During this period, however, Mr. Gibbon never loft fight of his great work, but "gradually advanced from the wish to the hope, from the hope to the defign, from the defign to the execution." His preparation appears to have been both affiduous and profound; but it was not till after his father's death, in 1773, that he began his hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Being removed to London, Mr. Gibbon fays, "No fooner was I fettled in my houfe and library, than I undertook the compofition of the first volume of my hiftory. At the outfet, all was dark and doubtful even the title of the work, the true æra of the Decline and Fall of the Empire, the limits of the introduction, and the divifion of the chapters, and the order of the narrative; and I was often tempted to caft away the labour of feven years. The ftyle of an author fhould be the image of his mind; but the choice

degraded by the pride and prefumption with which he pronounced his infallible decrees; in his polemic writings, he lafhed his antagonists without mercy or moderation, and his fervile Aatterers, (fee the bafe and malignant effay on the Delicacy of Friendship,) exalting the mafter critic above Ariftotle and Longinus, affaulted every modest diffenter who refused to confult the oracle and to adore the idol. In a land of liberty fuch defpotifm muft provoke a general oppofition, and the zeal of oppofition is feldom candid or impartial.— A late profeffor of Oxford, (Dr. Lowth,) in a pointed and polished epiftle, defended himself and attacked the Bishop; and whatsoever might be the merits of an infignificant controverfy, his victory was clearly established by the filent confufion of Warburton and his flaves +.”

"The divine Legation of Mufes, (fays Mr. Gibbon,) is a monument, already crumbling in the duft, of the vigour and weakness of the human mind. If Warburton's new argument proved any thing, it would be a demonstration against the legislator, who left his people without the knowledge of a future ftate. But fome episodes of the work on the Greek philofophy, the hieroglyphics of Egypt, &c. are entitled to the praife of learning, imagination, and difcernment."

and

and command of language is the fruit of exercise.— Many experiments were made before I could hit the middle tone between a dull chronicle and a rhetorical declamation: three times did I compose the first chapter, and twice the fecond and third, before I was tolerably satisfied with their effect. In the remainder of the way I advanced with a more equal and easy pace. About this time, by the friendship of Mr. (now Lord) Eliot, who had married his firft coufin, Mr. Gibbon was returned for the borough of Lefkeard, but never could affuine courage to become a public speaker. He tells us, however, that the eight feffions he fat in Parliament were a school of civil prudence, the first and most effential virtue of an hiftorian.

His great work being now ready for the prefs, 1776, it was iffued into the world. Its reception will be best ascertained in introducing Mr. Gibbon's own account of it." I am at a lofs how to defcribe the fuccefs of the work without betraying the vanity of the writer. The first impreffion was exhaufted in a few days-a fecond and third edition was fcarcely adequate to the demand-and the bookfeller's property was twice invaded by the pirates of Dublin. My book was on every table, and almoft on every toilette-the hiftorian was crowned by the taste or fashion of the day, nor was the general voice difturbed by the barking of any profane critic. The favour of mankind is moft freely bestowed on a new acquaintance of any original merit, and the mutual furprize of the public and their favourite, is productive of thofe warm fenfibilities which at a fecond meeting can be no longer re-kindled. If I listened to the mufic of praife, I was more feriously fatisfied with the approbation of my judges. The candour of Dr. Robertion embraced his difciple. A letter from Mr. Hume overpaid the labour of ten years; but I have never prefumed to accept a place in the triumvirate of British hiftorians."

It were to be wished that Mr. Gibbon, amidst this general approbation, had not given occafion for the barking (as he cavalierly terms it) of any facred as well as profane critic. The merit of his hiftory is undoubtedly very great; but it would have been ftill greater had it contained nothing hoftile to the truth and excellence of the Chriftian religion. His two laft chapters gave confiderable offence; and the ironical mode of his attack was deemed particularly reprehenfible. The answers made to Mr. Gibbon on this fubject were numerous: the most celebrated of them were thofe by Mr. Davies, Lord Hales, and the present Bishop of Landaff. In his memoirs he speaks of all his opponents, except the laf, with difrefpect or contempt. This is exceedingly improper: for on both fides, in all difputes, political and religious, the rules of decorum and politenefs should never be violated. The prejudices of Mr. Gibbon against Chriftianity arofe from various caufes, and it has been thought, with probability, that fome circumstances which he mentions in his memoirs, afford an explication of the mystery. To the neglect of his education, in the firft part of life, and to his Popish converfion, his unhappy fcepticism may be reasonably attributed.

It will be but fair to add, that Mr. Gibbon wrote a vindication of his hiftory, the object of which was to vindicate the faith of the hiftorian, not the difbelief of the fceptic. On this laft fubject he obferved an impenetrable filence. We are forry, both on Mr. Gibbon's own account and on the account of the public, that he should have enrolled himself amongst the advocates for infidelity. But the greatest minds are liable to prejudice. And amidst that blaze of genius with

*See a little work entitled, " An Attempt to account for the Infidelity of the late E. Gil òon, Efq. founded on his Memoirs published by John Lord Sheffield, &c.-by John Evans, A. M.-It was reviewed in the first number of our Mifcellany.

which certain individuals are bleffed, PROVIDENCE fometimes fuffers them to mix along with it fome weaknefs, which fhews mankind, that, notwithstanding their ftupendous talents, they are still frail and erring mortals!

The reader will excufe our detaining him fo long on this part of the fubject. To us it appears, that with the belief of CHRISTIANITY the prefent and future happiness of the human race is intimately connected.

Mr. Gibbon, after the publication of his first volume, made a trip to Paris, ftudied anatomy and chymistry, and then undertook the remaining volumes, which were published during the interval of his fenatorial life."I perceived, (fays Mr. Gibbon,) and without furprize, the coldness, and even prejudice, of the town, nor could a whisper escape my ear, that, in the judgment of many readers, my continuation was much inferior to the original attempt. An author who cannot ascend will always appear to fink; envy was now prepared for my reception, and the zeal of my religious was fortified by the motive of my political enemies." The latter part of the fentence refers to his having been made, by Lord North, a Lord of the Board of Trade, which was a finecure place of 800l. a year. Mr. Gibbon then adds, "I was however encouraged by fome domeftic and foreign teftimonies of applause, and the fecond and third volumes infenfibly rofe in fale and reputation to a level with the firft. But the public is feldom wrong, and I am inclined to believe, that efpecially in the beginning, they are more prolix, and lefs entertaining, than the firft: my efforts had not been relaxed with fuccefs, and I had rather deviated into the oppofite fault, of minute and fuperfluous diligence.

These volumes were to have concluded Mr. Gibbon's labours; but he afterwards found time and inclination to bring down his hiftory to a later period→→

namely,

namely, to the fall of the eastern empire, 1453.— Three additional volumes accomplished this vaft bufinefs. Having been deprived of his 8ool. a year, by the abolition of his place, a conomy drove him to Lausanne, where, in about five years, he finished his immortal work. Mr. Gibbon's own obfervations may be here properly tranfcribed." It was not till after many deigns, and many trials, that 1 preferred, as I ftill prefer, the method of grouping my picture by nations, and the feeming neglect of chronological order is furely compenfated by the fuperior merits of intereft and perfpicuity. The ftyle of the first volume is, in my opinion, fomewhat crude and elaborate, in the second and third, it is ripened into cafe, correctness, and numbers; but in the three last I may have been feduced by the facility of my pen; and the conftant habit of fpeaking one language, and writing another, may have. infufed fome mixture of Gallic idioms. I was now firaining for the goal, and in the laft winter many evenings were borrowed from the focial pleasures of Laufanne. I could now with that a paufe, an interval, had been allowed for a ferious revifal."

This is an honeft confeflion-his ftyle, in the latter volumes, has been the matter of complaint. With greater care he might have rendered it more pure and legant.

The conclufion of this great work is thus fpeken of by Mr. Gibbon, in terms particularly beautiful and expreffive." I have prefumed, (fays he) to mark the inoment of conception, I fhall now commemorate the hour of my final deliverance. It was on the day, or rather night, of the 27th June, 1787, between the hours of cleven and twelve, that I wrote the laft lines of the laft page, in a fummer-houfe in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took feveral turns in a terceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a profpect of the country-the lake and the mountains. The air was temperate, the fky was ferene-the filver orb of

the