The Benton weekly record. [volume] (Benton, Mont.) 1880-1885, 1880-04-16
GHHRHgDES'S EAHsLY LOVE.
His Youthful Affection for the
Mother of Madame de SfaeE.

The historian Gibbon was never married
When mere boy, and while student a
Oxford, he turned Roman Catholic, ant
was sent by his indignant father to Switzer
land, where protestant pastor undertook
to bring him back to the faith he had aban
doned. He succeeded in curing him of his
Romanizing procliVites, but, as the seque
showed, very little Religious belief re.
NAMED after his abjuration had been made
Much moral principle seems to have gone
with his trust in religion. He tells lis in
his very entertaining autobiography that,
his father having disapproved OF his love
for Suzanne Curchod, Swiss minister's
daughter, he sighed as {; lover, yet obeyed
as son, and that the lady also calmly
acquieseed in the separation.
A recent contributor to the Revue aes
Deu1 blondes, a member of the De Stael
family, who has had access to some Of the
correspondence between Gibbon and Mile.
Curchod, shows by extracts from their
letters and connecting details that the last
statement is false, and also that the young
man was very heartless. He was not of
age when he became engaged, and hi. let
ters were almost as sonorous as his later
] work. the HDecline 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 express
sion as this:
GLOW could you doubt all instant Of my
love and my fidelity? Have you not read
the depth of my soul a hundred times?
Have you not seen there a passion as pure
as it 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 pleasure, honors, and
riches, without you could have no happi-
nesss -
The elder Gibbon had more ambitious
views for his son, or perhaps the general
English contempt for foreigners, and early
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 1862, when he finally broke off the alli-
ancc, young Gibbon wrote Suzanne no
letters, and accompanied little which he
had written in French on the fSttldy Of
Literature with cold dedicatory note.
She could not easily forget him, though
the exaggerated despair with which he
clothed his farewell letter must have con-
yinced any unprejudiced person that he
was hulnbug. She could hardly believe
that the man she loved could act thus, and
when they met year later, she could not
tell whether all hope must be abandoned.
She wrote to him to know what to expect,
apologizing to him and herself for the step,
but declaring that she could bear the sus-
pense no longer. She said: .a
''For five years have sacrificed myself
to this chimera by a conduct unique and
inconceiyable. At last my milii, roman
tic as it is, has been convinced of its error.
/ ask of you on my knees to dissuade Il
foolish heart. Sign complete ayewal Of
your Indifference, and my soul will resign
itself to its fate: certainty win produce the
tranquility for which sigh. You will be
the most despicable of men if you refuse
me this act of frankness, and God, who
sees my heart and who loves me without
doubt, although He makes me suffer Sc
we're trials-that God, l tell you, will pun
ish you in spite Of my prayers, if there is
the least disguise in your answer, Or If by
your silence you make a toy of my repose. !"
The letter was returned to her, and bears
on it these words, inscribed by her own
hand:
"a thinking soul is punished enough,
and every thought draws blood.' She
followed this with another letter, in which
she avowed that she had fancied in him
man who never existed, that he was now to
her no more than any otherman, and propos-
ed friendly correspondence. This PROPOSE
ton, with truly English phlegm and eau
ton, he did not answer for several weeks,
and then with chilling coolness. The
same course characterized his actions at a
subsequent meeting. The Warm-hearted
and indignant girl denounced him in
passionate letter. She said:
stWhat remains to me now save to bless
on my knees the Supreme Being who saved
uge from the greatest of all evllss Yes, l
commence to believe it-you would have
regarded me as burden. My existence
could have injured your future or your
ambition, and your ill-disguised regrets
would have sent me to the tomb by the
road Of despair
She lost the hand of Il great historian,
but a very selfish man, and won that Of
| Nc. Neeier, the banker Of GenevS, and
later the confidential adviser Of the French
King. By him she became the mother OF
Madame de Stael, and the ancestress Of the
Baoelies, and other distinguished descend
ants Of that famous literary woman. She
met Gibbon in fashionable society when
they had both become celebrities. Years
had softened the memory Of her wrong,
and she treated him kindly. He accepted
the reconciliation, and they were friends,
but nothing more. She probably lost
nothing when she married Neckar, but
one cannot but feel that the cynical hlsto-
rian would have been less inclined to sneer
had he married his early love.
Not ITO be Sneezed AT.
The American boy is not to be sneezed