if his vaft powers of intellect could have defcended to fimplicity of narrative, he would have stood without a rival. But in all the varied charms of an interesting and pathetic detail, and perhaps in the more important article of fidelity, he is certainly inferior to Robertson, as much as he excels that writer in extent of knowledge, and in the comprehen five grasp of a penetrating mind. If he is likewise superior to Hume in these refpects, he falls fhort of what he has himself so admirably characterised as "the careless inimitable beauties" of that writer. Hume told him very candidly and justly, that his study of the French writers led him into a style more poetical and figurative, and more highly coloured than our language feems to admit of in hiftorical compofition. We find, in his correfpondence, that during his first residence abroad, he had almost entirely loft his native language, and although he recovered it afterwards, during the twenty years he paffed in England, yet his reading was fo much confined to French authors, that when he attempted English compofition, he every where discovered the turns of thought and expreffion by which his mind was imbued. It has been afferted that his ftyle has the appearance of labour, yet I know not how to reconcile much effort with his declaration that the copy fent to the prefs was the only one he ever wrote. His labour might be bestowed in revolving the fubject in his mind, and as his memory was great, he might commit it to paper, without the neceffity of addition or correction. By whatever means, he foon formed a ftyle peculiar to himself, a mixture of dignity and levity, which, although difficult at first, probably became eafy by practice, and even habitual, for his Memoirs are written in the exact manner of his History, and the most trivial events of his life are related in the same stately periods with which he embellishes the lives of heroes, and the fate of empires. His epiftolary correfpondence is in general more free from ftiffness, and occafionally affumes the gaiety and familia

rity fuited to this fpecies of compofition. But it is unneceffary to dwell on the merits of an author who has been criticifed in fo many writings of recent date, or to add or diminish the reputation of a work which, with all it's defects, must ever be confidered as one of the proudeft triumphs of English literature.

In 1796, Mr. Gibbon's fteady friend, Lord Sheffield, published, in two volumes quarto, his Mifcellaneous Works," with thofe " Memoirs" compofed by himfelf, to which we have so often referred. This publication contains likewife a large collection of letters written by or to Mr. Gibbon : abstracts of the books he read, with reflections; extracts from the journal of his ftudies; a collection of his remarks, and détached pieces on different fubjects; outlines of his Hiftory of the World; a republication of his Effai fur l'Etude; Critical Obfervations on the design of the fixth book of the Æneid; a differtation on the fubject of l'Homme au Mafque de Fer; Memoir Juftificatif pour fervir de Réponse de la Cour de France; hís Vindication of his History; Antiquities of the House of Brunswick; and an Addrefs to the Public, on the fubject of a complete edition of our ancient hiftorians.

Of thefe mifcellanies, his Journal, Abftracts and Remarks, are the most important and curious in a literary point of view. They contain much valuable criticism, and exhibit fuch a plan of industry as perhaps few men havé ever pursued with equal ardour. His labours approach to what we read of the indefatigable fcholars of the fixteenth and feventeenth centuries; and they may inftruct scholars of all ages, and efpecially thofe who rely on the powers of genius only, that no station of permanent eminence can be reached without labour, and that the indolence and waste of time in which the fons of ardour and imagination indulge, "will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible."

PREFACE.

PREFACE.

IT

T is not my intention to detain the reader by expatiating on the variety, or the importance of the fubject, which I have undertaken to treat; fince the merit of the choice would ferve to render the weakness of the execution ftill more apparent, and ftill lefs excufable. But as I have prefumed to lay before the Public a first volume only' of the Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, it will perhaps be expected that I fhould explain, in a few words, the nature and limits of my general plan.

The memorable feries of revolutions, which, in the courfe of about thirteen centuries, gradually undermined, and at length deftroyed, the folid fabric of human greatnefs, may, with fome propriety, be divided into the three following periods:

'The firft volume of the quarto, which is now contained in the two firft volumes of the octavo edition.

I. The firft of thefe periods may be traced from the age of Trajan and the Antonines, when the Roman monarchy, having attained its full ftrength and maturity, began to verge towards its decline; and will extend to the subverfion of the Weftern Empire, by the barbarians of Germany and Scythia, the rude ancestors of the most polished nations of modern Europe. This extraordinary revolution, which fubjected Rome to the power of a Gothic conqueror, was completed about the beginning of the fixth century.

II. The fecond period of the Decline and Fall of Rome, may be fuppofed to commence with the reign of Juftinian, who by his laws, as well as by his victories, reftored a tranfient fplendour to the Eaftern Empire. It will comprehend the invafion of Italy by the Lombards; the conqueft of the Afiatic and African provinces by the Arabs, who embraced the religion of Mahomet; the revolt of the Roman people against the feeble princes of Conftantinople; and the elevation of Charlemagne, who, in the year eight hundred, established the fecond, or German Empire of the West.

III. The laft and longeft of these periods includes about fix centuries and a half; from

the

the revival of the Western Empire, till the taking of Conftantinople by the Turks, and the extinction of a degenerate race of princes, who continued to affume the titles of Cæfar and Auguftus, after their dominions were contracted to the limits of a fingle city; in which the language, as well as manners, of the ancient Romans, had been long fince forgotten. The writer who fhould undertake to relate the events of this period, would find himfelf obliged to enter into the general hiftory of the Crufades, as far as they contributed to the ruin of the Greek Empire; and he would fcarcely be able to reftrain his curiofity from making fome inquiry into the ftate of the city of Rome, during the darkness and confufion of the middle ages.

As I have ventured, perhaps too hastily, to commit to the prefs, a work, which, in every fenfe of the word, deferves the epithet of imperfect, I confider myfelf as contracting an engagement to finish, moft probably in a fecond volume, the firft of thefe memorable periods; and to deliver to the Public, the complete Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of

2 The Author, as it frequently happens, took an inadequate measure of his growing work. The remainder of the firft period has filled two volumes in quarto, being the third, fourth, fifth, and fixth volumes of the octavo edition.

Rome,