CHAPTER XX.

Î‘. Î‘Ï…Ï„Î¿Ï‚ Î¼ÎµÏ„Î±ÏƒÏ‡Ï‰Î½.

The Sexagenarian has, in various parts of his manuscript, introduced detached remarks and anecdotes on the subject of book clubs, literary societies, and meetings of similar denomination.

He seems to have been a member of one in particular, which must have communicated no ordinary satisfaction, as he has sketched a concise delineation of the individuals of whom it was composed, which is here introduced, to exercise the acuteness of those who may be disposed to appropriate the several descriptions and portraits.

The first was a Barrister; a man of singular acuteness, great vigour of intellect, extensive knowledge of modern languages, particularly of French, a very subtle disputant, and never perhaps exceeded in conversation talents. In the time of Louis XIV. it was notorious that the great wits of the day, bestowed a portion of their morning hours, in preparingthemselves to shine in the parties they were to meet in the evening, by making themselves familiar with such subjects as were likely to be introduced, by contriving such verbal artifices as might afford them the opportunity of introducing new jests, puns, jeux des mots, and so forth.

Our legal friend laboured under a somewhat similar imputation, but be this as it may, his talents were of the very highest order, and though perhaps in many of his opinions, and more particularly in those concerning politics, he did not coincide with any one member of the Symposium, he was greatly acceptable to all, from the vivacity of his communications, the easy flow of his eloquence, his diversified narratives, and urbanity of manners.

He qualified himself for professional distinction by severe application, and he long and patiently endured the â€œres angusti domi,â€ with the hope of progressively making his way to more lucrative business. But this seemed still to linger at a distance; he was, however, too high-spirited to be easily turned aside from his purpose, and too confident in his own natural and acquired attainments, to despair of finally accomplishing his object. Two things occurred, which attracted the public attention towards him, and made him the object of more general attention and curiosity.

He undertook to be the advocate of the French Revolution in its primordial state, and produced a work upon the subject, which became the fertile parent of disputation, replies, rejoinders, and commentaries.

He also read public lectures on legal subjects, which were numerously attended, and exhibited unequivocal demonstration of his abilities. He might probably not have been obliged to court the office which he afterwards and honourably filled, but for the pertinacity of his political opinions, and his strenuous opposition, on all occasions, to the measures of government.

This pertinacity, however, so far, gave way at length, that he accepted from ministers a judicial situation in one of the remote dependencies of the empire, where he resided for several years. His acceptance of this office was considered by his party as tergiversation, and he was reproached by them accordingly. One example of this reproach is commemorated as having been made by a very distinguished friend of opposition, on the occasion of the trial of Oâ€™Connor and his friends at Maidstone. It is too well known to require repetition.

At length he returned to his native country, and great were the political changes which had occurred in the interval of his absence. What did he do? It might have been supposed that government possessed some claims upon his gratitude; it mighthave been presumed, that having witnessed the follies and the pernicious effects of the revolutionary principles he had once advocated, he would shrink from the peril of being even the suspected partisan of a power which had been exercised to the destruction of every thing, which by the wise and the good was contemplated with the strongest attachment and sincerest veneration. He nevertheless went back to the Magi, by whom he had formerly been deluded, and was quickly initiated in all the greater and lesser ceremonies of the Gallic Eleusis, Madame de S. being the high-priestess.

It was, however, reported of him, that even in the midst of his wanderings in the labyrinths of politics, he not only meditated, but actually commenced, a great and arduous historical labour, to which his talents were fully adequate, and which promised to place his name on a pedestal, far more lofty and substantial too, than any fabrick which could possibly be raised by a subtle, ingenious, but powerless minority.

On the subject of this gentleman, with the exception of a few scattered notices, nothing more of importance appears in our Recollections. There is reason to apprehend, that at this period, the Sexagenarian retired from the world, and totally lost sight of his former associates.

Back to Index Next