Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794; Historians -- Great Britain -- Biography
After carrying me to Putney, to the house of his friend Mr. Mallet,
by whose philosophy I was rather scandalized than reclaimed, it was
necessary for my father to form a new plan of education, and to
devise some method which, if possible, might effect the cure of my
spiritual malady. After much debate it was determined, from the
advice and personal experience of Mr. Eliot (now Lord Eliot) to fix
me, during some years, at Lausanne in Switzerland. Mr. Frey, a
Swiss gentleman of Basil, undertook the conduct of the journey: we
left London the 19th of June, crossed the sea from Dover to Calais,
travelled post through several provinces of France, by the direct
road of St. Quentin, Rheims, Langres, and Besancon, and arrived the
30th of June at Lausanne, where I was immediately settled under the
roof and tuition of Mr. Pavilliard, a Calvinist minister.
The first marks of my father's displeasure rather astonished than
afflicted me: when he threatened to banish, and disown, and
disinherit a rebellious son, I cherished a secret hope that he would
not be able or willing to effect his menaces; and the pride of
conscience encouraged me to sustain the honourable and important
part which I was now acting. My spirits were raised and kept alive
by the rapid motion of my journey, the new and various scenes of the
Continent, and the civility of Mr. Frey, a man of sense, who was not
ignorant of books or the world. But after he had resigned me into
Pavilliard's hands, and I was fixed in my new habitation, I had
leisure to contemplate the strange and melancholy prospect before
me. My first complaint arose from my ignorance of the language. In
my childhood I had once studied the French grammar, and I could
imperfectly understand the easy prose of a familiar subject. But
when I was thus suddenly cast on a foreign land, I found myself
deprived of the use of speech and of hearing; and, during some
weeks, incapable not only of enjoying the pleasures of conversation,
but even of asking or answering a question in the common intercourse
of life. To a home-bred Englishman every object, every custom was
offensive; but the native of any country might have been disgusted
with the general aspect of his lodging and entertainment. I had now
exchanged my elegant apartment in Magdalen College, for a narrow,
gloomy street, the most unfrequented of an unhandsome town, for an
old inconvenient house, and for a small chamber ill-contrived and
ill-furnished, which, on the approach of Winter, instead of a
companionable fire, must be warmed by the dull invisible heat of a
stove. From a man I was again degraded to the dependence of a
schoolboy. Mr. Pavilliard managed my expences, which had been
reduced to a diminutive state: I received a small monthly allowance
for my pocket-money; and helpless and awkward as I have ever been, I
no longer enjoyed the indispensable comfort of a servant. My
condition seemed as destitute of hope, as it was devoid of pleasure:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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