The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-08-29
Mr.. Gibbons Love Passage.
[cornhill Magazine.l


About the time that Suzanne Churchod was
proclaimed queen of wit and beauty there ar
rived at Lausanne young Englishman, who
attracted more attention than is generally be-
slowed apon strangers of his age. After CIV
ing promise of achievement by his precocious
though desnltory taste for letters, he had been
dismissed from Oxford for joining the Roman
Catholic Church. His father, Tory member
of Parliament in easy circumstances, sent him
to be cured of his errors under the care Of q
Swiss Protestant minister, M. Pavillard-a
change in his mode of life, which came very
hard at first. This was Edward Gibbon, not
yet the fat-faced parsonage who confronts the
title-page of the decline and Fall' but slim,
studious youth, who appeared in the estimable
society of Lausanne with the two-fold distinc-
tion of his errors and his reform. He was
gradually admitted to their select diversions,
and such made fast friends among these. His
foreign birth, his natural place in wider
sphere, his intense application to learning
after brief outburst Of dissipation in COM
pany with some idle young fellows Of his own
nation, his speedy reconversion under the in
fluence of his wise and venerable tutor and the
to make him little lion in the intelligent cir
Gle to which he was introduced. He heard on
all sides of the charms ard talents of Mile
Churchod, and had great curiosity to see her
before they met. When the fated day came he
wrote in his diary: 81 have seen Mile.
Churchod-O -Omnia Uincit Anaoy, ct nos cedanus
Ansora." This was in June, 1857, when they
were both 20; he was her senior by only few
months. Suzanne has left picture Of him as
first appeared to her blue eyes, which is engag-
ing enough; "He has handsome hair, pretty
hand, and the bearing Of person Of condi-
tion. His face is so singular, so full of cley-
erness, that / know none which resembles
it. He has SO much expression that one CON-
stantly finds something new in it. His ges-
lures are SO appropriate that they add much
to his words In short, he has one of those ex-
traordinary physiognomies which one never
tires of studying, depicting, and following"
Gibbon, in his memoirs, gives still more Hat
tering descrip ioE of the young girl. His &C
count of the events which ensued Is brief and
dry, but he implies that at first, although his
suit was not discouraged he was much the
more enemored of the two. The affectation
of seeming worse than one is had not come
into vogue. Gibbon had to the full the decent
desire of putting his best foot forward which
belonged to his respectable class and times.
He took no pride in making himself out
Loveace to this village beauty, but left 1t to be
inferred that he, and not she, was the honora-
BILE victim of the affair. But there are many
ways in which man may ruin young girl,
and that Gibbon did not destroy Suzanne
Churchod's happiness for life is due to the
vigor of her intellect and character After
making her acquaintance he improved his op-
portunies to the utmost obtained permission
to visit her at her home, which he did several
times during the course of that Summer land
Autumn, once staying as long as week. An
interchange of letters soon began His at trst
betray more vanity and wish to dazzle his fair
correspondent than sentiment. Like other
lovers real and foigned, he counts the sand
since the glass was turned on his banishment
and tells her that it is ''a hundred and twenty
one hours, eighteen minutes and thirty-three
seconds since Grassy disappeared in the
clouds" In the next it is week since he had
seen her, "and to say that it seems like CEN
tury would be true but hackneyed." he pro-
fesses himself unwilling to use the language OF
ordinary lovers, and thus TO forfeit the cpl
thets of "original and unique" which she had
bestowed upon him; yet how shall he convey
notion of the tedium of existence since they
parted? He then relates how he once passed
three weeks in stupid country house, with
a cross old crone who talked to him about Cog
and Magog, Antic lrist and her private inter-
probation OF the Apocalypse, with no books
and no neighbors, except an old invalid who
described all his ailments, and two country
gentlemen who mad ruined themselves Dy law
suits, and believed that their only hope for
better days lay in the division of Germany
but one being a Prussian and the other an
Austrian, they could not agree about the con-
ditions 'sWell,' he cries, "those three weeks
did not seem half as long as the time have
been absent from you" After all, this is not
an excess of ardor. He pays her elaborate
compliments at the expense of every other
woman in the world, and tells her of picture
he has seen in a studio and taken for por-
trait of her, but the painter assured him that
it was fancy piece, his ideal of female loveli-
ness which he had sought for in vain
all over the world Gibbon relates this
adventure only to exalt the graces of Mile.
Churchod's mind and character above
those of her person. This artificial and
labored tone continues throughout the
correspondence on his side; it was the
tone OF the time; but neither in love letters
nor in the ludicrous poetry which he addresses
to her, in defiance of French syntax and pros
ody, is there one touch of true tenderness or a
single spark of real passion. Gibbons French
verses are curiosities of literature, as he wrote
French prose with remarkable correctness and
luency. At length he began to write as an
accepted suitor, yet he did not depart from
the conventional form in which he professed
himself to be with utmost esteem and aftec-
tion, her very humble servant