Critical Observations on the Sixth Book of the aeneid_ he sought controversy for its own sake, and becaaiety or bitterness of heart? That inward unrest easily produces an aggressive spirit is a matter of co Warburton he sought a diversion from the worry of domestic cares Be that as iteffusion he ever allowed hilish prose, and it is doubtful whether he ever ed it so well The little tract is written with singular spirit and rapidity of style It is clear, trenchant, and direct to a fault It is indeed far less critical than polemical, and shows no trace of lofty calm, either erness to refute and es of the tiht to complain of such a style of controversy But there is no width and elevation of view The writer does not carry the discussion up to a higher level, and dominate his adversary from a superior standpoint Controversy is always ephear, unless it can rise to the discussion and establishment of facts and principles valuable for themselves, independently of the particular point at issue It is this quality which has worth and Bentley supereminent The particular point for which the writers contended is settled or forgotten But in e discourse of reason--on topics of perennial interest, did such justice, though only in passing, to certain other truths, that they are gratefully remembered ever after Thus Bentley's dissertation on Phalaris is read, not for the main thesis--proof of the spuriousness of the letters--but for the profound knowledge and adic hich subsidiary positions are maintained on the way to it Tried by this standard, and he deserves to be tried by a high standard, Gibbon fails not much, but entirely The _Observations_ are rarely, if ever, quoted as an authority of weight by any one engaged on classical or Virgilian literature This arises from the attitude of the writer, who is nearly solely occupied with establishi+ng negative conclusions that aeneas was _not_ a lawgiver, that the Sixth aeneid is _not_ an allegory, that Virgil had _not_ been initiated in the Eleusinian es now hold that he has not done full justice to the grain of truth that was to be found in Warburton's clumsy and prolix hypothesis[8] It should be added that Gibbon very candidly adrets the acrimonious style of the pamphlet, and condemns still more ”in a personal attack his cowardly concealment of his naton, _Introduction to the Sixth aeneid_ ”A reader of the present day will, I think, be induced to award the pale and iil intended to embody in his picture the poetical view of that inner side of ancient religion which the estion on the Study of the aeneid_, by H Nettleshi+p, p 13]
The _Observations_ were the last hich Gibbon published in his father's lifetime His account of the latter's death (Novely written, and shows the affectionate side of his own nature to advantage He acknowledges his father's failings, his weakness and inconstancy, but insists that they were compensated by the virtues of the head and heart, and the warraceful person, polite address, gentle manners, and unaffected cheerfulness recommended him to the favour of every cos of shame, tenderness, and self-reproach” which preyed on his father'san embarrassed estate and precarious fortune to his son andHe had no taste for study in the fatal summer of 1770, and declares that he would have been ashamed if he had ”I submitted to the order of nature,” he says, in words which recall his resignation on losing his rief was soothed by the conscious satisfaction that I had discharged all the duties of filial piety” We see Gibbon very fairly in this remark He had tenderness, steady and warm attachments, but no passion
Nearly two years elapsed after his father's death, before he was able to secure from the wreck of his estate a sufficient competence to establish himself in London His house was No 7, Bentinck Street, near Manchester Square, then a re was that of a solitary bachelor, who could afford an occasional dinner-party Though not absolutely straitened in means, we shall presently see that he was never quite at his ease in money matters while he rereat anxieties, and he began seriously to contereat work
Gibbon, as we have seen, looked back with little satisfaction on the five years between his return from his travels and his father's death
They are also the years during which his biographer is able to follow him with the least certainty Hardly any of his letters which refer to that period have been preserved, and he has glided rapidly over it in his Memoirs Yet it was, in other respects besides the matter of pecuniary troubles, a momentous epoch in his life The peculiar viehich he adopted and partly professed on religion must have been formed then But the date, the circumstance, and the occasion are left in darkness Up to December 18, 1763, Gibbon was evidently a believer
In an entry in his private journal under that date he speaks of a Co spectacle,” on the ground that there is ”neither business nor parties, and they interdict even whist” on that day How soon after this his opinions began to change, it is impossible to say But we are conscious of a markedly different tone in the _Observations_, and a sneer at ”the ancient alliance between the avarice of the priests and the credulity of the people” is in the familiar style of the Deists from Toland to Chubb There is no evidence of his familiarity with the widely diffused works of the freethinkers, and as far as I am aware he does not quote or refer to them even once But they could hardly have escaped his notice Still his strong historic sense and solid erudition would be ue and inaccurate scholarshi+p, and chiht of Nature Still we know that he practically adopted, in the end, at least the negative portion of these views, and the question is, When did he do so? His visit to Paris, and the coest that as a probable date of his change of opinions But the entry just referred to was subsequent by several months to that visit, and we hteenth century would pronounce the austerities of a Co spectacle It is probable that his relinquishi+ng of dogradual, and for a ti the Nonjurors and Methodists; and with neither of these groups could he have had the least sympathy His acquaintance with Hus of Bayle, are e of sentiment which was in a way predestined by natural bias and cast of mind Any occasion would serve to precipitate the result In any case, this result had been attained some years before the publication of the first volu to his preparatory studies for the execution of that work, he says, ”As I believed, and as I still believe, that the propagation of the Gospel and the triumph of the Church are inseparably connected with the decline of the Rohed the causes and effects of the revolution, and contrasted the narratives and apologies of the Christians theans have cast on the rising sects The Jewish and heathen testimonies, as they are collected and illustrated by Dr Lardner, directed without superseding inals, and in an ample dissertation on the miraculous darkness of the Passion I privately drew e”
Here we have the argument which concludes the sixteenth chapter distinctly announced But the previous travail of spirit is not indicated Gibbon has es of his conversion to Roious opinions he has not written, or he has suppressed theuess their outline
CHAPTER VI
LIFE IN LONDON--PARLIAMENT--THE BOARD OF TRADE--THE DECLINE AND FALL--MIGRATION TO LAUSANNE