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GIBBON 797 of grave and temperate irony, even on subjects of ecclesiastical solemnity." During the five years of his exile he made the French language more familiar to him than the English. He returned to Protestantism on Christmas, 1754, 18 months after his conversion to Catholicism, and from that time he cared little for theologi- cal differences. At Lausanne he formed an attachment for Susanue Curchod, the daughter of a Swiss pastor; but his father disapproving of the connection, Gibbon philosophically re- signed the object of his love, who afterward became the wife of the banker Necker. " I sighed," he says, " as a lover, but obeyed as a son." He returned to England in the summer of 1758, and passed two years chiefly in study at the family seat, Buriton, during which he accomplished a course of classical reading equalled by few of his contemporaries. After residing several months in London, he joined with his father the Hampshire militia, and for more than two years studied practically the military art. Even in the camp he found time for books, and meditated a number of great literary projects. In 1761 he published his Essai BUT Vetude de la litterature, which he had commenced at Lausanne, designed to de- feud classical studies against the attacks of the French philosophers. The essay was com- mended by foreign critics, though scarcely no- ticed in England. He travelled in 1763, and on his way to Lausanne spent three months in Paris. His essay had given him some re- nown, and ho frequently met D'Alembert, Di- derot, Baron d'Holbach, and the other philos- ophers. After remaining at Lausanne nearly a year, he passed in 1764 into Italy. As he approached Rome he occupied his mind with its antiquities and topography. He read Nar- dini, Donati, Cluverius ; he filled his common- place books with copious extracts, and stored his memory with abundant learning before he ventured to cross the forum or ascend the Cap- itoline hill. " It was at Rome," he writes, " on the 15th of October, 1764, as I sat musing amid the ruins of the capitol, while barefooted friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind. But my original plan was circumscribed to the decay of the city, rather than of the empire; and though my reading and reflections began to point toward that object, some years elapsed, and several avocations intervened, before I was seriously engaged in the execution of that labo rious task." He went south to Naples, return ed to Paris, and reached his father's house in June, 1 765. At Lausanne in his earlier visits he had formed an intimacy with M. Deyverdun, a young Swiss of fine scholarship, who now visit- ed him yearly at Buriton. With his aid Gib- bon began writing a history of the liberty of the Swiss. After two years of study and prep- aration, the first book, which was written in French, was read as an anonymous production before a literary club of foreigners in London by whom it was at once condemned, and the work went no further. He next, in connection with Deyverdun, started the Memoires litte- raires de la Grande Bretagne. It was de- signed to be annual, but two volumes only were printed (1767-'8), when Deyverdun went abroad. His next work was an anonymous and acrimonious attack on that portion of War- burton's " Divine Legation of Moses " in which the 6th book of the ^Eneid is represented as containing an allegorical account of the initia- tion of ./Eneas in the character of a lawgiver into the Eleusinian mysteries. Though War- burton was the ruling critic of the time, Gib- bon's "Critical Observations" (1770) were ad- mitted to have overthrown his hypothesis. The subject was one that could have but little general interest, but the unknown author was mentioned by Heyne of Gottingen as a foetus et elegantissimus Britannus. His father hav- ing died in November, 1770, Gibbon settled in London, and, with a considerable though some- what embarrassed estate, lived in studious ease, and began to labor more directly upon his " Decline and Fall," which he had been wont to "contemplate at awful distance." In 1774 he entered the house of commons as member for the borough of Liskeard, and held the seat for eight years a silent supporter of the measures of Lord North. Such was his timidity that he was never able to address the house; more than once he prepared himself to speak, but when the moment for action came his courage wholly deserted him. Near the close of 1775 the first volume of his history was completed. It was refused by the bookseller Elmsley, but accepted by Cadell and Strahan. It appeared in Febru- ary, 1776; its success was immediate, and, for a quarto and a grave historical production, unprecedented. The first edition was exhausted in a few days; a second and third were soon called for. Hume and Robertson, to whom he sent copies, wrote him congratulatory letters. His splendid theme and imposing style fixed the attention of the public, while his views of Christianity in the last two chapters called forth numerous replies. Watson, Taylor, Mil- ner, Lord Hailes, Davies of Oxford, and Dr. Priestley were the most noted of his assailants ; but to Davies alone would the historian con- sent to reply, because this critic had questioned not his faith, but his historical fidelity. His "Vindication" soon appeared, in which he freed himself from the charge of misquotation. Meantime he studied chemistry and anatomy for recreation. He wrote a political pamphlet in French, in defence of the ministry, and was rewarded with a sinecure place in the board of trade worth 800 a year. He was a member of the Literary club, and a noted conversationist. The second and third volumes of his history were published in 1781, and were received with avidity. On the fall of Lord North's ministry and the loss of his salary by the abolition of t. board of trade, Gibbon thought himself too poor to live in England, and went to Lausanne in