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In the common intercourse of life, all who approached him acknowledged his superiority; yet it was pardoned, because none were ever made to feel it. His conversation, while it was full of instruction, conveyed it in a manner so delicate and imperceptible, that no one who listened to it could have a sense of humiliation. He was in general extremely indulgent of the faults of other men; but as a natural consequence of his constant care to repress in himself the movements of self love, he was impatient of any marked expression of that sentiment in others. He was accustomed to say, that a gentleman would never speak of himself; that Christian piety extinguishes the feeling of self, and good breeding suppresses and conceals it. It is evident from his Provincial Letters, and others of his works, that he naturally possessed great gayety; a disposition which even pain and sickness could not entirely overcome. In society he often indulged in lively strokes of wit and ridicule, such as hurt nobody, while they relieved the dulness of conversation. They commonly had some moral aim: thus he took delight in ridiculing those authors who, when speaking of their works, are in the habit of saying my book, my commentary, my history; they would do better, he would remark in a good humoured manner, to say our book, our commentary, our history, since they commonly contain more that belongs to others than to themselves.

His family regarded him with the highest veneration: he had inspired them with his own taste for the sciences, his own religious sentiments, and, above all, his own love of virtue. M. Perier, his brother-in-law, died in 1672, with the reputation of an excellent magistrate and a man of exalted piety: the sciences will ever remember their obligations to him for the aid which he afforded to Pascal in his inquiries concerning the weight of the air. Madame Perier died while on a visit to Paris, in the month of April 1687; having performed through life all that is enjoined, either by duty or religion, as a wife and a mother. Her domestic felicity was never for a moment disturbed, because it rested on the basis of religion.

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MEMOIRS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF M. NECKER.

BY THE BARONESS DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN.

(Concluded from page 363.)

WHEN Cato perished at Utica, though he redeemed not the liberties of Rome, he consecrated to the admiration of future ages the noble sentiments which he had illustrated by his solitary example. Who shall deny that M. Necker, in becoming a martyr to the union of civil and religious liberty, has promoted the cause of that virtue, which, to a superficial observer, might appear to suffer with him?

In 1790, that fatal epoch of his life, when he was condemned to witness the annihilation of his plans, the destruction of his hopes, the oblivion of his meritorious services, the forfeiture of that popularity and esteem which had formed his noblest recompense, even in that fatal year, he was never seduced to a deviation from upright conduct, or to a dereliction of magnanimous sentiments.

On the publication of the red book, (the contents of which should have been sacred, since they referred exclusively to the private expenditure of the king and royal family,) M. Necker became the apologist and the advocate of those who were implicated in the disclosure, although it was wholly unconnected with his own administration, and only exposed that of his adversary and predecessor, M. de Calonne. Among other secret memorandums, was an account of money transmitted to the emigrant princes of France, by whom he had been treated with marked hostility. Yet, this circumstance had no other effect than to render him more earnest in vindicating the gratuities which had been accepted by those princes, of whom he spoke with that respectful tenderness, by which sympathy and commiseration are most delicately expressed:-too amiable to cherish hatred-too magnanimous to harbour suspicion, my father's soul was inaccessible to one vindictive sentiment. When the convention passed the decree for abolishing titles of nobility, M. Necker not only advised the king to refuse his sanction, but even published a remonstrance against the edict, at the moment when the enthusiasm for

equality was omnipotent in France. It is foreign to my present purpose to inquire how far opinions, which by some might be stigmatized as prejudices, were consistent with the really philosophical principles which my father had ardently embraced. It would be irrelevant to point out the admirable re-union of contrasts; or rather that extent of intellect which rendered him at once the advocate for freedom and the defender of monarchy.

Whenever it shall be my business to publish my father's works, I shall annex to them a collection of all memorials presented to the king and the national assembly during the fifteen months of his administration. On the authority of these documents, I venture to assert, that there exists not an injustice, an abuse, or a defect incident to political institutions, which he has not exposed, or anticipated, or for which he has not offered a caution and suggested a remedy. But this was no moment for listening to the voice of truth, when all the fiercer passions were suddenly called into action, and this fair realm of France opened to the honest enthusisiast, or the mercenary speculator, the richest domain that ever tempted cupidity, or allured imagination.

My father's house having been menaced with destruction, my mother became apprehensive for his safety; and as he had no longer a hope of being useful to his country, he departed in 1790, having previously prepared a memorial on the depreciation of assignats, in which he announced the financial changes which have since taken place; but, whilst he predicted with certainty the ruin impending on the creditors of the state, he left his two millions in the royal treasury, although he possessed a bond from the king which would have authorized him to reclaim them at pleasure; and, although as minister of finance, he possessed more facility than any other person for enforcing restitution. This last excess of generosity has not escaped censure, and might almost be considered as a blamable imprudence, but for the reflection that my father wished to leave to his country a pledge of his administration, and not to detach his fate from the destiny of France. It should also be observed, that although he had no other expectation than that his interest should be paid in paper money, it was repugnant to his character to admit the suspicion, that the

principle of a debt so sacredly pledged, should be violated in the most perilous season of political agitation.

On his return to Switzerland, through Basle, my father was stopt at Arcy sur Aube, and menaced with destruction at Vesoul, in consequence of the popular suspicion which libellous publications had excited against him.

He was accused of having betrayed the interests of the people in favour of the emigrant party, who, in foreign countries, had avowed for him the most unfriendly sentiments. It was thus that he remeasured that road which, but a few months before, he had passed in triumph! Cruel vicissitude, which would have inflicted pangs on the most courageous soul, and which an unsullied conscience alone could sustain with patience and benignity.

At length he arrived at Copet, where I soon rejoined him; (fourteen years from the present moment.) I found him pensive -silent-abstracted; but without any sentiment of bitterness or

resentment.

One day, in speaking of the deputies from the city of Tours, who had been his inmates for some months during the federation, he said to me" This city testified much kindness for me a year ago: perhaps it is not quite forgotten: perhaps in that part of France I am still beloved." It is for those only who have been familiar with his countenance, who can recal the sublime expression in his eyes, or the touching tones of his voice-it is for those alone to conceive how these words vibrated to that heart by which he was passionately adored. But it was not often that he divulged his secret emotions. Calm and collected in his deportment, on every subject in which his personal feelings were interested, he had that reserve which is the indelible character of intense sensibility.

On his arrival at Copet, that sacred spot where he still lives but in the bitter regrets which eternize his memory, he commenced that admirable life of solitude and resignation, which conciliated even the respect of his enemies. It was here that he composed, on the different political situations of France, those celebrated works which have successively obtained the approbation of men whose party was vanquished, and extorted the censure of others whose cause was victorious. It was in this retreat that he

developed a celestial soul; a character which every day became more pure, more noble, more susceptible of humane and generous sentiments, and in his adversity he impressed on all who approached him a veneration which must remain till death. In composing the political life of my father, I shall have occasion to examine the character and object of his writings. As some of those referred particularly to subjects of temporary interest, I shall, perhaps, detach from them the general ideas, to form a body of political principles which must be imperishable as his name. I am persuaded, that many even of M. Necker's warmest admirers, will be struck with the force of his genius, when disengaged from those ephemeral events against which he had so often to exert his intellectual strength.

It will be curious to select from those political compositions, which were prompted by the exigences of the moment, ideas worthy to be presented to posterity. The only work which he published, independently of political tracts, is a series of moral and religious essays. It has by some been objected to this book, that it is divided into sections, in the manner of a scriptural discourse; but surely this form is well adapted to the nature of the work, and invests it with appropriate dignity and importance. From the introduction of the beautiful thoughts, the original and pointed expressions of the Holy Scriptures, it acquires all the eloquence of the pulpit, and is more interesting than a merely didactic composition. How many graces of style and of sentiment are contained in this work? What a profound knowledge of universal nature in all its weakness and all its strength-of that nature at once susceptible, stormy and impassioned," which belongs to those who, by talents, by misfortunes,or even by passions, have been roused from the sleep of the soul-the lethargic vulgarity of mere physical existence. What sublime indulgence is here united to spotless purity: what consolation is offered for every grief that alone excepted for which I in vain invoke his admirable genius. There exists not a social relation, a human duty, public or private, whether incident to youth or to age, to civic functions or domestic duties, for which he has not prescribed some salutary principle, or pronounced some irrevocable truth. But he is one whom the sufferer will best learn to appreciate

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