After various changes of place, and the complete es tablishment of his health, Gibbon was entered a gentle man commoner of Magdalen College, Oxford, in April 1752. At this ancient and far-famed seat of learning, lie passed fourteen months, which, with bitterness of spirit, he declares to have been the most idle and unprofitable of his life. For this he does not blame himself, for lie declares he had now a keen appetite for knowledge ; but the relax ed discipline and customs of the university. He describes it as a place in which a young man may keep terms, spend money, and acquire bad habits, but totally unfit for stimu lating genius to exertion, or promoting the attainment of knowledge and wisdom.
l le declares that all the direct advantage which lie re ceived from Oxford was the reading of some of the come dies of 'Terence; and while he admits that some colleges may be better regulated than that to which he belonged, that many eminent men have been educated there, and that some practical improvements have been adopted since his time, lie still insists on the necessity, at the same time that he 'admits the difficulty of a great reformation. lie even complains that his moral conduct, and religious in struction, were completely neglected, and that, without a single exhortation or lesson, he was left, by the dim light of his catechism, to grope his way to the chapel and com munion table. His sedentary habits, and infirm health in early life, had led him to indulge in desultory reading; and though his father was a man of the world, who cared little about religious controversy, yet his pious aunt had taken pains to instruct him, and had encouraged him to ask questions and propose objections, which she was not always well qualified to answer. At Oxford lie read with avidity certain of the writings of Parsons the Jesuit, and of the learned and profound Bossuet, in defence of the doctrines of the Catholic faith, and having formed an in timacy with a young man of the same college to which he belonged, who had imbibed opinions favourable to the Church of Rome, he actually became a proselyte, and with the zeal of a martyr he went to a Catholic priest in London, renounced the Protestant faith, and was admitted into the pale of the Romish church.
He then wrote a long letter to his father, explanatory of his new profession, and the grounds of it. His father, equally indignant and amazed at the intelligence, some what imprudently spoke of his son's change of religion, and the gates of Magdalen College were thenceforth shut against him. This only added zeal to the faith of the young disciple, and his father, after much deliberation and sor row, determined to exile him for some years from his na tive country, and to fix him at Lausanne in Switzerland, under the roof of Mr Pavilliard, a Calvattistic minister, in the hope that his errors would be corrected. Thither
young Gibbon accordingly went, rejoicing that lie was counted worthy to suffer for what he deemed the cause of truth. In his new situation, he enjoyed few of the com forts, and none of the luxuries to which he had been ac customed. His accommodation was mean, and the econo my of the house by no means suited to the elegance of an English taste. Yet he soon became not merely reconciled to, but even pleased with his situation. The conversation, the books, but above all, the kindness and confidence of his amiable host, promoted his intellectual improvement, and his happiness. His mind too was amply gratified in its appetite for religious controversy ; and :Monsieur Pa villiard, who, in his letters to Mr Gibbon, senior, extols the progress of his pupil, informs him from time to time of the tenacity with which he held his opinions, and the obstinate per,severance with which he debated every point of his faith. At length the various articles of the Romish creed vanished like a dream, and after full conviction, lie was a communicant on Christmas day 1754, in the Presby terian church of Lausanne. As this forms a most impor tant part of Mr Gibbon's life, and as it tends to throw light on the subsequent scepticism which too plainly marks his writings, we have dwelt more fully on it than we should otherwise have done. The following oracular sentence contains the only allusion which he himself makes to its influence on his opinions. " It was here that I suspended my religious inquiries, acquiescing with implicit belief in the tenets and mysteries which are adopted by the gene ral consent of Catholics and Protestants." The incident next in importance, which distinguishes Mr Gibbon's residence at Lausanne, was the honourable attachment which he formed for the accomplished Made moiselle Susan Curchod, the daughter of an obscure Pro testant clergyman in the neighbourhood. The lady favour ed his addresses, but they were opposed by his father, on whom he found himself completely dependent, and to whose veto he submitted with a degree of apparent an froid not easy to be explained, consistently with the pro fessed warmth of his affection. This interesting female attained afterwards a melancholy eminence as the wife of Neckar. As the sensitive Rousseau speaks in terms of keen disapprobation of the conduct of Gibbon on this oc casion, it is fair to state, that the latter afterwards renew ed his intimacy with her as the wife of the celebrated ex minister, and lived for many years on a footing of easy and affectionate familiarity with herself and her husband.