Morris tribune., 1880-04-29
GIBBONS EARLY LOVE.
His Yout' full Affection for the Mother
Madame de Stael.

where a Protestant pastor undertook
to bring him back to the faith he had
abandoned. He succeeded in curing him
of his Remaining proclivities, but, as
the sequel showed, very little religious
belief remained after his abjuration had
been made. Much moral principle seems
to have gone with his trust in religion.
He tells us in his very entertaining auto
biography that, his father having disap-
proved of his love tor Suzanne Churchod,
Swiss minister's daughter, he sighed as
a lover, yet obeyed as son, and that
the lady also calmly acquiesced in the
separation.
A recent contributor to the Reoue
des Deur Nondes, member of the De
Stael family, who has had access to
some of the correspondence between
Gibbon and Mile. Curchod, shows by ex-
tracts from their letters and connecting
details that the statement Is false, and
also that the young man was very heart
less. He was not of age when he became
engaged, and his letters were almost as
sonorous as his later work, the "Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire" but, in
the light of subsequent developments at
least, they sound very hollow. Even
Suzanne appears to have suspected his
fidelity at times, and her doubts drew
from him such an expression as this:
"How could you doubt an instant of
my love and my fidelity9 Have you not
read the depth of my soul hundred
hmes3 Have you not seen there pas.
sion as pure as 1t is ardent? Have you
not felt that your image will always hold
the first place in the heart which you
now despise, and that in the midst OF
pleasures, honors, and riches, without
you l could have no happiness7"
The elder Gibbon had more ambitious
views for his son, or perhaps the general
English contempt for foreigners, and ear.
" IN their engagement the lovers seem
to have made up their minds to wait
Still the father cannot be blamed for the
fact that from his return to England, in
1853, to 1852, when he finally broke of
the alliance, young Gibbon wrote Suzan,
ne no letters, and accompanied q little
work which he had written in French
on the study of Literature" with very
cold dedicatory note. She could not
easily forget him, though the exagger
ated dispair with which he clothed hi
farewell letter must have convinced any
unprecedented person that he was hum
bug. She could hardly believe that thu
man she loved could act thus, and wher
they met, year later, she could not tel
whether all hope must be abandoned
She wrote to him to know what to ex
pect, apOlogizing to him for the step
but declaring that she could bear tn
suspense no longer. She said:
"For five years, have sacrificed my
self to this chimera by conduct uniqu
and inconceivable. At last my mind, 70
mantle IS 1t is. has been convinced OF ii
error. l ask of you on my knees to dis
suade a foolish heart. Sign a complet
avowal of your indifference, and my sou
will resign itself to its fate; certaint
will produce the tranquility for which
sigh. You will be the most despicabl
of men if you refuse me this act of frank
ness, and God who sees my heart an
who loves me without doubt, althoug
He makes me suffer severe trials-ths
God, tell you, will punish you In spit
of my prayers, if there is the least di
guise in your answer, or if by your 8
1CACO yOO AudhC Va my lCpOoC'
The letter was promptly returned
her, and bore on it these sad words, il
scribed by her own hand: "a thinkin
soul is punished enough, and every sing
thought draws blood" She followe
this with another letter, in which sh
vowed that she had fancied in him ma
who never existed, that he was now n
more to her than any other man, an
proposed friendly correspondence. TIL
proposition, with truly English phlegl
and caution, he did not answer for sever
al weeks, and then with chilling COO
ness. The same course characterized b
actions at subsequent meeting. Tt
warm-hearted and indignant girl d.
nounced him in passionate letter. Sb
said:
"What remains to me now save
bless the Supreme Being who has save
me from the greatest OF evils? Yes,
commence to believe it-you would ha,
regarded me as burden. My existen'
would have injured your future or yo1
ambition, and your ill-disguised regre
would have sent me to the tomb by Il
road of despair"
She lost the hand of great historic
but of a very selfish man, and won tn
of M. Necker, the banker of Geneva, ar
later the confidential adviser of Il
French King. By him she became Il
mother of Madame de Stael, and the al
cestress of the Broglies, and other di
tinguished descendants of that famo
literary women. She met Gibbon
fashionable society when they had DO
became celebrities. Years had soften,
the memory of her wrong, and she tres
ed him kindly. He accepted the reconci
alton, and they were friends, but nothi
more She probably lost nothing VIII
she married Necker, but one cannot b
feel that the cynical historian won
have been less inclined to sneer had
married his early love.