having a long interview with Pitt before leaving England.[1] He was joyfully received by his old friends on the Continent, from whom he had so long been separated by the war. They however no longer gathered in the salon of Mme. Geofrrin, who had died in 1779 from the results of an accident. "Savez-vous," said Morellet, "que son impertinente fille a fermé la porte de sa mère à d'Alembert, à Marmontel, à moi, et à deux ou trois autres hommes de lettres, de ceux qu'on appelle les Encyclopédistes et philosophes, pour s'en faire honneur dans le monde dévot."[2] From Paris Shelburne went to Spa accompanied by Morellet. "Me voici," the latter wrote to Vergennes, "auprès de Lord Shelburne. J'ai observé avec plaisir que le regret de n'avoir pu achever d'ouvrage ne prend pas sur le bonheur de sa vie, et puisque les détails qui l'intéressent ne peuvent vous être indifférents, je vous dirai qu'il a un intérieur domestique charmant, parfaitement calculé, comme ils disent, pour le bonheur. II a avec lui deux sœurs de son épouse[3] et ces trois dames ont tout ce qui peut rendre son intérieur agréable; ajoutez un joli enfant, et vous penserez plus que personne qu'avec des jouissances si douces et si près de soi, on peut se passer d'être Ministre. Ce sont les nations qu'il faut plaindre, lorsqu'elles perdent des hommes faits pour les rendre heureuses."[4]
- ↑ Orde to Shelburne, December 1783. See below, p. 178.
- ↑ Morellet to Shelburne, 18 fevrier 1777. Lettres, 111.
- ↑ Lady Holland and Lady Ossory, sister and sister-in-law of Lady Shelburne.
- ↑ Morellet to Vergennes, September 3rd, 1783. The character of Lord Shelburne by Walpole may be inserted by way of contrast:—
"The falsehood of Lord Shelburne was so constant and notorious, that it was rather his profession than his instrument. It was like a fictitious violin which is hung out of a music shop to indicate in what goods the tradesman deals; not to be of service, nor to be depended on for playing a true note. He was so well known that he could only deceive by speaking truth. His plausibility was less an artifice than a habit; and his smiles were so excited that, like the rattle of the snake, they warned before he had time to bite. Both his heart and his face were brave; he feared neither danger nor detection. He was so fond of insincerity as if he had been the inventor; and practised it with as little caution as if he thought nobody else had discovered the secret. With an unbounded ambition of governing mankind, he had never studied them. He had no receipt but indiscriminate flattery, which he addressed to all, without knowing how to adapt it to any particular person, for he neither understood the characters of men nor penetrated them. Hence his flatteries were so gross, that instead of captivating, they prompted laughter. So ignorant was he of mankind, that he did not know how absurd it was in a man of such glaring ambition to affect having none. He would talk of himself as void of all views, when there was no industry and intrigue of which he was not
