New-York tribune., 1901-09-22

"Innkeeper to Europe that Voltaire is most
interesting during his years by the Lake on
Geneva He saw everybody-that is, everybody
worth seeing. They came from every point OF
the compass princes and philosophers, seni-
mentalists and authors. actors and mere trav-
ellers He is said to have written about 14oOO
letters at this period. and it is not improbable
that he gave as many dinners TO Vlsi-
tors great and small AS rule, he re-
ceived admiration if not reverence. for his
pains but Mr. Gribble tells the story Of one
guest whose sense of gratitude could not quite
overbear his sense of theological right This
was Claude Gay. the Quaker from Philadelphia.
who to begin with was very far from feeling
any eagerness to meet the "Innkeeper- In
fact, he only consented to to Ferney on
VoItaire's agreeing TO bride his tongue. and
say nothing nippant about holy things. The
compact was kept up to a certain point. when
Voltaire lost his temper at finding that his
best sarcasns were thrown away upon his i'm
perturbable visitor. The latter was not in the
least abashed Rising from the dinner table, he
Mortified all those present by blandly saying:
Friend voltaire, Perhaps thou mayest come
! TO understand these matters rightly in the
mean time, finding l can do thee no Soou'
| leave thee and SO fare thee we'll
The host retired in dudgeOn'' to his room
| Tba guests with the exception of Cay, re-
| nained mute with terror. Mr. Gay walked out
of the room and strolled back to Geneva IN
writing about Gibhon it is inevitable that Mr.
| Gribble should dwell upon Mile. Curchods
Mace in the biography of the historian He
wisely rer-ains from too dithyrambic DIS
| course on the theme which Gibhon himself
| supplied in his famous confession: L signed as
| a lover obeyed as a son. He IS not gong 10
! work himself up into a passion OF righteous ln-
dignation where Suzanne Curchod herself was
willing to be consoIed But he makes hvert-
| ing chapter out of the recital or facts which
show that if the rejected maiden learned 10
smile over her recalcitrant lovers behavior she
went through more stormy stages of renuncia-
ton than she is commonly understood TO nave
suffered one explanation of the episode that
has anparentIy escaped Mr.. Gribble would icave
the genuineness of her anger unquestioned
without lessening the weight of the fact that
| she and Gibbon got very well as friends 2ller
she had become Mime. Necker 1t is that she
had embedded somewhere in her nomlnally
sedate nature a feminine taste for sentlmeut1i
histrionics. If as Mr.. Gribble suggests, STE
was disngenuOus enough TO have deHoerateS
| spread her net TO catch a husband IN the niSt
Mace she was quite capable of making up her
mind that she would not let the bird escape
without indulgins in certain amount of the
| luxury of woe" The oldest remark in this book
| is one in which the author hazards the notion
that Nine de Stael inherited her sprightEness
of disposition from her father. solemn and
| lugubrious though he seemed TO casual ac-
quaintances'' rather than from Nine Necker-
The Gibbon episode alone would indicate traits
in Ia Belle Curchod' foreshadowing the tenn
permanent of "Cornne." The last person in the
world to bequeath to his daughter anything;
| like the nature which she possessed was Louis
NVTs unconditional Minister of Finance Mr.
Gribbles jottinss draw to an end with an ac-
count of Mime. de StaGIs salon at Coppet. and
especially of her serio-comic transactions with
Benjamin Constant. The troubles of that spoiled
darling make very comic reading.