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CHAPTER XXV.
LIFE AT LAUSANNE AND FERNEY.
A glimpse of Voltaire, while he lived at Lausanne in 1757-58, is afforded by the historian Gibbon, then a youth of twenty, who had been sent thither to complete his education, and who thus records their acquaintance in his Autobiography:—
"Before I was recalled from Switzerland, I had the satisfaction of seeing the most extraordinary man of the age,—a poet, a historian, a philosopher, who has filled thirty quartos of prose and verse with his various productions, often excellent, and always entertaining. Need I add the name of Voltaire? After forfeiting, by his own misconduct, the friendship of the first of kings, he retired, at the age of sixty, with a plentiful fortune, to a free and beautiful country, and resided two winters (1757 and 1758) in the town and neighbourhood of Lausanne. My desire of beholding Voltaire, whom I then rated above his real magnitude, was easily gratified. He received me with civility as an English youth, but I cannot boast of any peculiar notice or distinction,—Virgilium vidi tantum.
"The ode which he composed on his first arrival on the banks of the Leman Lake, 'O Maison d'Aristippe! O Jardin d'Epicure,' &c., had been imparted as a secret to the gentleman by whom I was introduced. He allowed me to read it
