)
Gibbon, writing of his reconversion from Roman Catholicism to
Protestantism in the year 1754, after allowing something to the
conversation of his Swiss tutor, says:--
'I must observe that it was principally effected by my private
reflections; and I still remember my solitary transport at the discovery
of a philosophical argument against the doctrine of transubstantiation--
_that_ the text of scripture which seems to inculcate the real presence
is attested only by a single sense-- our sight; while the real presence
itself is disproved by three of our senses--the sight, the touch, and
the taste.'
--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 67.
_Jean Pierre de Crousaz_.
(Vol. v, p. 80.)
Gibbon, describing his education at Lausanne, says:--'The principles
of philosophy were associated with the examples of taste; and by a
singular chance the book as well as the man which contributed the most
effectually to my education has a stronger claim on my gratitude than
on my admiration. M. de Crousaz, the adversary of Bayle and Pope, is not
distinguished by lively fancy or profound reflection; and even in his
own country, at the end of a few years, his name and writings are almost
obliterated. But his philosophy had been formed in the school of Locke,
his divinity in that of Limborch and Le Clerc; in a long and laborious
life several generations of pupils were taught to think and even to
write; his lessons rescued the Academy of Lausanne from Calvinistic
prejudice; and he had the rare merit of diffusing a more liberal spirit
among the clergy and people of the Pays de Vaud.
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