the expence of Edward, his only fon, (with whofe marriz age he was not perfectly reconciled,) enriched his two daughters, Catherine and Hefter. The former became the wife of Mr. Edward Ellifton, an Eaft India captain: their daughter and heirefs Catherine was married in the year 1756 to Edward Eliot, efq. (now Lord Eliot), of Port Eliot, in the county of Cornwall; and their three fons are my nearest male relations on the father's fide. A life of devo tion and celibacy was the choice of my aunt, Mrs. Hefter Gibbon, who, at the age of eighty-five, ftill refides in a hermitage at Cliffe, in Northamptonshire; having long furvived her spiritual guide and faithful companion Mr. William Law, who, at an advanced age, about the year 1761, died in her house. In our family he had left the reputation of a worthy and pious man, who believed all that he professed, and practifed all that he enjoined. The character of a nonjuror, which he maintained to the laft, is a fufficient evidence of his principles in church and ftate; and the facrifice of intereft to confcience will be always refpectable. His theological writings, which our domeftic connection has tempted me to peruse, preserve an imperfect fort of life, and I can pronounce with more confidence and knowledge on the merits of the author. His laft compofitions are darkly tinctured by the incomprehenfible vifions of Jacob Behmen; and his difcourfe on the abfolute unlawfulness of ftage-entertainments is fometimes quoted for a ridiculous intemperance of fentiment and language." The actors and fpectators must all be damned: the playhouse is the porch "of Hell, the place of the Devil's abode, where he holds "his filthy court of evil fpirits: a play is the Devil's tri❝umph, a sacrifice performed to his glory, as much as in "the heathen temples of Bacchus or Venus, &c. &c." But these fallies of religious phrenfy must not extinguish the praife, which is due to Mr. William Law as a wit and a fcholar. His argument on topics of lefs abfurdity is fpeci ous and acute, his manner is lively, his ftyle forcible and clear; and, had not his vigorous mind been clouded by en

“

thusiasm,

thufiafm, he might be ranked with the moft agreeable and ingenious writers of the times. While the Bangorian controversy was a fashionable theme, he entered the lifts on the fubject of Christ's kingdom, and the authority of the priesthood: against the plain account of the facrament of the Lord's Supper he resumed the combat with Bifhop Hoadley, the object of Whig idolatry, and Tory abhor rence; and at every weapon of attack and defence the nonjuror, on the ground which is common to both, approves himself at least equal to the prelate. On the appearance of the Fable of the Bees, he drew his pen against the licenti ous doctrine that private vices are public benefits, and morality as well as religion múft join in his applaufe. Mr. Law's mafter-work, the Serious Call, is ftill read as a popular and powerful book of devotion. His precepts are rigid, but they are founded on the gofpel: his fatire is fharp, but it is drawn from the knowledge of human life; and many of his portraits are not unworthy of the pen La Bruyere. If he finds a spark of piety in his reader's mind, he will foon kindle it to a flame; and a philofopher must allow that he expofes, with equal feverity and truth, the ftrange contradiction between the faith and practice of the Christian world. Under the names of Flavia and Miranda he has admirably described my two aunts-the hea then and the chriftian fifter.

of

My father, Edward Gibbon, was born in October 17072 at the age of thirteen he could fcarcely feel that he was difinherited by act of parliament; and, as he advanced towards manhood, new profpects of fortune opened to his view. A parent is moft attentive to fupply in his children the deficiencies, of which he is conscious in himself: my grandfather's knowledge was derived from a strong underftanding, and the experience of the ways of men; of men; but my father enjoyed the benefits of a liberal education as a fcholar and a gentleman. At Westminster School, and afterwards at Emanuel College in Cambridge, he paffed through a regular courfe of academical difcipline; and the care of

his

his learning and morals was entrusted, to his private tutor the fame Mr. William Law. But the mind of a faint is above or below the prefent world; and while the pupil proceeded on his travels, the tutor remained at Putney, the much-honoured friend and fpiritual director of the whole family. My father refided fome time at Paris to acquire the fashionable exercifes; and as his temper was warm and fo cial, he indulged in thofe pleasures, for which the ftrictness of his former education had given him a keener relish. He afterwards vifited feveral provinces of France; but his excurfions were neither long nor remote; and the flender knowledge, which he had gained of the French language, was gradually obliterated. His paffage through Befançon is marked by a fingular confequence in the chain of human events. In a dangerous illnefs Mr. Gibbon was attended, at his own requeft, by one of his kinfmen of the name of Acton, the younger brother of a younger brother, who had applied himself to the ftudy of phyfic. During the flow recovery of his patient, the phyfician himself was attacked by the malady of love: he married his miftrefs, renounced his country and religion, fettled at Befançon, and became the father of three fons; the eldeft of whom, General Acton, is confpicuous in Europe as the principal Minifter of the King of the Two Sicilies. By an uncle whom another ftroke of fortune had tranfplanted to Leghorn, he was educated in the naval fervice of the Emperor; and his valour and conduct in the command of the Tufcan frigates protected the retreat of the Spaniards from Algiers. On my father's return to England he was chofen, in the general election of 1734, to ferve in parliament for the borough of Petersfield; a burgage tenure, of which my grandfather poffeffed a weighty fhare, till he alienated (I know not why) fuch important property. In the oppofition to Sir Robert Walpole and the Pelhams, prejudice and fociety connected his fon with the Tories,-fhall I fay Jacobites? or, as they were pleased to style themfelves, the country gentlemen? wish them he gave many a vote; with them he drank many

a bottle.

a bottle. Without acquiring the fame of an orator or a ftatefinan, he eagerly joined in the great oppofition, which, after a feven years chafe, hunted down Sir Robert Walpole: and in the purfuit of an unpopular minifter, he gra tified a private revenge against the oppreffor of his family in the South Sea perfecution.

I was born at Putney, in the county of Surry, the 27th of April, O. S. in the year one thoufand feven hundred and thirty-feven; the first child of the marriage of Edward Gibbon, efq. and of Judith Porten*. My lot might have been that of a flave, a favage, or a peafant; nor can I reflect without pleasure on the bounty of Nature, which cast my birth in a free and civilized country, in an age of fcience and philofophy, in a family of honourable rank, and decently endowed with the gifts of fortune. From my birth I have enjoyed the right of primogeniture; but I was fucceeded by five brothers and one fifter, all of whom were fnatched away in their infancy. My five brothers, whose names may be found in the parish register of Putney, I fhall not pretend to lament: but from my childhood to the prefent hour I have deeply and fincerely regretted my fifter, whose life was fomewhat prolonged, and whom I remember to have seen an amiable infant. The relation of a brother and a fifter, especially if they do not marry, appears to me of a very fingular nature. It is a familiar and tender friendship with a female, much about our own age; an affection perhaps foftened by the fecret influence of fex, but pure from any mixture of fenfual defire, the fole fpecies of Platonic love that can be indulged with truth, and without danger. VOL. I.

C

At

The union to which I owe my birth was a marriage of inclination and efteem. Mr. James Porten, merchant of London, refided with his family at Putney, in a houfe adjoining to the bridge and church-yard, where I have paffed many happy hours of my childhood. He left one fon (the late Sir Stanier Porten) and three daughters: Catherine, who preferved her maiden name, and of whom I hall hereafter speak; another daughter married Mr. Darrel of Richmond, and left two fons, Edward and Robert: the youngest of the three filters was Judith, my mother.

At the general election of 1741, Mr. Gibbon and Mr. Delmé ftood an expenfive and fuccefsful conteft at Southampton, against Mr. Dummer and Mr. Henly, afterwards Lord Chancellor and Earl of Northington. The Whig candidates had a majority of the refident voters; but the corporation was firm in the Tory intereft: a fudden creation of one hundred and feventy new freemen turned the fcale; and a fupply was readily obtained of refpectable volunteers, who flocked from all parts of England to support the cause of their political friends. The new parliament opened with the victory of an oppofition, which was fortified by ftrong clamour and ftrange coalitions. From the event of the first divifions, Sir Robert Walpole perceived that he could no longer lead a majority in the House of Commons, and prudently refigned (after a dominion of one and twenty years) the guidance of the state (1742). But the fall of an unpopular minifter was not fucceeded, according to general expectation, by a millenium of happiness and virtue fome courtiers loft their places, fome patriots loft their characters, Lord Orford's offences vanifhed with his power; and after a fhort vibration, the Pelham government was fixed on the old basis of the Whig ariftocracy. In the year 1745, the throne and the conftitution were attacked by a rebellion, which does not reflect much honour on the national fpirit: fince the English friends of the Pretender wanted courage to join his standard, and his enemies (the bulk of the people) allowed him to advance into the heart of the kingdom. Without daring, perhaps without defiring, to aid the rebels, my father invariably adhered to the Tory oppofition. In the most critical feafon he accepted, for the fervice of the party, the office of alderman in the city of London but the duties were fo repugnant to his inclination and hahits, that he refigned his gown at the end of a few months. The fecond parliament in which he fat was prematurely diffolved (1747): and as he was unable or unwilling to maintain a fecond conteft for Southampton, the life of the fenator expired in that diffolution.

The