Page LIFE OF M. SIMONDE DE SISMONDI. (G. C. LEONARDO SISMONDI.) THIS very pleasing and spirited writer, and truly amiable man, was born at Geneva, May 9th, 1773. Descended from the noble family of the Sismondi, of Tuscan origin, and the last of that proud name, he appears not to have been insensible to the influence such a circumstance is calculated to exercise over the mind. Indeed few, if any, not excepting the noblest of our noble poets, have possessed sufficient self-sustaining power and pride of intellect to boast themselves wholly exempt from such a feeling. Though born and educated under a republic, M. de Sismondi himself felt and alludes to it in a tone of perfect frankness and with undisguised satisfaction, as an incentive to virtuous deeds. At the close of his able History of the French, he observes:—"I am a republican; but while preserving that ardent love of liberty transmitted to me by ancestors, whose fate was united with that of two republics, and a hatred of every kind of tyranny, I hope I have never shown a want of respect for those time-honoured and lofty recollections, which tend to foster virtue in noble blood, or for that sublime devotion in the chiefs of nations, which has often reflected lustre on the annals of a whole people. It was impossible I could ever forget that the war-cry, so long dear to us, and which ceases to be heard in me, cara fè m' è la vostra,' was given by an emperor of the house of Suabia to one of my ancestry, when he intercepted the assassin's blow with his own body, and preserved the life of Henry VI.” The Sismondi were Ghibellines, partisans of the emperor; and on the extinction of the Pisan republic in the 14th century, were compelled to seek refuge in France, and established themselves in Dauphiny, at the Côte de St. André. The exiles assumed the name of Simonde; and their descendants, adopting the opinions of the reformers, remained in France till the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when they retired to Geneva.* Here they were admitted as citizens, and their names inscribed in the rolls of aristocracy. The grandfather of the historian is said to have served in the French armies, and his father exercised the functions of evangelical minister in the town of Bossex, from which he subsequently returned to the republican city, where this distinguished writer first saw the light. To his mother, a woman of superior mind and great energy, Sismondi appears to have been mainly indebted for the germs of those excellent qualities, both as a citizen and a writer, which later in life were so powerfully developed and admirably displayed. From her the future historian received his first intellectual impressions, no less than that early discipline of the heart and mind, without which no high inspired and virtuous efforts are long sustained, or crowned with perfect success. And it was of no evanescent character, but extended its beneficent influence through the many vicissitudes, the early toils and disappointments, the manly struggles, and the late matured triumphs of his literary career. The lofty and almost aristocratic feeling-however modified by popular principles-the pure sentiment, rising above every corrupt or vulgar taint, that sense of man's dignity and enlightened love of the people, every where so manifest in the writings of M. Sismondi, and which give to his profound researches a peculiar inte *Contemporains Illustres, p. 8. Encyclopédie des Gens du Monde, tome xxi. p. 320. Quarterly Review, No. 144. rest and charm, added to that of a singular vivacity and liveliness of style, may in part probably be referred to the same origin of early maternal instruction, and an influence which embued the thoughts, formed the taste, and seemed to tinge even the language and expressions of the author. Sismondi's boyhood was in this respect a singularly happy one, and he would often recur to it in after life, with expressions of grateful pleasure. His family, too, was at that period in easy circumstances, being in possession of a country mansion, Chatelaine, agreeably situated at the confluence of the Rhone and the Arve, near the city of Geneva. Here the young Sismondi, the last of his race, spent several happy years, and pursued his earliest studies under the enlightened tuition of affectionate parents. Never treated as a mere child, he accompanied them in their little excursions; in those delightful walks and sails, which affording them the most enchanting views of river, lake, and mountain, and pleasant gardens surrounding their dwelling, full of sweet flowers -all around, "a scene of tempered sublimity and amenity"* threw an additional charm for an ardent and sensitive mind round that quiet and delicious campagne. Nor was society adapted to foster his early tastes and form his principles-his regard for popular government and national freedom-wanting in their immediate vicinity. "None of the elements of exasperation between rank and rank," observes one of his biographers, "which existed in France, were to be found here. Religion, however undermined by philosophy, had ostensibly at least her full sway, and the city may be said to have constituted one great family, and in which the family quarrels of preceding generations, if not entirely forgotten, appeared to be put at rest. It is the most pleasant of social comforts in a small town or community, that you are everywhere at home. No Genevese, from the highest to the lowest, was a stranger to another; every face was that of an acquaintance, if not a friend. Yet, as soon as the passions of political rancour had their full effect, all bonds were broken, and nowhere, perhaps, has there been a stronger exemplification of the contagious, or rather demoniacal madness, excited by the shedding * Quarterly Review, No 144. Contemporains Illusts liv. 82. |