4. SERVIN.

THE account which the celebrated Sully gives us of young Servin is uncommon.

The beginning of Juire,

1623," says he, "I set out for Calais, where I was to embark, having with me a retinue of upwards of two hundred gentlemen, or who called themselves such, of whom a considerable number were really of the first distinction. Just before my departure, old Servin came and presented his son to me, and begged I would use my endeavours to make him a man of some worth and honesty; but he confessed he dared not hope, not through any want of understanding or capacity in the young man, but from his natural inclination to all kinds of vice. I found him to be at once both a wonder and a monster; I can give no other idea of that assemblage of the most excellent and most pernicious qualities. Let the reader represent to himself a man of genius so lovely, and an understanding so extensive, as rendered him scarce ignorant of anything that could be known; of so vast and ready a comprehension, that he immediately made himself master of what he attempted; and of so prodigious a memory, that he never forgot what he had once learned; he possessed all parts of philosophy and the mathematics, particularly fortification and drawing; even in theology he was so well skilled, that he was an excellent preacher whenever he had a mind to exert that talent, and an able disputant for and against the reformed religion indifferently; he not only understood Greek, Hebrew, and all the languages which we call learned, but also the different jargons or modern dialects; he accented and pronounced them so naturally, and so perfectly imitated the gestures and manners both of the several nations of Europe, and the particular provinces

of France, that he might have been taken for a native of all or any of these countries; and this quality he applied to counterfeit all sorts of persons, wherein he succeeded wonderfully; he was moreover the best comedian and greatest droll that perhaps ever appeared; he had a genius for poetry, and had written many verses; he played upon almost all instruments, was a perfect master of music, and sung most agreeably and justly; he was of a disposition to do, as well as to know, all things; his body was perfectly well suited to his mind-he was light, nimble, dexterous, and fit for all exercises; he could ride well, and in dancing, wrestling, and leaping, he was admired; there are not any recreative games that he did not know; and he was skilled in almost all the mechanic arts. But now for the reverse of the medal: here it appeared that he was treacherous, cruel, cowardly, deceitful; a liar, a cheat, a drunkard, and a glutton; a sharper in play, immersed in every species of vice, a blasphemer, an atheist; in a word, in him might be found all the vices contrary to nature, honour, religion, and society; the truth of which he himself evinced with his latest breath, for he died in the flower of his age, in a common brothel, perfectly corrupted by his debaucheries, and expired with a glass in his hand, cursing and denying God."

It is evident from this extraordinary case, that "with the talents of an angel a man may be a fool." There is no necessary connexion between great natural abilities and religious qualifications. They may go together, but they are frequently found asunder.

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5. EDWARD GIBBON.

EDWARD GIBBON, the celebrated author of the history of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," is well known to have been what is termed a philosopher and an infidel.

He was born in 1737. In early life he became a papist; he afterward renounced popery, and seems to have paid little attention to religion in any form; nor does it appear that he ever made it a matter of serious thought or inquiry. In his memoirs he has undesignedly presented a striking view of the cheerless nature of infidelity. "The present is a fleeting momentthe past is no more-and our prospect of futurity dark and doubtful. This day may possibly be my last, but the laws of probability-so true in general, so fallacious in particular-still allow about fifteen years. I shall soon enter into the period, which, as the most agreeable of his long life, was selected by the judgment and experience of the sage Fontenelle. His choice is approved by the eloquent historian of nature, who fixes our moral happiness to the mature season in which our passions are supposed to be calmed, our duties fulfilled, our ambition satisfied, our fame and fortune established on a solid basis. In private conversation, that great and amiable man added the weight of his own experience; and this autumnal felicity might be exemplified in the lives of Voltaire, Hume, and many other men of letters. I am far more inclined to embrace than to dispute this comfortable doctrine. I will not suppose any premature decay of mind or body; but I must reluctantly observe, that two causes, the abbreviation of time and the failure of hope, will always tinge with a browner shade the evening of life."

At another time, alluding to the death of a friend whose excellencies he had mentioned, he wrote, "All this is now lost, finally, irrecoverably lost! I will agree, that the immortality of the soul is, at some times, a very comfortable doctrine."

Having no hope for eternity, he was eager for the continuation of his present existence; he declared to a friend, about twenty-four hours previous to his departure, in a flow of self-gratulation, that he thought himself a good life for ten, twelve, or perhaps twenty years. During his short illness, he never gave the least intimation of a future state of existence. This insensibility at the hour of dissolution, is, in the language of scepticism, "dying the death of a philosopher!"

6. HOBBES.

HOBBES was a well-known infidel, a century and a half ago. When alone, he was haunted with the most tormenting reflections, and would awake in great terror, if his candle happened but to go out in the night. He could never bear any discourse of death, and seemed to cut off all thoughts of it.

Dr. Wallis relates of him, that discoursing one day with a lady in high life, Hobbes told her, "That were he the master of the world, he would give it all to live one day longer." She expressed her astonishment, that a philosopher who had such extensive knowledge, and so many friends to gratify and oblige, would not deny himself one day's gratification of life, if by that means he could bequeath to them such ample possessions. His answer was, "What shall I be the better for that, when I am dead? I say again, if I had the whole world to dispose of, I would give it to live one day." How different is the language of the real Christian!

"Having

a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better,"-far better than the highest enjoyments that can be attained in this world.

He lived to be upwards of ninety. His last sensible words were, when he found he could live no longer, “1 shall be glad then to find a hole to creep out of the world at." And, notwithstanding all his high pretensions to learning and philosophy, his uneasiness constrained him to confess, when he drew near to the grave, that "he was about to take a leap in the dark.”

7. DIDEROT.

DIDEROT avowed himself an atheist, and declared that he gloried in so doing. He was a man of high talent and large information, though his personal character was odious. Sir W. Jones, who knew him at Paris, shrank in disgust from his vices; and some of his works are characterized in "La Biographie Universelle" as "a collection of all indecorum." Confined, for his writings, in the castle of Vincennes, he became almost distracted. When death drew near, he sent for a priest, and prepared to make a recantation of his opinions. His friends, however, smuggled him away into the country, where he died concealed.

8. D'ALEMBERT.

D'ALEMBERT was the head of the Encyclopædists. He is said to have been sceptical in everything but mathematics, though less offensive in his writings than the rest. When he was dying, Condorcet ran to the door, and barred it against all entrance, saying afterwards, “If I had not been there, he would have flinched too."