Courage! beyond this little life Eternity and bliss are rife. Let us not tremble, then, my love, To cross the narrow sea; but thus Embrace each other; and above The swelling surge that pants for us "Ay, let us join our hands in prayer Who've trodden Wisdom's pleasant way. Entomb us waters! - Evermore Praised be the Just One! We adore! Our mouths shall praise Him, as we sink, And the last thought our souls shall think!" They spake - while them the monstrous deluge spray Translation of J. A. HERAUD. IBBON, EDWARD, an English historian; born at Putney, Surrey, April 27, 1737; died at London, January 15, 1794. He was the eldest son of a merchant, sprung from an ancient family, who acquired a considerable fortune. His five brothers and two sisters died in infancy, and his own con stitution was so delicate that it was not supposed that he would grow up to manhood. His education was consequently much neglected until he reached the age of sixteen, when a sudden change took place in his physical and mental condition. In 1752 he entered Magdalen College, Oxford, where in 1753 he "privately abjured the heresies of his childhood" before a Roman Catholic priest, and announced the fact to his father in a long letter. The indignant father made public the defection of his son from Protestantism, and he was expelled from the college after a residence of fourteen months. Long afterward he wrote of this period of his life: "To my present feelings it seems incredible that I should ever believe that I believed in transubstantiation: but I could not blush that my tender mind was entangled in the sophistry which had entangled the acute and manly understandings of a Chillingworth and a Bayle." Gibbon was now sent by his father to Lausanne, in Switzerland, and placed under the charge of M. Pavillard, a Calvinistic minister, who it was hoped would succeed in re-converting him to Protestantism. This re-conversion was effected in the next year; but from that time he ceased to care much for theological differences, though he appears always to have considered himself more of a Christian than anything else. His residence at Lausanne lasted five years, during which time he formed an attachment to Susanne Curchod, the daughter of a Protestant minister near Geneva. His father, however, would not consent to their marriage, and, writes Gibbon, "After a painful struggle, I yielded to my fate. I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son. My wound was insensibly healed by time, absence, and the habits of a new life." VOL. XI.-5 Mademoiselle Curchod in time became the wife of Jacques Necker, the famous French Minister of Finance, and the mother of Madame de Staël. Gibbon returned to England in 1758, and spent the ensuing two years at his father's family seat, engaged mainly in study, especially of the classics, and pursued a course of reading equalled by few of his contemporaries. An episode of this period was his joining the Hampshire militia, and studying practically the technicalities of the rnilitary art. About this time he made his first appearance in print in an Essai sur l'Etude de la Littérature. In 1763 he went again to Switzerland, stopping on the way three months at Paris, where he became acquainted with Diderot, d'Alembert, and other philosophers. He remained at Lausanne for nearly a year, and then proceeded to Italy. He returned to his father's house in June, 1765, and soon began to occupy himself in writing, in French, a History of the Liberty of the Swiss. In two years the first portion was completed, and the manuscript (the author's name not being divulged) was read before a literary club in London. The comments to which he listened were so unfavorable that he proceeded no further in the work. In 1757, in connection with his friend Duyverdun, he began the publication of Mémoires Littéraires de la Grande Bretagne, which it was proposed to continue periodically, but only two volumes (1757, 1758) were published. Of these Memoirs Gibbon says: "It is not my wish to deny how deeply I was interested in these Mémoires, of which I need not be ashamed. I will presume to say that their merit was superior to their reputation; but it is not less true that they were productions of more reputa |