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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18851-8.txt b/18851-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9aa7e59 --- /dev/null +++ b/18851-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5929 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Gibbon, by James Cotter Morison + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Gibbon + + +Author: James Cotter Morison + + + +Release Date: July 17, 2006 [eBook #18851] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GIBBON*** + + +E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Sankar Viswanathan, and +the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(http://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +English Men of Letters + +Edited by John Morley + +GIBBON + +by + +JAMES COTTER MORISON, M.A. +Lincoln College, Oxford + + + + + + + +London: +MacMillan and Co. +1878. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I. + +GIBBON'S EARLY LIFE UP TO THE TIME OF HIS LEAVING OXFORD + +CHAPTER II. + +AT LAUSANNE + +CHAPTER III. + +IN THE MILITIA + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE ITALIAN JOURNEY + +CHAPTER V. + +LITERARY SCHEMES.--THE HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND.--DISSERTATION ON THE + SIXTH ĆNEID.--FATHER'S DEATH.--SETTLEMENT IN LONDON + +CHAPTER VI. + +LIFE IN LONDON.--PARLIAMENT.--THE BOARD OF TRADE.--THE DECLINE AND + FALL.--MIGRATION TO LAUSANNE + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE FIRST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE LAST TEN TEARS OF HIS LIFE AT LAUSANNE + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE LAST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL + +CHAPTER X. + +LAST ILLNESS.--DEATH.--CONCLUSION + + + + + +GIBBON + +CHAPTER I. + +GIBBON'S EARLY LIFE UP TO THE TIME OF HIS LEAVING OXFORD. + + +Edward Gibbon[1] was born at Putney, near London, on 27th April in +the year 1737. After the reformation of the calendar his birthday +became the 8th of May. He was the eldest of a family of seven +children; but his five brothers and only sister all died in early +infancy, and he could remember in after life his sister alone, whom he +also regretted. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Gibbon's Memoirs and Letters are of such easy access that +I have not deemed it necessary to encumber these pages with references +to them. Any one who wishes to control my statements will have no +difficulty in doing so with the Miscellaneous Works, edited by Lord +Sheffield, in his hand. Whenever I advance anything that seems to +require corroboration, I have been careful to give my authority.] + +He is at some pains in his Memoirs to show the length and quality of +his pedigree, which he traces back to the times of the Second and +Third Edwards. Noting the fact, we pass on to a nearer ancestor, his +grandfather, who seems to have been a person of considerable energy +of character and business talent. He made a large fortune, which he +lost in the South-Sea Scheme, and then made another before his death. +He was one of the Commissioners of Customs, and sat at the Board with +the poet Prior; Bolingbroke was heard to declare that no man knew +better than Mr. Edward Gibbon the commerce and finances of England. +His son, the historian's father, was a person of very inferior stamp. +He was educated at Westminster and Cambridge, travelled on the +Continent, sat in Parliament, lived beyond his means as a country +gentleman, and here his achievements came to an end. He seems to have +been a kindly but a weak and impulsive man, who however had the merit +of obtaining and deserving his son's affection by genial sympathy and +kindly treatment. + +Gibbon's childhood was passed in chronic illness, debility, and +disease. All attempts to give him a regular education were frustrated +by his precarious health. The longest period he ever passed at school +were two years at Westminster, but he was constantly moved from one +school to another. This even his delicacy can hardly explain, and it +must have been fatal to all sustained study. Two facts he mentions of +his school life, which paint the manners of the age. In the year 1746 +such was the strength of party spirit that he, a child of nine years +of age, "was reviled and buffeted for the sins of his Tory ancestors." +Secondly, the worthy pedagogues of that day found no readier way of +leading the most studious of boys to a love of science than corporal +punishment. "At the expense of many tears and some blood I purchased +the knowledge of the Latin syntax." Whether all love of study would +have been flogged out of him if he had remained at school, it is +difficult to say, but it is not an improbable supposition that this +would have happened. The risk was removed by his complete failure of +health. "A strange nervous affection, which alternately contracted his +legs and produced, without any visible symptom, the most excruciating +pain," was his chief affliction, followed by intervals of languor and +debility. The saving of his life during these dangerous years Gibbon +unhesitatingly ascribes to the more than maternal care of his aunt, +Catherine Porten, on writing whose name for the first time in his +Memoirs, "he felt a tear of gratitude trickling down his cheek." "If +there be any," he continues, "as I trust there are some, who rejoice +that I live, to that dear and excellent woman they must hold +themselves indebted. Many anxious and solitary hours and days did she +consume in the patient trial of relief and amusement; many wakeful +nights did she sit by my bedside in trembling expectation that every +hour would be my last." Gibbon is rather anxious to get over these +details, and declares he has no wish to expatiate on a "disgusting +topic." This is quite in the style of the _ancien régime_. There was +no blame attached to any one for being ill in those days, but people +were expected to keep their infirmities to themselves. "People knew +how to live and die in those days, and kept their infirmities out of +sight. You might have the gout, but you must walk about all the same +without making grimaces. It was a point of good breeding to hide one's +sufferings."[2] Similarly Walpole was much offended by a too faithful +publication of Madame de Sévigné's _Letters_. "Heaven forbid," he +says, "that I should say that the letters of Madame de Sévigné were +bad. I only meant that they were full of family details and mortal +distempers, to which the most immortal of us are subject." But Gibbon +was above all things a veracious historian, and fortunately has not +refrained from giving us a truthful picture of his childhood. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: George Sand, quoted in Taine's _Ancien Régime_, p. 181.] + +Of his studies, or rather his reading--his early and invincible love +of reading, which he would not exchange for the treasures of India--he +gives us a full account, and we notice at once the interesting fact +that a considerable portion of the historical field afterwards +occupied by his great work had been already gone over by Gibbon before +he was well in his teens. "My indiscriminate appetite subsided by +degrees into the historic line, and since philosophy has exploded all +innate ideas and natural propensities, I must ascribe the choice to +the assiduous perusal of the _Universal History_ as the octavo volumes +successively appeared. This unequal work referred and introduced me to +the Greek and Roman historians, to as many at least as were accessible +to an English reader. All that I could find were greedily devoured, +from Littlebury's lame _Herodotus_ to Spelman's valuable _Xenophon_, +to the pompous folios of Gordon's _Tacitus_, and a ragged _Procopius_ +of the beginning of the last century." Referring to an accident which +threw the continuation of Echard's _Roman History_ in his way, he +says, "To me the reigns of the successors of Constantine were +absolutely new, and I was immersed in the passage of the Goths over +the Danube, when the summons of the dinner-bell reluctantly dragged me +from my intellectual feast.... I procured the second and third +volumes of Howell's _History of the World_, which exhibit the +Byzantine period on a larger scale. Mahomet and his Saracens soon +fixed my attention, and some instinct of criticism directed me to the +genuine sources. Simon Ockley first opened my eyes, and I was led from +one book to another till I had ranged round the circle of Oriental +history. Before I was sixteen I had exhausted all that could be +learned in English of the Arabs and Persians, the Tartars and Turks, +and the same ardour urged me to guess at the French of D'Herbelot and +to construe the barbarous Latin of Pocock's _Abulfaragius_." Here is +in rough outline a large portion at least of the _Decline and Fall_ +already surveyed. The fact shows how deep was the sympathy that Gibbon +had for his subject, and that there was a sort of pre-established +harmony between his mind and the historical period he afterwards +illustrated. + +Up to the age of fourteen it seemed that Gibbon, as he says, was +destined to remain through life an illiterate cripple. But as he +approached his sixteenth year, a great change took place in his +constitution, and his diseases, instead of growing with his growth and +strengthening with his strength, wonderfully vanished. This unexpected +recovery was not seized by his father in a rational spirit, as +affording a welcome opportunity of repairing the defects of a hitherto +imperfect education. Instead of using the occasion thus presented of +recovering some of the precious time lost, of laying a sound +foundation of scholarship and learning on which a superstructure at +the university or elsewhere could be ultimately built, he carried the +lad off in an impulse of perplexity and impatience, and entered him as +a gentleman commoner at Magdalen College just before he had completed +his fifteenth year (1752, April 3). This was perhaps the most unwise +step he could have taken under the circumstances. Gibbon was too young +and too ignorant to profit by the advantages offered by Oxford to a +more mature student, and his status as a gentleman commoner seemed +intended to class him among the idle and dissipated who are only +expected to waste their money and their time. A good education is +generally considered as reflecting no small credit on its possessor; +but in the majority of cases it reflects credit on the wise solicitude +of his parents or guardians rather than on himself. If Gibbon escaped +the peril of being an ignorant and frivolous lounger, the merit was +his own. + +At no period in their history had the English universities sunk to a +lower condition as places of education than at the time when Gibbon +went up to Oxford. To speak of them as seats of learning seems like +irony; they were seats of nothing but coarse living and clownish +manners, the centres where all the faction, party spirit, and bigotry +of the country were gathered to a head. In this evil pre-eminence both +of the universities and all the colleges appear to have been upon a +level, though Lincoln College, Oxford, is mentioned as a bright +exception in John Wesley's day to the prevalent degeneracy. The +strange thing is that, with all their neglect of learning and +morality, the colleges were not the resorts of jovial if unseemly boon +companionship; they were collections of quarrelsome and spiteful +litigants, who spent their time in angry lawsuits. The indecent +contentions between Bentley and the Fellows of Trinity were no +isolated scandal. They are best known and remembered on account of the +eminence of the chief disputants, and of the melancholy waste of +Bentley's genius which they occasioned. Hearne writes of Oxford in +1726, "There are such differences now in the University of Oxford +(hardly one college but where all the members are busied in law +business and quarrels not at all relating to the promotion of +learning), that good letters decay every day, insomuch that this +ordination on Trinity Sunday at Oxford there were no fewer (as I am +informed) than fifteen denied orders for insufficiency, which is the +more to be noted because our bishops, and those employed by them, are +themselves illiterate men."[3] The state of things had not much +improved twenty or thirty years later when Gibbon went up, but perhaps +it had improved a little. He does not mention lawsuits as a favourite +pastime of the Fellows. "The Fellows or monks of my time," he says, +"were decent, easy men, who supinely enjoyed the gifts of the founder: +their days were filled by a series of uniform employments--the chapel, +the hall, the coffee-house, and the common room--till they retired +weary and well satisfied to a long slumber. From the toil of reading, +writing, or thinking they had absolved their consciences. Their +conversation stagnated in a round of college business, Tory politics, +personal anecdotes, and private scandal. Their dull and deep potations +excused the brisk intemperance of youth, and their constitutional +toasts were not expressive of the most lively loyalty to the House of +Hanover." Some Oxonians perhaps could still partly realise the truth +of this original picture by their recollections of faint and feeble +copies of it drawn from their experience in youthful days. It seems to +be certain that the universities, far from setting a model of good +living, were really below the average standard of the morals and +manners of the age, and the standard was not high. Such a satire as +the _Terrć Filius_ of Amhurst cannot be accepted without large +deductions; but the caricaturist is compelled by the conditions of his +craft to aim at the _true seeming_, if he neglects the true, and with +the benefit of this limitation the _Terrć Filius_ reveals a deplorable +and revolting picture of vulgarity, insolence, and licence. The +universities are spoken of in terms of disparagement by men of all +classes. Lord Chesterfield speaks of the "rust" of Cambridge as +something of which a polished man should promptly rid himself. Adam +Smith showed his sense of the defects of Oxford in a stern section of +the _Wealth of Nations_, written twenty years after he had left the +place. Even youths like Gray and West, fresh from Eton, express +themselves with contempt for their respective universities. "Consider +me," says the latter, writing from Christ Church, "very seriously, +here is a strange country, inhabited by things that call themselves +Doctors and Masters of Arts, a country flowing with syllogisms and +ale; where Horace and Virgil are equally unknown." Gray, answering +from Peterhouse, can only do justice to his feelings by quoting the +words of the Hebrew prophet, and insists that Isaiah had Cambridge +equally with Babylon in view when he spoke of the wild beasts and wild +asses, of the satyrs that dance, of an inhabitation of dragons and a +court for owls. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: _Social Life at the English Universities_. By Christopher +Wordsworth. Page 57.] + +Into such untoward company was Gibbon thrust by his careless father at +the age of fifteen. That he succumbed to the unwholesome atmosphere +cannot surprise us. He does not conceal, perhaps he rather +exaggerates, in his Memoirs, the depth of his fall. As Bunyan in a +state of grace accused himself of dreadful sins which in all +likelihood he never committed, so it is probable that Gibbon, in his +old age, when study and learning were the only passions he knew, +reflected with too much severity on the boyish freaks of his +university life. Moreover there appears to have been nothing coarse or +unworthy in his dissipation; he was simply idle. He justly lays much +of the blame on the authorities. To say that the discipline was lax +would be to pay it an unmerited compliment. There was no discipline at +all. He lived in Magdalen as he might have lived at the Angel or the +Mitre Tavern. He not only left his college, but he left the +university, whenever he liked. In one winter he made a tour to Bath, +another to Buckinghamshire, and he made four excursions to London, +"without once hearing the voice of admonition, without once feeling +the hand of control." Of study he had just as much and as little as he +pleased. + +"As soon as my tutor had sounded the insufficiency of his disciple in +school learning, he proposed that we should read every morning from +ten to eleven the comedies of Terence. During the first weeks I +constantly attended these lessons in my tutor's room; but as they +appeared equally devoid of profit and pleasure, I was once tempted to +try the experiment of a formal apology. The apology was accepted with +a smile. I repeated the offence with less ceremony: the excuse was +admitted with the same indulgence; the slightest motive of laziness or +indisposition, the most trifling avocation at home or abroad was +allowed as a worthy impediment, nor did my tutor appear conscious of +my absence or neglect." No wonder he spoke with indignation of such +scandalous neglect. "To the University of Oxford," he says, "I +acknowledge no obligation, and she will as readily renounce me for a +son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. I spent fourteen +months at Magdalen College; they proved the most idle and unprofitable +of my whole life. The reader will pronounce between the school and the +scholar." This is only just and fully merited by the abuses denounced. +One appreciates the anguish of the true scholar mourning over lost +time as a miser over lost gold. There was another side of the question +which naturally did not occur to Gibbon, but which may properly occur +to us. Did Gibbon lose as much as he thought in missing the scholastic +drill of the regular public school and university man? Something he +undoubtedly lost: he was never a finished scholar, up to the standard +even of his own day. If he had been, is it certain that the +accomplishment would have been all gain? It may be doubted. At a later +period Gibbon read the classics with the free and eager curiosity of a +thoughtful mind. It was a labour of love, of passionate ardour, +similar to the manly zeal of the great scholars of the Renaissance. +This appetite had not been blunted by enforced toil in a prescribed +groove. How much of that zest for antiquity, of that keen relish for +the classic writers which he afterwards acquired and retained through +life, might have been quenched if he had first made their acquaintance +as school-books? Above all, would he have looked on the ancient world +with such freedom and originality as he afterwards gained, if he had +worn through youth the harness of academical study? These questions do +not suggest an answer, but they may furnish a doubt. Oxford and +Cambridge for nearly a century have been turning out crowds of +thorough-paced scholars of the orthodox pattern. It is odd that the +two greatest historians who have been scholars as well--Gibbon and +Grote--were not university-bred men. + +As if to prove by experiment where the fault lay, in "the school or +the scholar," Gibbon had no sooner left Oxford for the long vacation, +than his taste for study returned, and, not content with reading, he +attempted original composition. The subject he selected was a curious +one for a youth in his sixteenth year. It was an attempt to settle the +chronology of the age of Sesostris, and shows how soon the austere +side of history had attracted his attention. "In my childish balance," +he says, "I presumed to weigh the systems of Scaliger and Petavius, of +Marsham and of Newton; and my sleep has been disturbed by the +difficulty of reconciling the Septuagint with the Hebrew computation." +Of course his essay had the usual value of such juvenile productions; +that is, none at all, except as an indication of early bias to serious +study of history. On his return to Oxford, the age of Sesostris was +wisely relinquished. He indeed soon commenced a line of study which +was destined to have a lasting influence on the remainder of his +course through life. + +He had an inborn taste for theology and the controversies which have +arisen concerning religious dogma. "From my childhood," he says, "I +had been fond of religious disputation: my poor aunt has often been +puzzled by the mysteries which she strove to believe." How he carried +the taste into mature life, his great chapters on the heresies and +controversies of the Early Church are there to show. This inclination +for theology, co-existing with a very different temper towards +religious sentiment, recalls the similar case of the author of the +_Historical and Critical Dictionary_, the illustrious Pierre Bayle, +whom Gibbon resembled in more ways than one. At Oxford his religious +education, like everything else connected with culture, had been +entirely neglected. It seems hardly credible, yet we have his word for +it, that he never subscribed or studied the Articles of the Church of +England, and was never confirmed. When he first went up, he was judged +to be too young, but the Vice-Chancellor directed him to return as +soon as he had completed his fifteenth year, recommending him in the +meantime to the instruction of his college. "My college forgot to +instruct; I forgot to return, and was myself forgotten by the first +magistrate of the university. Without a single lecture, either public +or private, either Christian or Protestant, without any academical +subscription, without any episcopal ordination, I was left by light of +my catechism to grope my way to the chapel and communion table, where +I was admitted without question how far or by what means I might be +qualified to receive the sacrament. Such almost incredible neglect was +productive of the worst mischiefs." What did Gibbon mean by this last +sentence? Did he, when he wrote it, towards the end of his life, +regret the want of early religious instruction? Nothing leads us to +think so, or to suppose that his subsequent loss of faith was a heavy +grief, supported, but painful to bear. His mind was by nature +positive, or even pagan, and he had nothing of what the Germans call +_religiosität_ in him. Still there is a passage in his Memoirs where +he oddly enough laments not having selected the _fat slumbers of the +Church_ as an eligible profession. Did he reflect that perhaps the +neglect of his religious education at Oxford had deprived him of a +bishopric or a good deanery, and the learned leisure which such +positions at that time conferred on those who cared for it? He could +not feel that he was morally, or even spiritually, unfit for an office +filled in his own time by such men as Warburton and Hurd. He would not +have disgraced the episcopal bench; he would have been dignified, +courteous, and hospitable; a patron and promoter of learning, we may +be sure. His literary labours would probably have consisted of an +edition of a Greek play or two, and certainly some treatise on the +Evidences of Christianity. But in that case we should not have had the +_Decline and Fall_. + +The "blind activity of idleness" to which he was exposed at Oxford, +prevented any result of this kind. For want of anything better to do, he +was led to read Middleton's _Free Enquiry into the Miraculous Powers +which are Supposed to have Subsisted in the Christian Church_. Gibbon +says that the effect of Middleton's "bold criticism" upon him was +singular, and that instead of making him a sceptic, it made him more of +a believer. He might have reflected that it is the commonest of +occurrences for controversialists to produce exactly the opposite result +to that which they intend, and that as many an apology for Christianity +has sown the first seeds of infidelity, so an attack upon it might well +intensify faith. What follows is very curious. "The elegance of style +and freedom of argument were repelled by a shield of prejudice. I still +revered the character, or rather the names of the saints and fathers +whom Dr. Middleton exposes; nor could he destroy my implicit belief +that the gift of miraculous powers was continued in the Church during +the first four or five centuries of Christianity. But I was unable to +resist the weight of historical evidence, that within the same period +most of the leading doctrines of Popery were already introduced in +theory and practice. Nor was my conclusion absurd that miracles are the +test of truth, and that the Church must be orthodox and pure which was +so often approved by the visible interposition of the Deity. The +marvellous tales which are boldly attested by the Basils and +Chrysostoms, the Austins and Jeromes, compelled me to embrace the +superior merits of celibacy, the institution of the monastic life, the +use of the sign of the cross, of holy oil, and even of images, the +invocation of saints, the worship of relics, the rudiments of purgatory +in prayers for the dead, and the tremendous mystery of the sacrifice of +the body and the blood of Christ, which insensibly swelled into the +prodigy of transubstantiation." In this remarkable passage we have a +distinct foreshadow of the Tractarian movement, which came seventy or +eighty years afterwards. Gibbon in 1752, at the age of fifteen, took up +a position practically the same as Froude and Newman took up about the +year 1830. In other words, he reached the famous _via media_ at a bound. +But a second spring soon carried him clear of it, into the bosom of the +Church of Rome. + +He had come to what are now called Church principles, by the energy of +his own mind working on the scanty data furnished him by Middleton. By +one of those accidents which usually happen in such cases, he made the +acquaintance of a young gentleman who had already embraced +Catholicism, and who was well provided with controversial tracts in +favour of Romanism. Among these were the two works of Bossuet, the +_Exposition of Catholic Doctrine_ and the _History of the Protestant +Variations_. Gibbon says: "I read, I applauded, I believed, and surely +I fell by a noble hand. I have since examined the originals with a +more discerning eye, and shall not hesitate to pronounce that Bossuet +is indeed a master of all the weapons of controversy. In the +_Exposition_, a specious apology, the orator assumes with consummate +art the tone of candour and simplicity, and the ten horned monster is +transformed at his magic touch into the milk-white hind, who must be +loved as soon as she is seen. In the _History_, a bold and well-aimed +attack, he displays, with a happy mixture of narrative and argument, +the faults and follies, the changes and contradictions of our first +Reformers, whose variations, as he dexterously contends, are the mark +of historical error, while the perpetual unity of the Catholic Church +is the sign and test of infallible truth. To my present feelings it +seems incredible that I should ever believe that I believed in +transubstantiation. But my conqueror oppressed me with the sacramental +words, '_Hoc est corpus meum_,' and dashed against each other the +figurative half meanings of the Protestant sects; every objection was +resolved into omnipotence, and, after repeating at St. Mary's the +Athanasian Creed, I humbly acquiesced in the mystery of the Real +Presence." + +Many reflections are suggested on the respective domains of reason and +faith by these words, but they cannot be enlarged on here. No one, +nowadays, one may hope, would think of making Gibbon's conversion a +subject of reproach to him. The danger is rather that it should be +regarded with too much honour. It unquestionably shows the early and +trenchant force of his intellect: he mastered the logical position in +a moment; saw the necessity of a criterion of faith; and being told +that it was to be found in the practice of antiquity, boldly went +there, and abided by the result. But this praise to his head does not +extend to his heart. A more tender and deep moral nature would not +have moved so rapidly. We must in fairness remember that it was not +his fault that his religious education had been neglected at home, at +school, and at college. But we have no reason to think that had it +been attended to, the result would have been much otherwise. The root +of spiritual life did not exist in him. It never withered, because it +never shot up. Thus when he applied his acute mind to a religious +problem, he contemplated it with the coolness and impartiality of a +geometer or chess player, his intellect operated _in vacuo_ so to +speak, untrammelled by any bias of sentiment or early training. He had +no profound associations to tear out of his heart. He merely altered +the premisses of a syllogism. When Catholicism was presented to him in +a logical form, it met with no inward bar and repugnance. The house +was empty and ready for a new guest, or rather the first guest. If +Gibbon anticipated the Tractarian movement intellectually, he was +farther removed than the poles are asunder from the mystic reverent +spirit which inspired that movement. If we read the _Apologia_ of Dr. +Newman, we perceive the likeness and unlikeness of the two cases. "As +a matter of simple conscience," says the latter, "I felt it to be a +duty to protest against the Church of Rome." At the time he refers to +Dr. Newman was a Catholic to a degree Gibbon never dreamed of. But in +the one case conscience and heart-ties "strong as life, stronger +almost than death," arrested the conclusions of the intellect. Ground +which Gibbon dashed over in a few months or weeks, the great +Tractarian took ten years to traverse. So different is the mystic from +the positive mind. + +Gibbon had no sooner settled his new religion than he resolved with a +frankness which did him all honour to profess it publicly. He wrote to +his father, announcing his conversion, a letter which he afterwards +described, when his sentiments had undergone a complete change, as +written with all the pomp, dignity, and self-satisfaction of a martyr. +A momentary glow of enthusiasm had raised him, as he said, above all +worldly considerations. He had no difficulty, in an excursion to +London, in finding a priest, who perceived in the first interview that +persuasion was needless. "After sounding the motives and merits of my +conversion, he consented to admit me into the pale of the Church, and +at his feet on the 8th of June 1753, I solemnly, though privately, +abjured the errors of heresy." He was exactly fifteen years and one +month old. Further details, which one would like to have, he does not +give. The scene even of the solemn act is not mentioned, nor whether +he was baptized again; but this may be taken for granted. + +The fact of any one "going over to Rome" is too common an occurrence +nowadays to attract notice. But in the eighteenth century it was a +rare and startling phenomenon. Gibbon's father, who was "neither a +bigot nor a philosopher," was shocked and astonished by his "son's +strange departure from the religion of his country." He divulged the +secret of young Gibbon's conversion, and "the gates of Magdalen +College were for ever shut" against the latter's return. They really +needed no shutting at all. By the fact of his conversion to Romanism +he had ceased to be a member of the University. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +AT LAUSANNE. + + +The elder Gibbon showed a decision of character and prompt energy in +dealing with his son's conversion to Romanism, which were by no means +habitual with him. He swiftly determined to send him out of the +country, far away from the influences and connections which had done +such harm. Lausanne in Switzerland was the place selected for his +exile, in which it was resolved he should spend some years in +wholesome reflections on the error he had committed in yielding to the +fascinations of Roman Catholic polemics. No time was lost: Gibbon had +been received into the Church on the 8th of June, 1753, and on the +30th of the same month he had reached his destination. He was placed +under the care of a M. Pavillard, a Calvinist minister, who had two +duties laid upon him, a general one, to superintend the young man's +studies, a particular and more urgent one, to bring him back to the +Protestant faith. + +It was a severe trial which Gibbon had now to undergo. He was by +nature shy and retiring; he was ignorant of French; he was very young; +and with these disadvantages he was thrown among entire strangers +alone. After the excitement and novelty of foreign travel were over, +and he could realise his position, he felt his heart sink within him. +From the luxury and freedom of Oxford he was degraded to the +dependence of a schoolboy. Pavillard managed his expenses, and his +supply of pocket-money was reduced to a small monthly allowance. "I +had exchanged," he says, "my elegant apartment in Magdalen College for +a narrow gloomy street, the most unfrequented in an unhandsome town, +for an old inconvenient house, and for a small chamber ill-contrived +and ill-furnished, which on the approach of winter, instead of a +companionable fire, must be warmed by the dull and invisible heat of a +stove." Under these gloomy auspices he began the most profitable, and +after a time the most pleasant, period of his whole life, one on which +he never ceased to look back with unmingled satisfaction as the +starting-point of his studies and intellectual progress. + +The first care of his preceptor was to bring about his religious +conversion. Gibbon showed an honourable tenacity to his new faith, and +a whole year after he had been exposed to the Protestant dialectics of +Pavillard he still, as the latter observed with much regret, continued +to abstain from meat on Fridays. There is something slightly +incongruous in the idea of Gibbon _fasting_ out of religious scruples, +but the fact shows that his religion had obtained no slight hold of +him, and that although he had embraced it quickly, he also accepted +with intrepid frankness all its consequences. His was not an intellect +that could endure half measures and half lights; he did not belong to +that class of persons who do not know their own minds. + +However it is not surprising that his religion, placed where he was, +was slowly but steadily undermined. The Swiss clergy, he says, were +acute and learned on the topics of controversy, and Pavillard seems to +have been a good specimen of his class. An adult and able man, in +daily contact with a youth in his own house, urging persistently but +with tact one side of a thesis, could hardly fail in the course of +time to carry his point. But though Gibbon is willing to allow his +tutor a handsome share in the work of his conversion, he maintains +that it was chiefly effected by his own private reflections. And this +is eminently probable. What logic had set up, logic could throw down. +He gives us a highly characteristic example of the reflections in +question. "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." He was unaware of the distinction between the logical +understanding and the higher reason, which has been made since his +time to the great comfort of thinkers of a certain stamp. Having +reached so far, his progress was easy and rapid. "The various articles +of the Romish creed disappeared like a dream, and after a full +conviction, on Christmas-day, 1754, I received the sacrament in the +church of Lausanne. It was here that I suspended my religious +inquiries, acquiescing with implicit belief in the tenets and +mysteries which are adopted by the general consent of Catholics and +Protestants." He thus had been a Catholic for about eighteen months. + +Gibbon's residence at Lausanne was a memorable epoch in his life on +two grounds. Firstly, it was during the five years he spent there that +he laid the foundations of that deep and extensive learning by which +he was afterwards distinguished. Secondly, the foreign education he +there received, at the critical period when the youth passes into the +man, gave a permanent bent to his mind, and made him a continental +European rather than an insular Englishman--two highly important +factors in his intellectual growth. + +He says that he went up to Oxford with a "stock of erudition which +might have puzzled a doctor, and a degree of ignorance of which a +schoolboy might have been ashamed." Both erudition and ignorance were +left pretty well undisturbed during his short and ill-starred +university career. At Lausanne he found himself, for the first time, +in possession of the means of successful study, good health, calm, +books, and tuition, up to a certain point: that point did not reach +very far. The good Pavillard, an excellent man, for whom Gibbon ever +entertained a sincere regard, was quite unequal to the task of forming +such a mind. There is no evidence that he was a ripe or even a fair +scholar, and the plain fact is that Gibbon belongs to the honourable +band of self-taught men. "My tutor," says Gibbon, "had the good sense +to discern how far he could be useful, and when he felt that I +advanced beyond his speed and measure, he wisely left me to my +genius." Under that good guidance he formed an extensive plan of +reviewing the Latin classics, in the four divisions of (1) Historians, +(2) Poets, (3) Orators, and (4) Philosophers, in "chronological series +from the days of Plautus and Sallust to the decline of the language +and empire of Rome." In one year he read over the following authors: +Virgil, Sallust, Livy, Velleius Paterculus, Valerius Maximus, Tacitus, +Suetonius, Quintus Curtius, Justin, Florus, Plautus, Terence, and +Lucretius. We may take his word when he says that this review, however +rapid, was neither hasty nor superficial. Gibbon had the root of all +scholarship in him, the most diligent accuracy and an unlimited +faculty of taking pains. But he was a great scholar, not a minute one, +and belonged to the robust race of the Scaligers and the Bentleys, +rather than to the smaller breed of the Elmsleys and Monks, and of +course he was at no time a professed philologer, occupied chiefly with +the niceties of language. The point which deserves notice in this +account of his studies is their wide sweep, so superior and bracing, +as compared with that narrow restriction to the "authors of the best +period," patronised by teachers who imperfectly comprehend their own +business. Gibbon proceeded on the common-sense principle, that if you +want to obtain a real grasp of the literature, history, and genius of +a people, you must master that literature with more or less +completeness from end to end, and that to select arbitrarily the +authors of a short period on the grounds that they are models of +style, is nothing short of foolish. It was the principle on which +Joseph Scaliger studied Greek, and indeed occurs spontaneously to a +vigorous mind eager for real knowledge.[4] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 4: Vix delibatis conjugationibus Grćcis, Homerum cum +interpretatione arreptum uno et viginti diebus totum didici. Reliquos vero +poetas Grćcos omnes intra quatuor menses devoravi. Neque ullum oratorem aut +historicum prius attigi quam poetas omnes tenerem.--_Scaligeri Epistolć, +Lib. 1. Epis. 1._] + +Nor did he confine himself to reading: he felt that no one is sure of +knowing a language who limits his study of it to the perusal of +authors. He practised diligently Latin prose composition, and this in +the simplest and most effectual way. "I translated an epistle of +Cicero into French, and after throwing it aside till the words and +phrases were obliterated from my memory, I retranslated my French into +such Latin as I could find, and then compared each sentence of my +imperfect version with the ease, the grace, the propriety of the Roman +orator." The only odd thing in connection with this excellent method +is that Gibbon in his Memoirs seems to think it was a novel discovery +of his own, and would recommend it to the imitation of students, +whereas it is as old as the days of Ascham at least. There is no +indication that he ever in the least degree attempted Latin verse, and +it is improbable that he should have done so, reading alone in +Lausanne, under the slight supervision of such a teacher as Pavillard. +The lack of this elegant frivolity will be less thought of now than it +would some years ago. But we may admit that it would have been +interesting to have a copy of hexameters or elegiacs by the historian +of Rome. So much for Latin. In Greek he made far less progress. He had +attained his nineteenth year before he learned the alphabet, and even +after so late a beginning he did not prosecute the study with much +energy. + +M. Pavillard seems to have taught him little more than the rudiments. +"After my tutor had left me to myself I worked my way through about +half the _Iliad_, and afterwards interpreted alone a large portion of +Xenophon and Herodotus. But my ardour, destitute of aid and emulation, +gradually cooled, and from the barren task of searching words in a +lexicon I withdrew to the free and familiar conversation of Virgil and +Tacitus." This statement of the Memoirs is more than confirmed by the +journal of his studies, where we find him, as late as the year 1762, +when he was twenty-five years of age, painfully reading Homer, it +would appear, for the first time. He read on an average about a book a +week, and when he had finished the _Iliad_ this is what he says: "I +have so far met with the success I hoped for, that I have acquired a +great facility in reading the language, and treasured up a very great +stock of words. What I have rather neglected is the grammatical +construction of them, and especially the many various inflections of +the verbs." To repair this defect he wisely resolved to bestow some +time every morning on the perusal of the Greek Grammar of Port Royal. +Thus we see that at an age when many men are beginning to forget their +Greek, Gibbon was beginning to learn it. Was this early deficiency +ever repaired in Greek as it was in Latin? I think not. He never was +at home in old Hellas as he was in old Rome. This may be inferred from +the discursive notes of his great work, in which he has with admirable +skill incorporated so much of his vast and miscellaneous reading. But +his references to classic Greek authors are relatively few and timid +compared with his grasp and mastery of the Latin. His judgments on +Greek authors are also, to say the least, singular. When he had +achieved the _Decline and Fall_, and was writing his Memoirs in the +last years of his life, the Greek writer whom he selects for especial +commendation is Xenophon. "Cicero in Latin and Xenophon in Greek are +indeed the two ancients whom I would first propose to a liberal +scholar, not only for the merit of their style and sentiments, but for +the admirable lessons which may be applied almost to every situation +of public and private life." Of the merit of Xenophon's sentiments, +most people would now admit that the less said the better. The warmth +of Gibbon's language with regard to Xenophon contrasts with the +coldness he shows with regard to Plato. "I involved myself," he says, +"in the philosophic maze of the writings of Plato, of which perhaps +the dramatic is more interesting than the argumentative part." That +Gibbon knew amply sufficient Greek for his purposes as an historian no +one doubts, but his honourable candour enables us to see that he was +never a Greek scholar in the proper sense of the word. + +It would be greatly to misknow Gibbon to suppose that his studies at +Lausanne were restricted to the learned languages. He obtained +something more than an elementary knowledge of mathematics, mastered +De Crousaz' _Logic_ and Locke's _Essay_, and filled up his spare time +with that wide and discursive reading to which his boundless curiosity +was always pushing him. He was thoroughly happy and contented, and +never ceased throughout his life to congratulate himself on the +fortunate exile which had placed him at Lausanne. In one respect he +did not use his opportunities while in Switzerland. He never climbed a +mountain all the time he was there, though he lived to see in his +later life the first commencement of the Alpine fever. On the other +hand, as became a historian and man of sense, the social and political +aspects of the country engaged his attention, as well they might. He +enjoyed access to the best society of the place, and the impression he +made seems to have been as favourable as the one he received. + +The influence of a foreign training is very marked in Gibbon, +affecting as it does his general cast of thought, and even his style. +It would be difficult to name any writer in our language, especially +among the few who deserve to be compared with him, who is so +un-English, not in a bad sense of the word, as implying objectionable +qualities, but as wanting the clear insular stamp and native flavour. +If an intelligent Chinese or Persian were to read his book in a French +translation, he would not readily guess that it was written by an +Englishman. It really bears the imprint of no nationality, and is +emphatically European. We may postpone the question whether this is a +merit or a defect, but it is a characteristic. The result has +certainly been that he is one of the best-known of English prose +writers on the Continent, and one whom foreigners most readily +comprehend. This peculiarity, of which he himself was fully aware, we +may agree with him in ascribing to his residence at Lausanne. At the +"flexible age of sixteen he soon learned to endure, and gradually to +adopt," foreign manners. French became the language in which he +spontaneously thought; "his views were enlarged, and his prejudices +were corrected." In one particular he cannot be complimented on the +effect of his continental education, when he congratulates himself +"that his taste for the French theatre had abated his idolatry for the +gigantic genius of Shakespeare, which is inculcated from our infancy +as the first duty of Englishmen." Still it is well to be rid of +idolatry and bigotry even with regard to Shakespeare. We must remember +that the insular prejudices from which Gibbon rejoiced to be free were +very different in their intensity and narrowness from anything of the +kind which exists now. The mixed hatred and contempt for foreigners +which prevailed in his day, were enough to excite disgust in any +liberal mind. + +The lucid order and admirable literary form of Gibbon's great work are +qualities which can escape no observant reader. But they are +qualities which are not common in English books. The French have a +saying, "Les Anglais ne savent pas faire un livre." This is unjust, +taken absolutely, but as a general rule it is not without foundation. +It is not a question of depth or originality of thought, nor of the +various merits belonging to style properly so-called. In these +respects English authors need not fear competition. But in the art of +clear and logical arrangement, of building up a book in such order and +method that each part contributes to the general effect of the whole, +we must own that we have many lessons to learn of our neighbours. Now +in this quality Gibbon is a Frenchman. Not Voltaire himself is more +perspicuous than Gibbon. Everything is in its place, and disposed in +such apparently natural sequence that the uninitiated are apt to think +the matter could not have been managed otherwise. It is a case, if +there ever was one, of consummate art concealing every trace, not only +of art, but even of effort. Of course the grasp and penetrating +insight which are implied here, were part of Gibbon's great endowment, +which only Nature could give. But it was fortunate that his genius was +educated in the best school for bringing out its innate quality. + +It would be difficult to explain why, except on that principle of +decimation by which Macaulay accounted for the outcry against Lord +Byron, Gibbon's solitary and innocent love passage has been made the +theme of a good deal of malicious comment. The parties most +interested, and who, we may presume, knew the circumstances better +than any one else, seem to have been quite satisfied with each other's +conduct. Gibbon and Mdlle. Curchod, afterwards Madame Necker, remained +on terms of the _most_ intimate friendship till the end of the +former's life. This might be supposed sufficient. But it has not been +so considered by evil tongues. The merits of the case, however, may be +more conveniently discussed in a later chapter. At this point it will +be enough to give the facts. + +Mdlle. Susanne Curchod was born about the year 1740; her father was +the Calvinist minister of Crassier, her mother a French Huguenot who +had preferred her religion to her country. She had received a liberal +and even learned education from her father, and was as attractive in +person as she was accomplished in mind. "She was beautiful with that +pure virginal beauty which depends on early youth" (Sainte-Beuve). In +1757 she was the talk of Lausanne, and could not appear in an assembly +or at the play without being surrounded by admirers; she was called La +Belle Curchod. Gibbon's curiosity was piqued to see such a prodigy, +and he was smitten with love at first sight. "I found her" he says +"learned without pedantry, lively in conversation, pure in sentiment, +and elegant in manners." He was twenty and she seventeen years of age; +no impediment was placed in the way of their meeting; and he was a +frequent guest in her father's house. In fact Gibbon paid his court +with an assiduity which makes an exception in his usually unromantic +nature. "She listened," he says, "to the voice of truth and passion, +and I might presume to hope that I had made some impression on a +virtuous heart." We must remember that this and other rather glowing +passages in his Memoirs were written in his old age, when he had +returned to Lausanne, and when, after a long separation and many +vicissitudes, he and Madame Necker were again thrown together in an +intimacy of friendship which revived old memories. Letters of hers to +him which will be quoted in a later chapter show this in a striking +light. He indulged, he says, his dream of felicity, but on his return +to England he soon discovered that his father would not hear of this +"strange alliance," and then follows the sentence which has lost him +in the eyes of some persons. "After a painful struggle I yielded to my +fate: I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son." What else he was to do +under the circumstances does not appear. He was wholly dependent on +his father, and on the Continent at least parental authority is not +regarded as a trifling impediment in such cases. Gibbon could only +have married Mdlle. Curchod as an exile and a pauper, if he had openly +withstood his father's wishes. "All for love" is a very pretty maxim, +but it is apt to entail trouble when practically applied. Jean-Jacques +Rousseau, who had the most beautiful sentiments on paper, but who in +real life was not always a model of self-denial, found, as we shall +see, grave fault with Gibbon's conduct. Gibbon, as a plain man of +rather prosaic good sense, behaved neither heroically nor meanly. +Time, absence, and the scenes of a new life, which he found in +England, had their usual effect; his passion vanished. "My cure," he +says, "was accelerated by a faithful report of the tranquillity and +cheerfulness of the lady herself, and my love subsided in friendship +and esteem." The probability, indeed, that he and Mdlle. Curchod would +ever see each other again, must have seemed remote in the extreme. +Europe and England were involved in the Seven Years War; he was fixed +at home, and an officer in the militia; Switzerland was far off: when +and where were they likely to meet? They did, contrary to all +expectation, meet again, and renewed terms not so much of friendship +as of affection. Mdlle. Curchod, as the wife of Necker, became +somewhat of a celebrity, and it is chiefly owing to these last-named +circumstances that the world has ever heard of Gibbon's early love. + +While he was at Lausanne Gibbon made the acquaintance of Voltaire, but +it led to no intimacy or fruitful reminiscence. "He received me with +civility as an English youth, but I cannot boast of any peculiar +notice or distinction." Still he had "the satisfaction of hearing--an +uncommon circumstance--a great poet declaim his own productions on the +stage." One is often tempted, in reading Gibbon's Memoirs, to regret +that he adopted the austere plan which led him "to condemn the +practice of transforming a private memorial into a vehicle of satire +or praise." As he truly says, "It was assuredly in his power to amuse +the reader with a gallery of portraits and a collection of anecdotes." +This reserve is particularly disappointing when a striking and +original figure like Voltaire passes across the field, without an +attempt to add one stroke to the portraiture of such a physiognomy. + +Gibbon had now (1758) been nearly five years at Lausanne, when his +father suddenly intimated that he was to return home immediately. The +Seven Years War was at its height, and the French had denied a passage +through France to English travellers. Gibbon, or more properly his +Swiss friends, thought that the alternative road through Germany might +be dangerous, though it might have been assumed that the Great +Frederick, so far as he was concerned, would make things as pleasant +as possible to British subjects, whose country had just consented to +supply him with a much-needed subsidy. The French route was preferred, +perhaps as much from a motive of frolic as anything else. Two Swiss +officers of his acquaintance undertook to convey Gibbon from France as +one of their companions, under an assumed name, and in borrowed +regimentals. His complete mastery of French removed any chance of +detection on the score of language, and with a "mixture of joy and +regret" on the 11th April, 1758, Gibbon left Lausanne. He had a +pleasant journey, but no adventures, and returned to his native land +after an absence of four years, ten months, and fifteen days. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +IN THE MILITIA. + + +The only person whom, on his return, Gibbon had the least wish to see +was his aunt, Catherine Porten. To her house he at once hastened, and +"the evening was spent in the effusions of joy and tenderness." He +looked forward to his first meeting with his father with no slight +anxiety, and that for two reasons. First, his father had parted from +him with anger and menace, and he had no idea how he would be received +now. Secondly, his mother's place was occupied by a second wife, and +an involuntary but strong prejudice possessed him against his +step-mother. He was most agreeably disappointed in both respects. His +father "received him as a man, as a friend, all constraint was +banished at our first interview, and we ever after continued on the +same terms of easy and equal politeness." So far the prospect was +pleasant. But the step-mother remained a possible obstacle to all +comfort at home. He seems to have regarded his father's second +marriage as an act of displeasure with himself, and he was disposed to +hate the rival of his mother. Gibbon soon found that the injustice was +in his own fancy, and the imaginary monster was an amiable and +deserving woman. "I could not be mistaken in the first view of her +understanding; her knowledge and the elegant spirit of her +conversation, her polite welcome, and her assiduous care to study and +gratify my wishes announced at least that the surface would be smooth; +and my suspicions of art and falsehood were gradually dispelled by the +full discovery of her warm and exquisite sensibility." He became +indeed deeply attached to his step-mother. "After some reserve on my +side, our minds associated in confidence and friendship, and as Mrs. +Gibbon had neither children nor the hopes of children, we more easily +adopted the tender names and genuine characters of mother and son." A +most creditable testimony surely to the worth and amiability of both +of them. The friendship thus begun continued without break or coolness +to the end of Gibbon's life. Thirty-five years after his first +interview with his step-mother, and only a few months before his own +death, when he was old and ailing, and the least exertion, by reason +of his excessive corpulence, involved pain and trouble, he made a long +journey to Bath for the sole purpose of paying Mrs. Gibbon a visit. He +was very far from being the selfish Epicurean that has been sometimes +represented. + +He had brought with him from Lausanne the first pages of a work which, +after much bashfulness and delay, he at length published in the French +language, under the title of _Essai sur l'Étude de la Littérature_, in +the year 1761, that is two years after its completion. In one respect +this juvenile work of Gibbon has little merit. The style is at once +poor and stilted, and the general quality of remark eminently +commonplace, where it does not fall into paradox. On the other hand, +it has an interesting and even original side. The main idea of the +little book, so far as it has one, was excellent, and really above the +general thought of the age, namely, the vindication of classical +literature and history generally from the narrow and singular +prejudice which prevailed against them, especially in France. When +Gibbon ascribes the design of his first work to a "refinement of +vanity, the desire of justifying and praising the object of a +favourite pursuit," he does himself less than justice. This first +utterance of his historic genius was prompted by an unconscious but +deep reaction against that contempt for the past, which was the +greatest blot in the speculative movement of the eighteenth century. +He resists the temper of his time rather from instinct than reason, +and pleads the cause of learning with the hesitation of a man who has +not fully seen round his subject, or even mastered his own thoughts +upon it. Still there is his protest against the proposal of +D'Alembert, who recommended that after a selection of facts had been +made at the end of every century the remainder should be delivered to +the flames. "Let us preserve them all," he says, "most carefully. A +Montesquieu will detect in the most insignificant, relations which the +vulgar overlook." He resented the haughty pretensions of the +mathematical sciences to universal dominion, with sufficient vigour to +have satisfied Auguste Comte. "Physics and mathematics are at present +on the throne. They see their sister sciences prostrate before them, +chained to their chariot, or at most occupied in adorning their +triumph. Perhaps their downfall is not far off." To speak of a +positive downfall of exact sciences was a mistake. But we may fairly +suppose that Gibbon did not contemplate anything beyond a relative +change of position in the hierarchy of the sciences, by which history +and politics would recover or attain to a dignity which was denied +them in his day. In one passage Gibbon shows that he had dimly +foreseen the possibility of the modern inquiries into the conditions +of savage life and prehistoric man. "An Iroquois book, even were it +full of absurdities, would be an invaluable treasure. It would offer a +unique example of the nature of the human mind placed in circumstances +which we have never known, and influenced by manners and religious +opinions, the complete opposite of ours." In this sentence Gibbon +seems to call in anticipation for the researches which have since been +prosecuted with so much success by eminent writers among ourselves, +not to mention similar inquirers on the Continent. + +But in the meantime Gibbon had entered on a career which removed him +for long months from books and study. Without sufficiently reflecting +on what such a step involved, he had joined the militia, which was +embodied in the year 1760; and for the next two and a half years led, +as he says, a wandering life of military servitude. At first, indeed, +he was so pleased with his new mode of life that he had serious +thoughts of becoming a professional soldier. But this enthusiasm +speedily wore off, and our "mimic Bellona soon revealed to his eyes +her naked deformity." It was indeed no mere playing at soldiering that +he had undertaken. He was the practical working commander of "an +independent corps of 476 officers and men." "In the absence, or even +in the presence of the two field officers" (one of whom was his +father, the major) "I was intrusted with the effective labour of +dictating the orders and exercising the battalion." And his duty did +not consist in occasional drilling and reviews, but in serious +marches, sometimes of thirty miles in a day, and camping under canvas. +One encampment, on Winchester Downs, lasted four months. Gibbon does +not hesitate to say that the superiority of his grenadiers to the +detachments of the regular army, with which they were often mingled, +was so striking that the most prejudiced regular could not have +hesitated a moment to admit it. But the drilling, and manoeuvring, and +all that pertained to the serious side of militia business interested +Gibbon, and though it took up time it gave him knowledge of a special +kind, of which he quite appreciated the value. He was much struck, for +instance, by the difference between the nominal and effective force of +every regiment he had seen, even when supposed to be complete, and +gravely doubts whether a nominal army of 100,000 men often brings +_fifty_ thousand into the field. What he found unendurable was the +constant shifting of quarters, the utter want of privacy and leisure +it often entailed, and the distasteful society in which he was forced +to live. For eight months at a stretch he never took a book in his +hand. "From the day we marched from Blandford, I had hardly a moment I +could call my own, being almost continually in motion, or if I was +fixed for a day, it was in the guardroom, a barrack, or an inn." Even +worse were the drinking and late hours; sometimes in "rustic" company, +sometimes in company in which joviality and wit were more abundant +than decorum and common sense, which will surprise no one who hears +that the famous John Wilkes, who was colonel of the Buckingham +militia, was not unfrequently one of his boon companions. A few +extracts from his journal will be enough. "To-day (August 28, 1762), +Sir Thomas Worsley," the colonel of the battalion, "came to us to +dinner. Pleased to see him, we kept bumperising till after +roll-calling, Sir Thomas assuring us every fresh bottle how infinitely +sober he was growing." September 23rd. "Colonel Wilkes, of the +Buckingham militia, dined with us, and renewed the acquaintance Sir +Thomas and myself had begun with him at Reading. I scarcely ever met +with a better companion; he has inexhaustible spirits, infinite wit +and humour, and a great deal of knowledge.... This proved a very +debauched day; we drank a great deal both after dinner and supper; and +when at last Wilkes had retired, Sir Thomas and some others (of whom I +was not one) broke into his room and made him drink a bottle of claret +in bed." December 17. "We found old Captain Meard at Arlesford with +the second division of the Fourteenth. He and all his officers supped +with us, which made the evening rather a drunken one." Gibbon might +well say that the militia was unfit for and unworthy of him. + +Yet it is quite astonishing to see, as recorded in his journal, how +keen an interest he still managed to retain in literature in the midst +of all this dissipation, and how fertile he was of schemes and +projects of future historical works to be prosecuted under more +favourable auspices. Subject after subject occurred to him as eligible +and attractive; he caresses the idea for a time, then lays it aside +for good reasons. First, he pitched upon the expedition of Charles +VIII. of France into Italy. He read and meditated upon it, and wrote a +dissertation of ten folio pages, besides large notes, in which he +examined the right of Charles VIII. to the crown of Naples, and the +rival claims of the houses of Anjou and Aragon. In a few weeks he +gives up this idea, firstly, for the rather odd reason that the +subject was too remote from us; and, secondly, for the very good +reason that the expedition was rather the introduction to great events +than great and important in itself. He then successively chose and +rejected the Crusade of Richard the First; the Barons' War against +John and Henry III.; the history of Edward the Black Prince; the lives +and comparisons of Henry V. and the Emperor Titus; the life of Sir +Philip Sidney, and that of the Marquis of Montrose. At length he fixed +on Sir Walter Raleigh as his hero. On this he worked with all the +assiduity that his militia life allowed, read a great quantity of +original documents relating to it, and, after some months of labour, +declared that "his subject opened upon him, and in general improved +upon a nearer prospect." But half a year later he "is afraid he will +have to drop his hero." And he covers half a page with reasons to +persuade himself that he was right in doing so. Besides the obvious +one that he would be able to add little that was not already +accessible in Oldys' _Life of Raleigh_, that the topic was exhausted, +and so forth, he goes on to make these remarks, which have more +signification to us now than perhaps they had to him when he wrote +them. "Could I even surmount these obstacles, I should shrink with +terror from the modern history of England, where every character is a +problem and every reader a friend or an enemy: when a writer is +supposed to hoist a flag of party, and is devoted to damnation by the +adverse faction. Such would be _my_ reception at home; and abroad the +historian of Raleigh must encounter an indifference far more bitter +than censure or reproach. The events of his life are interesting; but +his character is ambiguous; his actions are obscure; his writings are +English, and his fame is confined to the narrow limits of our language +and our island. _I must embrace a safer and more extensive theme._" +Here we see the first gropings after a theme of cosmopolitan interest. +He has arrived at two negative conclusions: that it must not be +English, and must not be narrow. What it is to be, does not yet +appear, for he has still a series of subjects to go through, to be +taken up and discarded. The history of the liberty of the Swiss, which +at a later period he partially achieved, was one scheme; the history +of Florence under the Medici was another. He speaks with enthusiasm of +both projects, adding that he will most probably fix upon the latter; +but he never did anything of the kind. + +These were the topics which occupied Gibbon's mind during his service +in the militia, escaping when he could from the uproar and vulgarity +of the camp and the guardroom to the sanctuary of the historic muse, +to worship in secret. But these private devotions could not remove his +disgust at "the inn, the wine, and the company" he was forced to +endure, and latterly the militia became downright insupportable to +him. But honourable motives kept him to his post. "From a service +without danger I might have retired without disgrace; but as often as +I hinted a wish of resigning, my fetters were riveted by the friendly +intreaties of the colonel, the parental authority of the major, and my +own regard for the welfare of the battalion." At last the +long-wished-for day arrived, when the militia was disbanded. "Our two +companies," he writes in his journal, "were disembodied (December +23rd, 1762), mine at Alton, my father's at Buriton. They fired three +volleys, lodged the major's colours, delivered up their arms, received +their money, partook of a dinner at the major's expense, and then +separated, with great cheerfulness and regularity. Thus ended the +militia." The compression that his spirit had endured was shown by the +rapid energy with which he sought a change of scene and oblivion of +his woes. Within little more than a month after the scene just +described, Gibbon was in Paris beginning the grand tour. + +With that keen sense of the value of time which marked him, Gibbon +with great impartiality cast up and estimated the profit and loss of +his "bloodless campaigns." Both have been alluded to already. He +summed up with great fairness in the entry that he made in his journal +on the evening of the day on which he recovered his liberty. "I am +glad that the militia has been, and glad that it is no more." This +judgment he confirmed thirty years afterwards, when he composed his +Memoirs. "My principal obligation to the militia was the making me an +Englishman and a soldier. After my foreign education, with my reserved +temper, I should long have continued a stranger in my native country, +had I not been shaken in this various scene of new faces and new +friends; had not experience forced me to feel the characters of our +leading men, the state of parties, the forms of office, the operations +of our civil and military system. In this peaceful service I imbibed +the rudiments of the language and science of tactics, which opened a +new field of study and observation. I diligently read and meditated +the _Mémoires Militaires_ of Quintus Icilius, the only writer who has +united the merits of a professor and a veteran. The discipline and +evolution of a modern battalion gave me a clearer notion of the +phalanx and the legion, and the captain of the Hampshire grenadiers +(the reader may smile) has not been useless to the historian of the +Roman Empire." No one can doubt it who compares Gibbon's numerous +narratives of military operations with the ordinary performances of +civil historians in those matters. The campaigns of Julian, +Belisarius, and Heraclius, not to mention many others, have not only +an uncommon lucidity, but also exhibit a clear appreciation of the +obstacles and arduousness of warlike operations, which is rare or +unknown to non-military writers. Macaulay has pointed out that Swift's +party pamphlets are superior in an especial way to the ordinary +productions of that class, in consequence of Swift's unavowed but very +serious participation in the cabinet councils of Oxford and +Bolingbroke. In the same manner Gibbon had an advantage through his +military training, which gives him no small superiority to even the +best historical writers who have been without it. + +The course of foreign travel which Gibbon was now about to commence +had been contemplated before, but the war and the militia had +postponed it for nearly three years. It appears that as early as the +year 1760 the elder Gibbon had conceived the project of procuring a +seat in Parliament for his son, and was willing to incur the +anticipated expense of Ł1500 for that object. Young Gibbon, who seems +to have very accurately gauged his own abilities at that early age, +was convinced that the money could be much better employed in another +way. He wrote in consequence, under his father's roof, a letter to the +latter which does such credit to his head and to his heart, that, +although it is somewhat long, it cannot with propriety be omitted +here. + + EDWARD GIBBON TO HIS FATHER. + + "DEAR SIR, + + "An address in writing from a person who has the pleasure of + being with you every day may appear singular. However I have + preferred this method, as upon paper I can speak without a + blush and be heard without interruption. If my letter + displeases you, impute it, dear sir, to yourself. You have + treated me, not like a son, but like a friend. Can you be + surprised that I should communicate to a friend all my + thoughts and all my desires? Unless the friend approve them, + let the father never know them; or at least let him know at + the same time that however reasonable, however eligible, my + scheme may appear to me, I would rather forget it for ever + than cause him the slightest uneasiness. + + "When I first returned to England, attentive to my future + interests, you were so good as to give me hopes of a seat in + Parliament. This seat, it was supposed, would be an expense + of fifteen hundred pounds. This design flattered my vanity, + as it might enable me to shine in so august an assembly. It + flattered a nobler passion: I promised myself that, by the + means of this seat, I might one day be the instrument of + some good to my country. But I soon perceived how little + mere virtuous inclination, unassisted by talents, could + contribute towards that great end, and a very short + examination discovered to me that those talents had not + fallen to my lot. Do not, dear sir, impute this declaration + to a false modesty--the meanest species of pride. Whatever + else I may be ignorant of, I think I know myself, and shall + always endeavour to mention my good qualities without vanity + and my defects without repugnance. I shall say nothing of + the most intimate acquaintance with his country and + language, so absolutely necessary to every senator; since + they may be acquired, to allege my deficiency in them would + seem only the plea of laziness. But I shall say with great + truth that I never possessed that gift of speech, the first + requisite of an orator, which use and labour may improve, + but which nature can alone bestow; that my temper, quiet, + retired, somewhat reserved, could neither acquire + popularity, bear up against opposition, nor mix with ease in + the crowds of public life; that even my genius (if you allow + me any) is better qualified for the deliberate compositions + of the closet than for the extempore discourses of + Parliament. An unexpected objection would disconcert me, and + as I am incapable of explaining to others what I do not + understand myself, I should be meditating when I ought to be + answering. I even want necessary prejudices of party and of + nation. In popular assemblies it is often necessary to + inspire them, and never orator inspired well a passion which + he did not feel himself. Suppose me even mistaken in my own + character, to set out with the repugnance such an opinion + must produce offers but an indifferent prospect. But I hear + you say it is not necessary that every man should enter into + Parliament with such exalted hopes. It is to acquire a title + the most glorious of any in a free country, and to employ + the weight and consideration it gives in the service of + one's friends. Such motives, though not glorious, yet are + not dishonourable, and if we had a borough in our command, + if you could bring me in without any great expense, or if + our fortune enabled us to despise that expense, then indeed + I should think them of the greatest strength. But with our + private fortune, is it worthwhile to purchase at so high a + rate a title honourable in itself, but which I must share + with every fellow that can lay out 1500 pounds? Besides, + dear sir, a merchandise is of little value to the owner when + he is resolved not to sell it. + + "I should affront your penetration did I not suppose you now + see the drift of this letter. It is to appropriate to + another use the sum with which you destined to bring me into + Parliament; to employ it, not in making me great, but in + rendering me happy. I have often heard you say yourself that + the allowance you had been so indulgent as to grant me, + though very liberal in regard to your estate, was yet but + small when compared with the almost necessary extravagances + of the age. I have indeed found it so, notwithstanding a + good deal of economy, and an exemption from many of the + common expenses of youth. This, dear sir, would be a way of + supplying these deficiencies without any additional expense + to you. But I forbear--if you think my proposals reasonable, + you want no intreaties to engage you to comply with them, if + otherwise all will be without effect. + + "All that I am afraid of, dear sir, is that I should seem + not so much asking a favour, as this really is, as exacting + a debt. After all I can say, you will remain the best judge + of my good and your own circumstances. Perhaps, like most + landed gentlemen, an addition to my annuity would suit you + better than a sum of money given at once; perhaps the sum + itself may be too considerable. Whatever you may think + proper to bestow on me, or in whatever manner, will be + received with equal gratitude. + + "I intended to stop here, but as I abhor the least + appearance of art, I think it better to lay open my whole + scheme at once. The unhappy war which now desolates Europe + will oblige me to defer seeing France till a peace. But that + reason can have no influence on Italy, a country which every + scholar must long to see. Should you grant my request, and + not disapprove of my manner of employing your bounty, I + would leave England this autumn and pass the winter at + Lausanne with M. de Voltaire and my old friends. In the + spring I would cross the Alps, and after some stay in Italy, + as the war must then be terminated, return home through + France, to live happily with you and my dear mother. I am + now two-and-twenty; a tour must take up a considerable time; + and although I believe you have no thoughts of settling me + soon (and I am sure I have not), yet so many things may + intervene that the man who does not travel early runs a + great risk of not travelling at all. But this part of my + scheme, as well as the whole of it, I submit entirely to + you. + + "Permit me, dear sir, to add that I do not know whether the + complete compliance with my wishes could increase my love + and gratitude, but that I am very sure no refusal could + diminish those sentiments with which I shall always remain, + dear sir, your most dutiful and obedient son and servant. + + "E. GIBBON, JUN." + +Instead of going to Italy in the autumn of 1760, as he fondly hoped +when he wrote this letter, Gibbon was marching about the south of +England at the head of his grenadiers. But the scheme sketched in the +above letter was only postponed, and ultimately realised in every +particular. The question of a seat in Parliament never came up again +during his father's life, and no doubt the money it would have cost +was, according to his wise suggestion, devoted to defray the expenses +of his foreign tour, which he is now about to begin. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE ITALIAN JOURNEY. + + +Gibbon reached Paris on the 28th January, 1763; thirty-six days, as he +tells us, after the disbanding of the militia. He remained a little +over three months in the French capital, which on the whole pleased +him so well that he thinks that if he had been independent and rich, +he might have been tempted to make it his permanent residence. + +On the other hand he seems to have been little if at all aware of the +extraordinary character of the society of which he became a spectator +and for a time a member. He does not seem to have been conscious that +he was witnessing one of the most singular social phases which have +yet been presented in the history of man. And no blame attaches to him +for this. No one of his contemporaries saw deeper in this direction +than he did. It is a remarkable instance of the way in which the +widest and deepest social movements are veiled to the eyes of those +who see them, precisely because of their width and depth. Foreigners, +especially Englishmen, visited Paris in the latter half of the +eighteenth century and reported variously of their experience and +impressions. Some, like Hume and Sterne, are delighted; some, like +Gibbon, are quietly, but thoroughly pleased; some, like +Walpole--though he perhaps is a class by himself--are half pleased and +half disgusted. They all feel that there is something peculiar in what +they witness, but never seem to suspect that nothing like it was ever +seen before in the world. One is tempted to wish that they could have +seen with our eyes, or, much more, that we could have had the +privilege of enjoying their experience, of spending a few months in +that singular epoch when "society," properly so called, the assembling +of men and women in drawing-rooms for the purpose of conversation, was +the most serious as well as the most delightful business of life. Talk +and discussion in the senate, the market-place, and the schools are +cheap; even barbarians are not wholly without them. But their +refinement and concentration in the _salon_--of which the president is +a woman of tact and culture--this is a phenomenon which never appeared +but in Paris in the eighteenth century. And yet scholars, men of the +world, men of business passed through this wonderland with eyes +blindfolded. They are free to enter, they go, they come, without a +sign that they have realised the marvellous scene that they were +permitted to traverse. One does not wonder that they did not perceive +that in those graceful drawing-rooms, filled with stately company of +elaborate manners, ideas and sentiments were discussed and evolved +which would soon be more explosive than gunpowder. One does not wonder +that they did not see ahead of them--men never do. One does rather +wonder that they did not see what was before their eyes. But wonder is +useless and a mistake. People who have never seen a volcano cannot be +expected to fear the burning lava, or even to see that a volcano +differs from any other mountain. + +Gibbon had brought good introductions from London, but he admits that +they were useless, or rather superfluous. His nationality and his +_Essai_ were his best recommendations. It was the day of Anglomania, +and, as he says, "every Englishman was supposed to be a patriot and a +philosopher." "I had rather be," said Mdlle. de Lespinasse to Lord +Shelburne, "the least member of the House of Commons than even the +King of Prussia." Similar things must have been said to Gibbon, but he +has not recorded them; and generally it may be said that he is +disappointingly dull and indifferent to Paris, though he liked it well +enough when there. He never caught the Paris fever as Hume did, and +Sterne, or even as Walpole did, for all the hard things he says of the +underbred and overbearing manners of the philosophers. Gibbon had +ready access to the well-known houses of Madame Geoffrin, Madame +Helvétius and the Baron d'Holbach; and his perfect mastery of the +language must have removed every obstacle in the way of complete +social intercourse. But no word in his Memoirs or Letters shows that +he really saw with the eyes of the mind the singularities of that +strange epoch. And yet he was there at an exciting and important +moment. The Order of the Jesuits was tottering to its fall; the latter +volumes of the _Encyclopedia_ were being printed, and it was no +secret; the coruscating wit and audacity of the _salons_ were at their +height. He is not unjust or prejudiced, but somewhat cold. He dines +with Baron d'Holbach, and says his dinners were excellent, but nothing +of the guests. He goes to Madame Geoffrin, and pronounces her house an +excellent one. Such faint and commonplace praise reflects on the +eulogist. The only man of letters of whom he speaks with warmth is +Helvétius. He does not appear in this first visit to have known Madame +du Deffand, who was still keeping her _salon_ with the help of the +pale deep-eyed L'Espinasse, though the final rupture was imminent. +Louis Racine died, and so did Marivaux, while he was in Paris. The old +Opera-house in the Palais Royal was burnt down when he had been there +a little over a month, and the representations were transferred to the +Salle des Machines, in the Tuileries. The equestrian statue of Louis +XV. was set up in the Place to which it gave its name (where the Luxor +column now stands, in the Place de la Concorde) amidst the jeers and +insults of the mob, who declared it would never be got to pass the +hotel of Madame de Pompadour. How much or how little of all this +touched Gibbon, we do not know. We do know one thing, that his English +clothes were unfashionable and looked very foreign, the French being +"excessively long-waisted." Doubtless his scanty purse could not +afford a new outfit, such as Walpole two years afterwards, under the +direction of Lady Hertford, promptly procured. On the 8th of May he +hurried off to Lausanne.[5] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 5: The chronicle of events which occurred during Gibbon's +sojourn in Paris will be found in the interesting _Mémoires de +Bachaumont._] + +His ultimate object was Italy. But he wisely resolved to place a +period of solid study between the lively dissipation of Paris and his +classic pilgrimage. He knew the difference between seeing things he +had read about and reading about things after he had seen them; how +the mind, charged with associations of famous scenes, is delicately +susceptible of impressions, and how rapidly old musings take form and +colour, when, stirred by outward realities; and contrariwise, how slow +and inadequate is the effort to reverse this process, and to clothe +with memories, monuments and sites over which the spirit has not sent +a halo of previous meditation. So he settled down quietly at Lausanne +for the space of nearly a year, and commenced a most austere and +systematic course of reading on the antiquities of Italy. The list of +learned works which he perused "with his pen in his hand" is +formidable, and fills a quarto page. But he went further than this, +and compiled an elaborate treatise on the nations, provinces, and +towns of ancient Italy (which we still have) digested in alphabetical +order, in which every Latin author, from Plautus to Rutilius, is laid +under contribution for illustrative passages, which are all copied out +in full. This laborious work was evidently Gibbon's own guidebook in +his Italian travels, and one sees not only what an admirable +preparation it was for the object in view, but what a promise it +contained of that scrupulous thoroughness which was to be his mark as +an historian. His mind was indeed rapidly maturing, and becoming +conscious in what direction its strength lay. + +His account of his first impressions of Rome has been often quoted, +and deserves to be so again. "My temper is not very susceptible of +enthusiasm, and the enthusiasm which I do not feel I have ever scorned +to affect. But at the distance of twenty-five years I can neither +forget nor express the strong emotions which agitated my mind as I +first approached and entered the Eternal City. After a sleepless +night, I trod with a lofty step the ruins of the Forum. Each memorable +spot where Romulus stood, or Tully spoke, or Cćsar fell, was at once +present to my eye, and several days of intoxication were lost and +enjoyed before I could descend to a cool and minute examination." He +gave eighteen weeks to the study of Rome only, and six to Naples, and +we may rest assured that he made good use of his time. But what makes +this visit to Rome memorable in his life and in literary history is +that it was the occasion and date of the first conception of his great +work. "It was at Rome, on the 15th October, 1764, as I sat musing amid +the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing +vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline +and fall of the city first started to my mind." The scene, the +contrast of the old religion and the new, the priests of Christ +replacing the flamens of Jupiter, the evensong of Catholic Rome +swelling like a dirge over the prostrate Pagan Rome might well +concentrate in one grand luminous idea the manifold but unconnected +thoughts with which his mind had so long been teeming. Gibbon had +found his work, which was destined to fill the remainder of his life. +Henceforth there is a fixed centre around which his thoughts and +musings cluster spontaneously. Difficulties and interruptions are not +wanting. The plan then formed is not taken in hand at once; on the +contrary, it is contemplated at "an awful distance"; but it led him on +like a star guiding his steps, till he reached his appointed goal. + +After crossing the Alps on his homeward journey, Gibbon had had some +thoughts of visiting the southern provinces of France. But when he +reached Lyons he found letters "expressive of some impatience" for his +return. Though he does not exactly say as much, we may justly conclude +that the elder Gibbon's pecuniary difficulties were beginning to be +oppressive. So the traveller, with the dutifulness that he ever showed +to his father, at once bent his steps northward. Again he passed +through Paris, and the place had a new attraction in his eyes in the +person of Mdlle. Curchod, now become Madame Necker, and wife of the +great financier. + +This perhaps will be the most convenient place to notice and estimate +a certain amount of rather spiteful gossip, of which Gibbon was the +subject in Switzerland about this time. Rousseau and his friend +Moultou have preserved it for us, and it is probable that it has lost +none of its pungency in passing through the hands of the latter. The +substance of it is this:--that in the year 1763, when Gibbon revisited +Lausanne, as we have seen, Susanne Curchod was still in a pitiable +state of melancholy and well nigh broken-hearted at Gibbon's manifest +coldness, which we know he considered to be "friendship and esteem." +Whether he even saw her on this visit cannot be considered certain, +but it is at least highly probable. Be that as it may: this is the +picture of her condition as drawn by Moultou in a letter to Rousseau: +"How sorry I am for our poor Mdlle. Curchod! Gibbon, whom she loves, +and to whom I know she has sacrificed some excellent matches, has come +to Lausanne, but cold, insensible, and as entirely cured of his old +passion as she is far from cure. She has written me a letter that +makes my heart ache." Rousseau says in reply, "He who does not +appreciate Mdlle. Curchod is not worthy of her; he who appreciates her +and separates himself from her is a man to be despised. She does not +know what she wants. Gibbon serves her better than her own heart. I +would rather a hundred times that he left her poor and free among you +than that he should take her off to be rich and miserable in +England." One does not quite see how Gibbon could have acted to the +contentment of Jean-Jacques. For not taking Mdlle. Curchod to +England--as we may presume he would have done if he had married +her--he is contemptible. Yet if he does take her he will make her +miserable, and Rousseau would rather a hundred times he left her +alone--precisely what he was doing; but then he was despicable for +doing it. The question is whether there is not a good deal of +exaggeration in all this. Only a year after the tragic condition in +which Moultou describes Mdlle. Curchod she married M. Necker, and +became devoted to her husband. A few months after she married Necker +she cordially invited Gibbon to her house every day of his sojourn in +Paris. If Gibbon had behaved in the unworthy way asserted, if she had +had her feelings so profoundly touched and lacerated as Moultou +declares, would she, or even could she, have acted thus? If she was +conscious of being wronged, and he was conscious--as he must have +been--of having acted basely, or at least unfeelingly, is it not as +good as certain that both parties would have been careful to see as +little of each other as possible? A broken-off love-match, even +without complication of unworthy conduct on either side, is generally +an effective bar to further intercourse. But in this case the +intercourse is renewed on the very first opportunity, and never +dropped till the death of one of the persons concerned. + +Two letters have been preserved of Gibbon and Madame Necker +respectively, nearly of the same date, and both referring to this +rather delicate topic of their first interviews after her marriage. +Gibbon writes to his friend Holroyd, "The Curchod (Madame Necker) I +saw in Paris. She was very fond of me, and the husband particularly +civil. Could they insult me more cruelly? Ask me every evening to +supper, go to bed and leave me alone with his wife--what impertinent +security! It is making an old lover of mighty little consequence. She +is as handsome as ever, and much genteeler; seems pleased with her +wealth rather than proud of it. I was exalting Nanette d'Illens's good +luck and the fortune" (this evidently refers to some common +acquaintance, who had changed her name to advantage). "'What fortune,' +she said with an air of contempt:--'not above twenty thousand livres a +year.' I smiled, and she caught herself immediately, 'What airs I give +myself in despising twenty thousand livres a year, who a year ago +looked upon eight hundred as the summit of my wishes.'" + +Let us turn to the lady's account of the same scenes. "I do not know +if I told you," she writes to a friend at Lausanne, "that I have seen +Gibbon, and it has given me more pleasure than I know how to express. +Not indeed that I retain any sentiment for a man who I think does not +deserve much" (this little toss of pique or pride need not mislead +us); "but my feminine vanity could not have had a more complete and +honest triumph. He stayed two weeks in Paris, and I had him every day +at my house; he has become soft, yielding, humble, decorous to a +fault. He was a constant witness of my husband's kindness, wit, and +gaiety, and made me remark for the first time, by his admiration for +wealth, the opulence with which I am surrounded, and which up to this +moment had only produced a disagreeable impression upon me." +Considering the very different points of view of the writers, these +letters are remarkably in unison. The solid fact of the daily visits +is recorded in both. It is easy to gather from Madame Necker's letter +that she was very glad to show Mr. Gibbon that for going farther and +not marrying him she had not fared worse. The rather acid allusion to +"opulence" is found in both letters; but much more pronounced in hers +than in his. Each hints that the other thought too much of wealth. But +he does so with delicacy, and only by implication; she charges him +coarsely with vulgar admiration for it. We may reasonably suspect that +riches had been the subject of not altogether smooth conversation +between them, in the later part of the evening, perhaps, after M. +Necker had retired in triumph to bed. One might even fancy that there +was a tacit allusion by Madame Necker to the dialogue recorded by +Gibbon to Holroyd, when his smile checked her indirect pride in her +own wealth, and that she remembered that smile with just a touch of +resentment. If so, nothing was more natural and comforting than to +charge him with the failing that he had detected in her. But here are +the facts. Eight months after her marriage, Madame Necker admits that +she had Gibbon every day to her house. He says that she was very +cordial. She would have it understood that she received him only for +the sake of gratifying a feminine vanity. For her own sake one might +prefer his interpretation to hers. It is difficult to believe that the +essentially simple-minded Madame Necker would have asked a man every +day to her house merely to triumph over him; and more difficult still +to believe that the man would have gone if such had been the object. A +little tartness in these first interviews, following on a relation of +some ambiguity, cannot surprise one. But it was not the dominant +ingredient, or the interviews must have ceased of their own accord. In +any case few will admit that either of the persons concerned would +have written as they did if Moultou's statement were correct. In +neither epistle is there any trace of a grand passion felt or +slighted. We discover the much lower level of vanity and badinage. And +the subsequent relations of Gibbon and Madame Necker all tend to prove +that this was the real one. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +LITERARY SCHEMES.--THE HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND.--DISSERTATION ON THE +SIXTH ĆNEID.--FATHER'S DEATH.--SETTLEMENT IN LONDON. + + +Gibbon now (June, 1765) returned to his father's house, and remained +there till the latter's death in 1770. He describes these five years +as having been the least pleasant and satisfactory of his whole life. +The reasons were not far to seek. The unthrifty habits of the elder +Gibbon were now producing their natural result. He was saddled with +debt, from which two mortgages, readily consented to by his son, and +the sale of the house at Putney, only partially relieved him. Gibbon +now began to fear that he had an old age of poverty before him. He had +pursued knowledge with single-hearted loyalty and now became aware +that from a worldly point of view knowledge is not often a profitable +investment. A more dejecting discovery cannot be made by the sincere +scholar. He is conscious of labour and protracted effort, which the +prosperous professional man and tradesman who pass him on their road +to wealth with a smile of scornful pity have never known. He has +forsaken comparatively all for knowledge, and the busy world meets him +with a blank stare, and surmises shrewdly that he is but an idler, +with an odd taste for wasting his time over books. It says much for +Gibbon's robustness of spirit that he did not break down in these +trying years, that he did not weakly take fright at his prospect, and +make hasty and violent efforts to mend it. On the contrary, he +remained steadfast and true to the things of the mind. With diminished +cheerfulness perhaps, but with no abatement of zeal, he pursued his +course and his studies, thereby proving that he belonged to the select +class of the strong and worthy who, penetrated with the loveliness of +science, will not be turned away from it. + +His first effort to redeem the time was a project of a history of +Switzerland. His choice was decided by two circumstances: (1) his love +for a country which he had made his own by adoption; (2) by the fact +that he had in his friend Deyverdun, a fellow-worker who could render +him most valuable assistance. Gibbon never knew German, which is not +surprising when we reflect what German literature amounted to, in +those days; and he soon discovered that the most valuable authorities +of his projected work were in the German language. But Deyverdun was a +perfect master of that tongue, and translated a mass of documents for +the use of his friend. They laboured for two years in collecting +materials, before Gibbon felt himself justified in entering on the +"more agreeable task of composition." And even then he considered the +preparation insufficient, as no doubt it was. He felt he could not do +justice to his subject; uninformed as he was "by the scholars and +statesmen, and remote from the archives and libraries of the Swiss +republic." Such a beginning was not of good augury for the success of +the undertaking. He never wrote more than about sixty quarto pages of +the projected work, and these, as they were in French, were submitted +to the judgment of a literary society of foreigners in London, before +whom the MS. was read. The author was unknown, and Gibbon attended the +meeting, and thus listened without being observed "to the free +strictures and unfavourable sentence of his judges." He admits that +the momentary sensation was painful; but the condemnation was ratified +by his cooler thoughts: and he declares that he did not regret the +loss of a slight and superficial essay, though it "had cost some +expense, much labour, and more time." He says in his Memoirs that he +burnt the sheets. But this, strange to say, was a mistake on his part. +They were found among his papers after his death, and though not +published by Lord Sheffield in the first two volumes of his +Miscellaneous Works, which the latter edited in 1796, they appeared in +the supplemental third volume which came out in 1815. We thus can +judge for ourselves of their value. One sees at once why and how they +failed to satisfy their author's mature judgment. They belong to that +style of historical writing which consists in the rhetorical +transcription and adornment of the original authorities, but in which +the writer never gets close enough to his subject to apply the +touchstone of a clear and trenchant criticism. Such criticism indeed +was not common in Switzerland in his day, and one cannot blame Gibbon +for not anticipating the researches of modern investigators. But his +historical sense was aroused to suspicion by the story of William +Tell, which he boldly sets down as a fable. Altogether, one may +pronounce the sketch to be pleasantly written in a flowing, +picturesque narrative, and showing immense advance in style beyond the +essay on the Study of Literature. David Hume, to whom he submitted +it, urged him to persevere, and the advice was justified under the +circumstances, although one cannot now regret that it was not +followed. + +After the failure of this scheme Gibbon, still in connection with +Deyverdun, planned a periodical work under the title of _Mémoires +Littéraires de la Grande Bretagne_. Only two volumes ever appeared, +and the speculation does not seem to have met with much success. +Gibbon "presumes to say that their merit was superior to their +reputation, though they produced more reputation than emolument." The +first volume is executed with evident pains, and gives a fair picture +of the literary and social condition of England at the time. The heavy +review articles are interspersed with what is intended to be lighter +matter on the fashions, foibles, and prominent characters of the day. +Gibbon owns the authorship of the first article on Lord Lyttelton's +history of Henry the Second, and his hand is discernible in the +account of the fourth volume of Lardner's work _On the Credibility of +the Gospel History_. The first has no merit beyond a faithful report. +The latter is written with much more zest and vigour, and shows the +interest that he already took in Christian antiquities. Other +articles, evidently from the pen of Deyverdun, on the English theatre +and Beau Nash of Bath, are the liveliest in the collection. The +magazine was avowedly intended for Continental readers, and might have +obtained success if it had been continued long enough. But it died +before it had time to make itself known.[6] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 6: Two volumes appeared of the _Mémoires Littéraires_. Of +these only the first is to be found in the British Museum. It is a +small 12mo, containing 230 pages. Here is the Table des +Matičres:--(1) Histoire de Henri II., par Milord Lyttelton; (2) Le +Nouveau Guide de Bath; (3) Essai sur l'Histoire de la Société Civile, +par M. Ferguson; (4) Conclusions des Mémoires de Miss Sydney Bidulph; +Théologie (5) Recueil des Témoignages Anciens, par Lardner; (6) Le +Confessional; (7) Transactions Philosophiques; (8) Le Gouverneur, par +D. L. F. Spectacles, Beaux Arts, Nouvelles Littéraires.] + +When the _Mémoires Littéraires_ collapsed Gibbon was again left +without a definite object to concentrate his energy, and with his work +still to seek. One might wonder why he did not seriously prepare for +the _Decline and Fall_. It must have been chiefly at this time that it +was "contemplated at an awful distance," perhaps even with numbing +doubt whether the distance would ever be lessened and the work +achieved, or even begun. The probability is he had too little peace of +mind to undertake anything that required calm and protracted labour. +"While so many of my acquaintance were married, or in Parliament, or +advancing with a rapid step in the various roads of honour or fortune +I stood alone, immovable, and insignificant.... The progress and the +knowledge of our domestic disorders aggravated my anxiety, and I began +to apprehend that in my old age I might be left without the fruits of +either industry or inheritance." Perhaps a reasonable apprehension of +poverty is more paralysing than the reality. In the latter case prompt +action is so imperatively commanded that the mind has no leisure for +the fatal indulgence of regrets; but when indigence seems only +imminent, and has not yet arrived, a certain lethargy is apt to be +produced out of which only the most practical characters can rouse +themselves, and these are not, as a rule, scholars by nature. We need +not be surprised that Gibbon during these years did nothing serious, +and postponed undertaking his great work. The inspiration needed to +accomplish such a long and arduous course as it implied could not be +kindled in a mind harassed by pecuniary cares. The fervent heat of a +poet's imagination may glow as brightly in poverty as in opulence, but +the gentle yet prolonged enthusiasm of the historian is likely to be +quenched when the resources of life are too insecure.[7] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 7: Scholarship has been frequently cultivated amidst great +poverty; but from the time of Thucydides, the owner of mines, to +Grote, the banker, historians seem to have been in, at least, easy +circumstances.] + +It is perhaps not wholly fanciful to suspect that Gibbon's next +literary effort was suggested and determined by the inward +discomposure he felt at this time. By nature he was not a +controversialist; not that he wanted the abilities to support that +character, but his mind was too full, fertile, and fond of real +knowledge to take much pleasure in the generally barren occupation of +gainsaying other men. But at this point in his life he made an +exception, and an unprovoked exception. When he wrote his famous +vindication of the first volume of the _Decline and Fall_ he was +acting in self-defence, and repelling savage attacks upon his +historical veracity. But in his _Critical Observations on the Sixth +Book of the Ćneid_ he sought controversy for its own sake, and became +a polemic--shall we say out of gaiety or bitterness of heart? That +inward unrest easily produces an aggressive spirit is a matter of +common observation, and it may well have been that in attacking +Warburton he sought a diversion from the worry of domestic cares. Be +that as it may, his _Observations_ are the most pungent and dashing +effusion he ever allowed himself. It was his first effort in English +prose, and it is doubtful whether he ever managed his mother tongue +better, if indeed he ever managed it so well. The little tract is +written with singular spirit and rapidity of style. It is clear, +trenchant, and direct to a fault. It is indeed far less critical than +polemical, and shows no trace of lofty calm, either moral or +intellectual. We are not repelled much by his eagerness to refute and +maltreat his opponent. That was not alien from the usages of the time, +and Warburton at least had no right to complain of such a style of +controversy. But there is no width and elevation of view. The writer +does not carry the discussion up to a higher level, and dominate his +adversary from a superior standpoint. Controversy is always ephemeral +and vulgar, unless it can rise to the discussion and establishment of +facts and principles valuable for themselves, independently of the +particular point at issue. It is this quality which has made the +master-works of Chillingworth and Bentley supereminent. The particular +point for which the writers contended is settled or forgotten. But in +moving up to that point they touched--such was their large discourse +of reason--on topics of perennial interest, did such justice, though +only in passing, to certain other truths, that they are gratefully +remembered ever after. Thus Bentley's dissertation on Phalaris is +read, not for the main thesis--proof of the spuriousness of the +letters--but for the profound knowledge and admirable logic with which +subsidiary positions are maintained on the way to it. Tried by this +standard, and he deserves to be tried by a high standard, Gibbon fails +not much, but entirely. The _Observations_ are rarely, if ever, +quoted as an authority of weight by any one engaged on classical or +Virgilian literature. This arises from the attitude of the writer, who +is nearly solely occupied with establishing negative conclusions that +Ćneas was _not_ a lawgiver, that the Sixth Ćneid is _not_ an allegory, +that Virgil had _not_ been initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries when +he wrote it, and so forth. Indeed the best judges now hold that he has +not done full justice to the grain of truth that was to be found in +Warburton's clumsy and prolix hypothesis.[8] It should be added that +Gibbon very candidly admits and regrets the acrimonious style of the +pamphlet, and condemns still more "in a personal attack his cowardly +concealment of his name and character." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 8: Conington, _Introduction to the Sixth Ćneid_. "A reader +of the present day will, I think, be induced to award the palm of +learning and ingenuity to Warburton." "The language and imagery of the +sixth book more than once suggest that Virgil intended to embody in +his picture the poetical view of that inner side of ancient religion +which the mysteries may be supposed to have presented."--_Suggestion +on the Study of the Ćneid_, by H. Nettleship, p. 13.] + +The _Observations_ were the last work which Gibbon published in his +father's lifetime. His account of the latter's death (November 10, +1770) is feelingly written, and shows the affectionate side of his own +nature to advantage. He acknowledges his father's failings, his +weakness and inconstancy, but insists that they were compensated by +the virtues of the head and heart, and the warmest sentiments of +honour and humanity. "His graceful person, polite address, gentle +manners, and unaffected cheerfulness recommended him to the favour of +every company." And Gibbon recalls with emotion "the pangs of shame, +tenderness, and self-reproach" which preyed on his father's mind at +the prospect, no doubt, of leaving an embarrassed estate and +precarious fortune to his son and widow. He had no taste for study in +the fatal summer of 1770, and declares that he would have been ashamed +if he had. "I submitted to the order of nature," he says, in words +which recall his resignation on losing his mistress--"I submitted to +the order of nature, and my grief was soothed by the conscious +satisfaction that I had discharged all the duties of filial piety." We +see Gibbon very fairly in this remark. He had tenderness, steady and +warm attachments, but no passion. + +Nearly two years elapsed after his father's death, before he was able +to secure from the wreck of his estate a sufficient competence to +establish himself in London. His house was No. 7, Bentinck Street, +near Manchester Square, then a remote suburb close to the country +fields. His housekeeping was that of a solitary bachelor, who could +afford an occasional dinner-party. Though not absolutely straitened in +means, we shall presently see that he was never quite at his ease in +money matters while he remained in London. But he had now freedom and +no great anxieties, and he began seriously to contemplate the +execution of his great work. + +Gibbon, as we have seen, looked back with little satisfaction on the +five years between his return from his travels and his father's death. +They are also the years during which his biographer is able to follow +him with the least certainty. Hardly any of his letters which refer to +that period have been preserved, and he has glided rapidly over it in +his Memoirs. Yet it was, in other respects besides the matter of +pecuniary troubles, a momentous epoch in his life. The peculiar views +which he adopted and partly professed on religion must have been +formed then. But the date, the circumstance, and the occasion are left +in darkness. Up to December 18, 1763, Gibbon was evidently a believer. +In an entry in his private journal under that date he speaks of a +Communion Sunday at Lausanne as affording an "edifying spectacle," on +the ground that there is "neither business nor parties, and they +interdict even whist" on that day. How soon after this his opinions +began to change, it is impossible to say. But we are conscious of a +markedly different tone in the _Observations_, and a sneer at "the +ancient alliance between the avarice of the priests and the credulity +of the people" is in the familiar style of the Deists from Toland to +Chubb. There is no evidence of his familiarity with the widely +diffused works of the freethinkers, and as far as I am aware he does +not quote or refer to them even once. But they could hardly have +escaped his notice. Still his strong historic sense and solid +erudition would be more likely to be repelled than attracted by their +vague and inaccurate scholarship, and chimerical theories of the light +of Nature. Still we know that he practically adopted, in the end, at +least the negative portion of these views, and the question is, When +did he do so? His visit to Paris, and the company that he frequented +there, might suggest that as a probable date of his change of +opinions. But the entry just referred to was subsequent by several +months to that visit, and we may with confidence assume that no +freethinker of the eighteenth century would pronounce the austerities +of a Communion Sunday in a Calvinist town an edifying spectacle. It is +probable that his relinquishing of dogmatic faith was gradual, and for +a time unconscious. It was an age of tepid belief, except among the +Nonjurors and Methodists; and with neither of these groups could he +have had the least sympathy. His acquaintance with Hume, and his +partiality for the writings of Bayle, are more probable sources of a +change of sentiment which was in a way predestined by natural bias and +cast of mind. Any occasion would serve to precipitate the result. In +any case, this result had been attained some years before the +publication of the first volume of the _Decline and Fall_, in 1776. +Referring to his preparatory studies for the execution of that work, +he says, "As I believed, and as I still believe, that the propagation +of the Gospel and the triumph of the Church are inseparably connected +with the decline of the Roman monarchy, I weighed the causes and +effects of the revolution, and contrasted the narratives and apologies +of the Christians themselves with the glances of candour or enmity +which the pagans have cast on the rising sects. The Jewish and heathen +testimonies, as they are collected and illustrated by Dr. Lardner, +directed without superseding my search of the originals, and in an +ample dissertation on the miraculous darkness of the Passion I +privately drew my conclusions from the silence of an unbelieving age." +Here we have the argument which concludes the sixteenth chapter +distinctly announced. But the previous travail of spirit is not +indicated. Gibbon has marked with precision the stages of his +conversion to Romanism. But the following chapters of the history of +his religious opinions he has not written, or he has suppressed them, +and we can only vaguely guess their outline. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +LIFE IN LONDON.--PARLIAMENT.--THE BOARD OF TRADE.--THE DECLINE AND +FALL.--MIGRATION TO LAUSANNE. + + +Gibbon's settlement in London as master in his own house did not come +too soon. A few more years of anxiety and dependence, such as he had +passed of late with his father in the country, would probably have +dried up the spring of literary ambition and made him miss his career. +He had no tastes to fit him for a country life. The pursuit of farming +only pleased him in Virgil's _Georgics_. He seems neither to have +liked nor to have needed exercise, and English rural sports had no +charms for him. "I never handled a gun, I seldom mounted a horse, and +my philosophic walks were soon terminated by a shady bench, where I +was long detained by the sedentary amusement of reading or +meditation." He was a born _citadin_. "Never," he writes to his friend +Holroyd, "never pretend to allure me by painting in odious colours the +dust of London. I love the dust, and whenever I move into the Weald it +is to visit you, and not your trees." His ideal was to devote the +morning, commencing early--at seven, say--to study, and the afternoon +and evening to society and recreation, not "disdaining the innocent +amusement of a game at cards." And this plan of a happy life he very +fairly realised in his little house in Bentinck Street. The letters +that we have of his relating to this period are buoyant with spirits +and self-congratulation at his happy lot. He writes to his step-mother +that he is every day more satisfied with his present mode of life, +which he always believed was most calculated to make him happy. The +stable and moderate stimulus of congenial society, alternating with +study, was what he liked. The excitement and dissipation of a town +life, which purchase pleasure to-day at the expense of fatigue and +disgust to-morrow, were as little to his taste as the amusements of +the country. In 1772, when he settled in London, he was young in +years, but he was old in tastes, and he enjoyed himself with the +complacency often seen in healthy old men. "My library," he writes to +Holroyd in 1773, "Kensington Gardens, and a few parties with new +acquaintance, among whom I reckon Goldsmith and Sir Joshua Reynolds," +(poor Goldsmith was to die the year following), "fill up my time, and +the monster _ennui_ preserves a very respectful distance. By the by, +your friends Batt, Sir John Russell, and Lascelles dined with me one +day before they set off: _for I sometimes give the prettiest little +dinner in the world_." One can imagine Gibbon, the picture of +plumpness and content, doing the honours of his modest household. +Still he was never prominent in society, even after the publication of +his great work had made him famous. Lord Sheffield says that his +conversation was superior to his writings, and in a circle of intimate +friends it is probable that this was true. But in the free encounter +of wit and argument, the same want of readiness that made him silent +in parliament would most likely restrict his conversational power. It +may be doubted if there is a striking remark or saying of his on +record. His name occurs in Boswell, but nearly always as a _persona +muta_. Certainly the arena where Johnson and Burke encountered each +other was not fitted to bring out a shy and not very quick man. +Against Johnson he manifestly harboured a sort of grudge, and if he +ever felt the weight of Ursa Major's paw it is not surprising. + +He rather oddly preserved an instance of his conversational skill, as +if aware that he would not easily get credit for it. The scene was in +Paris. "At the table of my old friend M. de Foncemagne, I was involved +in a dispute with the Abbé de Mably.... As I might be partial in my +own cause, I shall transcribe the words of an unknown critic. 'You +were, my dear Théodon, at M. de Foncemagne's house, when the Abbé de +Mably and Mr. Gibbon dined there along with a number of guests. The +conversation ran almost entirely on history. The Abbé, being a +profound politician, turned it while at dessert on the administration +of affairs, and as by genius and temper, and the habit of admiring +Livy, he values only the republican system, he began to boast of the +excellence of republics, being well persuaded that the learned +Englishman would approve of all he said and admire the profoundity of +genius that had enabled a Frenchman to discover all these advantages. +But Mr. Gibbon, knowing by experience the inconveniences of a popular +government, was not at all of his opinion, and generously took up the +defence of monarchy. The Abbé wished to convince him out of Livy, and +by some arguments drawn from Plutarch in favour of the Spartans. Mr. +Gibbon, being endowed with a most excellent memory, and having all +events present to his mind, soon got the command of the conversation. +The Abbé grew angry, they lost possession of themselves, and said hard +things of each other. The Englishman retaining his native coolness, +watched for his advantages, and pressed the Abbé with increasing +success in proportion as he was more disturbed by passion. The +conversation grew warmer, and was broken off by M. de Foncemagne's +rising from table and passing into the parlour, where no one was +tempted to renew it." + +But if not brilliant in society, he was very _répandu_, and was +welcomed in the best circles. He was a member of Boodle's, White's, +Brooks's, and Almack's,[9] and "there were few persons in the literary +or political world to whom he was a stranger." It is to be regretted +that the best sketch of him at this period borders on caricature. "The +learned Gibbon," says Colman, "was a curious counterbalance to the +learned (may I not say the less learned) Johnson. Their manners and +tastes, both in writing and conversation, were as different as their +habiliments. On the day I first sat down with Johnson in his +rusty-brown suit and his black worsted stockings, Gibbon was placed +opposite to me in a suit of flowered velvet, with a bag and sword. +Each had his measured phraseology, and Johnson's famous parallel +between Dryden and Pope might be loosely parodied in reference to +himself and Gibbon. Johnson's style was grand, and Gibbon's elegant: +the stateliness of the former was sometimes pedantic, and the latter +was occasionally finical. Johnson marched to kettledrums and trumpets, +Gibbon moved to flutes and hautboys. Johnson hewed passages through +the Alps, while Gibbon levelled walks through parks and gardens. +Mauled as I had been by Johnson, Gibbon poured balm upon my bruises by +condescending once or twice in the course of the evening to talk with +me. The great historian was light and playful, suiting his matter to +the capacity of the boy: but it was done _more suo_--still his +mannerism prevailed, still he tapped his snuff-box, still he smirked +and smiled, and rounded his periods with the same air of +good-breeding, as if he were conversing with men. His mouth, +mellifluous as Plato's, was a round hole nearly in the centre of his +visage." (Quoted in Croker's _Boswell_.) + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 9: Not the assembly-room of that name, but a gaming-club +where the play was high. I find no evidence that Gibbon ever yielded +to the prevalent passion for gambling.] + +Now and then he even joins in a masquerade, "the finest thing ever +seen," which costs two thousand guineas. But the chief charm of it to +him seems to have been the pleasure that it gave to his Aunt Porten. +These little vanities are however quite superficial, and are never +allowed to interfere with work. + +Now indeed he was no loiterer. In three years after his settlement in +London he had produced the first volume of the _Decline and Fall_: an +amount of diligence which will not be underrated by those who +appreciate the vast difference between commencing and continuing an +undertaking of that magnitude. "At the outset," he says, "all was dark +and doubtful; even the title of the work, the true ćra of the decline +and fall of the empire, the limits of the Introduction, the division +of the chapters, and the order of the narrative,--and I was often +tempted to cast away the labour of seven years;"--alternations no +doubt of hope and despair familiar to every sincere and competent +student. But he had taken the best and only reliable means of securing +himself from the danger of these fluctuations of spirit. He finished +his reading and preparation before he began to write, and when he at +last put pen to paper his course lay open before him, with no fear of +sudden and disquieting stoppages arising from imperfect knowledge and +need of further inquiry. It is a pity that we cannot follow the +elaboration of the work in detail. That portion of his Memoirs in +which he speaks of it is very short and fragmentary, and the defect is +not supplied by his letters. He seems to have worked with singular +ease and mastery of his subject, and never to have felt his task as a +strain or a fatigue. Even his intimate friends were not aware that he +was engaged on a work of such magnitude, and it is amusing to see his +friend Holroyd warn him against a hasty and immature publication when +he learned that the book was in the press. He had apparently heard +little of it before. This alone would show with what ease and +smoothness Gibbon must have worked. He had excellent health--a strange +fact after his sickly childhood; society unbent his mind instead of +distracting it; his stomach was perfect--perhaps too good, as about +this time he began to be admonished by the gout. He never seems to +have needed change. "Sufficient for the summer is the evil thereof, +viz., one distant country excursion." There was an extraordinary +difference in this respect between the present age and those which +went before it; restlessness and change of scene have become almost a +necessity of life with us, whereas our ancestors could continue +healthy and happy for months and years without stirring from home. +What is there to explain the change? We must not pretend that we work +harder than they did.[10] However, Gibbon was able to keep himself in +good condition with his long spell of work in the morning, and his +dinner-parties at home or elsewhere in the afternoon, and to have kept +at home as much as he could. Whenever he went away to the country, it +was on invitations which he could not well refuse. The result was a +leisurely, unhasting fulness of achievement, calm stretches of +thorough and contented work, which have left their marks on the +_Decline and Fall_. One of its charms is a constant good humour and +complacency; not a sign is visible that the writer is pressed for +time, or wants to get his performance out of hand; but, on the +contrary, a calm lingering over details, sprightly asides in the +notes, which the least hurry would have suppressed or passed by, and a +general impression conveyed of thorough enjoyment in the immensity of +the labour. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 10: The most remarkable instance of all is the case of +Newton, who, according to Dr. Whewell, resided in Trinity College "for +thirty-five years without the interruption of a month."--_Hist. of the +Inductive Sciences_, vol. ii. book vii.] + +One would have liked to see this elaboration more clearly, to have +been allowed a glimpse into his workshop while he was so engaged. +Unfortunately the editor of his journals has selected the relatively +unimportant records of his earlier studies, and left us in the dark as +regards this far more interesting period. He was such an indefatigable +diarist that it is unlikely that he neglected to keep a journal in +this crisis of his studies. But it has not been published, and it may +have been destroyed. All that we have is this short paragraph in his +Memoirs:-- + + "The classics, as low as Tacitus and the younger Pliny and + Juvenal, were my old and familiar companions. I insensibly + plunged into the ocean of the Augustan history, and in the + descending series I investigated, with my pen almost always + in my hand, the original records, both Greek and Latin, from + Dion Cassius to Ammianus Marcellinus, from the reign of + Trajan to the last age of the Western Cćsars. The subsidiary + rays of medals and inscriptions of geography and chronology, + were thrown on their proper objects, and I applied the + collections of Tillemont to fix and arrange within my reach + the loose and scattered atoms of historical information. + Through the darkness of the middle ages I explored my way in + the _Annals and Antiquities of Italy_ of the learned + Muratori, and diligently compared them with the parallel or + transverse lines of Sigonius and Maffei, Baronius and Pagi, + till I almost grasped the ruins of Rome in the fourteenth + century, without suspecting that this final chapter must be + attained by the labour of six quartos and twenty years." + +When the time for composition arrived, he showed a fastidiousness +which was full of good augury. "Three times did I compose the first +chapter, and twice the second and third, before I was tolerably +satisfied with their effect." His hand grew firmer as he advanced. But +the two final chapters interposed a long delay, and needed "three +successive revisals to reduce them from a volume to their present +size." Gibbon spent more time over his first volume than over any one +of the five which followed it. To these he devoted almost regularly +two years apiece, more or less, whereas the first cost him three +years--so disproportionately difficult is the start in matters of this +kind. + +While engaged in the composition of the first volume, he became a +member of Parliament. One morning at half past seven, "as he was +destroying an army of barbarians," he heard a double rap at his door. +It was a friend who came to inquire if he was desirous of entering +the House of Commons. The answer may be imagined, and he took his seat +as member for the borough of Liskeard after the general election in +1774. + +Gibbon's political career is the side of his history from which a +friendly biographer would most readily turn away. Not that it was +exceptionally ignoble or self-seeking if tried by the standard of the +time, but it was altogether commonplace and unworthy of him. The fact +that he never even once opened his mouth in the House is not in itself +blameworthy, though disappointing in a man of his power. It was indeed +laudable enough if he had nothing to say. But why had he nothing to +say? His excuse is timidity and want of readiness. We may reasonably +assume that the cause lay deeper. With his mental vigour he would soon +have overcome such obstacles if he had really wished and tried to +overcome them. The fact is that he never tried because he never +wished. It is a singular thing to say of such a man, but nevertheless +true, that he had no taste or capacity whatever for politics. He lived +at one of the most exciting periods of our history; he assisted at +debates in which constitutional and imperial questions of the highest +moment were discussed by masters of eloquence and state policy, and he +hardly appears to have been aware of the fact. It was not that he +despised politics as Walpole affected to do, or that he regarded party +struggles as "barbarous and absurd faction," as Hume did; still less +did he pass by them with the supercilious indifference of a mystic +whose eyes are fixed on the individual spirit of man as the one spring +of good and evil. He never rose to the level of the ordinary citizen +or even partisan, who takes an exaggerated view perhaps of the +importance of the politics of the day, but who at any rate thereby +shows a sense of social solidarity and the claims of civic communion. +He called himself a Whig, but he had no zeal for Whig principles. He +voted steadily with Lord North, and quite approved of taxing and +coercing America into slavery; but he had no high notions of the royal +prerogative, and was lukewarm in this as in everything. With such +absence of passion one might have expected that he would be at least +shrewd and sagacious in his judgments on politics. But he is nothing +of the kind. In his familiar letters he reserves generally a few lines +for parliamentary gossip, amid chat about the weather and family +business. He never approaches to a broad survey of policy, or +expresses serious and settled convictions on home or foreign affairs. +Throughout the American war he never seems to have really made up his +mind on the nature of the struggle, and the momentous issues that it +involved. Favourable news puts him in high spirits, which are promptly +cooled by the announcement of reverses; not that he ever shows any +real anxiety or despondency about the commonwealth. His opinions on +the subject are at the mercy of the last mail. It is disappointing to +find an elegant trifler like Horace Walpole not only far more +discerning in his appreciation of such a crisis, but also far more +patriotically sensitive as to the wisdom of the means of meeting it, +than the historian of Rome. Gibbon's tone often amounts to levity, and +he chronicles the most serious measures with an unconcern really +surprising. "In a few days we stop the ports of New England. I cannot +write volumes: but I am more and more convinced that with firmness all +may go well: yet I sometimes doubt." (February 8, 1775.) "Something +will be done this year; but in the spring the force of the country +will be exerted to the utmost: Scotch Highlanders, Irish Papists, +Hanoverians, Canadians, Indians, &c., will all in various shapes be +employed." (August 1, 1775.) "What think you of the season, of Siberia +is it not? A pleasant campaign in America." (January 29, 1776.) At +precisely the same time the sagacious coxcomb of Strawberry Hill was +writing thus: "The times are indeed very serious. Pacification with +America is not the measure adopted. More regiments are ordered +thither, and to-morrow a plan, I fear equivalent to a declaration of +war, is to be laid before both Houses. They are bold ministers +methinks who do not hesitate on civil war, in which victory may bring +ruin, and disappointment endanger their heads.... Acquisition alone +can make burdens palatable, and in a war with our own colonies we must +inflict instead of acquiring them, and we cannot recover them without +undoing them. I am still to learn wisdom and experience, if these +things are not so." (Letter to Mann, January 25, 1775.) "A war with +our colonies, which is now declared, is a proof how much influence +jargon has on human actions. A war on our own trade is popular." +(February 15, 1775.) "The war with America goes on briskly, that is as +far as voting goes. A great majority in both houses is as brave as a +mob ducking a pick-pocket. They flatter themselves they shall terrify +the colonies into submission in three months, and are amazed to hear +that there is no such probability. They might as well have +excommunicated them, and left it to the devil to put the sentence into +execution." (February 18, 1775.) Not only is Walpole's judgment wiser, +but the elements of a wise judgment were present to him in a way in +which they were not so to Gibbon. When the latter does attempt a +forecast, he shows, as might be expected, as little penetration of the +future as appreciation of the present. Writing from Paris on August +11, 1777, when all French society was ablaze with enthusiasm for +America, and the court just on the point of yielding to the current, +he is under no immediate apprehensions of a war with France, and +"would not be surprised if next summer the French were to lend their +cordial assistance to England as the weaker party." The emptiness of +his letters as regards home politics perhaps admits of a more +favourable explanation, and may be owing to the careful suppression by +their editor, Lord Sheffield, of everything of real interest. It is +impossible to estimate the weight of this consideration, but it may be +great. Still we have a sufficient number of his letters to be able to +say that on the whole they are neither thoughtful nor graphic: they +give us neither pictures of events nor insight into the times. It must +be, however, remembered that Gibbon greatly disliked letter-writing, +and never wrote unless he was obliged. + +It was no secret that Gibbon wanted a place under government. Moderate +as his establishment seems to have been, it was more expensive than he +could afford, and he looked, not without warrant, to a supplement of +income from one of the rich windfalls which, in that time of sinecures +were wont to refresh the spirits of sturdy supporters of +administration. He had influential friends, and even relatives, in and +near the government, and but for his parliamentary nullity he would +probably have been provided with a comfortable berth at an early +period. But his "sincere and silent vote" was not valuable enough to +command a high price from his patrons. Once only was he able to help +them with his pen, when he drew up, at the request of Lords Thurlow +and Weymouth, his _Mémoire Justificatif_, in French, in which "he +vindicated against the French manifesto the justice of the British +arms." It was a service worthy of a small fee, which no doubt he +received. He had to wait till 1779, when he had been five years in +Parliament, before his cousin Mr. Eliot, and his friend Wedderburne, +the Attorney-General, were able to find him a post as one of the Lords +Commissioners of Trade and Plantations. The Board of Trade, of which +he became one of the eight members, survives in mortal memory only +from being embalmed in the bright amber of one of Burke's great +speeches. "This board, Sir, has had both its original formation and +its regeneration in a job. In a job it was conceived, and in a job its +mother brought it forth.... This board is a sort of temperate bed of +influence: a sort of gently ripening hothouse, where eight members of +Parliament receive salaries of a thousand a year for a certain given +time, in order to mature at a proper season a claim to two thousand, +granted for doing less" (_Speech on Economical Reform_). Gibbon, with +entire good humour, acknowledges the justice of Burke's indictment, +and says he was "heard with delight, even by those whose existence he +proscribed." After all, he only enjoyed the emolument of his office +for three years, and he places that emolument at a lower figure than +Burke did. He could not have received more than between two and three +thousand pounds of public money; and when we consider what manner of +men have fattened on the national purse, it would be churlish to +grudge that small sum to the historian of the _Decline and Fall_. The +misfortune is that, reasonably or otherwise, doubts were raised as to +Gibbon's complete straightforwardness and honourable adhesion to party +ties in accepting office. He says himself: "My acceptance of a place +provoked some of the leaders of opposition with whom I had lived in +habits of intimacy, and I was most unjustly accused of deserting a +party in which I had never enlisted." There is certainly no evidence +that those who were most qualified to speak, those who gave him the +place and reckoned on his vote, ever complained of want of allegiance. +On the other hand, Gibbon's own letter to Edward Elliot, accepting the +place, betrays a somewhat uneasy conscience. He owns that he was far +from approving all the past measures of the administration, even some +of those in which he himself had silently concurred; that he saw many +capital defects in the characters of some of the present ministers, +and was sorry that in so alarming a situation of public affairs the +country had not the assistance of several able and honest men who were +now in opposition. Still, for various reasons, he did not consider +himself in any way implicated, and rather suspiciously concludes with +an allusion to his pecuniary difficulties and a flourish. "The +addition of the salary which is now offered will make my situation +perfectly easy, but I hope that you will do me the justice to believe +that my mind could not be so unless I were conscious of the rectitude +of my conduct." + +The strongest charge against Gibbon in reference to this matter is +asserted to come from his friend Fox, in this odd form. "In June 1781, +Mr. Fox's library came to be sold. Amongst his other books the first +volume of Mr. Gibbon's history was brought to the hammer. In the +blank leaf of this was a note in the handwriting of Mr. Fox, stating a +remarkable declaration of our historian at a well-known tavern in Pall +Mall, and contrasting it with Mr. Gibbon's political conduct +afterwards. 'The author,' it observed, 'at Brooks's said that there +was no salvation for this country until six heads of the principal +persons in administration' (Lord North being then prime minister) +'were laid upon the table. Yet,' as the observation added, 'eleven +days afterwards this same gentleman accepted a place of a lord of +trade under these very ministers, and has acted with them ever +since.'" It is impossible to tell what amount of truth there is in +this story, and not very important to inquire. It rests on the +authority of a strong personal enemy, and the cordial intimacy which +ever subsisted between Gibbon and Fox seems to show that it was mere +calumny. Perhaps the fact that Gibbon had really no opinions in +politics may have led persons of opposite parties to think that he +agreed with them more than he did, and when he merely followed his own +interest, they may have inferred that he was deserting their +principles. After losing his post on the Board of Trade he still hoped +for Government employ, "either a secure seat at the Board of Customs +or Excise," or in a diplomatic capacity. He was disappointed. If Lord +Sheffield is to be believed, it was his friend Fox who frustrated his +appointment as secretary of embassy at Paris, when he had been already +named to that office. + +The way in which Gibbon acted and afterwards spoke in reference to the +celebrated Coalition gives perhaps the best measure of his political +calibre. He voted among the rank and file of Lord North's followers +for the Coalition with meek subserviency. He speaks of a "principle of +gratitude" which actuated him on this occasion. Lord North had given +him his seat, and if a man's conscience allows him to think rather of +his patron than of his country, there is nothing to be said, except +that his code of political ethics is low. We may admit that his vote +was pledged; but there is also no doubt that any gratitude that there +was in the matter was stimulated by a lively sense of favours to come. +The Portland ministry had not been long in office when he wrote in the +following terms to his friend Deyverdun: "You have not forgotten that +I went into Parliament without patriotism and without ambition, and +that all my views tended to the convenient and respectable place of a +lord of trade. This situation I at length obtained. I possessed it for +three years, from 1779 to 1782, and the net produce, which amounted to +750_l._ sterling, augmented my income to my wants and desires. But in +the spring of last year the storm burst over our heads. Lord North was +overthrown, your humble servant turned out, and even the Board of +Trade, of which I was a member, abolished and broken up for ever by +Mr. Burke's reform. To complete my misfortunes, I still remain a +member of the Lower House. At the end of the last Parliament, Mr. +Eliot withdrew his nomination. But the favour of Lord North +facilitated my re-election, and gratitude imposed on me the duty of +making available for his service the rights which I held in part from +him. That winter we fought under the allied standards of Lord North +and Mr. Fox: we triumphed over Lord Shelburne and the peace, and my +friend (_i.e._ Lord North) remounted his steed in the quality of a +secretary of state. Now he can easily say to me, 'It was a great deal +for me, it was nothing for you;' and in spite of the strongest +assurances, I have too much reason to allow me to have much faith. +With great genius and very respectable talents, he has now neither the +title nor the credit of prime minister; more active colleagues carry +off the most savoury morsels which their voracious creatures +immediately devour; our misfortunes and reforms have diminished the +number of favours; either through pride or through indolence I am but +a bad suitor, and if at last I obtain something, it may perhaps be on +the eve of a fresh revolution, which will in an instant snatch from me +that which has cost me so many cares and pains." + +Such a letter speaks for itself. Gibbon might well say that he entered +parliament without patriotism and without ambition. The only redeeming +feature is the almost cynical frankness with which he openly regards +politics from a personal point of view. However, it may be pleaded +that the letter was written to a bosom friend at a moment of great +depression, and when Gibbon's pecuniary difficulties were pressing him +severely. The Coalition promised him a place, and that was enough; the +contempt for all principle which had brought it about was not thought +of. But even this minute excuse does not apply to the way in which, +years after, when he was in comfort at Lausanne, he refers to the +subject in his Memoirs. The light in which the Coalition deserved to +be regarded was clear by that time. Yet he speaks of it, not only +without blame or regret, but contrives to cast suspicion on the +motives of those who were disgusted by it, and bestowed their +allegiance elsewhere. + + "It is not the purpose of this narrative to expatiate on the + public or secret history of the times: the schism which + followed the death of the Marquis of Rockingham, the + appointment of the Earl of Shelbourne, the resignation of + Mr. Fox and his famous coalition with Lord North. But I may + assert with some degree of assurance that in their political + conflict those great antagonists had never felt any personal + animosity to each other, that their reconciliation was easy + and sincere, and that their friendship has never been + clouded by the shadow of suspicion or jealousy. The _most + violent_ or _venal_ of their respective followers embraced + this fair occasion of revolt, but their alliance still + commanded a majority of the House of Commons, the peace was + censured, Lord Shelbourne resigned, and the two friends + knelt on the same cushion to take the oath of secretary of + state. From a principle of gratitude I adhered to the + Coalition; my vote was counted in the day of battle, but I + was overlooked in the division of the spoil." + +From this we learn that it was only the _violent_ and the _venal_ who +disapproved of the Coalition. One would like to know how Gibbon +explained the fact that at the general election of 1784 no less than +one hundred and sixty of the supporters of the Coalition lost their +seats, and that Fox's political reputation was all but irretrievably +ruined from this time forward. + +Meanwhile, he had not neglected, his own proper work. The first volume +of his history was published in February, 1776. It derived, he says, +"more credit from the name of the shop than from that of the author." +In the first instance he intended to print only five hundred copies, +but the number was doubled by the "prophetic taste" of his printer, +Mr. Strahan. The book was received with a burst of applause--it was a +_succčs fou_. The first impression was exhausted in a few days, and a +second and third edition were scarcely adequate to the demand. The +wiser few were as warm in their eulogies as the general public. Hume +declared that if he had not been personally acquainted with the +author, he should have been surprised by such a performance coming +from any Englishman in that age. Dr. Robertson, Adam Ferguson, and +Horace Walpole joined in the chorus. Walpole betrays an amusing +mixture of admiration and pique at not having found the author out +before. "I know him a little, and never suspected the extent of his +talents; for he is perfectly modest, or I want penetration, which I +know too; but I intend to know him a great deal more." He oddly enough +says that Gibbon was the "son of a foolish alderman," which shows at +least how little the author was known in the great world up to this +time. Now, however, society was determined to know more of him, the +surest proof, not of merit, but of success. It must have been a rather +intoxicating moment, but Gibbon had a cool head not easily turned. It +would be unfair not to add that he had something much better, a really +warm and affectionate regard for old friends, the best preservative +against the fumes of flattery and sudden fame. Holroyd, Deyverdun, +Madame Necker were more to him than all the great people with whom he +now became acquainted. Necker and his wife came over from Paris and +paid him a long visit in Bentinck Street, when his laurels were just +fresh. "I live with her" he writes, "just as I used to do twenty years +ago, laugh at her Paris varnish, and oblige her to become a simple +reasonable Suissesse. The man, who might read English husbands lessons +of proper and dutiful behaviour, is a sensible, good-natured +creature." The next year he returned the visit to Paris. His fame had +preceded him, and he received the cordial but discriminating welcome +which _the ancien régime_ at that time specially reserved for _gens +d'esprit_. Madame du Deffand writes to Walpole, "Mr. Gibbon has the +greatest success here; it is quite a struggle to get him." He did not +deny himself a rather sumptuous style of living while in Paris. +Perhaps the recollection of the unpleasant effect of his English +clothes and the long waists of the French on his former visit dwelt in +his mind, for now, like Walpole, he procured a new outfit at once. +"After decking myself out with silks and silver, the ordinary +establishment of coach, lodgings, servants, eating, and pocket +expenses, does not exceed 60_l._ per month. Yet I have two footmen in +handsome liveries behind my coach, and my apartment is hung with +damask." + +The remainder of his life in London has nothing important. He +persevered assiduously with his history, and had two more quartos +ready in 1781. They were received with less enthusiasm than the first, +although they were really superior. Gibbon was rather too modestly +inclined to agree with the public and "to believe that, especially in +the beginning, they were more prolix and less entertaining" than the +previous volume. He also wasted some weeks on his vindication of the +fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of that volume, which had excited a +host of feeble and ill-mannered attacks. His defence was complete, and +in excellent temper. But the piece has no permanent value. His +assailants were so ignorant and silly that they gave no scope for a +great controversial reply. Neither perhaps did the subject admit of +it. A literary war generally makes people think of Bentley's +incomparable _Phalaris_. But that was almost a unique occasion and +victory in the history of letters. Bentley himself, the most +pugnacious of men, never found such another. + +And so the time glided by, till we come to the year 1783. Lord North +had resigned office, the Board of Trade was abolished, and Gibbon had +lost his convenient salary. The outlook was not pleasant. The seat on +the Board of Customs or Excise with which his hopes had been for a +time kept up, receded into a remote distance, and he came to the +conclusion "that the reign of pensions and sinecures was at an end." +It was clearly necessary to take some important step in the way of +retrenchment. After he had lost his official income, his expenses +exceeded his revenue by something like four hundred pounds. A less +expensive style of living in London never seems to have presented +itself as an alternative. So, like many an Englishman before and +since, he resolved to go abroad to economise. + +His old friend Deyverdun was now settled in a comfortable house at +Lausanne, overlooking the Lake of Geneva. They had not met for eight +years. But the friendship had begun a quarter of a century before, in +the old days when Gibbon was a boarder in Pavillard's house, and the +embers of old associations only wanted stirring to make them shoot up +into flame. In a moment of expansion Gibbon wrote off a warm and eager +letter to his friend, setting forth his unsatisfactory position, and +his wish and even necessity to change it. He gradually and with much +delicacy discloses his plan, that he and Deyverdun, both now old +bachelors, should combine their solitary lives in a common household +and carry out an old project, often discussed in younger days, of +living together. "You live in a charming house. I see from here my +apartment, the rooms we shall share with one another, our table, our +walks. But such a marriage is worthless unless it suits both parties, +and I easily feel that circumstances, new tastes, and connections may +frustrate a design which appeared charming in the distance. To settle +my mind and to avoid regrets, you must be as frank as I have been, and +give me a true picture, external and internal, of George Deyverdun." + +This letter, written in fluent and perfect French, is one of the best +that we have of Gibbon. Deyverdun answered promptly, and met his +friend's advances with at least equal warmth. The few letters that +have been preserved of his connected with this subject give a highly +favourable idea of his mind and character, and show he was quite +worthy of the long and constant attachment that Gibbon felt for him. +He cannot express the delight he has felt at his friend's proposal; by +the rarest piece of good fortune, it so happens that he himself is in +a somewhat similar position of uncertainty and difficulty; a year ago +Gibbon's letter would have given him pleasure, now it offers +assistance and support. After a few details concerning the tenant who +occupies a portion of his house, he proceeds to urge Gibbon to carry +out the project he had suggested, to break loose from parliament and +politics, for which he was not fit, and to give himself up to the +charms of study and friendship. "Call to mind, my dear friend," he +goes on, "that I saw you enter parliament with regret, and I think I +was only too good a prophet. I am sure that career has caused you more +privations than joys, more pains than pleasures. Ever since I have +known you I have been convinced that your happiness lay in your study +and in society, and that any path which led you elsewhere was a +departure from happiness." Through nine pages of gentle and friendly +eloquence Deyverdun pursues his argument to induce his friend to +clinch the bargain. "I advise you not only not to solicit a place, but +to refuse one if it were offered to you. Would a thousand a year make +up to you for the loss of five days a week?... By making this retreat +to Switzerland, besides the beauty of the country and the pleasures of +its society, you will acquire two blessings which you have lost, +liberty and competence. You will also be useful, your works will +continue to enlighten us, and, independently of your talents, the man +of honour and refinement is never useless." He then skilfully exhibits +the attractions he has to offer. "You used to like my house and +garden; what would you do now? On the first floor, which looks on the +declivity of Ouchy, I have fitted up an apartment which is enough for +me. I have a servant's room, two _salons_, two cabinets. On a level +with the terrace two other _salons_, of which one serves as a +dining-room in summer, and the other a drawing-room for company. I +have arranged three more rooms between the house and the coachhouse, +so that I can offer you all the large apartment, which consists +actually of eleven rooms, great and small, looking east and south, not +splendidly furnished, I allow, but with a certain elegance which I +hope you will like. The terrace is but little altered ... it is lined +from end to end with boxes of orange-trees. The vine-trellis has +prospered, and extends nearly to the end. I have purchased the +vineyard below the garden, and in front of the house made it into a +lawn, which is watered by the water of the fountain.... In a word, +strangers come to see the place, and in spite of my pompous +description of it I think you will like it.... If you come, you will +find a tranquillity which you cannot have in London, and a friend who +has not passed a single day without thinking of you, and who, in spite +of his defects, his foibles, and his inferiority, is still one of the +companions who suits you best." + +More letters followed from both sides in a similar strain. Yet Gibbon +quailed before a final resolution. His aunt, Mrs. Porten, his mother, +Mrs. Gibbon, his friend, Lord Sheffield, all joined in deprecating his +voluntary exile. "That is a nonsensical scheme," said the latter, "you +have got into your head of returning to Lausanne--a pretty fancy; you +remember how much you liked it in your youth, but now you have seen +more of the world, and if you were to try it again you would find +yourself woefully disappointed." Deyverdun, with complete sympathy, +begged him not to be in too great a hurry to decide on a course which +he himself desired so much. "I agree with you," he wrote to Gibbon, +"that this is a sort of marriage, but I could never forgive myself if +I saw you dissatisfied in the sequel, and in a position to reproach +me." Gibbon felt it was a case demanding decision of character, and he +came to a determination with a promptitude and energy not usual with +him. He promised Deyverdun in the next letter an ultimatum, stating +whether he meant to _go_ or to _stay_, and a week after he wrote, "I +go." He had prudently refrained from consulting Lord Sheffield during +this critical period, knowing that his certain disapprobation of the +scheme would only complicate matters and render decision more +difficult. Then he wrote, "I have given Deyverdun my word of honour to +be at Lausanne at the beginning of October, and no power of +persuasion can divert me from this _irrevocable_ resolution, which I +am every day proceeding to execute." + +This was no exaggeration. He cancelled the lease of his house in +Bentinck Street, packed the more necessary portion of his books and +shipped them for Rouen, and as his postchaise moved over Westminster +Bridge, "bade a long farewell to the _fumum et opes strepitumque +Romć_." The only real pang he felt in leaving arose from the "silent +grief" of his Aunt Porten, whom he did not hope to see again. Nor did +he. He started on September 15, 1783, slept at Dover, was flattered +with the hope of making Calais harbour by the same tide in "three +hours and a half, as the wind was brisk and fair," but was driven into +Boulogne. He had not a symptom of seasickness. Then he went on by easy +stages through Aire, Bethune, Douay, Cambray, St. Quentin, La Fčre, +Laon, Rheims, Chalons, St. Dizier, Langres, Besançon, and arrived at +Lausanne on the 27th. The inns he found more agreeable to the palate +than to the sight or the smell. At Langres he had an excellent bed +about six feet high from the ground. He beguiled the time with Homer +and Clarendon, talking with his servant, Caplin, and his dog Muff, and +sometimes with the French postilions, and he found them the least +rational of the animals mentioned. + +He reached his journey's end, to alight amid a number of minor +troubles, which to a less easy tempered man would have been real +annoyances. He found that Deyverdun had reckoned without his host, or +rather his tenant, and that they could not have possession of the +house for several months, so he had to take lodgings. Then he sprained +his ankle, and this brought on a bad attack of the gout, which laid +him up completely. However, his spirits never gave way. In time his +books arrived, and the friends got installed in their own house. His +satisfaction has then no bounds, with the people, the place, the way +of living, and his daily companion. We must now leave him for a short +space in the enjoyment of his happiness, while we briefly consider the +labours of the previous ten years. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE FIRST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL. + + +The historian who is also an artist is exposed to a particular +drawback from which his brethren in other fields are exempt. The mere +lapse of time destroys the value and even the fidelity of his +pictures. In other arts correct colouring and outline remain correct, +and if they are combined with imaginative power, age rather enhances +than diminishes their worth. But the historian lives under another +law. His reproduction of a past age, however full and true it may +appear to his contemporaries, appears less and less true to his +successors. The way in which he saw things ceases to be satisfactory; +we may admit his accuracy, but we add a qualification referring to the +time when he wrote, the point of view that he occupied. And we feel +that what was accurate for him is no longer accurate for us. This +superannuation of historical work is not similar to the superseding of +scientific work which is ever going on, and is the capital test of +progress. Scientific books become rapidly old-fashioned, because the +science to which they refer is in constant growth, and a work on +chemistry or biology is out of date by reason of incompleteness or +the discovery of unsuspected errors. The scientific side of history, +if we allow it to have a scientific side, conforms to this rule, and +presents no singularity. Closer inspection of our materials, the +employment of the comparative method, occasionally the bringing to +light of new authorities--all contribute to an increase of real +knowledge, and historical studies in this respect do not differ from +other branches of research. But this is not the sole or the chief +cause of the renovation and transformation constantly needed in +historic work. That depends on the ever-moving standpoint from which +the past is regarded, so that society in looking back on its previous +history never sees it for long together at quite the same angle, never +sees, we may say, quite the same thing. The past changes to us as we +move down the stream of time, as a distant mountain changes through +the windings of the road on which we travel away from it. To drop +figure and use language now becoming familiar, the social organism is +in constant growth, and receiving new additions, and each new addition +causes us to modify our view of the whole. The historian, in fact, is +engaged in the study of an unfinished organism, whose development is +constantly presenting him with surprises. It is as if the biologist +were suddenly to come upon new and unheard-of species and families +which would upset his old classification, or as if the chemist were to +find his laws of combination replaced by others which were not only +unknown to him, but which were really new and recent in the world. +Other inquirers have the whole of the phenomena with which their +science is concerned before them, and they may explore them at their +leisure. The sociologist has only an instalment, most likely a very +small instalment, of the phenomena with which his science is +concerned before him. They have not yet happened, are not yet +phenomena, and as they do happen and admit of investigation they +necessarily lead to constant modification of his views and deductions. +Not only does he acquire new knowledge like other inquirers, but he is +constantly having the subject-matter from which he derives his +knowledge augmented. Even in modern times society has thrown out with +much suddenness rapid and unexpected developments, of such scope and +volume that contemporaries have often lost self-possession at the +sight of them, and wondered if social order could survive. The +Reformation and the French Revolution are cases in point. And what a +principal part do these two great events always play in any +speculations instituted subsequent to them! How easy it is to see +whether a writer lived before the Reign of Terror, or after it, from +his gait and manner of approaching social inquiries! Is there any +reason to suppose that such mutations are now at an end? None. The +probability, well nigh a certainty, is that metamorphoses of the +social organism are in store for us which will equal, if they do not +vastly exceed, anything that the past has offered. + +Considerations of this kind need to be kept in view if we would be +just in our appreciation of historical writings which have already a +certain age. It is impossible that a history composed a century ago +should fully satisfy us now; but we must beware of blaming the writer +for his supposed or real shortcomings, till we have ascertained how +far they arose from his personal inadequacy to his task, and were not +the result of his chronological position. It need not be said that +this remark does not refer to many books which are called histories, +but are really contemporary memoirs and original authorities +subservient to history proper. The works of Clarendon and Burnet, for +instance, can never lose a certain value on this account. The immortal +book which all subsequent generations have agreed to call a possession +for ever, is the unapproachable ideal of this class. But neither +Thucydides nor Clarendon were historians in the sense in which Gibbon +was an historian, that is, engaged in the delineation of a remote +epoch by the help of such materials as have escaped the ravages of +time. It is historians like Gibbon who are exposed to the particular +unhappiness referred to a little way back--that of growing out of date +through no fault of their own, but through the changed aspect +presented by the past in consequence of the movement which has brought +us to the present. But if this is the field of historical disaster, it +is also the opportunity of historical genius. In proportion as a +writer transcends the special limitations of his time, will "age fail +to wither him." That he cannot entirely shake off the fetters which +fasten him to his epoch is manifest. But in proportion as his vision +is clear, in proportion as he has with singleness of eye striven to +draw the past with reverent loyalty, will his bondage to his own time +be loosened, and his work will remain faithful work for which due +gratitude will not be withheld. + +The sudden and rapid expansion of historic studies in the middle of +the eighteenth century constitutes one of the great epochs in +literature. Up to the year 1750 no great historical work had appeared +in any modern language.[11] The instances that seem to make against +this remark will be found to confirm it. They consist of memoirs, +contemporary documents, in short materials for history, but not +history itself. From Froissart and De Comines, or even from the +earlier monastic writers to St. Simon (who was just finishing his +incomparable Memoirs), history with wide outlook and the conception of +social progress and interconnection of events did not exist. Yet +history in its simple forms is one of the most spontaneous of human +achievements. Stories of mighty deeds, of the prowess and death of +heroes, are among the earliest productions of even semi-civilised +man--the earliest subjects of epic and lyric verse. But this +rudimentary form is never more than biographical. With increasing +complexity of social evolution it dies away, and history proper, as +distinct from annals and chronicle, does not arise till circumstances +allow of general and synthetic views, till societies can be surveyed +from a sufficient distance and elevation for their movements to be +discerned. Thucydides, Livy, and Tacitus do not appear till Greece and +Home have reached their highest point of homogeneous national life. +The tardy dawn of history in the modern world was owing to its immense +complexity. Materials also were wanting. They gradually emerged out of +manuscript all over Europe, during what may be called the great pedant +age (1550-1650), under the direction of meritorious antiquaries, +Camden, Savile, Duchesne, Gale, and others. Still official documents +and state papers were wanting, and had they been at hand would hardly +have been used with competence. The national and religious +limitations were still too marked and hostile to permit a free survey +over the historic field. The eighteenth century, though it opened with +a bloody war, was essentially peaceful in spirit: governments made +war, but men and nations longed for rest. The increased interest in +the past was shown by the publication nearly contemporary of the great +historic collections of Rymer (A.D. 1704), Leibnitz (1707), and +Muratori (1723). Before the middle of the century the historic muse +had abundant oil to feed her lamp. Still the lamp would probably not +have been lighted but for the singular pass to which French thought +had come. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 11: Mézeray's great history of France is next to valueless +till he reaches the sixteenth century, that was a period bordering on +his own. Thuanus deals with contemporary events.] + +From the latter years of Louis XIV. till the third quarter of the +eighteenth century was all but closed, France had a government at once +so weak and wicked, so much below the culture of the people it +oppressed, that the better minds of the nation turned away in disgust +from their domestic ignominy, and sought consolation in contemplating +foreign virtue wherever they thought it was to be found; in short, +they became cosmopolitan. The country which has since been the +birthplace of Chauvinism, put away national pride almost with passion. +But this was not all. The country whose king was called the Eldest Son +of the Church, and with which untold pains had been taken to keep it +orthodox, had lapsed into such an abhorrence of the Church and of +orthodoxy that anything seemed preferable to them in its eyes. + +Thus, as if by enchantment, the old barriers disappeared, both +national and religious. Man and his fortunes, in all climes and all +ages, became topics of intense interest, especially when they tended +to degrade by contrast the detested condition of things at home. This +was the weak side of historical speculation in France: it was +essentially polemical; prompted less by genuine interest in the past +than by strong hatred of the present. Of this perturbation note must +be taken. But it is none the less true that the disengagement of +French thought from the narrow limits of nation and creed produced, as +it were in a moment, a lofty conception of history such as subsequent +ages may equal, but can hardly surpass. + +The influence of French thought was European, and nowhere more +beneficial than in England. In other countries it was too despotic, +and produced in Germany, at least, Lessing's memorable reaction. But +the robust national and political life of England reduced it to a +welcome flavouring of our insular temperament. The Scotch, who had a +traditional connection with France, were the first importers of the +new views. Hume, who had practically grown in the same soil as +Voltaire, was only three years behind him in the historic field. The +_Age of Louis XIV._ was published in 1751, and the first volume of the +_History of England_ in 1754. Hume was no disciple of Voltaire; he +simply wrote under the stimulus of the same order of ideas. Robertson, +who shortly followed him, no doubt drew direct inspiration from +Voltaire, and his weightiest achievement, the View of the State of +Europe, prefixed to his _History of Charles V._, was largely +influenced, if it was not absolutely suggested, by the _Essay on +Manners_. But both Hume and Robertson surpassed their masters, if we +allow, as seems right, that the French were their masters. The Scotch +writers had no quarrel with their country or their age as the French +had. One was a Tory, the other a Whig; and Hume allowed himself to be +unworthily affected by party bias in his historical judgment. But +neither was tempted to turn history into a covert attack on the +condition of things amid which they lived. Hence a calmness and +dignity of tone and language, very different from the petulant +brilliancy of Voltaire, who is never so happy as when he can make the +past look mean and ridiculous, merely because it was the parent of the +odious present. But, excellent as were the Scotch historians--Hume, in +style nearly perfect; Robertson, admirable for gravity and shrewd +sense--they yet left much to be desired. Hume had despatched his five +quartos, containing the whole history of England from the Roman period +to the Revolution, in nine years. Considering that the subject was new +to him when he began, such rapidity made genuine research out of the +question. Robertson had the oddest way of consulting his friends as to +what subject it would be advisable for him to treat, and was open to +proposals from any quarter with exemplary impartiality; this only +showed how little the stern conditions of real historic inquiry were +appreciated by him. In fact it is not doing them injustice to say that +these eminent men were a sort of modern Livies, chiefly occupied with +the rhetorical part of their work, and not over inclined to waste +their time in ungrateful digging in the deep mines of historic lore. +Obviously the place was open for a writer who should unite all the +broad spirit of comprehensive survey, with the thorough and minute +patience of a Benedictine; whose subject, mellowed by long brooding, +should have sought him rather than he it; whose whole previous course +of study had been an unconscious preparation for one great effort +which was to fill his life. When Gibbon sat down to write his book, +the man had been found who united these difficult conditions. + +The decline and fall of Rome is the greatest event in history. It +occupied a larger portion of the earth's surface, it affected the +lives and fortunes of a larger number of human beings, than any other +revolution on record. For it was essentially one, though it took +centuries to consummate, and though it had for its theatre the +civilised world. Great evolutions and catastrophes happened before it, +and have happened since, but nothing which can compare with it in +volume and mere physical size. Nor was it less morally. The +destruction of Rome was not only a destruction of an empire, it was +the destruction of a phase of human thought, of a system of human +beliefs, of morals, politics, civilisation, as all these had existed +in the world for ages. The drama is so vast, the cataclysm so +appalling, that even at this day we are hardly removed from it far +enough to take it fully in. The mind is oppressed, the imagination +flags under the load imposed upon it. The capture and sack of a town +one can fairly conceive: the massacre, outrage, the flaming roofs, the +desolation. Even the devastation of a province can be approximately +reproduced in thought. But what thought can embrace the devastation +and destruction of all the civilised portions of Europe, Africa, and +Asia? Who can realise a Thirty Years War lasting five hundred years? a +devastation of the Palatinate extending through fifteen generations? +If we try to insert into the picture, as we undoubtedly should do, the +founding of the new, which was going on beside this destruction of the +old, the settling down of the barbarian hosts in the conquered +provinces, the expansion of the victorious Church, driving paganism +from the towns to the country and at last extinguishing it entirely, +the effort becomes more difficult than ever. The legend of the Seven +Sleepers testifies to the need men felt, even before the tragedy had +come to an end, to symbolize in a manageable form the tremendous +changes they saw going on around them. But the legend only refers to +the changes in religion. The fall of Rome was much more than that. It +was the death of the old pagan world and the birth of the new +Christian world--the greatest transition in history. + +This, and no less than this, is Gibbon's subject. + +He has treated it in such a way as even now fills competent judges +with something like astonishment. His accuracy, coupled with the +extraordinary range of his matter, the variety of his topics, the +complexity of his undertaking, the fulness and thoroughness of his +knowledge, never failing at any point over the vast field, the ease +and mastery with which he lifts the enormous load, are appreciated in +proportion to the information and abilities of his critic. One +testimonial will suffice. Mr. Freeman says: "That Gibbon should ever +be displaced seems impossible. That wonderful man monopolised, so to +speak, the historical genius and the historical learning of a whole +generation, and left little, indeed, of either for his contemporaries. +He remains the one historian of the eighteenth century whom modern +research has neither set aside nor threatened to set aside. We may +correct and improve from the stores which have been opened since +Gibbon's time; we may write again large parts of his story from other +and often truer and more wholesome points of view, but the work of +Gibbon as a whole, as the encyclopćdic history of 1300 years, as the +grandest of historical designs, carried out alike with wonderful power +and with wonderful accuracy, must ever keep its place. Whatever else +is read, Gibbon must be read too." + +Gibbon's immense scheme did not unfold itself to him at once: he +passed through at least two distinct stages in the conception of his +work. The original idea had been confined to the decline and fall of +the city of Rome. Before he began to write, this had been expanded to +the fall of the empire of the West. The first volume, which we saw him +publish in the last chapter, was only an instalment, limited to the +accession of Constantine, through a doubt as to how his labours would +be received. The two following volumes, published in 1781, completed +his primitive plan. Then he paused exactly a year before he resolved +to carry on his work to its true end, the taking of Constantinople by +the Turks in 1453. The latter portion he achieved in three volumes +more, which he gave to the world on his fifty-first birthday, in 1788. +Thus the work naturally falls into two equal parts. It will be more +convenient to disregard in our remarks the interval of five years +which separated the publication of the first volume from its two +immediate companions. The first three volumes constitute a whole in +themselves, which we will now consider. + +From the accession of Commodus, A.D. 180, to the last of the Western +Cćsars, A.D. 476, three centuries elapsed. The first date is a real +point of departure, the commencement of a new stage of decay in the +empire. The second is a mere official record of the final +disappearance of a series of phantom sovereigns, whose vanishing was +hardly noticed. Between these limits the empire passed from the +autumnal calm of the Antonine period, through the dreadful century of +anarchy between Pertinax and Diocletian, through the relative peace +brought about by Diocletian's reforms, the civil wars of the sons of +Constantine, the disastrous defeat of Julian, the calamities of the +Gothic war, the short respite under Theodosius, the growing anarchy +and misery under his incompetent sons, the three sieges of Rome and +its sack by the Goths, the awful appearance of Attila and his Huns, +the final submergence of the Western Empire under the barbarians, and +the universal ruin which marked the close of the fifth century. This +was the temporal side of affairs. On the spiritual, we have the silent +occult growth of the early Church, the conversion of Constantine, the +tremendous conflict of hostile sects, the heresy of Arius, the final +triumph of Athanasius, the spread of monasticism, the extinction of +paganism. Antiquity has ended, the middle ages have begun. + +Over all this immense field Gibbon moves with a striking attitude of +power, which arose from his consciousness of complete preparation. +What there was to be known of his subject he felt sure that he knew. +His method of treatment is very simple, one might say primitive, but +it is very effective. He masters his materials, and then condenses and +clarifies them into a broad, well-filled narrative, which is always or +nearly always perfectly lucid through his skill in grouping events and +characters, and his fine boldness in neglecting chronological sequence +for the sake of clearness and unity of action. It is doing the book +injustice to consult it only as a work of reference, or even to read +it in detached portions. It should be read through, if we would +appreciate the art with which the story is told. No part can be +fairly judged without regard to the remainder. In fact, Gibbon was +much more an artist than perhaps be suspected, and less of a +philosophic thinker on history than he would have been willing to +allow. His shortcomings in this latter respect will be adverted to +presently; we are now considering his merits. And among these the very +high one of lofty and vigorous narrative stands pre-eminent. The +campaigns of Julian, Belisarius, and Heraclius are painted with a dash +and clearness which few civil historians have equalled. His +descriptive power is also very great. The picture of Constantinople in +the seventeenth chapter is, as the writer of these pages can testify, +a wonderful achievement, both for fidelity and brilliancy, coming from +a man who had never seen the place. + + "If we survey Byzantium in the extent which it acquired with + the august name of Constantinople, the figure of the + imperial city may be represented under that of an unequal + triangle. The obtuse point, which advances towards the east + and the shores of Asia, meets and repels the waves of the + Thracian Bosphorus. The northern side of the city is bounded + by the harbour; and the southern is washed by the Propontis, + or Sea of Marmora. The basis of the triangle is opposed to + the west, and terminates the continent of Europe. But the + admirable form and division of the circumjacent land and + water cannot, without a more ample explanation, be clearly + or sufficiently understood. + + "The winding channel through which the waters of the Euxine + flow with rapid and incessant course towards the + Mediterranean received the appellation of Bosphorus, a name + not less celebrated in the history than in the fables of + antiquity. A crowd of temples and of votive altars, + profusely scattered along its steep and woody banks, + attested the unskilfulness, the terrors, and the devotion of + the Grecian navigators, who, after the example of the + Argonauts, explored the dangers of the inhospitable Euxine. + On these banks tradition long preserved the memory of the + palace of Phineus, infested by the obscene Harpies, and of + the sylvan reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to + the combat of the cestus. The straits of the Bosphorus are + terminated by the Cyanean rocks, which, according to the + description of the poets, had once floated on the surface of + the waters, and were destined by the gods to protect the + entrance of the Euxine against the eye of profane curiosity. + From the Cyanean rocks to the point and harbour of Byzantium + the winding length of the Bosphorus extends about sixteen + miles, and its most ordinary breadth may be computed at + about one mile and a half. The _new_ castles of Europe and + Asia are constructed on either continent upon the + foundations of two celebrated temples of Serapis and Jupiter + Urius. The _old_ castles, a work of the Greek emperors, + command the narrowest part of the channel, in a place where + the opposite banks advance within five hundred yards of each + other. These fortresses were destroyed and strengthened by + Mahomet the Second when he meditated the siege of + Constantinople; but the Turkish conqueror was most probably + ignorant that near two thousand years before his reign + Darius had chosen the same situation to connect the two + continents by a bridge of boats. At a small distance from + the old castles we discover the little town of Chrysopolis + or Scutari, which may almost be considered as the Asiatic + suburb of Constantinople. The Bosphorus, as it begins to + open into the Propontis, passes between Byzantium and + Chalcedon. The latter of these two cities was built by the + Greeks a few years before the former, and the blindness of + its founders, who overlooked the superior advantages of the + opposite coast, has been stigmatised by a proverbial + expression of contempt. + + "The harbour of Constantinople, which may be considered as + an arm of the Bosphorus, obtained in a very remote period, + the denomination of the _Golden Horn_. The curve which it + describes might be compared to the horn of a stag, or as it + should seem with more propriety, to that of an ox. The + epithet of _golden_ was expressive of the riches which every + wind wafted from the most distant countries into the secure + and capacious port of Constantinople. The river Lycus, + formed by the conflux of two little streams, pours into the + harbour a perpetual supply of fresh water, which serves to + cleanse the bottom and to invite the periodical shoals of + fish to seek their retreat in that convenient recess. As the + vicissitudes of the tides are scarcely felt in those seas, + the constant depth of the harbour allows goods to be landed + on the quays without the assistance of boats, and it has + been observed that in many places the largest vessels may + rest their prows against the houses while their sterns are + floating in the water. From the mouth of the Lycus to that + of the harbour, this arm of the Bosphorus is more than seven + miles in length. The entrance is about five hundred yards + broad, and a strong chain could be occasionally drawn across + it, to guard the port and the city from the attack of an + hostile navy. + + "Between the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, the shores of + Europe and Asia receding on either side include the Sea of + Marmora, which was known to the ancients by the denomination + of the Propontis. The navigation from the issue of the + Bosphorus to the entrance of the Hellespont is about one + hundred and twenty miles. Those who steer their westward + course through the middle of the Propontis may at once + descry the highlands of Thrace and Bithynia and never lose + sight of the lofty summit of Mount Olympus, covered with + eternal snows. They leave on the left a deep gulf, at the + bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the imperial residence + of Diocletian, and they pass the small islands of Cyzicus + and Proconnesus before they cast anchor at Gallipoli, where + the sea which separates Asia from Europe is again contracted + to a narrow channel. + + "The geographers, who with the most skilful accuracy have + surveyed the form and extent of the Hellespont, assign about + sixty miles for the winding course and about three miles for + the ordinary breadth of those celebrated straits. But the + narrowest part of the channel is found to the northward of + the old Turkish castles between the cities of Sestos and + Abydos. It was here that the adventurous Leander braved the + passage of the flood for the possession of his mistress. It + was here, likewise, in a place where the distance between + the opposite banks cannot exceed five hundred paces, that + Xerxes imposed a stupendous bridge of boats for the purpose + of transporting into Europe an hundred and seventy myriads + of barbarians. A sea contracted within such narrow limits + may seem but ill to deserve the singular epithet of _broad_, + which Homer, as well as Orpheus, has frequently bestowed on + the Hellespont. But our ideas of greatness are of a relative + nature; the traveller, and especially the poet, who sailed + along the Hellespont, who pursued the windings of the stream + and contemplated the rural scenery which appeared on every + side to terminate the prospect, insensibly lost the + remembrance of the sea, and his fancy painted those + celebrated straits with all the attributes of a mighty river + flowing with a swift current in the midst of a woody and + inland country, and at length through a wide mouth + discharging itself into the Ćgean or Archipelago. Ancient + Troy, seated on an eminence at the foot of Mount Ida, + overlooked the mouth of the Hellespont, which scarcely + received an accession of waters from the tribute of those + immortal rivulets the Simois and Scamander. The Grecian camp + had stretched twelve miles along the shore from the Sigćan + to the Rhćtian promontory, and the flanks of the army were + guarded by the bravest chiefs who fought under the banners + of Agamemnon. The first of these promontories was occupied + by Achilles with his invincible Myrmidons, and the dauntless + Ajax pitched his tents on the other. After Ajax had fallen a + sacrifice to his disappointed pride and to the ingratitude + of the Greeks, his sepulchre was erected on the ground where + he had defended the navy against the rage of Jove and + Hector, and the citizens of the rising town of Rhćtium + celebrated his memory with divine honours. Before + Constantine gave a just preference to the situation of + Byzantium he had conceived the design of erecting the seat + of empire on this celebrated spot, from whence the Romans + derived their fabulous origin. The extensive plain which + lies below ancient Troy towards the Rhćtian promontory was + first chosen for his new capital; and though the undertaking + was soon relinquished, the stately remains of unfinished + walls and towers attracted the notice of all who sailed + through the straits of the Hellespont. + + "We are at present qualified to view the advantageous + position of Constantinople; which appears to have been + formed by nature for the centre and capital of a great + monarchy. Situated in the forty-first degree of latitude, + the imperial city commanded from her seven hills the + opposite shores of Europe and Asia; the climate was healthy + and temperate; the soil fertile; the harbour secure and + capacious; and the approach on the side of the continent was + of small extent and easy defence. The Bosphorus and the + Hellespont may be considered as the two gates of + Constantinople, and the prince who possesses those important + passages could always shut them against a naval enemy and + open them to the fleets of commerce. The preservation of the + eastern provinces may in some degree be ascribed to the + policy of Constantine, as the barbarians of the Euxine, who + in the preceding age had poured their armaments into the + heart of the Mediterranean, soon desisted from the exercise + of piracy, and despaired of forcing this insurmountable + barrier. When the gates of the Hellespont and Bosphorus were + shut, the capital still enjoyed within their spacious + inclosure every production which could supply the wants or + gratify the luxury of its numerous inhabitants. The + sea-coasts of Thrace and Bithynia, which languish under the + weight of Turkish oppression, still exhibit a rich prospect + of vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful harvests; and the + Propontis has ever been renowned for an inexhaustible store + of the most exquisite fish that are taken in their stated + seasons without skill and almost without labour. But when + the passages of the straits were thrown open for trade, they + alternately admitted the natural and artificial riches of + the north and south, of the Euxine and the Mediterranean. + Whatever rude commodities were collected in the forests of + Germany and Scythia, and as far as the sources of the Tanais + and Borysthenes; whatsoever was manufactured by the skill of + Europe or Asia, the corn of Egypt, the gems and spices of + the furthest India, were brought by the varying winds into + the port of Constantinople, which for many ages attracted + the commerce of the ancient world. + + "The prospect of beauty, of safety, and of wealth united in + a single spot was sufficient to justify the choice of + Constantine. But as some mixture of prodigy and fable has in + every age been supposed to reflect a becoming majesty on the + origin of great cities, the emperor was desirous of + ascribing his resolution not so much to the uncertain + counsels of human policy as to the eternal and infallible + decrees of divine wisdom. In one of his laws he has been + careful to instruct posterity that in obedience to the + commands of God he laid the everlasting foundations of + Constantinople, and though he has not condescended to relate + in what manner the celestial inspiration was communicated to + his mind, the defect of his modest silence has been + liberally supplied by the ingenuity of succeeding writers, + who describe the nocturnal vision which appeared to the + fancy of Constantine as he slept within the walls of + Byzantium. The tutelar genius of the city, a venerable + matron sinking under the weight of years and infirmities, + was suddenly transformed into a blooming maid, whom his own + hands adorned with all the symbols of imperial greatness. + The monarch awoke, interpreted the auspicious omen, and + obeyed without hesitation the will of Heaven. The day which + gave birth to a city or a colony was celebrated by the + Romans with such ceremonies as had been ordained by a + generous superstition: and though Constantine might omit + some rites which savoured too strongly of their pagan + origin, yet he was anxious to leave a deep impression of + hope and respect on the minds of the spectators. On foot, + with a lance in his hand, the emperor himself led the solemn + procession: and directed the line which was traced as the + boundary of the destined capital: till the growing + circumference was observed with astonishment by the + assistants, who at length ventured to observe that he had + already exceeded the most ample measure of a great city. 'I + shall still advance,' replied Constantine, 'till HE, the + invisible Guide who marches before me, thinks proper to + stop.'" + +Gibbon proceeds to describe the extent, limits, and edifices of +Constantinople. Unfortunately the limits of our space prevent us from +giving more than a portion of his brilliant picture. + + "In the actual state of the city the palace and gardens of + the Seraglio occupy the eastern promontory, the first of the + seven hills, and cover about one hundred and fifty acres of + our own measure. The seat of Turkish jealousy and despotism + is erected on the foundations of a Grecian republic: but it + may be supposed that the Byzantines were tempted by the + conveniency of the harbour to extend their habitations on + that side beyond the modern limits of the Seraglio. The new + walls of Constantine stretched from the port to the + Propontis across the enlarged breadth of the triangle, at + the distance of fifteen stadia from the ancient + fortifications: and with the city of Byzantium they inclosed + five of the seven hills, which to the eyes of those who + approach Constantinople appear to rise above each other in + beautiful order. About a century after the death of the + founder the new buildings, extending on one side up the + harbour, and on the other the Propontis, already covered the + narrow ridge of the sixth and the broad summit of the + seventh hill. The necessity of protecting those suburbs from + the incessant inroads of the barbarians engaged the younger + Theodosius to surround his capital with an adequate and + permanent inclosure of walls. From the eastern promontory to + the Golden Gate, the extreme length of Constantinople was + above three Roman miles; the circumference measured between + ten and eleven; and the surface might be computed as equal + to about two thousand English acres. It is impossible to + justify the vain and credulous exaggerations of modern + travellers, who have sometimes stretched the limits of + Constantinople over the adjacent villages of the European + and even Asiatic coasts. But the suburbs of Pera and Galata, + though situate beyond the harbour, may deserve to be + considered as a part of the city, and this addition may + perhaps authorise the measure of a Byzantine historian, who + assigns sixteen Greek (about sixteen Roman) miles for the + circumference of his native city. Such an extent may seem + not unworthy of an imperial residence. Yet Constantinople + must yield to Babylon and Thebes, to ancient Rome, to + London, and even to Paris.... + + "Some estimate may be formed of the expense bestowed with + imperial liberality on Constantinople, by the allowance of + about two millions five hundred thousand pounds for the + construction of the walls, the porticoes, and the aqueducts. + The forests that overshadowed the shores of the Euxine, and + the celebrated quarries of white marble in the little + island of Proconnesus, supplied an inexhaustible stock of + materials ready to be conveyed by the convenience of a short + water carriage to the harbour of Byzantium. A multitude of + labourers and artificers urged the conclusion of the work + with incessant toil, but the impatience of Constantine soon + discovered that in the decline of the arts the skill as well + as the number of his architects bore a very unequal + proportion to the greatness of his design.... The buildings + of the new city were executed by such artificers as the age + of Constantine could afford, but they were decorated by the + hands of the most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles + and Alexander.... By Constantine's command the cities of + Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable + ornaments. The trophies of memorable wars, the objects of + religious veneration, the most finished statues of the gods + and heroes, of the sages and poets of ancient times, + contributed to the splendid triumph of Constantinople. + + "... The Circus, or Hippodrome, was a stately building of + about four hundred paces in length and one hundred in + breadth. The space between the two _metć_, or goals, was + filled with statues and obelisks, and we may still remark a + very singular fragment of antiquity--the bodies of three + serpents twisted into one pillar of brass. Their triple + heads had once supported the golden tripod which, after the + defeat of Xerxes, was consecrated in the temple of Delphi by + the victorious Greeks. The beauty of the Hippodrome has been + long since defaced by the rude hands of the Turkish + conquerors; but, under the similar appellation of Atmeidan, + it still serves as a place of exercise for their horses. + From the throne whence the emperor viewed the Circensian + games a winding staircase descended to the palace, a + magnificent edifice, which scarcely yielded to the residence + of Rome itself, and which, together with the dependent + courts, gardens, and porticoes, covered a considerable + extent of ground upon the banks of the Propontis between the + Hippodrome and the church of St. Sophia. We might likewise + celebrate the baths, which still retained the name of + Zeuxippus, after they had been enriched by the magnificence + of Constantine with lofty columns, various marbles, and + above three score statues of bronze. But we should deviate + from the design of this history if we attempted minutely to + describe the different buildings or quarters of the city.... + A particular description, composed about a century after its + foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learning, a + circus, two theatres, eight public and one hundred and + fifty-three private baths, fifty-two porticoes, five + granaries, eight aqueducts or reservoirs of water, four + spacious halls for the meeting of the senate or courts of + justice, fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, and four + thousand three hundred and eighty-eight houses, which for + their size or beauty deserved to be distinguished from the + multitude of plebeian habitations." + +Gibbon's conception of history was that of a spacious panorama, in +which a series of tableaux pass in succession before the reader's eye. +He adverts but little, far too little, to that side of events which +does not strike the visual sense. He rarely generalises or sums up a +widely-scattered mass of facts into pregnant synthetic views. But +possibly he owes some of the permanence of his fame to this very +defect. As soon as ever a writer begins to support a thesis, to prove +a point, he runs imminent danger of one-sidedness and partiality in +his presentation of events. Gibbon's faithful transcript of the past +has neither the merit nor the drawback of generalisation, and he has +come in consequence to be regarded as a common mine of authentic facts +to which all speculators can resort. + +The first volume, which was received with such warm acclamation, is +inferior to those that followed. He seems to have been partly aware of +this himself, and speaks of the "concise and superficial narrative +from Commodus to Alexander." But the whole volume lacks the grasp and +easy mastery which distinguish its successors. No doubt the +subject-matter was comparatively meagre and ungrateful. The century +between Commodus and Diocletian was one long spasm of anarchy and +violence, which was, as Niebuhr said, incapable of historical +treatment. The obscure confusion of the age is aggravated into almost +complete darkness by the wretched materials which alone have survived, +and the attempt to found a dignified narrative on such scanty and +imperfect authorities was hardly wise. Gibbon would have shown a +greater sense of historic proportion if he had passed over this period +with a few bold strokes, and summed up with brevity such general +results as may be fairly deduced. We may say of the first volume that +it was tentative in every way. In it the author not only sounded his +public, but he was also trying his instrument, running over the keys +in preparatory search for the right note. He strikes it full and clear +in the two final chapters on the Early Church; these, whatever +objections may be made against them on other grounds, are the real +commencement of the Decline and Fall. + +From this point onwards he marches with the steady and measured tramp +of a Roman legion. His materials improve both in number and quality. +The fourth century, though a period of frightful anarchy and disaster +if compared to a settled epoch, is a period of relative peace and +order when compared to the third century. The fifth was calamitous +beyond example; but ecclesiastical history comes to the support of +secular history in a way which might have excited more gratitude in +Gibbon than it did. From Constantine to Augustulus Gibbon is able to +put forth all his strength. His style is less superfine, as his matter +becomes more copious; and the more definite cleavage of events brought +about by the separation between the Eastern and Western Empires, +enables him to display the higher qualities which marked him as an +historian. + +The merit of his work, it is again necessary to point out, will not be +justly estimated unless the considerations suggested at the beginning +of this chapter be kept in view. We have to remember that his culture +was chiefly French, and that his opinions were those which prevailed +in France in the latter half of the eighteenth century. He was the +friend of Voltaire, Helvétius, and D'Holbach; that is, of men who +regarded the past as one long nightmare of crime, imposture, and +folly, instigated by the selfish machinations of kings and priests. A +strong infusion of the spirit which animated not only Voltaire's +_Essay on Manners_, but certain parts of Hume's _History of England_ +might have been expected as a matter of course. It is essentially +absent. Gibbon's private opinions may have been what they will, but he +has approved his high title to the character of an historian by +keeping them well in abeyance. When he turned his eyes to the past and +viewed it with intense gaze, he was absorbed in the spectacle, his +peculiar prejudices were hushed, he thought only of the object before +him and of reproducing it as well as he could. This is not the common +opinion, but, nevertheless, a great deal can be said to support it. + +It will be as well to take two concrete tests--his treatment of two +topics which of all others were most likely to betray him into +deviations from historic candour. If he stands these, he may be +admitted to stand any less severe. Let them be his account of Julian, +and his method of dealing with Christianity. + +The snare that was spread by Julian's apostasy for the philosophers of +the last century, and their haste to fall into it, are well known. +The spectacle of a philosopher on the throne who proclaimed +toleration, and contempt for Christianity, was too tempting and too +useful controversially to allow of much circumspection in handling it. +The odious comparisons it offered were so exactly what was wanted for +depreciating the Most Christian king and his courtly Church, that all +further inquiry into the apostate's merits seemed useless. Voltaire +finds that Julian had all the qualities of Trajan without his defects; +all the virtues of Cato without his ill-humour; all that one admires +in Julius Cćsar without his vices; he had the continency of Scipio, +and was in all ways equal to Marcus Aurelius, the first of men. Nay, +more. If he had only lived longer, he would have retarded the fall of +the Roman Empire, if he could not arrest it entirely. We here see the +length to which "polemical fury" could hurry a man of rare insight. +Julian had been a subject of contention for years between the hostile +factions. While one party made it a point of honour to prove that he +was a monster, warring consciously against the Most High, the other +was equally determined to prove that he was a paragon of all virtue, +by reason of his enmity to the Christian religion. The deep interest +attaching to the pagan reaction in the fourth century, and the social +and moral problems it suggests, were perceived by neither side, and it +is not difficult to see why they were not. The very word reaction, in +its modern sense, will hardly be found in the eighteenth century, and +the thing that it expresses was very imperfectly conceived. We, who +have been surrounded by reactions, real or supposed, in politics, in +religion, in philosophy, recognise an old acquaintance in the efforts +of the limited, intense Julian to stem the tide of progress as +represented in the Christian Church. It is a fine instance of the way +in which the ever-unfolding present is constantly lighting up the +past. Julian and his party were the Ultramontanes of their day in +matters of religion, and the Romantics in matters of literature. Those +radical innovators and reformers, the Christians, were marching from +conquest to conquest, over the old faith, making no concealment of +their revolutionary aims and intentions to wipe out the past as +speedily as possible. The conservatives of those times, after long +despising the reformers, passed easily to fearing them and hating them +as their success became threatening. "The attachment to paganism," +says Neander, "lingered especially in many of the ancient and noble +families of Greece and Rome." Old families, or new rich ones who +wished to be thought old, would be sure to take up the cause of +ancestral wisdom as against modern innovation. Before Julian came to +the throne, a pagan reaction was imminent, as Neander points out. +Julian himself was a remarkable man, as men of his class usually are. +In the breaking up of old modes of belief, as Mill has said, "the most +strong-minded and discerning, next to those who head the movement, are +generally those who bring up the rear." The energy of his mind and +character was quite exceptional, and if we reflect that he only +reigned sixteen months, and died in his thirty-second year, we must +admit that the mark he has left in history is very surprising. He and +his policy are now discussed with entire calm by inquirers of all +schools, and sincere Christians like Neander and Dean Milman are as +little disposed to attack him with acrimony, as those of a different +way of thought are inclined to make him a subject of unlimited +panegyric. + +Through this difficult subject Gibbon has found his way with a +prudence and true insight which extorted admiration, even in his own +day. His account of Julian is essentially a modern account. The +influence of his private opinions can hardly be traced in the +brilliant chapters that he has devoted to the Apostate. He sees +through Julian's weaknesses in a way in which Voltaire never saw or +cared to see. His pitiful superstition, his huge vanity, his weak +affectation are brought out with an incisive clearness and subtle +penetration into character which Gibbon was not always so ready to +display. At the same time he does full justice to Julian's real +merits. And this is perhaps the most striking evidence of his +penetration. An error on the side of injustice to Julian is very +natural in a man who, having renounced allegiance to Christianity, yet +fully realises the futility of attempting to arrest it in the fourth +century. A certain intellectual disdain for the reactionary emperor is +difficult to avoid. Gibbon surmounts it completely, and he does so, +not in consequence of a general conception of the reactionary spirit, +as a constantly emerging element in society, but by sheer historical +insight, clear vision of the fact before him. It may be added that +nowhere is Gibbon's command of vivid narrative seen to greater +advantage than in the chapters that he has devoted to Julian. The +daring march from Gaul to Illyricum is told with immense spirit; but +the account of Julian's final campaign and death in Persia is still +better, and can hardly be surpassed. It has every merit of clearness +and rapidity, yet is full of dignity, which culminates in this fine +passage referring to the night before the emperor received his mortal +wound. + + "While Julian struggled with the almost insuperable + difficulties of his situation, the silent hours of the night + were still devoted to study and contemplation. Whenever he + closed his eyes in short and interrupted slumbers, his mind + was agitated by painful anxiety; nor can it be thought + surprising that the Genius of the empire should once more + appear before him, covering with a funereal veil his head + and his horn of abundance, and slowly retiring from the + Imperial tent. The monarch started from his couch, and, + stepping forth to refresh his wearied spirits with the + coolness of the midnight air, he beheld a fiery meteor, + which shot athwart the sky and suddenly vanished. Julian was + convinced that he had seen the menacing countenance of the + god of war: the council which he summoned, of Tuscan + Haruspices, unanimously pronounced that he should abstain + from action; but on this occasion necessity and reason were + more prevalent than superstition, and the trumpets sounded + at the break of day."[12] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 12: It is interesting to compare Gibbon's admirable picture +with the harsh original Latin of his authority, Ammianus Marcellinus. +"Ipse autem ad sollicitam suspensamque quietem paullisper protractus, +cum somno (ut solebat) depulso, ad ćmulationem Cćsaris Julii qućdam +sub pellibus scribens, obscuro noctis altitudine sensus cujusdam +philosophi teneretur, vidit squalidius, ut confessus est proximis, +speciem illam Genii publici, quam quum ad Augustum surgeret culmen, +conspexit in Galliis, velata cum capite cornucopia per aulća tristius +discedentem. Et quamquam ad momentum hćsit, stupore defixus, omni +tamen superior metu, ventura decretis cćlestibus commendabat; relicto +humi strato cubili, adulta jam excitus nocte, et numinibus per sacra +depulsoria supplicans, flagrantissimam facem cadenti similem visam, +aëris parte sulcata evanuisse existimavit: horroreque perfusus est, ne +ita aperte minax Martis adparuerit sidus."--_Amm. Marc._ lib. xxv. +cap. 2.] + +It will not be so easy to absolve Gibbon from the charge of prejudice +in reference to his treatment of the Early Church. It cannot be denied +that in the two famous chapters, at least, which concluded his first +volume, he adopted a tone which must be pronounced offensive, not only +from the Christian point of view, but on the broad ground of +historical equity. His preconceived opinions were too strong for him +on this occasion, and obstructed his generally clear vision. Yet a +distinction must be made. The offensive tone in question is confined +to these two chapters. We need not think that it was in consequence of +the clamour they raised that he adopted a different style with +reference to church matters in his subsequent volumes. A more +creditable explanation of his different tone, which will be presently +suggested, is at least as probable. In any case, these two chapters +remain the chief slur on his historical impartiality, and it is worth +while to examine what his offence amounts to. + +Gibbon's account of the early Christians is vitiated by his narrow and +distorted conception of the emotional side of man's nature. Having no +spiritual aspirations himself, he could not appreciate or understand +them in others. Those emotions which have for their object the unseen +world and its centre, God, had no meaning for him; and he was tempted +to explain them away when he came across them, or to ascribe their +origin and effects to other instincts which were more intelligible to +him. The wonderland which the mystic inhabits was closed to him, he +remained outside of it and reproduced in sarcastic travesty the +reports he heard of its marvels. What he has called the secondary +causes of the growth of Christianity, were much rather its effects. +The first is "the inflexible and intolerant zeal of the Christians" +and their abhorrence of idolatry. With great power of language, he +paints the early Christian "encompassed with infernal snares in every +convivial entertainment, as often as his friends, invoking the +hospitable deities, poured out libations to each other's happiness. +When the bride, struggling with well-affected reluctance, was forced +in hymenćal pomp over the threshold of her new habitation, or when the +sad procession of the dead slowly moved towards the funeral pile, the +Christian on these interesting occasions was compelled to desert the +persons who were dearest to him, rather than contract the guilt +inherent in those impious ceremonies." It is strange that Gibbon did +not ask himself what was the cause of this inflexible zeal. The zeal +produced the effects alleged, but what produced the zeal? He says that +it was derived from the Jewish religion, but neglects to point out +what could have induced Gentiles of every diversity of origin to +derive from a despised race tenets and sentiments which would make +their lives one long scene of self-denial and danger. The whole vein +of remark is so completely out of date, that it is not worth dwelling +on, except very summarily. + +The second cause is "the doctrine of a future life, improved by every +additional circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that +important truth." Again we have an effect treated as a cause. "The +ancient Christians were animated by a contempt for their present +existence, and by a just confidence of immortality." Very true; but +the fact of their being so animated was what wanted explaining. Gibbon +says it "was no wonder that so advantageous an offer" as that of +immortality was accepted. Yet he had just before told us that the +ablest orators at the bar and in the senate of Rome, could expose +this offer of immortality to ridicule without fear of giving offence. +Whence arose, then, the sudden blaze of conviction with which the +Christians embraced it? + +The third cause is the miraculous powers _ascribed_ to the primitive +Church. Gibbon apparently had not the courage to admit that he agreed +with his friend Hume in rejecting miracles altogether. He conceals his +drift in a cloud of words, suggesting indirectly with innuendo and +sneer his real opinion. But this does not account for the stress he +lays on the _ascription_ of miracles. He seems to think that the claim +of supernatural gifts somehow had the same efficacy as the gifts +themselves would have had, if they had existed. + +The fourth cause is the virtues of the primitive Christians. The +paragraphs upon it, Dean Milman considers the most uncandid in all the +history, and they certainly do Gibbon no credit. With a strange +ignorance of the human heart, he attributes the austere morals of the +early Christians to their care for their reputation. The ascetic +temper, one of the most widely manifested in history, was beyond his +comprehension. + +The fifth cause was the union and discipline of the Christian +republic. For the last time the effect figures as the cause. Union and +discipline we know are powerful, but we know also that they are the +result of deep antecedent forces, and that prudence and policy alone +never produced them. + +It can surprise no one that Gibbon has treated the early Church in a +way which is highly unsatisfactory if judged by a modern standard. Not +only is it a period which criticism has gone over again and again with +a microscope, but the standpoint from which such periods are observed +has materially changed since his day. That dim epoch of nascent faith, +full of tender and subdued tints, with a high light on the brows of +the Crucified, was not one in which he could see clearly, or properly +see at all. He has as little insight into the religious condition of +the pagan world, as of the Christian. It is singular how he passes +over facts which were plain before him, which he knew quite well, as +he knew nearly everything connected with his subject, but the real +significance of which he missed. Thus he attributes to the scepticism +of the pagan world the easy introduction of Christianity. Misled by +the "eloquence of Cicero and the wit of Lucian," he supposes the +second century to have been vacant of beliefs, in which a "fashion of +incredulity" was widely diffused, and "many were almost disengaged +from artificial prejudices." He was evidently unaware of the striking +religious revival which uplifted paganism in the age of Hadrian, and +grew with the sinking empire: the first stirrings of it may even be +discerned in Tacitus, and go on increasing till we reach the theurgy +of the Neoplatonists. A growing fear of the gods, a weariness of life +and longing for death, a disposition to look for compensation for the +miseries of this world to a brighter one beyond the grave--these +traits are common in the literature of the second century, and show +the change which had come over the minds of men. Gibbon is +colour-blind to these shades of the religious spirit: he can only see +the banter of Lucian.[13] In reference to these matters he was a true +son of his age, and could hardly be expected to transcend it. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 13: On the religious revival of the second century, see +Hausrath's _Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte_, vol. iii., especially +the sections, "Hadrian's Mysticismus" and "Religiöse Tendenzen in +Kunst und Literatur," where this interesting subject is handled with a +freshness and insight quite remarkable.] + +He cannot be cleared of this reproach. On the other hand, we must +remember that Gibbon's hard and accurate criticism set a good example +in one respect. The fertile fancy of the middle ages had run into wild +exaggerations of the number of the primitive martyrs, and their +legends had not always been submitted to impartial scrutiny even in +the eighteenth century. We may admit that Gibbon was not without bias +of another kind, and that his tone is often very offensive when he +seeks to depreciate the evidence of the sufferings of the early +confessors. His computation, which will allow of "an annual +consumption of a hundred and fifty martyrs," is nothing short of +cynical. Still he did good service in insisting on chapter and verse +and fair historical proof of these frightful stories, before they were +admitted. Dean Milman acknowledges so much, and defends him against +the hot zeal of M. Guizot, justly adding that "truth must not be +sacrificed even to well-grounded moral indignation," in which +sentiment all now will no doubt be willing to concur. + +The difference between the Church in the Catacombs, and the Church in +the Palaces at Constantinople or Ravenna, measures the difference +between Gibbon's treatment of early Christian history and his +treatment of ecclesiastical history. Just as the simple-hearted +emotions of God-fearing men were a puzzle and an irritation to him, so +he was completely at home in exposing the intrigues of courtly bishops +and in the metaphysics of theological controversy. His mode of dealing +with Church matters from this point onward is hardly ever unfair, and +has given rise to few protestations. He has not succeeded in pleasing +everybody. What Church historian ever does? But he is candid, +impartial, and discerning. His account of the conversion of +Constantine is remarkably just, and he is more generous to the first +Christian Emperor than Niebuhr or Neander. He plunges into the Arian +controversy with manifest delight, and has given in a few pages one of +the clearest and most memorable _résumés_ of that great struggle. But +it is when he comes to the hero of that struggle, to an historic +character who can be seen with clearness, that he shows his wonted +tact and insight. A great man hardly ever fails to awaken Gibbon into +admiration and sympathy. The "Great Athanasius," as he often calls +him, caught his eye at once, and the impulse to draw a fine character, +promptly silenced any prejudices which might interfere with faithful +portraiture. "Athanasius stands out more grandly in Gibbon, than in +the pages of the orthodox ecclesiastical historians"--Dr. Newman has +said,--a judge whose competence will not be questioned. And as if to +show how much insight depends on sympathy, Gibbon is immediately more +just and open to the merits of the Christian community, than he had +been hitherto. He now sees "that the privileges of the Church had +already revived a sense of order and freedom in the Roman government." +His chapter on the rise of monasticism is more fair and discriminating +than the average Protestant treatment of that subject. He distinctly +acknowledges the debt we owe the monks for their attention to +agriculture, the useful trades, and the preservation of ancient +literature. The more disgusting forms of asceticism he touches with +light irony, which is quite as effective as the vehement denunciations +of non-Catholic writers. It must not be forgotten that his +ecclesiastical history derives a great superiority of clearness and +proportion by its interweaving with the general history of the times, +and this fact of itself suffices to give Gibbon's picture a permanent +value even beside the master works of German erudition which have been +devoted exclusively to Church matters. If we lay down Gibbon and take +up Neander, for instance, we are conscious that with all the greater +fulness of detail, engaging candour, and sympathetic insight of the +great Berlin Professor, the general impression of the times is less +distinct and lasting. There is no specialism in Gibbon; his book is a +broad sociological picture in which the whole age is portrayed. + +To sum up. In two memorable chapters Gibbon has allowed his prejudices +to mar his work as an historian. But two chapters out of seventy-one +constitute a small proportion. In the remainder of his work he is as +free from bias and unfairness as human frailty can well allow. The +annotated editions of Milman and Guizot are guarantees of this. Their +critical animadversions become very few and far between after the +first volume is passed. If he had been animated by a polemical object +in writing; if he had used the past as an arsenal from which to draw +weapons to attack the present, we may depend that a swift blight would +have shrivelled his labours, as it did so many famous works of the +eighteenth century, when the great day of reaction set in. His mild +rebuke of the Abbé Raynal should not be forgotten. He admired the +_History of the Indies_. It is one of the few books that he has +honoured with mention and praise in the text of his own work. But he +points out that the "zeal of the philosophic historian for the rights +of mankind" had led him into a blunder. It was not only Gibbon's +scholarly accuracy which saved him from such blunders. Perhaps he had +less zeal for the rights of mankind than men like Raynal, whose +general views he shared. But it is certain that he did not write with +their settled _parti pris_ of making history a vehicle of controversy. +His object was to be a faithful historian, and due regard being had to +his limitations, he attained to it. + +If we now consider the defects of the _Decline and Fall_--which the +progress of historic study, and still more the lapse of time, have +gradually rendered visible, they will be found, as was to be expected, +to consist in the author's limited conception of society, and of the +multitudinous forces which mould and modify it. We are constantly +reminded by the tone of remark that he sees chiefly the surface of +events, and that the deeper causes which produce them have not been +seen with the same clearness. In proportion as an age is remote, and +therefore different from that in which a historian writes, does it +behove him to remember that the social and general side of history is +more important than the individual and particular. In reference to a +period adjacent to our own the fortunes of individuals properly take a +prominent place, the social conditions amid which they worked are +familiar to us, and we understand them and their position without +effort. But with regard to a remote age the case is different. Here +our difficulty is to understand the social conditions, so unlike those +with which we are acquainted, and as society is greater than man, so +we feel that society, and not individual men, should occupy the chief +place in the picture. Not that individuals are to be suppressed or +neglected, but their subordination to the large historic background +must be well maintained. The social, religious, and philosophic +conditions amid which they played their parts should dominate the +scene, and dwarf by their grandeur and importance the human actors who +move across it. The higher historical style now demands what may be +called compound narrative, that is narrative having reference to two +sets of phenomena--one the obvious surface events, the other the +larger and wider, but less obvious, sociological condition. A better +example could hardly be given than Grote's account of the mutilation +of the Hermć. The fact of the mutilation is told in the briefest way +in a few lines, but the social condition which overarched it, and made +the disfiguring of a number of half-statues "one of the most +extraordinary events in Greek history," demands five pages of +reflections and commentary to bring out its full significance. Grote +insists on the duty "to take reasonable pains to realise in our minds +the religious and political associations of the Athenians," and helps +us to do it by a train of argument and illustration. The larger part +of the strength of the modern historical school lies in this method, +and in able hands it has produced great results. + +It would be unfair to compare Gibbon to these writers. They had a +training in social studies which he had not. But it is not certain +that he has always acquitted himself well, even if compared to his +contemporaries and predecessors, Montesquieu, Mably, and Voltaire. In +any case his narrative is generally wanting in historic perspective +and suggestive background. It adheres closely to the obvious surface +of events with little attempt to place behind them the deeper sky of +social evolution. In many of his crowded chapters one cannot see the +wood for the trees. The story is not lifted up and made lucid by +general points of view, but drags or hurries along in the hollow of +events, over which the author never seems to raise himself into a +position of commanding survey. The thirty-sixth chapter is a marked +instance of this defect. But the defect is general. The vigorous and +skilful narrative, and a certain grandeur and weightiness of language, +make us overlook it. It is only when we try to attain clear and +succinct views, which condense into portable propositions the enormous +mass of facts collected before us, that we feel that the writer has +not often surveyed his subject from a height and distance sufficient +to allow the great features of the epoch to be seen in bold outline. +By the side of the history of concrete events, we miss the +presentation of those others which are none the less events for being +vague, irregular, and wide-reaching, and requiring centuries for their +accomplishment. Gibbon's manner of dealing with the first is always +good, and sometimes consummate, and equal to anything in historical +literature. The thirty-first chapter, with its description of Rome, +soon to fall a prey to the Goths and Alaric, is a masterpiece, +artistic and spacious in the highest degree; though it is unnecessary +to cite particular instances, as nearly every chapter contains +passages of admirable historic power. But the noble flood of narrative +never stops in meditative pause to review the situation, and point out +with pregnant brevity what is happening in the sum total, abstraction +made of all confusing details. Besides the facts of the time, we seek +to have the tendencies of the age brought before us in their flow and +expansion, the filiation of events over long periods deduced in clear +sequence, a synoptical view which is to the mind what a picture is to +the eye. In this respect Gibbon's method leaves not a little to be +desired. + +Take for instance two of the most important aspects of the subject +that he treated: the barbarian invasions, and the causes of the +decline and fall of the Roman empire. To the concrete side of both he +has done ample justice. The rational and abstract side of neither has +received the attention from him which it deserved. On the interesting +question of the introduction of the barbarians into the frontier +provinces, and their incorporation into the legions, he never seems to +have quite made up his mind. In the twelfth chapter he calls it a +"great and beneficial plan." Subsequently he calls it a disgraceful +and fatal expedient. He recurs frequently to the subject in isolated +passages, but never collects the facts, into a focus, with a view of +deducing their real meaning. Yet the point is second to none in +importance. Its elucidation throws more light on the fall of Rome than +any other considerations whatever. The question is, Whether Rome was +conquered by the barbarians in the ordinary sense of the word, +conquered. We know that it was not, and Gibbon knew that it was not. +Yet perhaps most people rise from reading his book with an impression +that the empire succumbed to the invasion of the barbarians, as +Carthage, Gaul, and Greece had succumbed to the invasion of the +Romans; that the struggle lay between classic Rome and outside +uncivilised foes; and that after two centuries of hard fighting the +latter were victorious. The fact that the struggle lay between +barbarians, who were within and friendly to the empire, and barbarians +who were without it, and hostile rather to their more fortunate +brethren, than to the empire which employed them, is implicitly +involved in Gibbon's narrative, but it is not explicitly brought out. +Romanised Goths, Vandals, and Franks were the defenders, nearly the +only defenders, of the empire against other tribes and nations who +were not Romanised, and nothing can be more plain than that Gibbon saw +this as well as any one since, but he has not set it forth with +prominence and clearness. With his complete mastery of the subject he +would have done it admirably, if he had assumed the necessary point of +view. + +Similarly, with regard to the causes of the fall of the empire. It is +quite evident that he was not at all unconscious of the deep economic +and social vices which undermined the great fabric. Depopulation, +decay of agriculture, fiscal oppression, the general prostration +begotten of despotism--all these sources of the great collapse may be +traced in his text, or his wonderful notes, hinted very often with a +flashing insight which anticipates the most recent inquiries into the +subject. But these considerations are not brought together to a +luminous point, nor made to yield clear and tangible results. They lie +scattered, isolated, and barren over three volumes, and are easily +overlooked. One may say that generalised and synthetic views are +conspicuous by their absence in Gibbon. + +But what of that? These reflections, even if they be well founded, +hardly dim the majesty of the _Decline and Fall_. The book is such a +marvel of knowledge at once wide and minute, that even now, after +numbers of labourers have gone over the same ground, with only special +objects in view, small segments of the great circle which Gibbon fills +alone, his word is still one of the weightiest that can be quoted. +Modern research has unquestionably opened out points of view to which +he did not attain. But when it comes to close investigation of any +particular question, we rarely fail to find that he has seen it, +dropped some pregnant hint about it, more valuable than the +dissertations of other men. As Mr. Freeman says, "Whatever else is +read, Gibbon must be read too." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE LAST TEN YEARS OF HIS LIFE IN LAUSANNE. + + +After the preliminary troubles which met him on his arrival at +Lausanne, Gibbon had four years of unbroken calm and steady work, of +which there is nothing to record beyond the fact that they were filled +with peaceful industry. "One day," he wrote, "glides by another in +tranquil uniformity." During the whole period he never stirred ten +miles out of Lausanne. He had nearly completed the fourth volume +before he left England. Then came an interruption of a year--consumed +in the break-up of his London establishment, his journey, the +transport of his library, the delay in getting settled at Lausanne. +Then he sat down in grim earnest to finish his task, and certainly the +speed he used, considering the quality of the work, left nothing to be +desired. He achieved the fifth volume in twenty-one months, and the +sixth in little more than a year. He had hoped to finish sooner, but +it is no wonder that he found his work grow under his hands when he +passed from design to execution. "A long while ago, when I +contemplated the distant prospect of my work," he writes to Lord +Sheffield, "I gave you and myself some hopes of landing in England +last autumn; but alas! when autumn grew near, hills began to rise on +hills, Alps on Alps, and I found my journey far more tedious and +toilsome than I had imagined. When I look back on the length of the +undertaking and the variety of materials, I cannot accuse or suffer +myself to be accused of idleness; yet it appeared that unless I +doubled my diligence, another year, and perhaps more, would elapse +before I could embark with my complete manuscript. Under these +circumstances I took, and am still executing, a bold and meritorious +resolution. The mornings in winter, and in a country of early dinners, +are very concise. To them, my usual period of study, I now frequently +add the evenings, renounce cards and society, refuse the most +agreeable evenings, or perhaps make my appearance at a late supper. By +this extraordinary industry, which I never practised before, and to +which I hope never to be again reduced, I see the last part of my +history growing apace under my hands." He was indeed, as he said, now +straining for the goal which was at last reached "on the day, or +rather the night, of the 27th of June, 1787. Between the hours of +eleven and twelve I wrote the last lines of the last page in a +summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several +turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a +prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was +temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was +reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent. I will not +dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and +perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, +and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had +taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and +that whatsoever might be the future fate of my history, the life of +the historian must be short and precarious." + +A faint streak of poetry occasionally shoots across Gibbon's prose. +But both prose and poetry had now to yield to stern business. The +printing of three quarto volumes in those days of handpresses was a +formidable undertaking, and unless expedition were used the publishing +season of the ensuing year would be lost. A month had barely elapsed +before Gibbon with his precious cargo started for England. He went +straight to his printers. The printing of the fourth volume occupied +three months, and both author and publisher were warned that their +common interest required a quicker pace. Then Mr. Strahan "fulfilled +his engagement, which few printers could sustain, of delivering every +week three thousand copies of nine sheets." On the 8th of May, 1788, +the three concluding volumes were published, and Gibbon had discharged +his debt for the entertainment that he had had in this world. + +He returned as speedily as he could to Lausanne, to rest from his +labours. But he had a painful greeting in the sadly altered look of +his friend Deyverdun. Soon an apoplectic seizure confirmed his +forebodings, and within a twelvemonth the friend of his youth, whom he +had loved for thirty-three years, was taken away by death (July 4, +1789).[14] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 14: The letter in which Gibbon communicated the sad news to +Lord Sheffield was written on the 14th July, 1789, the day of the +taking of the Bastille. So "that evening sun of July" sent its beams +on Gibbon mourning the dead friend, as well as on "reapers amid +peaceful woods and fields, on old women spinning in cottages, on ships +far out on the silent main, on balls at the Orangerie of Versailles, +where high-rouged dames of the palace are even now dancing with +double-jacketed Hussar officers."] + +Gibbon never got over this loss. His staid and solid nature was not +given to transports of joy or grief. But his constant references to +"poor Deyverdun," and the vacancy caused by his loss, show the depth +of the wound. "I want to change the scene," he writes, "and, beautiful +as the garden and prospect must appear to every eye, I feel that the +state of my mind casts a gloom over them: every spot, every walk, +every bench recalls the memory of those hours, those conversations, +which will return no more.... I almost hesitate whether I shall run +over to England to consult with you on the spot, and to fly from poor +Deyverdun's shade, which meets me at every turn." Not that he lacked +attached friends, and of mere society and acquaintance he had more +than abundance. He occupied at Lausanne a position of almost +patriarchal dignity, "and may be said," writes Lord Sheffield, "to +have almost given the law to a set of as willing subjects as any man +ever presided over." Soon the troubles in France sent wave after wave +of emigrants over the frontiers, and Lausanne had its full share of +the exiles. After a brief approval of the reforms in France he passed +rapidly to doubt, disgust, and horror at the "new birth of time" +there. "You will allow me to be a tolerable historian," he wrote to +his step-mother, "yet on a fair review of ancient and modern times I +can find none that bear any affinity to the present." The last social +evolution was beyond his power of classification. The mingled +bewilderment and anger with which he looks out from Lausanne on the +revolutionary welter, form an almost amusing contrast to his usual +apathy on political matters. He is full of alarm lest England should +catch the revolutionary fever. He is delighted with Burke's +_Reflections_. "I admire his eloquence, I approve his politics, I +adore his chivalry, and I can forgive even his superstition." His +wrath waxes hotter at every post. "Poor France! The state is +dissolved! the nation is mad." At last nothing but vituperation can +express his feelings, and he roundly calls the members of the +Convention "devils," and discovers that "democratical principles lead +by a path of flowers into the abyss of hell." + +In 1790 his friends the Neckers had fled to Switzerland, and on every +ground of duty and inclination he was called upon to show them the +warmest welcome, and he did so in a way that excited their liveliest +gratitude. Necker was cast down in utter despair, not only for the +loss of place and power, but on account of the strong animosity which +was shown to him by the exiled French, none of whom would set their +foot in his house. The Neckers were now Gibbon's chief intimates till +the end of his sojourn in Switzerland. They lived at Coppet, and +constant visits were exchanged there and at Lausanne. Madame Necker +wrote to him frequent letters, which prove that if she had ever had +any grievance to complain of in the past, it was not only forgiven, +but entirely forgotten. The letters, indeed, testify a warmth of +sentiment on her part which, coming from a lady of less spotless +propriety, would almost imply a revival of youthful affection for her +early lover. "You have always been dear to me," she writes, "but the +friendship you have shown to M. Necker adds to that which you inspire +me with on so many grounds, and I love you at present with a double +affection."--"Come to us when you are restored to health and to +yourself; that moment should always belong to your first and your +last friend (_amie_), and I do not know which of those titles is the +sweetest and dearest to my heart."--"Near you, the recollections you +recalled were pleasant to me, and you connected them easily with +present impressions; the chain of years seemed to link all times +together with electrical rapidity; you were at once twenty and fifty +years old for me. Away from you the different places, which I have +inhabited are only the milestones of my life telling me of the +distance I have come." With much more in the same strain. Of Madame de +Staël Gibbon does not speak in very warm praise. Her mother, who was +far from being contented with her, may perhaps have prejudiced him +against her. In one letter to him she complains of her daughter's +conduct in no measured terms. Yet Gibbon owns that Madame de Staël was +a "pleasant little woman;" and in another place says that she was +"wild, vain, but good-natured, with a much larger provision of wit +than of beauty." One wonders if he ever knew of her childish scheme of +marrying him in order that her parents might always have the pleasure +of his company and conversation. + +These closing years of Gibbon's life were not happy, through no fault +of his. No man was less inclined by disposition to look at the dark +side of things. But heavy blows fell on him in quick succession. His +health was seriously impaired, and he was often laid up for months +with the gout. His neglect of exercise had produced its effect, and he +had become a prodigy of unwieldy corpulency. Unfortunately his +digestion seems to have continued only too good, and neither his own +observation nor the medical science of that day sufficed to warn him +against certain errors of regimen which were really fatal. All this +time, while the gout was constantly torturing him, he drank Madeira +freely. There is frequent question of a pipe of that sweet wine in his +correspondence with Lord Sheffield. He cannot bear the thought of +being without a sufficient supply, as "good Madeira is now become +essential to his health and reputation." The last three years of his +residence at Lausanne were agitated by perpetual anxiety and dread of +an invasion of French democratic principles, or even of French troops. +Reluctance to quit "his paradise" keeps him still, but he is always +wondering how soon he will have to fly, and often regrets that he has +not done so already. "For my part," he writes, "till Geneva falls, I +do not think of a retreat; but at all events I am provided with two +strong horses and a hundred louis in gold." Fate was hard on the +kindly epicurean, who after his long toil had made his bed in the sun, +on which he was preparing to lie down in genial content till the end +came. But he feels he must not think of rest; and that, heavy as he +is, and irksome to him as it is to move, he must before long be a +rover again. Still he is never peevish upon his fortune; he puts the +best face on things as long as they will bear it. + +He was not so philosophical under the bereavements that he now +suffered. His aunt, Mrs. Porten, had died in 1786. He deplored her as +he was bound to do, and feelingly regrets and blames himself for not +having written to her as often as he might have done since their last +parting. Then came the irreparable loss of Deyverdun. Shortly, an old +Lausanne friend, M. de Severy, to whom he was much attached, died +after a long illness. Lastly and suddenly, came the death of Lady +Sheffield, the wife of his friend Holroyd, with whom he had long lived +on such intimate terms that he was in the habit of calling her his +sister. The Sheffields, father and mother and two daughters, had spent +the summer of 1791 with him at Lausanne. The visit was evidently an +occasion of real happiness and _épanchement de coeur_ to the two old +friends, and supplied Gibbon for nearly two years with tender regrets +and recollections. Then, without any warning, he heard of Lady +Sheffield's death. In a moment his mind was made up: he would go at +once to console his friend. All the fatigue and irksomeness of the +journey to one so ailing and feeble, all the dangers of the road lined +and perhaps barred by hostile armies, vanished on the spot. Within +twelve days he had made his preparations and started on his journey. +He was forced to travel through Germany, and in his ignorance of the +language he required an interpreter; young de Severy, the son of his +deceased friend, joyfully, and out of mere affection for him, +undertook the office of courier. "His attachment to me," wrote Gibbon, +"is the sole motive which prompts him to undertake this troublesome +journey." It is clear that he had the art of making himself loved. He +travelled through Frankfort, Cologne, Brussels, Ostend, and was by his +friend's side in little more than a month after he had received the +fatal tidings. Well might Lord Sheffield say, "I must ever regard it +as the most enduring proof of his sensibility, and of his possessing +the true spirit of friendship, that, after having relinquished the +thought of his intended visit, he hastened to England, in spite of +increasing impediments, to soothe me by the most generous sympathy, +and to alleviate my domestic affliction; neither his great corpulency +nor his extraordinary bodily infirmities, nor any other consideration, +could prevent him a moment from resolving on an undertaking that might +have deterred the most active young man. He almost immediately, with +an alertness by no means natural to him, undertook a great circuitous +journey along the frontier of an enemy worse than savage, within the +sound of their cannon, within the range of the light troops of the +different armies, and through roads ruined by the enormous machinery +of war." + +In this public and private gloom he bade for ever farewell to +Lausanne. He was himself rapidly approaching + + "The dark portal, + Goal of all mortal," + +but of this he knew not as yet. While he is in the house of mourning, +beside his bereaved friend, we will return for a short space to +consider the conclusion of his great work. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE LAST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL. + + +The thousand years between the fifth and the fifteenth century +comprise the middle age, a period which only recently, through utterly +inadequate conceptions of social growth, was wont to be called the +dark ages. That long epoch of travail and growth, during which the old +field of civilisation was broken up and sown afresh with new and +various seed unknown to antiquity, receives now on all hands due +recognition, as being one of the most rich, fertile, and interesting +in the history of man. The all-embracing despotism of Rome was +replaced by the endless local divisions and subdivisions of feudal +tenure. The multiform rites and beliefs of polytheism were replaced by +the single faith and paramount authority of the Catholic Church. The +philosophies of Greece were dethroned, and the scholastic theology +reigned in their stead. The classic tongues crumbled away, and out of +their _débris_ arose the modern idioms of France, Italy, and Spain, to +which were added in Northern Europe the new forms of Teutonic speech. +The fine and useful arts took a new departure; slavery was mitigated +into serfdom; industry and commerce became powers in the world as they +had never been before; the narrow municipal polity of the old world +was in time succeeded by the broader national institutions based on +various forms of representation. Gunpowder, America, and the art of +printing were discovered, and the most civilised portion of mankind +passed insensibly into the modern era. + +Such was the wide expanse which spread out before Gibbon when he +resolved to continue his work from the fall of the Western Empire to +the capture of Constantinople. Indeed his glance took in a still wider +field, as he was concerned as much with the decay of Eastern as of +Western Rome, and the long-retarded fall of the former demanded large +attention to the Oriental populations who assaulted the city and +remaining empire of Constantine. So bold an historic enterprise was +never conceived as when, standing on the limit of antiquity in the +fifth century, he determined to pursue in rapid but not hasty survey +the great lines of events for a thousand years, to follow in detail +the really great transactions while discarding the less important, +thereby giving prominence and clearness to what is memorable, and +reproducing on a small scale the flow of time through the ages. It is +to this portion of Gibbon's work that the happy comparison has been +made, that it resembles a magnificent Roman aqueduct spanning over the +chasm which separates the ancient from the modern world. In these +latter volumes he frees himself from the trammels of regular +annalistic narrative, deals with events in broad masses according to +their importance, expanding or contracting his story as occasion +requires; now painting in large panoramic view the events of a few +years, now compressing centuries into brief outline. Many of his +massive chapters afford materials for volumes, and are well worthy of +a fuller treatment than he could give without deranging his plan. But +works of greater detail and narrower compass can never compete with +Gibbon's history, any more than a county map can compete with a map of +England or of Europe. + +The variety of the contents of these last three volumes is amazing, +especially when the thoroughness and perfection of the workmanship are +considered. Prolix compilations or sketchy outlines of universal +history have their use and place, but they are removed by many degrees +from the _Decline and Fall_, or rather they belong to another species +of authorship. It is not only that Gibbon combines width and depth, +that the extent of his learning is as wonderful as its accuracy, +though in this respect he has hardly a full rival in literature. The +quality which places him not only in the first rank of historians, but +in a class by himself, and makes him greater than the greatest, lies +in his supreme power of moulding into lucid and coherent unity, the +manifold and rebellious mass of his multitudinous materials, of +coercing his divergent topics into such order that they seem +spontaneously to grow like branches out of one stem, clear and visible +to the mind. There is something truly epic in these latter volumes. +Tribes, nations, and empires are the characters; one after another +they come forth like Homeric heroes, and do their mighty deeds before +the assembled armies. The grand and lofty chapters on Justinian; on +the Arabs; on the Crusades, have a rounded completeness, coupled with +such artistic subordination to the main action, that they read more +like cantos of a great prose poem than the ordinary staple of +historical composition. It may well be questioned whether there is +another instance of such high literary form and finish, coupled with +such vast erudition. And two considerations have to be borne in mind, +which heighten Gibbon's merit in this respect. (1.) Almost the whole +of his subject had been as yet untouched by any preceding writer of +eminence, and he had no stimulus or example from his precursors. He +united thus in himself the two characters of pioneer and artist. (2.) +The barbarous and imperfect nature of the materials with which he +chiefly had to work,--dull inferior writers, whose debased style was +their least defect. A historian who has for his authorities masters of +reason and language such as Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, and Tacitus +is borne up by their genius; apt quotation and translation alone +suffice to produce considerable effects; or in the case of subjects +taken from modern times, weighty state papers, eloquent debates, or +finished memoirs supply ample materials for graphic narrative. But +Gibbon had little but dross to deal with. Yet he has smelted and cast +it into the grand shapes we see. + +The fourth volume is nearly confined to the reign, or rather epoch, of +Justinian,--a magnificent subject, which he has painted in his +loftiest style of gorgeous narrative. The campaigns of Belisarius and +Narses are related with a clearness and vigour that make us feel that +Gibbon's merits as a military historian have not been quite +sufficiently recognised. He had from the time of his service in the +militia taken continued interest in tactics and all that was connected +with the military art. It was no idle boast when he said that the +captain of the Hampshire grenadiers had not been useless to the +historian of the Roman empire. Military matters perhaps occupy a +somewhat excessive space in his pages. Still, if the operations of +war are to be related, it is highly important that they should be +treated with intelligence, and knowledge how masses of men are moved, +and by a writer to whom the various incidents of the camp, the march, +and the bivouac, are not matters of mere hearsay, but of personal +experience. The campaign of Belisarius in Africa may be quoted as an +example. + + "In the seventh year of the reign of Justinian, and about + the time of the summer solstice, the whole fleet of six + hundred ships was ranged in martial pomp before the gardens + of the palace. The patriarch pronounced his benediction, the + emperor signified his last commands, the general's trumpet + gave the signal of departure, and every heart, according to + its fears or wishes, explored with anxious curiosity the + omens of misfortune or success. The first halt was made at + Perintheus, or Heraclea, where Belisarius waited five days + to receive some Thracian horses, a military gift of his + sovereign. From thence the fleet pursued their course + through the midst of the Propontis; but as they struggled to + pass the straits of the Hellespont, an unfavourable wind + detained them four days at Abydos, where the general + exhibited a remarkable lesson of firmness and severity. Two + of the Huns who, in a drunken quarrel, had slain one of + their fellow-soldiers, were instantly shown to the army + suspended on a lofty gibbet. The national dignity was + resented by their countrymen, who disclaimed the servile + laws of the empire and asserted the free privileges of + Scythia, where a small fine was allowed to expiate the + sallies of intemperance and anger. Their complaints were + specious, their clamours were loud, and the Romans were not + averse to the example of disorder and impunity. But the + rising sedition was appeased by the authority and eloquence + of the general, and he represented to the assembled troops + the obligation of justice, the importance of discipline, the + rewards of piety and virtue, and the unpardonable guilt of + murder, which, in his apprehension, was aggravated rather + than excused by the vice of intoxication. In the navigation + from the Hellespont to the Peloponnesus, which the Greeks + after the siege of Troy had performed in four days, the + fleet of Belisarius was guided in their course by his + master-galley, conspicuous in the day by the redness of the + sails, and in the night by torches blazing from the + masthead. It was the duty of the pilots as they steered + between the islands and turned the capes of Malea and + Tćnarium to preserve the just order and regular intervals of + such a multitude. As the wind was fair and moderate, their + labours were not unsuccessful, and the troops were safely + disembarked at Methone, on the Messenian coast, to repose + themselves for a while after the fatigues of the sea.... + From the port of Methone the pilots steered along the + western coast of Peloponnesus, as far as the island of + Zacynthus, or Zante, before they undertook the voyage (in + their eyes a most arduous voyage) of one hundred leagues + over the Ionian sea. As the fleet was surprised by a calm, + sixteen days were consumed in the slow navigation.... At + length the harbour of Caucana, on the southern side of + Sicily, afforded a secure and hospitable shelter.... + Belisarius determined to hasten his operations, and his wise + impatience was seconded by the winds. The fleet lost sight + of Sicily, passed before the island of Malta, discovered the + capes of Africa, ran along the coast with a strong gale from + the north-east, and finally cast anchor at the promontory of + Caput Vada, about five days journey to the south of + Carthage.... + + "Three months after their departure from Constantinople, the + men and the horses, the arms and the military stores were + safely disembarked, and five soldiers were left as a guard + on each of the ships, which were disposed in the form of a + semicircle. The remainder of the troops occupied a camp on + the seashore, which they fortified, according to ancient + discipline, with a ditch and rampart, and the discovery of a + source of fresh water, while it allayed the thirst, excited + the superstitious confidence of the Romans.... The small + town of Sullecte, one day's journey from the camp, had the + honour of being foremost to open her gates and resume her + ancient allegiance; the larger cities of Leptis and + Adrumetum imitated the example of loyalty as soon as + Belisarius appeared, and he advanced without opposition as + far as Grasse, a palace of the Vandal kings, at the distance + of fifty miles from Carthage. The weary Romans indulged + themselves in the refreshment of shady groves, cool + fountains, and delicious fruits.... In three generations + prosperity and a warm climate had dissolved the hardy virtue + of the Vandals, who insensibly became the most luxurious of + mankind. In their villas and gardens, which might deserve + the Persian name of Paradise, they enjoyed a cool and + elegant repose, and after the daily use of the bath, the + barbarians were seated at a table profusely spread with the + delicacies of the land and sea. Their silken robes, loosely + flowing after the fashion of the Medes, were embroidered + with gold, love and hunting were the labours of their life, + and their vacant hours were amused by pantomimes, + chariot-races, and the music and dances of the theatre. + + "In a march of twelve days the vigilance of Belisarius was + constantly awake and active against his unseen enemies, by + whom in every place and at every hour he might be suddenly + attacked. An officer of confidence and merit, John the + Armenian, led the vanguard of three hundred horse. Six + hundred Massagetć covered at a certain distance the left + flank, and the whole fleet, steering along the coast, seldom + lost sight of the army, which moved each day about twelve + miles, and lodged in the evening in strong camps or in + friendly towns. The near approach of the Romans to Carthage + filled the mind of Gelimer with anxiety and terror.... + + "Yet the authority and promises of Gelimer collected a + formidable army, and his plans were concerted with some + degree of military skill. An order was despatched to his + brother Ammatas to collect all the forces of Carthage, and + to encounter the van of the Roman army at the distance of + ten miles from the city: his nephew Gibamund with two + thousand horse was destined to attack their left, when the + monarch himself, who silently followed, should charge their + rear in a situation which excluded them from the aid and + even the view of their fleet. But the rashness of Ammatas + was fatal to himself and his country. He anticipated the + hour of attack, outstripped his tardy followers, and was + pierced with a mortal wound, after he had slain with his own + hand twelve of his boldest antagonists. His Vandals fled to + Carthage: the highway, almost ten miles, was strewed with + dead bodies, and it seemed incredible that such multitudes + could be slaughtered by the swords of three hundred Romans. + The nephew of Gelimer was defeated after a slight combat by + the six hundred Massagetć; they did not equal the third part + of his numbers, but each Scythian was fired by the example + of his chief, who gloriously exercised the privilege of his + family by riding foremost and alone to shoot the first arrow + against the enemy. In the meantime Gelimer himself, ignorant + of the event, and misguided by the windings of the hills, + inadvertently passed the Roman army and reached the scene of + action where Ammatas had fallen. He wept the fate of his + brother and of Carthage, charged with irresistible fury the + advancing squadrons, and might have pursued and perhaps + decided the victory, if he had not wasted those inestimable + moments in the discharge of a vain though pious duty to the + dead. While his spirit was broken by this mournful office, + he heard the trumpet of Belisarius, who, leaving Antonina + and his infantry in the camp, pressed forward with his + guards and the remainder of the cavalry to rally his flying + troops, and to restore the fortune of the day. Much room + could not be found in this disorderly battle for the talents + of a general; but the king fled before the hero, and the + Vandals, accustomed only to a Moorish enemy, were incapable + of withstanding the arms and the discipline of the + Romans.... + + "As soon as the tumult had subsided, the several parts of + the army informed each other of the accidents of the day, + and Belisarius pitched his camp on the field of victory, to + which the tenth milestone from Carthage had applied the + Latin appellation of _Decimus_. From a wise suspicion of the + stratagems and resources of the Vandals, he marched the next + day in the order of battle; halted in the evening before the + gates of Carthage, and allowed a night of repose, that he + might not, in darkness and disorder, expose the city to the + licence of the soldiers, or the soldiers themselves to the + secret ambush of the city. But as the fears of Belisarius + were the result of calm and intrepid reason, he was soon + satisfied that he might confide without danger in the + peaceful and friendly aspect of the capital. Carthage blazed + with innumerable torches, the signal of the public joy; the + chain was removed that guarded the entrance of the port, the + gates were thrown open, and the people with acclamations of + gratitude hailed and invited their Roman deliverers. The + defeat of the Vandals and the freedom of Africa were + announced to the city on the eve of St. Cyprian, when the + churches were already adorned and illuminated for the + festival of the martyr whom three centuries of superstition + had almost raised to a local deity.... One awful hour + reversed the fortunes of the contending parties. The + suppliant Vandals, who had so lately indulged the vices of + conquerors, sought an humble refuge in the sanctuary of the + church; while the merchants of the east were delivered from + the deepest dungeon of the palace by their affrighted + keeper, who implored the protection of his captives, and + showed them through an aperture in the wall the sails of the + Roman fleet. After their separation from the army, the naval + commanders had proceeded with slow caution along the coast, + till they reached the Hermćan promontory, and obtained the + first intelligence of the victory of Belisarius. Faithful to + his instructions, they would have cast anchor about twenty + miles from Carthage, if the more skilful had not represented + the perils of the shore and the signs of an impending + tempest. Still ignorant of the revolution, they declined + however the rash attempt of forcing the chain of the port, + and the adjacent harbour and suburb of Mandracium were + insulted only by the rapine of a private officer, who + disobeyed and deserted his leaders. But the imperial fleet, + advancing with a fair wind, steered through the narrow + entrance of the Goletta and occupied the deep and capacious + lake of Tunis, a secure station about five miles from the + capital. No sooner was Belisarius informed of the arrival + than he despatched orders that the greatest part of the + mariners should be immediately landed to join the triumph + and to swell the apparent numbers of the Romans. Before he + allowed them to enter the gates of Carthage he exhorted + them, in a discourse worthy of himself and the occasion, not + to disgrace the glory of their arms, and to remember that + the Vandals had been the tyrants, but that _they_ were the + deliverers of the Africans, who must now be respected as the + voluntary and affectionate subjects of their common + sovereign. The Romans marched through the street in close + ranks, prepared for battle if an enemy had appeared; the + strict order maintained by their general imprinted on their + minds the duty of obedience; and in an age in which custom + and impunity almost sanctified the abuse of conquest, the + genius of one man repressed the passions of a victorious + army. The voice of menace and complaint was silent, the + trade of Carthage was not interrupted; while Africa changed + her master and her government, the shops continued open and + busy; and the soldiers, after sufficient guards had been + posted, modestly departed to the houses which had been + allotted for their reception. Belisarius fixed his residence + in the palace, seated himself on the throne of Genseric, + accepted and distributed the barbaric spoil, granted their + lives to the suppliant Vandals, and laboured to restore the + damage which the suburb of Mandracium had sustained in the + preceding night. At supper he entertained his principal + officers with the form and magnificence of a royal banquet. + The victor was respectfully served by the captive officers + of the household, and in the moments of festivity, when the + impartial spectators applauded the fortune and merit of + Belisarius, his envious flatterers secretly shed their venom + on every word and gesture which might alarm the suspicions + of a jealous monarch. One day was given to these pompous + scenes, which may not be despised as useless if they + attracted the popular veneration; but the active mind of + Belisarius, which in the pride of victory could suppose + defeat, had already resolved that the Roman empire in Africa + should not depend on the chance of arms or the favour of the + people. The fortifications of Carthage had alone been + excepted from the general proscription; but in the reign of + ninety-five years they were suffered to decay by the + thoughtless and indolent Vandals. A wiser conqueror restored + with incredible despatch the walls and ditches of the city. + His liberality encouraged the workmen; the soldiers, the + mariners, and the citizens vied with each other in the + salutary labour; and Gelimer, who had feared to trust his + person in an open town, beheld with astonishment and + despair the rising strength of an impregnable fortress." + +But we have hardly finished admiring the brilliant picture of the +conquest of Africa and Italy, before Gibbon gives us further proofs of +his many-sided culture and catholicity of mind. His famous chapter on +the Roman law has been accepted by the most fastidious experts of an +esoteric science as a masterpiece of knowledge, condensation, and +lucidity. It has actually been received as a textbook in some of the +continental universities, published separately with notes and +illustrations. When we consider the neglect of Roman jurisprudence in +England till quite recent times, and its severe study on the +Continent, we shall better appreciate the mental grasp and vigour +which enabled an unprofessional Englishman in the last century to +produce such a dissertation. A little further on (chapter forty-seven) +the history of the doctrine of the Incarnation, and the controversies +that sprang up around it, are discussed with a subtlety worthy of a +scientific theologian. It is perhaps the first attempt towards a +philosophical history of dogma, less patient and minute than the works +of the specialists of modern Germany on the same subject, but for +spirit, clearness, and breadth it is superior to those profound but +somewhat barbarous writers. The flexibility of intellect which can do +justice in quick succession to such diverse subjects is very +extraordinary, and assuredly implies great width of sympathy and large +receptivity of nature. + +Having terminated the period of Justinian, Gibbon makes a halt, and +surveys the varied and immense scene through which he will presently +pass in many directions. He rapidly discovers _ten_ main lines, along +which he will advance in succession to his final goal, the conquest +of Constantinople. The two pages at the commencement of the +forty-eighth chapter, in which he sketches out the remainder of his +plan and indicates the topics which he means to treat, are admirable +as a luminous _précis_, and for the powerful grasp which they show of +his immense subject. It lay spread out all before him, visible in +every part to his penetrating eye, and he seems to rejoice in his +conscious strength and ability to undertake the historical conquest on +which he is about to set out. "Nor will this scope of narrative," he +says, "the riches and variety of these materials, be incompatible with +the unity of design and composition. As in his daily prayers the +Mussulman of Fez or Delhi still turns his face towards the temple of +Mecca, the historian's eye will always be fixed on the city of +Constantinople." Then follows the catalogue of nations and empires +whose fortunes he means to sing. A grander vision, a more majestic +procession, never swept before the mind's eye of poet or historian. + +And the practical execution is worthy of the initial inspiration. +After a rapid and condensed narrative of Byzantine history till the +end of the twelfth century, he takes up the brilliant theme of Mahomet +and his successors. A few pages on the climate and physical features +of Arabia fittingly introduce the subject. And it may be noted in +passing that Gibbon's attention to geography, and his skill and taste +for geographical description, are remarkable among his many gifts. He +was as diligent a student of maps and travels as of historical +records, and seems to have had a rare faculty of realising in +imagination scenes and countries of which he had only read. In three +chapters, glowing with oriental colour and rapid as a charge of Arab +horse, he tells the story of the prophet and the Saracen empire. Then +the Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Russians appear on the scene, to be +soon followed by the Normans, and their short but brilliant dominion +in Southern Italy. But now the Seljukian Turks are emerging from the +depths of Asia, taking the place of the degenerate Saracens, invading +the Eastern empire and conquering Jerusalem. The two waves of hostile +fanaticism soon meet in the Crusades. The piratical seizure of +Constantinople by the Latins brings in view the French and Venetians, +the family of Courtenay and its pleasant digression. Then comes the +slow agony of the restored Greek empire. Threatened by the Moguls, it +is invaded and dismembered by the Ottoman Turks. Constantinople seems +ready to fall into their hands. But the timely diversion of Tamerlane +produces a respite of half a century. Nothing can be more artistic +than Gibbon's management of his subject as he approaches its +termination. He, who is such a master of swift narrative, at this +point introduces artful pauses, _suspensions_ of the final +catastrophe, which heighten our interest in the fate which is hanging +over the city of Constantine. In 1425 the victorious Turks have +conquered all the Greek empire save the capital. Amurath II. besieged +it for two months, and was only prevented from taking it by a domestic +revolt in Asia Minor. At the end of his sixty-fifth chapter Gibbon +leaves Constantinople hanging on the brink of destruction, and paints +in glowing colours the military virtues of its deadly enemies, the +Ottomans. Then he interposes one of his most finished chapters, of +miscellaneous contents, but terminating in the grand and impressive +pages on the revival of learning in Italy. There we read of the +"curiosity and emulation of the Latins," of the zeal of Petrarch and +the success of Boccace in Greek studies, of Leontius, Pilatus, +Bessarion, and Lascaris. A glow of sober enthusiasm warms the great +scholar as he paints the early light of that happy dawn. He admits +that the "arms of the Turks pressed the flight of the Muses" from +Greece to Italy. But he "trembles at the thought that Greece might +have been overwhelmed with her schools and libraries, before Europe +had emerged from the deluge of barbarism, and that the seeds of +science might have been scattered on the winds, before the Italian +soil was prepared for their cultivation." In one of the most perfect +sentences to be found in English prose he thus describes the Greek +tongue: "In their lowest depths of servitude and depression, the +subjects of the Byzantine throne were still possessed of a golden key +that could unlock the treasures of antiquity, of a musical and +prolific language that gives a soul to the objects of sense and a body +to the abstractions of philosophy." Meanwhile we are made to feel that +the subjects of the Byzantine throne, with their musical speech, that +Constantinople with her libraries and schools, will all soon fall a +prey to the ravening and barbarous Turk. This brightening light of the +Western sky contending with the baleful gloom which is settling down +over the East, is one of the most happy contrasts in historical +literature. Then comes the end, the preparations and skill of the +savage invader, the futile but heroic defence, the overwhelming ruin +which struck down the Cross and erected the Crescent over the city of +Constantine the Great. + +It is one of the many proofs of Gibbon's artistic instinct that he did +not end with this great catastrophe. On the contrary, he adds three +more chapters. His fine tact warned him that the tumult and thunder of +the final ruin must not be the last sounds to strike the ear. A +resolution of the discord was needed; a soft chorale should follow the +din and lead to a mellow _adagio_ close. And this he does with supreme +skill. With ill-suppressed disgust, he turns from New to Old Home. +"Constantinople no longer appertains to the Roman historian--nor shall +I enumerate the civil and religious edifices that were profaned or +erected by its Turkish masters." Amid the decayed temples and +mutilated beauty of the Eternal City, he moves down to a melodious and +pathetic conclusion--piously visits the remaining fragments of ancient +splendour and art, deplores and describes the ravages wrought by time, +and still more by man, and recurring once again to the scene of his +first inspiration, bids farewell to the Roman empire among the ruins +of the Capitol. + +We have hitherto spoken in terms of warm, though perhaps not excessive +eulogy of this great work. But praise would lack the force of +moderation and equipoise, if allusion were not made to some of its +defects. The pervading defect of it all has been already referred to +in a preceding chapter--an inadequate conception of society as an +organism, living and growing, like other organisms, according to +special laws of its own. In these brilliant volumes on the Middle +Ages, the special problems which that period suggests are not stated, +far less solved; they are not even suspected. The feudal polity, the +Catholic Church, the theocratic supremacy of the Popes, considered as +institutions which the historian is called upon to estimate and judge; +the gradual dissolution of both feudalism and Catholicism, brought +about by the spread of industry in the temporal order and of science +in the spiritual order, are not even referred to. Many more topics +might be added to this list of weighty omissions. It would be needless +to say that no blame attaches to Gibbon for neglecting views of +history which had not emerged in his time, if there were not persons +who, forgetting the slow progress of knowledge, are apt to ascribe the +defects of a book to incompetence in its author. If Gibbon's +conception of the Middle Ages seems to us inadequate now, it is +because since his time our conceptions of society in that and in all +periods have been much enlarged. We may be quite certain that if +Gibbon had had our experience, no one would have seen the +imperfections of particular sides of his work as we now have it more +clearly than he. + +Laying aside, therefore, reflexions of this kind as irrelevant and +unjust, we may ask whether there are any other faults which may fairly +be found with him. One must admit that there are. After all, they are +not very important. + +(1.) Striking as is his account of Justinian's reign, it has two +blemishes. First, the offensive details about the vices of Theodora. +Granting them to be well authenticated, which they are not, it was +quite unworthy of the author and his subject to soil his pages with +such a _chronique scandaleuse_. The defence which he sets up in his +Memoirs, that he is "justified in painting the manners of the times, +and that the vices of Theodora form an essential feature in the reign +and character of Justinian," cannot be admitted. First, we are not +sure that the vices existed, and were not the impure inventions of a +malignant calumniator. Secondly, Gibbon is far from painting the +manners of the time as a moralist or an historian; he paints them with +a zest for pruriency worthy of Bayle or Brantome. It was an occasion +for a wise scepticism to register grave doubts as to the infamous +stories of Procopius. A rehabilitation of Theodora is not a theme +calculated to provoke enthusiasm, and is impossible besides from the +entire want of adequate evidence. But a thoughtful writer would not +have lost his time, if he referred to the subject at all, in pointing +out the moral improbability of the current accounts. He might have +dwelt on the _unsupported_ testimony of the only witness, the +unscrupulous Procopius, whom Gibbon himself convicts on another +subject of flagrant mendacity. But he would have been especially slow +to believe that a woman who had led the life of incredible profligacy +he has described, would, in consequence of "some vision either of +sleep or fancy," in which future exaltation was promised to her, +assume "like a skilful actress, a more decent character, relieve her +poverty by the laudable industry of spinning wool, and affect a life +of chastity and solitude in a small house, which she afterwards +changed into a magnificent temple." Magdalens have been converted, no +doubt, from immoral living, but not by considerations of astute +prudence suggested by day-dreams of imperial greatness. Gibbon might +have thought of the case of Madame de Maintenon, and how her +reputation fared in the hands of the vindictive courtiers of +Versailles; how a woman, cold as ice and pure as snow, was freely +charged with the most abhorrent vices without an atom of foundation. +But the truth probably is that he never thought of the subject +seriously at all, and that, yielding to a regrettable inclination, he +copied his licentious Greek notes with little reluctance. + +(2.) The character of Belisarius, enigmatical enough in itself, is +made by him more enigmatical still. He concludes the forty-first +chapter, in which the great deeds of the conqueror of Italy and +Africa, and the ingratitude with which Justinian rewarded his +services, are set forth in strong contrast, with the inept remark that +"Belisarius appears to be either below or above the character of a +MAN." The grounds of the apparent meekness with which Belisarius +supported his repeated disgraces cannot now be ascertained: but the +motives of Justinian's conduct are not so difficult to find. As Finlay +points out in his thoughtful history of Greece, Belisarius must have +been a peculator on a large and dangerous scale. "Though he refused +the Gothic throne and the empire of the West, he did not despise nor +neglect wealth: he accumulated riches which could not have been +acquired by any commander-in-chief amidst the wars and famines of the +period, without rendering the military and civil administration +subservient to his pecuniary profit. On his return from Italy he lived +at Constantinople in almost regal splendour, and maintained a body of +7,000 cavalry attached to his household. In an empire where +confiscation was an ordinary financial resource, and under a sovereign +whose situation rendered jealousy only common prudence, it is not +surprising that the wealth of Belisarius excited the imperial +cupidity, and induced Justinian to seize great part of it" (_Greece +under the Romans_, chap. 3). There is shrewd insight in this, and +though we may regret that we cannot attain to more, it is better than +leaving the subject with an unmeaning paradox. + +It may be said generally that Gibbon has not done justice to the +services rendered to Europe by the Byzantine empire. In his crowded +forty-eighth chapter, which is devoted to the subject, he passes over +events and characters with such speed that his history in this part +becomes little more than a chronicle, vivid indeed, but barren of +thoughtful political views. His account of the Isaurian period may be +instanced among others as an example of defective treatment. If we +turn to the judicious Finlay, we see what an immense but generally +unacknowledged debt Europe owes to the Greek empire. The saving of +Christendom from Mohammedan conquest is too easily attributed to the +genius of Charles Martel and his brave Franks. The victory at Tours +was important no doubt, but almost a century previously the followers +of the prophet had been checked by Heraclius; and their memorable +repulse before Constantinople under the Isaurian Leo was the real +barrier opposed to their conquest of the West. It requires but little +reflection to see that without this brave resistance to the Moslem +invasion, the course of medićval history would have been completely +changed. Next in time, but hardly second in value to the services of +the Greeks at Marathon and Salamis, must be reckoned the services of +the Byzantine emperors in repelling the barbarians. Such an important +consideration as this should hardly have escaped Gibbon. + +Gibbon's account of Charlemagne is strangely inadequate. It is perhaps +the only instance in his work where he has failed to appreciate a +truly great man, and the failure is the more deplorable as it concerns +one of the greatest men who have ever lived. He did not realise the +greatness of the man, of his age, or of his work. Properly +considered, the eighth century is the most important and memorable +which Europe has ever seen. During its course the geographical limits, +the ecclesiastical polity, and the feudal system within and under +which our western group of nations was destined to live for five or +six centuries, were provisionally settled and determined. The +wonderful house of the Carolings, which produced no less than five +successive rulers of genius (of whom two had extraordinary genius, +Charles Martel and Charlemagne), were the human instruments of this +great work. The Frankish Monarchy was hastening to ruin when they +saved it. Saxons in the East and Saracens in the South were on the +point of extinguishing the few surviving embers of civilisation which +still existed. The Bishop of Rome was ready to fall a prey to the +Lombards, and the progressive papacy of Hildebrand and Innocent ran +imminent risk of being extirpated at its root. Charles and his +ancestors prevented these evils. Of course it is open to any one to +say that there were no evils threatening, that Mohammedanism is as +good as Christianity, that the Papacy was a monstrous calamity, that +to have allowed Eastern Germany to remain pagan and barbarous would +have done no harm. The question cannot be discussed here. But every +law of historic equity compels us to admit that whether the result was +good or bad, the genius of men who could leave such lasting +impressions on the world as the Carolings did, must have been +exceptionally great. And this is what Gibbon has not seen; he has not +seen that, whether their work was good or bad in the issue, it was +colossal. His tone in reference to Charlemagne is unworthy to a +degree. "Without injustice to his fame, I may discern some blemishes +in the sanctity and greatness of the restorer of the Western Empire. +Of his moral virtues, chastity was not the most conspicuous." This +from the pen of Gibbon seems hardly serious. Again: "I touch with +reverence the laws of Charlemagne, so highly applauded by a +respectable judge. They compose not a system, but a series of +occasional and minute edicts, for the correction of abuses, the +reformation of manners, the economy of his farms, the care of his +poultry, and even the sale of his eggs." And yet Gibbon had read the +Capitularies. The struggle and care of the hero to master in some +degree the wide welter of barbarism surging around him, he never +recognised. It is a spot on Gibbon's fame. + +Dean Milman considers that Gibbon's account of the Crusades is the +least accurate and satisfactory chapter in his history, and "that he +has here failed in that lucid arrangement which in general gives +perspicuity to his most condensed and crowded narratives." This blame +seems to be fully merited, if restricted to the second of the two +chapters which Gibbon has devoted to the Crusades. The fifty-eighth +chapter, in which he treats of the First Crusade, leaves nothing to be +desired. It is not one of his best chapters, though it is quite up to +his usually high level. But the fifty-ninth chapter, it must be owned, +is not only weak, but what is unexampled elsewhere in him, confused +and badly written. It is not, as in the case of Charlemagne, a +question of imperfect appreciation of a great man or epoch; it is a +matter of careless and slovenly presentation of a period which he had +evidently mastered with his habitual thoroughness, but, owing to the +rapidity with which he composed his last volume, he did not do full +justice to it. He says significantly in his Memoirs, that "he wished +that a pause, an interval, had been allowed for a serious revisal" of +the last three volumes, and there can be little doubt that this +chapter was one of the sources of his regrets. It is in fact a mere +tangle. The Second and the Third Crusades are so jumbled together, +that it is only a reader who knows the subject very well who can find +his way through the labyrinth. Gibbon seems at this point, a thing +very unusual with him, to have become impatient with his subject, and +to have wished to hurry over it. "A brief parallel," he says, "may +save the repetition of a tedious narrative." The result of this +expeditious method has been far from happy. It is the only occasion +where Gibbon has failed in his usual high finish and admirable +literary form. + +Gibbon's style was at one period somewhat of a party question. Good +Christians felt a scruple in discerning any merits in the style of a +writer who had treated the martyrs of the early Church with so little +ceremony and generosity. On the other hand, those whose opinions +approached more or less to his, expatiated on the splendour and +majesty of his diction. Archbishop Whately went out of his way in a +note to his _Logic_ to make a keen thrust at an author whom it was +well to depreciate whenever occasion served. "His way of writing," he +says, "reminds one of those persons who never dare look you full in +the face." Such criticisms are out of date now. The faults of Gibbon's +style are obvious enough, and its compensatory merits are not far to +seek. No one can overlook its frequent tumidity and constant want of +terseness. It lacks suppleness, ease, variety. It is not often +distinguished by happy selection of epithet, and seems to ignore all +delicacy of _nuance_. A prevailing grandiloquence, which easily slides +into pomposity, is its greatest blemish. The acute Porson saw this and +expressed it admirably. In the preface to his letters to Archdeacon +Travis, he says of Gibbon, "Though his style is in general correct and +elegant, he sometimes 'draws out the thread of his verbosity finer +than the staple of his argument.' In endeavouring to avoid vulgar +terms he too frequently dignifies trifles, and clothes common thoughts +in a splendid dress that would be rich enough for the noblest ideas. +In short we are too often reminded of that great man, Mr. Prig, the +auctioneer, whose manner was so inimitably fine that he had as much to +say on a ribbon as on a Raphael." It seems as if Gibbon had taken the +stilted tone of the old French tragedy for his model, rather than the +crisp and nervous prose of the best French writers. We are constantly +offended by a superfine diction lavished on barbarous chiefs and rough +soldiers of the Lower Empire, which almost reproduces the high-flown +rhetoric in which Corneille's and Racine's characters address each +other. Such phrases as the "majesty of the throne," "the dignity of +the purple," the "wisdom of the senate," recur with a rather jarring +monotony, especially when the rest of the narrative is designed to +show that there was no majesty nor dignity nor wisdom involved in the +matter. We feel that the writer was thinking more of his sonorous +sentence than of the real fact. On the other hand, nothing but a want +of candour or taste can lead any one to overlook the rare and great +excellences of Gibbon's style. First of all, it is singularly correct: +a rather common merit now, but not common in his day. But its +sustained vigour and loftiness will always be uncommon; above all its +rapidity and masculine length of stride are quite admirable. When he +takes up his pen to describe a campaign, or any great historic scene, +we feel that we shall have something worthy of the occasion, that we +shall be carried swiftly and grandly through it all, without the +suspicion of a breakdown of any kind being possible. An indefinable +stamp of weightiness is impressed on Gibbon's writing; he has a +baritone manliness which banishes everything small, trivial, or weak. +When he is eloquent (and it should be remembered to his credit that he +never affects eloquence, though he occasionally affects dignity), he +rises without effort into real grandeur. On the whole we may say that +his manner, with certain manifest faults, is not unworthy of his +matter, and the praise is great. + +It is not quite easy to give expression to another feeling which is +often excited in reading Gibbon. It is somewhat of this kind, that it +is more fitted to inspire admiration than love or sympathy. Its merits +are so great, the mass of information it contains is so stupendous, +that all competent judges of such work feel bound to praise it. +Whether they like it in the same degree, may be questioned. Among +reading men and educated persons it is not common--such is my +experience--to meet with people who know their Gibbon well. Superior +women do not seem to take to him kindly, even when there is no +impediment on religious grounds. Madame du Deffand, writing to +Walpole, says, "I whisper it to you, but I am not pleased with Mr. +Gibbon's work. It is declamatory, oratorical.... I lay it aside +without regret, and it requires an effort to take it up again." +Another of Walpole's correspondents, the Countess of Ossory, seems to +have made similar strictures. If we admit that women are less capable +than masculine scholars of doing justice to the strong side of Gibbon, +we may also acknowledge that they are better fitted than men to +appreciate and to be shocked by his defective side, which is a +prevailing want of moral elevation and nobility of sentiment. His +cheek rarely flushes in enthusiasm for a good cause. The tragedy of +human life never seems to touch him, no glimpse of the infinite ever +calms and raises the reader of his pages. Like nearly all the men of +his day, he was of the earth earthy, and it is impossible to get over +the fact. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +LAST ILLNESS.--DEATH.--CONCLUSION. + + +Gibbon had now only about six months to live. He did not seem to have +suffered by his rapid journey from Lausanne to London. During the +summer which he spent with his friend Lord Sheffield, he was much as +usual; only his friend noticed that his habitual dislike to motion +appeared to increase, and he was so incapable of exercise that he was +confined to the library and dining-room. "Then he joined Mr. F. North +in pleasant arguments against exercise in general. He ridiculed the +unsettled and restless disposition that summer, the most uncomfortable +of all seasons, as he said, generally gives to those who have the use +of their limbs." The true disciples of Epicurus are not always the +least stout and stoical in the presence of irreparable evils. + +After spending three or four months at Sheffield Place, he went to +Bath to visit his step-mother, Mrs. Gibbon. His conduct to her through +life was highly honourable to him. It should be remembered that her +jointure, paid out of his father's decayed estate, was a great tax on +his small income. In his efforts to improve his position by selling +his landed property, Mrs. Gibbon seems to have been at times somewhat +difficult to satisfy as regards the security of her interests. It was +only prudent on her part. But it is easy to see what a source of +alienation and quarrel was here ready prepared, if both parties had +not risen superior to sordid motives. There never seems to have been +the smallest cloud between them. When one of his properties was sold +he writes: "Mrs. Gibbon's jointure is secured on the Buriton estate, +and her legal consent is requisite for the sale. Again and again I +must repeat my hope that she is perfectly satisfied, and that the +close of her life may not be embittered by suspicion, fear, or +discontent. What new security does she prefer--the funds, a mortgage, +or your land? At all events, she must be made easy." So Gibbon left +town and lay at Reading on his road to Bath: here he passed about ten +days with his step-mother, who was now nearly eighty years of age. "In +mind and conversation she is just the same as twenty years ago," he +writes to Lord Sheffield; "she has spirits, appetite, legs, and eyes, +and talks of living till ninety. I can say from my heart, Amen." And +in another letter, a few days later, he says: "A _tęte-ŕ-tęte_ of +eight or nine hours every day is rather difficult to support; yet I do +assure you that our conversation flows with more ease and spirit when +we are alone, than when any auxiliaries are summoned to our aid. She +is indeed a wonderful woman, and I think all her faculties of the mind +stronger and more active than I have ever known them.... I shall +therefore depart next Friday, but I may possibly reckon without my +host, as I have not yet apprised Mrs. G. of the term of my visit, and +will certainly not quarrel with her for a short delay." He then went +to Althorpe, and it is the last evidence of his touching a +book--"exhausted the morning (of the 5th November) among the first +editions of Cicero." Then he came to London, and in a few days was +seized with the illness which in a little more than two months put an +end to his life. + +His malady was dropsy, complicated with other disorders. He had most +strangely neglected a very dangerous symptom for upwards of thirty +years, not only having failed to take medical advice about it, but +even avoiding all allusion to it to bosom friends like Lord Sheffield. +But longer concealment was now impossible. He sent for the eminent +surgeon Farquhar (the same who afterwards attended William Pitt), and +he, together with Cline, at once recognised the case as one of the +utmost gravity, though they did not say as much to the patient. On +Thursday, the 14th of November, he was tapped and greatly relieved. He +said he was not appalled by the operation, and during its progress he +did not lay aside his usual good-humoured pleasantry. He was soon out +again, but only for a few days, and a fortnight after another tapping +was necessary. Again he went out to dinners and parties, which must +have been most imprudent at his age and in his state. But he does not +seem to have acted contrary to medical advice. He was very anxious to +meet the prime minister, William Pitt, with whom he was not +acquainted, though he must have seen him in old days in the House. He +saw him twice; once at Eden Farm for a whole day, and was much +gratified, we are told. At last he got to what he called his home--the +house of his true and devoted friend, Lord Sheffield. "But," says the +latter, whose narrative of his friend's last illness is marked by a +deep and reserved tenderness that does him much honour, "this last +visit to Sheffield Place became far different from any he had ever +made before. That ready, cheerful, various and illuminating +conversation which we had before admired in him, was not always to be +found in the library or the drawing-room. He moved with difficulty, +and retired from company sooner than he had been used to do. On the +23rd of December his appetite began to fail him. He observed to me +that it was a very bad sign _with him_ when he could not eat his +breakfast, which he had done at all times very heartily; and this +seems to have been the strongest expression of apprehension that he +was ever observed to utter." He soon became too ill to remain beyond +the reach of the highest medical advice. On the 7th of January, 1794, +he left a houseful of company and friends for his lodgings in St. +James's Street. On arriving he sent the following note to Lord +Sheffield, the last lines he ever wrote:-- + + "ST. JAMES'S, FOUR O'CLOCK, TUESDAY. + + "This date says everything. I was almost killed between + Sheffield Place and East Grinstead by hard, frozen, long, and + cross ruts, that would disgrace the approach of an Indian + wigwam. The rest was somewhat less painful, and I reached + this place half dead, but not seriously feverish or ill. I + found a dinner invitation from Lord Lucan; but what are + dinners to me? I wish they did not know of my departure. I + catch the flying post. What an effort! Adieu till Thursday or + Friday." + +The end was not far off. On the 13th of January he underwent another +operation, and, as usual, experienced much relief. "His spirits +continued good. He talked of passing his time at houses which he had +often frequented with great pleasure--the Duke of Devonshire's, Mr. +Craufurd's, Lord Spencer's, Lord Lucan's, Sir Ralph Payne's, Mr. +Batt's." On the 14th of January "he saw some company--Lady Lucan and +Lady Spencer--and thought himself well enough to omit the opium +draught which he had been used to take for some time. He slept very +indifferently; before nine the next morning he rose, but could not eat +his breakfast. However, he appeared tolerably well, yet complained at +times of a pain in his stomach. At one o'clock he received a visit of +an hour from Madame de Sylva; and at three, his friend, Mr. Craufurd, +of Auchinames (whom he always mentioned with particular regard), +called, and stayed with him till past five o'clock. They talked, as +usual, on various subjects; and twenty hours before his death Mr. +Gibbon happened to fall into a conversation not uncommon with him, on +the probable duration of his life. He said that he thought himself a +good life for ten, twelve, or perhaps twenty years. About six he ate +the wing of a chicken and drank three glasses of Madeira. After dinner +he became very uneasy and impatient, complained a good deal, and +appeared so weak that his servant was alarmed. + +"During the evening he complained much of his stomach, and of a +feeling of nausea. Soon after nine, he took his opium draught and went +to bed. About ten he complained of much pain, and desired that warm +napkins might be applied to his stomach. He almost incessantly +expressed a sense of pain till about four o'clock in the morning, when +he said he found his stomach much easier. About seven the servant +asked whether he should send for Mr. Farquhar. He answered, No; that +he was as well as the day before. At about half-past eight he got out +of bed, and said he was 'plus adroit' than he had been for three +months past, and got into bed again without assistance, better than +usual. About nine he said he would rise. The servant, however, +persuaded him to remain in bed till Mr. Farquhar, who was expected at +eleven, should come. Till about that hour he spoke with great +facility. Mr. Farquhar came at the time appointed, and he was then +visibly dying. When the _valet-de-chambre_ returned, after attending +Mr. Farquhar out of the room, Mr. Gibbon said, 'Pourquoi est ce que +vous me quittez?' This was about half-past eleven. At twelve he drank +some brandy and water from a teapot, and desired his favourite servant +to stay with him. These were the last words he pronounced +articulately. To the last he preserved his senses; and when he could +no longer speak, his servant having asked a question, he made a sign +to show that he understood him. He was quite tranquil, and did not +stir, his eyes half shut. About a quarter before one he ceased to +breathe." He wanted just eighty-three days of fifty-seven years of +age. + +Thus, in consequence of his own strange self-neglect and imprudence, +was extinguished one of the most richly-stored minds that ever lived. +Occurring when it did, so near the last summons, Gibbon's prospective +hope of continued life "for ten, twelve, or twenty years" is harshly +pathetic, and full of that irony which mocks the vain cares of men. +But, truly, his forecast was not irrational if he had not neglected +ordinary precautions. In spite of his ailments he felt full, and was +full, of life, when he was cut off. We cannot be sure if lengthened +days would have added much to his work already achieved. There is +hardly a parallel case in literature of the great powers of a whole +life being so concentrated on one supreme and magnificent effort. Yet, +if he had lived to 1804, or as an extreme limit, to 1814, we should +have been all gainers. In the first place, he certainly would have +finished his admirable autobiography. We cannot imagine what he would +have made of it, judging from the fragment which exists. And yet that +fragment is almost a masterpiece. But his fertile mind had other +schemes in prospect; and what such a diligent worker would have done +with a decade or two more of years it is impossible to say, except +that it is certain they would not have been wasted. The extinction of +a real mind is ever an irreparable loss. + +As it was, he went to his rest after one of the greatest victories +ever achieved in his own field of humane letters, and lived long +enough to taste the fruits of his toil. He was never puffed up, but +soberly and without arrogance received his laurels. His unselfish zeal +and haste to console his bereaved friend showed him warm and loving to +the last; and we may say that his last serious effort was consecrated +to the genius of pious friendship. + +In 1796, two years after Gibbon's death, Lord Sheffield published two +quarto volumes of the historian's miscellaneous works. They have been +republished in one thick octavo, and many persons suppose that it +contains the whole of the posthumous works; not unnaturally, as a +fraudulent statement on the title-page, "complete in one volume," is +well calculated to produce that impression. But in 1814 Lord Sheffield +issued a second edition in five volumes octavo, containing much +additional matter, which additional matter was again published in a +quarto form, no doubt for the convenience of the purchasers of the +original quarto edition. + +Of the posthumous works, the Memoirs are by far the most important +portion. Unfortunately, they were left in a most unfinished state, and +what we now read is nothing else than a mosaic put together by Lord +Sheffield from _six_ different sketches. Next to the Memoirs are the +journals and diaries of his studies. As a picture of Gibbon's method, +zeal, and thoroughness in the pursuit of knowledge, they are of the +highest interest. But they refer to an early period of his studies, +long previous to the concentration of his mind on his great work, and +one would like to know whether they present the best selection that +might have been made from these records. It is interesting to follow +Gibbon in his perusal of Homer and Juvenal at five-and-twenty. But one +would much like to be admitted to his study when he was a far riper +scholar, and preparing for or writing the _Decline and Fall_. Lord +Sheffield positively prohibited, by a clause in his will, any further +publication of the Gibbon papers, and although Dean Milman was +permitted to see them, it was with the express understanding that none +of their contents should be divulged. After the Memoirs and the +journals, the most interesting portion of the miscellaneous works are +_The Antiquities of the House of Brunswick_, which in their present +form are merely the preparatory sketch of a large work. It is too +imperfect to allow us to judge of what Gibbon even designed to make of +it. But it contains some masterly pages, and the style in many places +seems more nervous and supple than that of the _Decline and Fall._ + +For instance, this account of Albert Azo the Second:-- + + "Like one of his Tuscan ancestors Azo the Second was + distinguished among the princes of Italy by the epithet of + the _Rich_. The particulars of his rentroll cannot now be + ascertained. An occasional though authentic deed of + investiture enumerates eighty-three fiefs or manors which he + held of the empire in Lombardy and Tuscany, from the + Marquisate of Este to the county of Luni; but to these + possessions must be added the lands which he enjoyed as the + vassal of the Church, the ancient patrimony of Otbert (the + terra Obertenga) in the counties of Arezzo, Pisa, and Lucca, + and the marriage portion of his first wife, which, according + to the various readings of the manuscripts, may be computed + either at twenty or two hundred thousand English acres. If + such a mass of landed property were now accumulated on the + head of an Italian nobleman, the annual revenue might + satisfy the largest demands of private luxury or avarice, + and the fortunate owner would be rich in the improvement of + agriculture, the manufactures of industry, the refinement of + taste, and the extent of commerce. But the barbarism of the + eleventh century diminished the income and aggravated the + expense of the Marquis of Este. In a long series of war and + anarchy, man and the works of man had been swept away, and + the introduction of each ferocious and idle stranger had + been overbalanced by the loss of five or six perhaps of the + peaceful industrious natives. The mischievous growth of + vegetation, the frequent inundations of the rivers were no + longer checked by the vigilance of labour; the face of the + country was again covered with forests and morasses; of the + vast domains which acknowledged Azo for their lord, the far + greater part was abandoned to the beasts of the field, and a + much smaller portion was reduced to the state of constant + and productive husbandry. An adequate rent may be obtained + from the skill and substance of a free tenant who fertilizes + a grateful soil, and enjoys the security and benefit of a + long lease. But faint is the hope and scanty is the produce + of those harvests which are raised by the reluctant toil of + peasants and slaves condemned to a bare subsistance and + careless of the interests of a rapacious master. If his + granaries are full, his purse is empty, and the want of + cities or commerce, the difficulty of finding or reaching a + market, obliges him to consume on the spot a part of his + useless stock, which cannot be exchanged for merchandise or + money.... The entertainment of his vassals and soldiers, + their pay and rewards, their arms and horses, surpassed the + measure of the most oppressive tribute, and the destruction + which he inflicted on his neighbours was often retaliated on + his own lands. The costly elegance of palaces and gardens + was superseded by the laborious and expensive construction + of strong castles on the summits of the most inaccessible + rocks, and some of these, like the fortress of Canossa in + the Apennine, were built and provided to sustain a three + years' siege against a royal army. But his defence in this + world was less burdensome to a wealthy lord than his + salvation in the next; the demands of his chapel, his + priests, his alms, his offerings, his pilgrimages were + incessantly renewed; the monastery chosen for his sepulchre + was endowed with his fairest possessions, and the naked heir + might often complain that his father's sins had been + redeemed at too high a price. The Marquis Azo was not exempt + from the contagion of the times; his devotion was animated + and inflamed by the frequent miracles that were performed in + his presence; and the monks of Vangadizza, who yielded to + his request the arm of a dead saint, were not ignorant of + the value of that inestimable jewel. After satisfying the + demands of war and superstition he might appropriate the + rest of his revenue to use and pleasure. But the Italians of + the eleventh century were imperfectly skilled in the liberal + and mechanical arts; the objects of foreign luxury were + furnished at an exorbitant price by the merchants of Pisa + and Venice; and the superfluous wealth which could not + purchase the real comforts of life, were idly wasted on some + rare occasions of vanity and pomp. Such were the nuptials of + Boniface, Duke or Marquis of Tuscany, whose family was long + after united with that of Azo by the marriage of their + children. These nuptials were celebrated on the banks of the + Mincius, which the fancy of Virgil has decorated with a more + beautiful picture. The princes and people of Italy were + invited to the feasts, which continued three months; the + fertile meadows, which are intersected by the slow and + winding course of the river, were covered with innumerable + tents, and the bridegroom displayed and diversified the + scenes of his proud and tasteless magnificence. All the + utensils of the service were of silver, and his horses were + shod with plates of the same metal, loosely nailed and + carelessly dropped, to indicate his contempt of riches. An + image of plenty and profusion was expressed in the banquet; + the most delicious wines were drawn in buckets from the + well; and the spices of the East were ground in water-mills + like common flour. The dramatic and musical arts were in the + rudest state; but the Marquis had summoned the most popular + singers, harpers, and buffoons to exercise their talents in + this splendid theatre. After this festival I might remark a + singular gift of this same Boniface to the Emperor Henry + III., a chariot and oxen of solid silver, which were + designed only as a vehicle for a hogshead of vinegar. If + such an example should seem above the imitation of Azo + himself, the Marquis of Este was at least superior in wealth + and dignity to the vassals of his compeer. One of these + vassals, the Viscount of Mantua, presented the German + monarch with one hundred falcons and one hundred bay horses, + a grateful contribution to the pleasures of a royal + sportsman. In that age the proud distinction between the + nobles and princes of Italy was guarded with jealous + ceremony. The Viscount of Mantua had never been seated at + the table of his immediate lord; he yielded to the + invitation of the Emperor; and a stag's skin filled with + pieces of gold was graciously accepted by the Marquis of + Tuscany as the fine of his presumption. + + "The temporal felicity of Azo was crowned by the long + possession of honour and riches; he died in the year 1097, + aged upwards of an hundred years; and the term of his mortal + existence was almost commensurate with the lapse of the + eleventh century. The character as well as the situation of + the Marquis of Este rendered him an actor in the revolutions + of that memorable period; but time has cast a veil over the + virtues and vices of the man, and I must be content to mark + some of the eras, the milestones of his which measure the + extent and intervals of the vacant way. Albert Azo the + Second was no more than seventeen when he first drew the + sword of rebellion and patriotism, when he was involved with + his grandfather, his father, and his three uncles in a + common proscription. In the vigour of his manhood, about his + fiftieth year, the Ligurian Marquis governed the cities of + Milan and Genoa as the minister of Imperial authority. He + was upwards of seventy when he passed the Alps to vindicate + the inheritance of Maine for the children of his second + marriage. He became the friend and servant of Gregory VII., + and in one of his epistles that ambitious pontiff recommends + the Marquis Azo, as the most faithful and best beloved of + the Italian princes, as the proper channel through which a + king of Hungary might convey his petitions to the apostolic + throne. In the mighty contest between the crown and the + mitre, the Marquis Azo and the Countess Matilda led the + powers of Italy. And when the standard of St. Peter was + displayed, neither the age of the one nor the sex of the + other could detain them from the field. With these two + affectionate clients the Pope maintained his station in the + fortress of Canossa, while the Emperor, barefoot on the + frozen ground, fasted and prayed three days at the foot of + the rock; they were witnesses to the abject ceremony of the + penance and pardon of Henry IV.; and in the triumph of the + Church a patriot might foresee the deliverance of Italy from + the German yoke. At the time of this event the Marquis of + Este was above fourscore; but in the twenty following years + he was still alive and active amidst the revolutions of + peace and war. The last act which he subscribed is dated + above a century after his birth; and in that the venerable + chief possesses the command of his faculties, his family, + and his fortune. In this rare prerogative the longevity of + Albert Azo the Second stands alone. Nor can I remember in + the _authentic_ annals of mortality a single example of a + king or prince, of a statesman or general, of a philosopher + or poet, whose life has been extended beyond the period of a + hundred years.... Three approximations which will not + hastily be matched have distinguished the present century, + Aurungzebe, Cardinal Fleury, and Fontenelle. Had a fortnight + more been given to the philosopher, he might have celebrated + his secular festival; but the lives and labours of the Mogul + king and the French minister were terminated before they had + accomplished their ninetieth year." + +Then follow several striking and graceful pages on Lucrezia Borgia and +Renée of France, Duchess of Ferrara. The following description of the +University of Padua and the literary tastes of the house of Este is +all that we can give here:-- + + "An university had been founded at Padua by the house of + Este, and the scholastic rust was polished away by the + revival of the literature of Greece and Rome. The studies of + Ferrara were directed by skilful and eloquent professors, + either natives or foreigners. The ducal library was filled + with a valuable collection of manuscripts and printed books, + and as soon as twelve new plays of Plautus had been found in + Germany, the Marquis Lionel of Este was impatient to obtain + a fair and faithful copy of that ancient poet. Nor were + these elegant pleasures confined to the learned world. Under + the reign of Hercules I. a wooden theatre at a moderate + cost of a thousand crowns was constructed in the largest + court of the palace, the scenery represented some houses, a + seaport and a ship, and the _Menechmi_ of Plautus, which had + been translated into Italian by the Duke himself, was acted + before a numerous and polite audience. In the same language + and with the same success the _Amphytrion_ of Plautus and + the _Eunuchus_ of Terence were successively exhibited. And + these classic models, which formed the taste of the + spectators, excited the emulation of the poets of the age. + For the use of the court and theatre of Ferrara, Ariosto + composed his comedies, which were often played with + applause, which are still read with pleasure. And such was + the enthusiasm of the new arts that one of the sons of + Alphonso the First did not disdain to speak a prologue on + the stage. In the legitimate forms of dramatic composition + the Italians have not excelled; but it was in the court of + Ferrara that they invented and refined the _pastoral + comedy_, a romantic Arcadia which violates the truth of + manners and the simplicity of nature, but which commands our + indulgence by the elaborate luxury of eloquence and wit. The + _Aminta_ of Tasso was written for the amusement and acted in + the presence of Alphonso the Second, and his sister Leonora + might apply to herself the language of a passion which + disordered the reason without clouding the genius of her + poetical lover. Of the numerous imitations, the _Pastor + Fido_ of Guarini, which alone can vie with the fame and + merit of the original, is the work of the Duke's secretary + of state. It was exhibited in a private house in Ferrara.... + The father of the Tuscan muses, the sublime but unequal + Dante, had pronounced that Ferrara was never honoured with + the name of a poet; he would have been astonished to behold + the chorus of bards, of melodious swans (their own + allusion), which now peopled the banks of the Po. In the + court of Duke Borso and his successor, Boyardo Count + Scandiano, was respected as a noble, a soldier, and a + scholar: his vigorous fancy first celebrated the loves and + exploits of the paladin Orlando; and his fame has been + preserved and eclipsed by the brighter glories and + continuation of his work. Ferrara may boast that on classic + ground Ariosto and Tasso lived and sung; that the lines of + the _Orlando Furioso_, the _Gierusalemme Liberata_ were + inscribed in everlasting characters under the eye of the + First and Second Alphonso. In a period of near three + thousand years, five great epic poets have arisen in the + world, and it is a singular prerogative that two of the five + should be claimed as their own by a short age and a petty + state." + +It perhaps will be admitted that if the style of these passages is +less elaborate than that of the _Decline and Fall_, the deficiency, if +it is one, is compensated by greater ease and lightness of touch. + +It may be interesting to give a specimen of Gibbon's French style. His +command of that language was not inferior to his command of his native +idiom. One might even be inclined to say that his French prose is +controlled by a purer taste than his English prose. The following +excerpt, describing the Battle of Morgarten, will enable the reader to +judge. It is taken from his early unfinished work on the History of +the Swiss Republic, to which reference has already been made (p. +59):-- + + "Léopold était parti de Zug vers le milieu de la nuit. Il se + flattait d'occuper sans résistance le défilé de Morgarten + qui ne perçait qu'avec difficulté entre le lac Aegré et le + pied d'une montagne escarpée. Il marchait ŕ la tęte de sa + gendarmerie. Une colonne profonde d'infanterie le suivait de + prčs, et les uns et les autres se promettaient une victoire + facile si les paysans osaient se présenter ŕ leur rencontre. + Ils étaient ŕ peine entrés dans un chemin rude et étroit, et + qui ne permettait qu'ŕ trois ou quatre de marcher de front, + qu'ils se sentirent accablés d'une gręle de pierres et de + traits. Rodolphe de Reding, landamman de Schwitz et général + des Confédérés, n'avait oublié aucun des avantages que lui + offrit la situation des lieux. Il avait fait couper des + rochers énormes, qui en s'ébranlant dčs qu'on retirait les + faibles appuis qui les retenaient encore, se détachaient du + sommet de la montaigne et se précipitaient avec un bruit + affreux sur les bataillons serrés des Autrichiens. Déjŕ les + chevaux s'éffrayaient, les rangs se confondaient, et le + désordre égarait le courage et le rendait inutile, lorsque + les Suisses descendirent de la montagne en poussant de + grands cris. Accoutumés ŕ poursuivre le chamois sur les + bords glissants des précipices, ils couraient d'un pas + assuré au milieu des neiges. Ils étaient armés de grosses et + pesantes hallebardes, auxquelles le fer le mieux trempé ne + résistait point. Les soldats de Léopold chancelants et + découragés cédčrent bientôt aux efforts désespérés d'une + troupe qui combattait pour tout ce qu'il y a de plus cher + aux hommes. L'Abbé d'Einsidlen, premier auteur de cette + guerre malheureuse, et le comte Henri de Montfort, donnčrent + les premiers l'example de la fuite. Le désordre devint + général, le carnage fut affreux, et les Suisses se livraient + au plaisir de la vengeance. A neuf heures du matin la + bataille était gagnée.... Un grand nombre d'Autrichiens se + précipitant les uns sur les autres, cherchčrent vainement + dans le lac un asyle contre la fureur de leurs ennemis. Ils + y périrent presque tous. Quinze cents hommes restčrent sur + le champ de bataille. Ils étaient pour la plupart de la + gendarmerie, qu'une valeur malheureuse et une armure pesante + arrętaient dans un lieu oů l'un et l'autre leur étaient + inutiles. Longtemps aprčs l'on s'apercevait dans toutes les + provinces voisines que l'élite de la noblesse avait péri + dans cette fatale journée. L'infanterie beaucoup moins + engagée dans le défilé, vit en tremblant la défaite des + chevaliers qui passaient pour invincibles, et dont les + escadrons effrayés se renversaient sur elle. Elle s'arręta, + voulut se retirer, et dans l'instant cette retraite devint + une fuite honteuse. Sa perte fut assez peu considérable, + mais les historiens de la nation ont conservé la mémoire de + cinquante braves Zuriquois dont on trouva les rangs couchés + morts sur la place. Léopold lui-męme fut entrainé par la + foule qui le portait du côté de Zug. On le vit entrer dans + sa ville de Winterthur. La frayeur, la honte et + l'indignation étaient encore peintes sur son front. Dčs que + la victoire se fut déclarée en faveur des Suisses, ils + s'assemblčrent sur le champ de bataille, s'embrassčrent e + versant des larmes d'allégresse, et remercičrent Dieu de la + grace qu'il venait de leur faire, et qui ne leur avait coűté + que quatorze de leurs compagnons." + +His familiar letters and a number of essays, chiefly written in youth, +form the remainder of the miscellaneous works. Of the letters, some +have been quoted in this volume, and the reader can form his own +judgment of them. Of the small essays we may say that they augment, if +it is possible, one's notion of Gibbon's laborious diligence and +thoroughness in the field of historic research, and confirm his title +to the character of an intrepid student. + +The lives of scholars are proverbially dull, and that of Gibbon is +hardly an exception to the rule. In the case of historians, the +protracted silent labour of preparation, followed by the conscientious +exposition of knowledge acquired, into which the intrusion of the +writer's personality rarely appears to advantage, combine to give +prominence to the work achieved, and to throw into the background the +author who achieves it. If indeed the historian, forsaking his high +function and austere reserve, succumbs to the temptations that beset +his path, and turns history into political pamphlet, poetic rhapsody, +moral epigram, or garish melodrama, he may become conspicuous to a +fault at the expense of his work. Gibbon avoided these seductions. If +the _Decline and Fall_ has no superior in historical literature, it is +not solely in consequence of Gibbon's profound learning, wide survey, +and masterly grasp of his subject. With wise discretion, he +subordinated himself to his task. The life of Gibbon is the less +interesting, but his work remains monumental and supreme. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. + +EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY. + + +_These Short Books are addressed to the general public with a view +both to stirring and satisfying an interest in literature and its +great topics in the minds of those who have to run as they read. An +immense class is growing up, and must every year increase, whose +education will have made them alive to the importance of the masters +of our literature, and capable of intelligent curiosity as to their +performances. 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All the traits of the personality + which Boswell has immortalized are to be found here, as well + as luminous sketches of the literature of the period, and a + solid judgment of the work that Johnson did in the + world."--_Examiner_. + + "We could not wish for a more suggestive introduction to + Scott and his poems and novels."--_Examiner_. + + "The tone of the volume is excellent + throughout."--_Athenćum_ Review of "Scott." + + "As a clear, thoughtful, and attractive record of the life + and works of the greatest among the world's historians, it + deserves the highest praise."--_Examiner_ Review of + "Gibbon." + + + + +MACMILLAN'S GLOBE LIBRARY. + + +_Beautifully printed on toned paper and bound in cloth extra, gilt +edges, price 4s. 6d. each; in cloth plain, 3s. 6d. 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CHRISTIE, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, pp. +lxxxvii., 662. + + "_An admirable edition, the result of great research and of + a careful revision of the text_."--PALL MALL GAZETTE. + +Cowper's Poetical Works. Edited, with Notes and Biographical +Introduction, by WILLIAM BENHAM, Vicar of Margate, pp. lxxiii., 536. + + "_Mr. Benham's edition of Cowper is one of permanent + value_."--SATURDAY REVIEW. + +Morte d'Arthur.--SIR THOMAS MALORY'S BOOK OF KING ARTHUR AND OF HIS +NOBLE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. The original Edition of CAXTON, +revised for Modern Use. With an Introduction by Sir EDWARD STRACHEY, +Bart. pp. xxxvii., 509. + + "_It is with perfect confidence that we recommend this + edition of the old romance to every class of + readers_."--PALL MALL GAZETTE. + +The Works of Virgil. Rendered into English Prose, with Introductions, +Notes, Running Analysis, and an Index. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Gibbon</p> +<p>Author: James Cotter Morison</p> +<p>Release Date: July 17, 2006 [eBook #18851]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GIBBON***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Sankar Viswanathan,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h2>English Men of Letters</h2> + +<h3>EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY</h3> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + + +<h1>GIBBON</h1> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>BY</h3> +<p> </p> + +<h2>JAMES COTTER MORISON, M.A.</h2> + +<h4>LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD</h4> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/image_01.jpg" alt="Seal" width="200" height="69" /></p> + +<h4>London</h4> +<h3>MACMILLAN AND CO</h3> +<h3>1878</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr><td></td><td class="tocpg f1">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="center"> </td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center"><a href="#GIBBON">CHAPTER I.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr><td><a href="#GIBBON">GIBBON'S EARLY LIFE UP TO THE TIME OF HIS LEAVING OXFORD</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="center"> </td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_II">AT LAUSANNE</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="center"> </td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_III">IN THE MILITIA</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="center"> </td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">THE ITALIAN JOURNEY</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="center"> </td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_V">LITERARY SCHEMES.—THE HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND.—DISSERTATION ON THE SIXTH ÆNEID.—FATHER'S DEATH.—SETTLEMENT IN LONDON</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="center"> </td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">LIFE IN LONDON.—PARLIAMENT.—THE BOARD OF TRADE.—THE DECLINE AND FALL.—MIGRATION TO LAUSANNE</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="center"> </td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">THE FIRST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="center"> </td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">THE LAST TEN TEARS OF HIS LIFE AT LAUSANNE</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="center"> </td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">THE LAST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td colspan="2" class="center"> </td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" class="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_X">LAST ILLNESS.—DEATH.—CONCLUSION</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>GIBBON</h2> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="GIBBON" id="GIBBON"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> +<h3>GIBBON'S EARLY LIFE UP TO THE TIME OF HIS LEAVING OXFORD.</h3> +<p>Edward Gibbon<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> was born at Putney, near London, on 27th April in +the year 1737. After the reformation of the calendar his birthday +became the 8th of May. He was the eldest of a family of seven +children; but his five brothers and only sister all died in early +infancy, and he could remember in after life his sister alone, whom he +also regretted.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Gibbon's Memoirs and Letters are of such easy access that +I have not deemed it necessary to encumber these pages with references +to them. Any one who wishes to control my statements will have no +difficulty in doing so with the Miscellaneous Works, edited by Lord +Sheffield, in his hand. Whenever I advance anything that seems to +require corroboration, I have been careful to give my authority.</p></div></div> + +<p>He is at some pains in his Memoirs to show the length and quality of +his pedigree, which he traces back to the times of the Second and +Third Edwards. Noting the fact, we pass on to a nearer ancestor, his +grand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>father, who seems to have been a person of considerable energy +of character and business talent. He made a large fortune, which he +lost in the South-Sea Scheme, and then made another before his death. +He was one of the Commissioners of Customs, and sat at the Board with +the poet Prior; Bolingbroke was heard to declare that no man knew +better than Mr. Edward Gibbon the commerce and finances of England. +His son, the historian's father, was a person of very inferior stamp. +He was educated at Westminster and Cambridge, travelled on the +Continent, sat in Parliament, lived beyond his means as a country +gentleman, and here his achievements came to an end. He seems to have +been a kindly but a weak and impulsive man, who however had the merit +of obtaining and deserving his son's affection by genial sympathy and +kindly treatment.</p> + +<p>Gibbon's childhood was passed in chronic illness, debility, and +disease. All attempts to give him a regular education were frustrated +by his precarious health. The longest period he ever passed at school +were two years at Westminster, but he was constantly moved from one +school to another. This even his delicacy can hardly explain, and it +must have been fatal to all sustained study. Two facts he mentions of +his school life, which paint the manners of the age. In the year 1746 +such was the strength of party spirit that he, a child of nine years +of age, "was reviled and buffeted for the sins of his Tory ancestors." +Secondly, the worthy pedagogues of that day found no readier way of +leading the most studious of boys to a love of science than corporal +punishment. "At the expense of many tears and some blood I purchased +the knowledge of the Latin syntax." Whether all love of study would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +have been flogged out of him if he had remained at school, it is +difficult to say, but it is not an improbable supposition that this +would have happened. The risk was removed by his complete failure of +health. "A strange nervous affection, which alternately contracted his +legs and produced, without any visible symptom, the most excruciating +pain," was his chief affliction, followed by intervals of languor and +debility. The saving of his life during these dangerous years Gibbon +unhesitatingly ascribes to the more than maternal care of his aunt, +Catherine Porten, on writing whose name for the first time in his +Memoirs, "he felt a tear of gratitude trickling down his cheek." "If +there be any," he continues, "as I trust there are some, who rejoice +that I live, to that dear and excellent woman they must hold +themselves indebted. Many anxious and solitary hours and days did she +consume in the patient trial of relief and amusement; many wakeful +nights did she sit by my bedside in trembling expectation that every +hour would be my last." Gibbon is rather anxious to get over these +details, and declares he has no wish to expatiate on a "disgusting +topic." This is quite in the style of the <i>ancien régime</i>. There was +no blame attached to any one for being ill in those days, but people +were expected to keep their infirmities to themselves. "People knew +how to live and die in those days, and kept their infirmities out of +sight. You might have the gout, but you must walk about all the same +without making grimaces. It was a point of good breeding to hide one's +sufferings."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Similarly Walpole was much offended by a too faithful +publication of Madame de Sévigné's <i>Letters</i>. "Heaven <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>forbid," he +says, "that I should say that the letters of Madame de Sévigné were +bad. I only meant that they were full of family details and mortal +distempers, to which the most immortal of us are subject." But Gibbon +was above all things a veracious historian, and fortunately has not +refrained from giving us a truthful picture of his childhood.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> George Sand, quoted in Taine's <i>Ancien Régime</i>, p. 181.</p></div></div> + +<p>Of his studies, or rather his reading—his early and invincible love +of reading, which he would not exchange for the treasures of India—he +gives us a full account, and we notice at once the interesting fact +that a considerable portion of the historical field afterwards +occupied by his great work had been already gone over by Gibbon before +he was well in his teens. "My indiscriminate appetite subsided by +degrees into the historic line, and since philosophy has exploded all +innate ideas and natural propensities, I must ascribe the choice to +the assiduous perusal of the <i>Universal History</i> as the octavo volumes +successively appeared. This unequal work referred and introduced me to +the Greek and Roman historians, to as many at least as were accessible +to an English reader. All that I could find were greedily devoured, +from Littlebury's lame <i>Herodotus</i> to Spelman's valuable <i>Xenophon</i>, +to the pompous folios of Gordon's <i>Tacitus</i>, and a ragged <i>Procopius</i> +of the beginning of the last century." Referring to an accident which +threw the continuation of Echard's <i>Roman History</i> in his way, he +says, "To me the reigns of the successors of Constantine were +absolutely new, and I was immersed in the passage of the Goths over +the Danube, when the summons of the dinner-bell reluctantly dragged me +from my intellectual feast.... I procured the second and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> third +volumes of Howell's <i>History of the World</i>, which exhibit the +Byzantine period on a larger scale. Mahomet and his Saracens soon +fixed my attention, and some instinct of criticism directed me to the +genuine sources. Simon Ockley first opened my eyes, and I was led from +one book to another till I had ranged round the circle of Oriental +history. Before I was sixteen I had exhausted all that could be +learned in English of the Arabs and Persians, the Tartars and Turks, +and the same ardour urged me to guess at the French of D'Herbelot and +to construe the barbarous Latin of Pocock's <i>Abulfaragius</i>." Here is +in rough outline a large portion at least of the <i>Decline and Fall</i> +already surveyed. The fact shows how deep was the sympathy that Gibbon +had for his subject, and that there was a sort of pre-established +harmony between his mind and the historical period he afterwards +illustrated.</p> + +<p>Up to the age of fourteen it seemed that Gibbon, as he says, was +destined to remain through life an illiterate cripple. But as he +approached his sixteenth year, a great change took place in his +constitution, and his diseases, instead of growing with his growth and +strengthening with his strength, wonderfully vanished. This unexpected +recovery was not seized by his father in a rational spirit, as +affording a welcome opportunity of repairing the defects of a hitherto +imperfect education. Instead of using the occasion thus presented of +recovering some of the precious time lost, of laying a sound +foundation of scholarship and learning on which a superstructure at +the university or elsewhere could be ultimately built, he carried the +lad off in an impulse of perplexity and impatience, and entered him as +a gentleman commoner at Magdalen College just before he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> had completed +his fifteenth year (1752, April 3). This was perhaps the most unwise +step he could have taken under the circumstances. Gibbon was too young +and too ignorant to profit by the advantages offered by Oxford to a +more mature student, and his status as a gentleman commoner seemed +intended to class him among the idle and dissipated who are only +expected to waste their money and their time. A good education is +generally considered as reflecting no small credit on its possessor; +but in the majority of cases it reflects credit on the wise solicitude +of his parents or guardians rather than on himself. If Gibbon escaped +the peril of being an ignorant and frivolous lounger, the merit was +his own.</p> + +<p>At no period in their history had the English universities sunk to a +lower condition as places of education than at the time when Gibbon +went up to Oxford. To speak of them as seats of learning seems like +irony; they were seats of nothing but coarse living and clownish +manners, the centres where all the faction, party spirit, and bigotry +of the country were gathered to a head. In this evil pre-eminence both +of the universities and all the colleges appear to have been upon a +level, though Lincoln College, Oxford, is mentioned as a bright +exception in John Wesley's day to the prevalent degeneracy. The +strange thing is that, with all their neglect of learning and +morality, the colleges were not the resorts of jovial if unseemly boon +companionship; they were collections of quarrelsome and spiteful +litigants, who spent their time in angry lawsuits. The indecent +contentions between Bentley and the Fellows of Trinity were no +isolated scandal. They are best known and remembered on account of the +eminence of the chief disputants, and of the melancholy waste of +Bentley's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> genius which they occasioned. Hearne writes of Oxford in +1726, "There are such differences now in the University of Oxford +(hardly one college but where all the members are busied in law +business and quarrels not at all relating to the promotion of +learning), that good letters decay every day, insomuch that this +ordination on Trinity Sunday at Oxford there were no fewer (as I am +informed) than fifteen denied orders for insufficiency, which is the +more to be noted because our bishops, and those employed by them, are +themselves illiterate men."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The state of things had not much +improved twenty or thirty years later when Gibbon went up, but perhaps +it had improved a little. He does not mention lawsuits as a favourite +pastime of the Fellows. "The Fellows or monks of my time," he says, +"were decent, easy men, who supinely enjoyed the gifts of the founder: +their days were filled by a series of uniform employments—the chapel, +the hall, the coffee-house, and the common room—till they retired +weary and well satisfied to a long slumber. From the toil of reading, +writing, or thinking they had absolved their consciences. Their +conversation stagnated in a round of college business, Tory politics, +personal anecdotes, and private scandal. Their dull and deep potations +excused the brisk intemperance of youth, and their constitutional +toasts were not expressive of the most lively loyalty to the House of +Hanover." Some Oxonians perhaps could still partly realise the truth +of this original picture by their recollections of faint and feeble +copies of it drawn from their experience in youthful days. It seems to +be certain that the universities, far from setting a model of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>good +living, were really below the average standard of the morals and +manners of the age, and the standard was not high. Such a satire as +the <i>Terræ Filius</i> of Amhurst cannot be accepted without large +deductions; but the caricaturist is compelled by the conditions of his +craft to aim at the <i>true seeming</i>, if he neglects the true, and with +the benefit of this limitation the <i>Terræ Filius</i> reveals a deplorable +and revolting picture of vulgarity, insolence, and licence. The +universities are spoken of in terms of disparagement by men of all +classes. Lord Chesterfield speaks of the "rust" of Cambridge as +something of which a polished man should promptly rid himself. Adam +Smith showed his sense of the defects of Oxford in a stern section of +the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, written twenty years after he had left the +place. Even youths like Gray and West, fresh from Eton, express +themselves with contempt for their respective universities. "Consider +me," says the latter, writing from Christ Church, "very seriously, +here is a strange country, inhabited by things that call themselves +Doctors and Masters of Arts, a country flowing with syllogisms and +ale; where Horace and Virgil are equally unknown." Gray, answering +from Peterhouse, can only do justice to his feelings by quoting the +words of the Hebrew prophet, and insists that Isaiah had Cambridge +equally with Babylon in view when he spoke of the wild beasts and wild +asses, of the satyrs that dance, of an inhabitation of dragons and a +court for owls.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Social Life at the English Universities</i>. By Christopher +Wordsworth. Page 57.</p></div></div> + +<p>Into such untoward company was Gibbon thrust by his careless father at +the age of fifteen. That he succumbed to the unwholesome atmosphere +cannot surprise us. He does not conceal, perhaps he rather +exaggerates,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> in his Memoirs, the depth of his fall. As Bunyan in a +state of grace accused himself of dreadful sins which in all +likelihood he never committed, so it is probable that Gibbon, in his +old age, when study and learning were the only passions he knew, +reflected with too much severity on the boyish freaks of his +university life. Moreover there appears to have been nothing coarse or +unworthy in his dissipation; he was simply idle. He justly lays much +of the blame on the authorities. To say that the discipline was lax +would be to pay it an unmerited compliment. There was no discipline at +all. He lived in Magdalen as he might have lived at the Angel or the +Mitre Tavern. He not only left his college, but he left the +university, whenever he liked. In one winter he made a tour to Bath, +another to Buckinghamshire, and he made four excursions to London, +"without once hearing the voice of admonition, without once feeling +the hand of control." Of study he had just as much and as little as he +pleased.</p> + +<p>"As soon as my tutor had sounded the insufficiency of his disciple in +school learning, he proposed that we should read every morning from +ten to eleven the comedies of Terence. During the first weeks I +constantly attended these lessons in my tutor's room; but as they +appeared equally devoid of profit and pleasure, I was once tempted to +try the experiment of a formal apology. The apology was accepted with +a smile. I repeated the offence with less ceremony: the excuse was +admitted with the same indulgence; the slightest motive of laziness or +indisposition, the most trifling avocation at home or abroad was +allowed as a worthy impediment, nor did my tutor appear conscious of +my absence or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> neglect." No wonder he spoke with indignation of such +scandalous neglect. "To the University of Oxford," he says, "I +acknowledge no obligation, and she will as readily renounce me for a +son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. I spent fourteen +months at Magdalen College; they proved the most idle and unprofitable +of my whole life. The reader will pronounce between the school and the +scholar." This is only just and fully merited by the abuses denounced. +One appreciates the anguish of the true scholar mourning over lost +time as a miser over lost gold. There was another side of the question +which naturally did not occur to Gibbon, but which may properly occur +to us. Did Gibbon lose as much as he thought in missing the scholastic +drill of the regular public school and university man? Something he +undoubtedly lost: he was never a finished scholar, up to the standard +even of his own day. If he had been, is it certain that the +accomplishment would have been all gain? It may be doubted. At a later +period Gibbon read the classics with the free and eager curiosity of a +thoughtful mind. It was a labour of love, of passionate ardour, +similar to the manly zeal of the great scholars of the Renaissance. +This appetite had not been blunted by enforced toil in a prescribed +groove. How much of that zest for antiquity, of that keen relish for +the classic writers which he afterwards acquired and retained through +life, might have been quenched if he had first made their acquaintance +as school-books? Above all, would he have looked on the ancient world +with such freedom and originality as he afterwards gained, if he had +worn through youth the harness of academical study? These questions do +not suggest an answer, but they may furnish a doubt.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> Oxford and +Cambridge for nearly a century have been turning out crowds of +thorough-paced scholars of the orthodox pattern. It is odd that the +two greatest historians who have been scholars as well—Gibbon and +Grote—were not university-bred men.</p> + +<p>As if to prove by experiment where the fault lay, in "the school or +the scholar," Gibbon had no sooner left Oxford for the long vacation, +than his taste for study returned, and, not content with reading, he +attempted original composition. The subject he selected was a curious +one for a youth in his sixteenth year. It was an attempt to settle the +chronology of the age of Sesostris, and shows how soon the austere +side of history had attracted his attention. "In my childish balance," +he says, "I presumed to weigh the systems of Scaliger and Petavius, of +Marsham and of Newton; and my sleep has been disturbed by the +difficulty of reconciling the Septuagint with the Hebrew computation." +Of course his essay had the usual value of such juvenile productions; +that is, none at all, except as an indication of early bias to serious +study of history. On his return to Oxford, the age of Sesostris was +wisely relinquished. He indeed soon commenced a line of study which +was destined to have a lasting influence on the remainder of his +course through life.</p> + +<p>He had an inborn taste for theology and the controversies which have +arisen concerning religious dogma. "From my childhood," he says, "I +had been fond of religious disputation: my poor aunt has often been +puzzled by the mysteries which she strove to believe." How he carried +the taste into mature life, his great chapters on the heresies and +controversies of the Early Church are there to show. This inclination +for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> theology, co-existing with a very different temper towards +religious sentiment, recalls the similar case of the author of the +<i>Historical and Critical Dictionary</i>, the illustrious Pierre Bayle, +whom Gibbon resembled in more ways than one. At Oxford his religious +education, like everything else connected with culture, had been +entirely neglected. It seems hardly credible, yet we have his word for +it, that he never subscribed or studied the Articles of the Church of +England, and was never confirmed. When he first went up, he was judged +to be too young, but the Vice-Chancellor directed him to return as +soon as he had completed his fifteenth year, recommending him in the +meantime to the instruction of his college. "My college forgot to +instruct; I forgot to return, and was myself forgotten by the first +magistrate of the university. Without a single lecture, either public +or private, either Christian or Protestant, without any academical +subscription, without any episcopal ordination, I was left by light of +my catechism to grope my way to the chapel and communion table, where +I was admitted without question how far or by what means I might be +qualified to receive the sacrament. Such almost incredible neglect was +productive of the worst mischiefs." What did Gibbon mean by this last +sentence? Did he, when he wrote it, towards the end of his life, +regret the want of early religious instruction? Nothing leads us to +think so, or to suppose that his subsequent loss of faith was a heavy +grief, supported, but painful to bear. His mind was by nature +positive, or even pagan, and he had nothing of what the Germans call +<i>religiosität</i> in him. Still there is a passage in his Memoirs where +he oddly enough laments not having selected the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span><i>fat slumbers of the +Church</i> as an eligible profession. Did he reflect that perhaps the +neglect of his religious education at Oxford had deprived him of a +bishopric or a good deanery, and the learned leisure which such +positions at that time conferred on those who cared for it? He could +not feel that he was morally, or even spiritually, unfit for an office +filled in his own time by such men as Warburton and Hurd. He would not +have disgraced the episcopal bench; he would have been dignified, +courteous, and hospitable; a patron and promoter of learning, we may +be sure. His literary labours would probably have consisted of an +edition of a Greek play or two, and certainly some treatise on the +Evidences of Christianity. But in that case we should not have had the +<i>Decline and Fall</i>.</p> + +<p>The "blind activity of idleness" to which he was exposed at Oxford, +prevented any result of this kind. For want of anything better to do, +he was led to read Middleton's <i>Free Enquiry into the Miraculous +Powers which are Supposed to have Subsisted in the Christian Church</i>. +Gibbon says that the effect of Middleton's "bold criticism" upon him +was singular, and that instead of making him a sceptic, it made him +more of a believer. He might have reflected that it is the commonest +of occurrences for controversialists to produce exactly the opposite +result to that which they intend, and that as many an apology for +Christianity has sown the first seeds of infidelity, so an attack upon +it might well intensify faith. What follows is very curious. "The +elegance of style and freedom of argument were repelled by a shield of +prejudice. I still revered the character, or rather the names of the +saints and fathers whom Dr. Middleton exposes; nor could he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> destroy +my implicit belief that the gift of miraculous powers was continued in +the Church during the first four or five centuries of Christianity. +But I was unable to resist the weight of historical evidence, that +within the same period most of the leading doctrines of Popery were +already introduced in theory and practice. Nor was my conclusion +absurd that miracles are the test of truth, and that the Church must +be orthodox and pure which was so often approved by the visible +interposition of the Deity. The marvellous tales which are boldly +attested by the Basils and Chrysostoms, the Austins and Jeromes, +compelled me to embrace the superior merits of celibacy, the +institution of the monastic life, the use of the sign of the cross, of +holy oil, and even of images, the invocation of saints, the worship of +relics, the rudiments of purgatory in prayers for the dead, and the +tremendous mystery of the sacrifice of the body and the blood of +Christ, which insensibly swelled into the prodigy of +transubstantiation." In this remarkable passage we have a distinct +foreshadow of the Tractarian movement, which came seventy or eighty +years afterwards. Gibbon in 1752, at the age of fifteen, took up a +position practically the same as Froude and Newman took up about the +year 1830. In other words, he reached the famous <i>via media</i> at a +bound. But a second spring soon carried him clear of it, into the +bosom of the Church of Rome.</p> + +<p>He had come to what are now called Church principles, by the energy of +his own mind working on the scanty data furnished him by Middleton. By +one of those accidents which usually happen in such cases, he made the +acquaintance of a young gentleman who had already embraced +Catholicism, and who was well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> provided with controversial tracts in +favour of Romanism. Among these were the two works of Bossuet, the +<i>Exposition of Catholic Doctrine</i> and the <i>History of the Protestant +Variations</i>. Gibbon says: "I read, I applauded, I believed, and surely +I fell by a noble hand. I have since examined the originals with a +more discerning eye, and shall not hesitate to pronounce that Bossuet +is indeed a master of all the weapons of controversy. In the +<i>Exposition</i>, a specious apology, the orator assumes with consummate +art the tone of candour and simplicity, and the ten horned monster is +transformed at his magic touch into the milk-white hind, who must be +loved as soon as she is seen. In the <i>History</i>, a bold and well-aimed +attack, he displays, with a happy mixture of narrative and argument, +the faults and follies, the changes and contradictions of our first +Reformers, whose variations, as he dexterously contends, are the mark +of historical error, while the perpetual unity of the Catholic Church +is the sign and test of infallible truth. To my present feelings it +seems incredible that I should ever believe that I believed in +transubstantiation. But my conqueror oppressed me with the sacramental +words, '<i>Hoc est corpus meum</i>,' and dashed against each other the +figurative half meanings of the Protestant sects; every objection was +resolved into omnipotence, and, after repeating at St. Mary's the +Athanasian Creed, I humbly acquiesced in the mystery of the Real +Presence."</p> + +<p>Many reflections are suggested on the respective domains of reason and +faith by these words, but they cannot be enlarged on here. No one, +nowadays, one may hope, would think of making Gibbon's conversion a +subject of reproach to him. The danger is rather that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> it should be +regarded with too much honour. It unquestionably shows the early and +trenchant force of his intellect: he mastered the logical position in +a moment; saw the necessity of a criterion of faith; and being told +that it was to be found in the practice of antiquity, boldly went +there, and abided by the result. But this praise to his head does not +extend to his heart. A more tender and deep moral nature would not +have moved so rapidly. We must in fairness remember that it was not +his fault that his religious education had been neglected at home, at +school, and at college. But we have no reason to think that had it +been attended to, the result would have been much otherwise. The root +of spiritual life did not exist in him. It never withered, because it +never shot up. Thus when he applied his acute mind to a religious +problem, he contemplated it with the coolness and impartiality of a +geometer or chess player, his intellect operated <i>in vacuo</i> so to +speak, untrammelled by any bias of sentiment or early training. He had +no profound associations to tear out of his heart. He merely altered +the premisses of a syllogism. When Catholicism was presented to him in +a logical form, it met with no inward bar and repugnance. The house +was empty and ready for a new guest, or rather the first guest. If +Gibbon anticipated the Tractarian movement intellectually, he was +farther removed than the poles are asunder from the mystic reverent +spirit which inspired that movement. If we read the <i>Apologia</i> of Dr. +Newman, we perceive the likeness and unlikeness of the two cases. "As +a matter of simple conscience," says the latter, "I felt it to be a +duty to protest against the Church of Rome." At the time he refers to +Dr. Newman was a Catholic to a degree Gibbon never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> dreamed of. But in +the one case conscience and heart-ties "strong as life, stronger +almost than death," arrested the conclusions of the intellect. Ground +which Gibbon dashed over in a few months or weeks, the great +Tractarian took ten years to traverse. So different is the mystic from +the positive mind.</p> + +<p>Gibbon had no sooner settled his new religion than he resolved with a +frankness which did him all honour to profess it publicly. He wrote to +his father, announcing his conversion, a letter which he afterwards +described, when his sentiments had undergone a complete change, as +written with all the pomp, dignity, and self-satisfaction of a martyr. +A momentary glow of enthusiasm had raised him, as he said, above all +worldly considerations. He had no difficulty, in an excursion to +London, in finding a priest, who perceived in the first interview that +persuasion was needless. "After sounding the motives and merits of my +conversion, he consented to admit me into the pale of the Church, and +at his feet on the 8th of June 1753, I solemnly, though privately, +abjured the errors of heresy." He was exactly fifteen years and one +month old. Further details, which one would like to have, he does not +give. The scene even of the solemn act is not mentioned, nor whether +he was baptized again; but this may be taken for granted.</p> + +<p>The fact of any one "going over to Rome" is too common an occurrence +nowadays to attract notice. But in the eighteenth century it was a +rare and startling phenomenon. Gibbon's father, who was "neither a +bigot nor a philosopher," was shocked and astonished by his "son's +strange departure from the religion of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> country." He divulged the +secret of young Gibbon's conversion, and "the gates of Magdalen +College were for ever shut" against the latter's return. They really +needed no shutting at all. By the fact of his conversion to Romanism +he had ceased to be a member of the University.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>AT LAUSANNE.</h3> + + +<p>The elder Gibbon showed a decision of character and prompt energy in +dealing with his son's conversion to Romanism, which were by no means +habitual with him. He swiftly determined to send him out of the +country, far away from the influences and connections which had done +such harm. Lausanne in Switzerland was the place selected for his +exile, in which it was resolved he should spend some years in +wholesome reflections on the error he had committed in yielding to the +fascinations of Roman Catholic polemics. No time was lost: Gibbon had +been received into the Church on the 8th of June, 1753, and on the +30th of the same month he had reached his destination. He was placed +under the care of a M. Pavillard, a Calvinist minister, who had two +duties laid upon him, a general one, to superintend the young man's +studies, a particular and more urgent one, to bring him back to the +Protestant faith.</p> + +<p>It was a severe trial which Gibbon had now to undergo. He was by +nature shy and retiring; he was ignorant of French; he was very young; +and with these disadvantages he was thrown among entire strangers +alone. After the excitement and novelty of foreign travel were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> over, +and he could realise his position, he felt his heart sink within him. +From the luxury and freedom of Oxford he was degraded to the +dependence of a schoolboy. Pavillard managed his expenses, and his +supply of pocket-money was reduced to a small monthly allowance. "I +had exchanged," he says, "my elegant apartment in Magdalen College for +a narrow gloomy street, the most unfrequented in an unhandsome town, +for an old inconvenient house, and for a small chamber ill-contrived +and ill-furnished, which on the approach of winter, instead of a +companionable fire, must be warmed by the dull and invisible heat of a +stove." Under these gloomy auspices he began the most profitable, and +after a time the most pleasant, period of his whole life, one on which +he never ceased to look back with unmingled satisfaction as the +starting-point of his studies and intellectual progress.</p> + +<p>The first care of his preceptor was to bring about his religious +conversion. Gibbon showed an honourable tenacity to his new faith, and +a whole year after he had been exposed to the Protestant dialectics of +Pavillard he still, as the latter observed with much regret, continued +to abstain from meat on Fridays. There is something slightly +incongruous in the idea of Gibbon <i>fasting</i> out of religious scruples, +but the fact shows that his religion had obtained no slight hold of +him, and that although he had embraced it quickly, he also accepted +with intrepid frankness all its consequences. His was not an intellect +that could endure half measures and half lights; he did not belong to +that class of persons who do not know their own minds.</p> + +<p>However it is not surprising that his religion, placed where he was, +was slowly but steadily undermined. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> Swiss clergy, he says, were +acute and learned on the topics of controversy, and Pavillard seems to +have been a good specimen of his class. An adult and able man, in +daily contact with a youth in his own house, urging persistently but +with tact one side of a thesis, could hardly fail in the course of +time to carry his point. But though Gibbon is willing to allow his +tutor a handsome share in the work of his conversion, he maintains +that it was chiefly effected by his own private reflections. And this +is eminently probable. What logic had set up, logic could throw down. +He gives us a highly characteristic example of the reflections in +question. "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." He was unaware of the distinction between the logical +understanding and the higher reason, which has been made since his +time to the great comfort of thinkers of a certain stamp. Having +reached so far, his progress was easy and rapid. "The various articles +of the Romish creed disappeared like a dream, and after a full +conviction, on Christmas-day, 1754, I received the sacrament in the +church of Lausanne. It was here that I suspended my religious +inquiries, acquiescing with implicit belief in the tenets and +mysteries which are adopted by the general consent of Catholics and +Protestants." He thus had been a Catholic for about eighteen months.</p> + +<p>Gibbon's residence at Lausanne was a memorable epoch in his life on +two grounds. Firstly, it was during the five years he spent there that +he laid the founda<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>tions of that deep and extensive learning by which +he was afterwards distinguished. Secondly, the foreign education he +there received, at the critical period when the youth passes into the +man, gave a permanent bent to his mind, and made him a continental +European rather than an insular Englishman—two highly important +factors in his intellectual growth.</p> + +<p>He says that he went up to Oxford with a "stock of erudition which +might have puzzled a doctor, and a degree of ignorance of which a +schoolboy might have been ashamed." Both erudition and ignorance were +left pretty well undisturbed during his short and ill-starred +university career. At Lausanne he found himself, for the first time, +in possession of the means of successful study, good health, calm, +books, and tuition, up to a certain point: that point did not reach +very far. The good Pavillard, an excellent man, for whom Gibbon ever +entertained a sincere regard, was quite unequal to the task of forming +such a mind. There is no evidence that he was a ripe or even a fair +scholar, and the plain fact is that Gibbon belongs to the honourable +band of self-taught men. "My tutor," says Gibbon, "had the good sense +to discern how far he could be useful, and when he felt that I +advanced beyond his speed and measure, he wisely left me to my +genius." Under that good guidance he formed an extensive plan of +reviewing the Latin classics, in the four divisions of (1) Historians, +(2) Poets, (3) Orators, and (4) Philosophers, in "chronological series +from the days of Plautus and Sallust to the decline of the language +and empire of Rome." In one year he read over the following authors: +Virgil, Sallust, Livy, Velleius Paterculus, Valerius Maximus, Tacitus, +Suetonius, Quintus Curtius, Justin, Florus, Plautus, Terence,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> and +Lucretius. We may take his word when he says that this review, however +rapid, was neither hasty nor superficial. Gibbon had the root of all +scholarship in him, the most diligent accuracy and an unlimited +faculty of taking pains. But he was a great scholar, not a minute one, +and belonged to the robust race of the Scaligers and the Bentleys, +rather than to the smaller breed of the Elmsleys and Monks, and of +course he was at no time a professed philologer, occupied chiefly with +the niceties of language. The point which deserves notice in this +account of his studies is their wide sweep, so superior and bracing, +as compared with that narrow restriction to the "authors of the best +period," patronised by teachers who imperfectly comprehend their own +business. Gibbon proceeded on the common-sense principle, that if you +want to obtain a real grasp of the literature, history, and genius of +a people, you must master that literature with more or less +completeness from end to end, and that to select arbitrarily the +authors of a short period on the grounds that they are models of +style, is nothing short of foolish. It was the principle on which +Joseph Scaliger studied Greek, and indeed occurs spontaneously to a +vigorous mind eager for real knowledge.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Vix delibatis conjugationibus Græcis, Homerum cum +interpretatione arreptum uno et viginti diebus totum didici. Reliquos +vero poetas Græcos omnes intra quatuor menses devoravi. Neque ullum +oratorem aut historicum prius attigi quam poetas omnes +tenerem.—<i>Scaligeri Epistolæ, Lib. 1. Epis. 1.</i></p></div></div> + +<p>Nor did he confine himself to reading: he felt that no one is sure of +knowing a language who limits his study of it to the perusal of +authors. He practised diligently Latin prose composition, and this in +the simplest and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>most effectual way. "I translated an epistle of +Cicero into French, and after throwing it aside till the words and +phrases were obliterated from my memory, I retranslated my French into +such Latin as I could find, and then compared each sentence of my +imperfect version with the ease, the grace, the propriety of the Roman +orator." The only odd thing in connection with this excellent method +is that Gibbon in his Memoirs seems to think it was a novel discovery +of his own, and would recommend it to the imitation of students, +whereas it is as old as the days of Ascham at least. There is no +indication that he ever in the least degree attempted Latin verse, and +it is improbable that he should have done so, reading alone in +Lausanne, under the slight supervision of such a teacher as Pavillard. +The lack of this elegant frivolity will be less thought of now than it +would some years ago. But we may admit that it would have been +interesting to have a copy of hexameters or elegiacs by the historian +of Rome. So much for Latin. In Greek he made far less progress. He had +attained his nineteenth year before he learned the alphabet, and even +after so late a beginning he did not prosecute the study with much +energy.</p> + +<p>M. Pavillard seems to have taught him little more than the rudiments. +"After my tutor had left me to myself I worked my way through about +half the <i>Iliad</i>, and afterwards interpreted alone a large portion of +Xenophon and Herodotus. But my ardour, destitute of aid and emulation, +gradually cooled, and from the barren task of searching words in a +lexicon I withdrew to the free and familiar conversation of Virgil and +Tacitus." This statement of the Memoirs is more than confirmed by the +journal of his studies, where we find him, as late as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> year 1762, +when he was twenty-five years of age, painfully reading Homer, it +would appear, for the first time. He read on an average about a book a +week, and when he had finished the <i>Iliad</i> this is what he says: "I +have so far met with the success I hoped for, that I have acquired a +great facility in reading the language, and treasured up a very great +stock of words. What I have rather neglected is the grammatical +construction of them, and especially the many various inflections of +the verbs." To repair this defect he wisely resolved to bestow some +time every morning on the perusal of the Greek Grammar of Port Royal. +Thus we see that at an age when many men are beginning to forget their +Greek, Gibbon was beginning to learn it. Was this early deficiency +ever repaired in Greek as it was in Latin? I think not. He never was +at home in old Hellas as he was in old Rome. This may be inferred from +the discursive notes of his great work, in which he has with admirable +skill incorporated so much of his vast and miscellaneous reading. But +his references to classic Greek authors are relatively few and timid +compared with his grasp and mastery of the Latin. His judgments on +Greek authors are also, to say the least, singular. When he had +achieved the <i>Decline and Fall</i>, and was writing his Memoirs in the +last years of his life, the Greek writer whom he selects for especial +commendation is Xenophon. "Cicero in Latin and Xenophon in Greek are +indeed the two ancients whom I would first propose to a liberal +scholar, not only for the merit of their style and sentiments, but for +the admirable lessons which may be applied almost to every situation +of public and private life." Of the merit of Xenophon's sentiments, +most people would now admit that the less said the better.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> The warmth +of Gibbon's language with regard to Xenophon contrasts with the +coldness he shows with regard to Plato. "I involved myself," he says, +"in the philosophic maze of the writings of Plato, of which perhaps +the dramatic is more interesting than the argumentative part." That +Gibbon knew amply sufficient Greek for his purposes as an historian no +one doubts, but his honourable candour enables us to see that he was +never a Greek scholar in the proper sense of the word.</p> + +<p>It would be greatly to misknow Gibbon to suppose that his studies at +Lausanne were restricted to the learned languages. He obtained +something more than an elementary knowledge of mathematics, mastered +De Crousaz' <i>Logic</i> and Locke's <i>Essay</i>, and filled up his spare time +with that wide and discursive reading to which his boundless curiosity +was always pushing him. He was thoroughly happy and contented, and +never ceased throughout his life to congratulate himself on the +fortunate exile which had placed him at Lausanne. In one respect he +did not use his opportunities while in Switzerland. He never climbed a +mountain all the time he was there, though he lived to see in his +later life the first commencement of the Alpine fever. On the other +hand, as became a historian and man of sense, the social and political +aspects of the country engaged his attention, as well they might. He +enjoyed access to the best society of the place, and the impression he +made seems to have been as favourable as the one he received.</p> + +<p>The influence of a foreign training is very marked in Gibbon, +affecting as it does his general cast of thought, and even his style. +It would be difficult to name any writer in our language, especially +among the few who deserve to be compared with him, who is so +un-English,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> not in a bad sense of the word, as implying objectionable +qualities, but as wanting the clear insular stamp and native flavour. +If an intelligent Chinese or Persian were to read his book in a French +translation, he would not readily guess that it was written by an +Englishman. It really bears the imprint of no nationality, and is +emphatically European. We may postpone the question whether this is a +merit or a defect, but it is a characteristic. The result has +certainly been that he is one of the best-known of English prose +writers on the Continent, and one whom foreigners most readily +comprehend. This peculiarity, of which he himself was fully aware, we +may agree with him in ascribing to his residence at Lausanne. At the +"flexible age of sixteen he soon learned to endure, and gradually to +adopt," foreign manners. French became the language in which he +spontaneously thought; "his views were enlarged, and his prejudices +were corrected." In one particular he cannot be complimented on the +effect of his continental education, when he congratulates himself +"that his taste for the French theatre had abated his idolatry for the +gigantic genius of Shakespeare, which is inculcated from our infancy +as the first duty of Englishmen." Still it is well to be rid of +idolatry and bigotry even with regard to Shakespeare. We must remember +that the insular prejudices from which Gibbon rejoiced to be free were +very different in their intensity and narrowness from anything of the +kind which exists now. The mixed hatred and contempt for foreigners +which prevailed in his day, were enough to excite disgust in any +liberal mind.</p> + +<p>The lucid order and admirable literary form of Gibbon's great work are +qualities which can escape no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> observant reader. But they are +qualities which are not common in English books. The French have a +saying, "Les Anglais ne savent pas faire un livre." This is unjust, +taken absolutely, but as a general rule it is not without foundation. +It is not a question of depth or originality of thought, nor of the +various merits belonging to style properly so-called. In these +respects English authors need not fear competition. But in the art of +clear and logical arrangement, of building up a book in such order and +method that each part contributes to the general effect of the whole, +we must own that we have many lessons to learn of our neighbours. Now +in this quality Gibbon is a Frenchman. Not Voltaire himself is more +perspicuous than Gibbon. Everything is in its place, and disposed in +such apparently natural sequence that the uninitiated are apt to think +the matter could not have been managed otherwise. It is a case, if +there ever was one, of consummate art concealing every trace, not only +of art, but even of effort. Of course the grasp and penetrating +insight which are implied here, were part of Gibbon's great endowment, +which only Nature could give. But it was fortunate that his genius was +educated in the best school for bringing out its innate quality.</p> + +<p>It would be difficult to explain why, except on that principle of +decimation by which Macaulay accounted for the outcry against Lord +Byron, Gibbon's solitary and innocent love passage has been made the +theme of a good deal of malicious comment. The parties most +interested, and who, we may presume, knew the circumstances better +than any one else, seem to have been quite satisfied with each other's +conduct. Gibbon and Mdlle. Curchod, afterwards Madame Necker, remained +on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> terms of the <i>most</i> intimate friendship till the end of the +former's life. This might be supposed sufficient. But it has not been +so considered by evil tongues. The merits of the case, however, may be +more conveniently discussed in a later chapter. At this point it will +be enough to give the facts.</p> + +<p>Mdlle. Susanne Curchod was born about the year 1740; her father was +the Calvinist minister of Crassier, her mother a French Huguenot who +had preferred her religion to her country. She had received a liberal +and even learned education from her father, and was as attractive in +person as she was accomplished in mind. "She was beautiful with that +pure virginal beauty which depends on early youth" (Sainte-Beuve). In +1757 she was the talk of Lausanne, and could not appear in an assembly +or at the play without being surrounded by admirers; she was called La +Belle Curchod. Gibbon's curiosity was piqued to see such a prodigy, +and he was smitten with love at first sight. "I found her" he says +"learned without pedantry, lively in conversation, pure in sentiment, +and elegant in manners." He was twenty and she seventeen years of age; +no impediment was placed in the way of their meeting; and he was a +frequent guest in her father's house. In fact Gibbon paid his court +with an assiduity which makes an exception in his usually unromantic +nature. "She listened," he says, "to the voice of truth and passion, +and I might presume to hope that I had made some impression on a +virtuous heart." We must remember that this and other rather glowing +passages in his Memoirs were written in his old age, when he had +returned to Lausanne, and when, after a long separation and many +vicissitudes, he and Madame Necker were again thrown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> together in an +intimacy of friendship which revived old memories. Letters of hers to +him which will be quoted in a later chapter show this in a striking +light. He indulged, he says, his dream of felicity, but on his return +to England he soon discovered that his father would not hear of this +"strange alliance," and then follows the sentence which has lost him +in the eyes of some persons. "After a painful struggle I yielded to my +fate: I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son." What else he was to do +under the circumstances does not appear. He was wholly dependent on +his father, and on the Continent at least parental authority is not +regarded as a trifling impediment in such cases. Gibbon could only +have married Mdlle. Curchod as an exile and a pauper, if he had openly +withstood his father's wishes. "All for love" is a very pretty maxim, +but it is apt to entail trouble when practically applied. Jean-Jacques +Rousseau, who had the most beautiful sentiments on paper, but who in +real life was not always a model of self-denial, found, as we shall +see, grave fault with Gibbon's conduct. Gibbon, as a plain man of +rather prosaic good sense, behaved neither heroically nor meanly. +Time, absence, and the scenes of a new life, which he found in +England, had their usual effect; his passion vanished. "My cure," he +says, "was accelerated by a faithful report of the tranquillity and +cheerfulness of the lady herself, and my love subsided in friendship +and esteem." The probability, indeed, that he and Mdlle. Curchod would +ever see each other again, must have seemed remote in the extreme. +Europe and England were involved in the Seven Years War; he was fixed +at home, and an officer in the militia; Switzerland was far off: when +and where were they likely to meet?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> They did, contrary to all +expectation, meet again, and renewed terms not so much of friendship +as of affection. Mdlle. Curchod, as the wife of Necker, became +somewhat of a celebrity, and it is chiefly owing to these last-named +circumstances that the world has ever heard of Gibbon's early love.</p> + +<p>While he was at Lausanne Gibbon made the acquaintance of Voltaire, but +it led to no intimacy or fruitful reminiscence. "He received me with +civility as an English youth, but I cannot boast of any peculiar +notice or distinction." Still he had "the satisfaction of hearing—an +uncommon circumstance—a great poet declaim his own productions on the +stage." One is often tempted, in reading Gibbon's Memoirs, to regret +that he adopted the austere plan which led him "to condemn the +practice of transforming a private memorial into a vehicle of satire +or praise." As he truly says, "It was assuredly in his power to amuse +the reader with a gallery of portraits and a collection of anecdotes." +This reserve is particularly disappointing when a striking and +original figure like Voltaire passes across the field, without an +attempt to add one stroke to the portraiture of such a physiognomy.</p> + +<p>Gibbon had now (1758) been nearly five years at Lausanne, when his +father suddenly intimated that he was to return home immediately. The +Seven Years War was at its height, and the French had denied a passage +through France to English travellers. Gibbon, or more properly his +Swiss friends, thought that the alternative road through Germany might +be dangerous, though it might have been assumed that the Great +Frederick, so far as he was concerned, would make things as pleasant +as possible to British subjects, whose country had just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> consented to +supply him with a much-needed subsidy. The French route was preferred, +perhaps as much from a motive of frolic as anything else. Two Swiss +officers of his acquaintance undertook to convey Gibbon from France as +one of their companions, under an assumed name, and in borrowed +regimentals. His complete mastery of French removed any chance of +detection on the score of language, and with a "mixture of joy and +regret" on the 11th April, 1758, Gibbon left Lausanne. He had a +pleasant journey, but no adventures, and returned to his native land +after an absence of four years, ten months, and fifteen days.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>IN THE MILITIA.</h3> +<p>The only person whom, on his return, Gibbon had the least wish to see +was his aunt, Catherine Porten. To her house he at once hastened, and +"the evening was spent in the effusions of joy and tenderness." He +looked forward to his first meeting with his father with no slight +anxiety, and that for two reasons. First, his father had parted from +him with anger and menace, and he had no idea how he would be received +now. Secondly, his mother's place was occupied by a second wife, and +an involuntary but strong prejudice possessed him against his +step-mother. He was most agreeably disappointed in both respects. His +father "received him as a man, as a friend, all constraint was +banished at our first interview, and we ever after continued on the +same terms of easy and equal politeness." So far the prospect was +pleasant. But the step-mother remained a possible obstacle to all +comfort at home. He seems to have regarded his father's second +marriage as an act of displeasure with himself, and he was disposed to +hate the rival of his mother. Gibbon soon found that the injustice was +in his own fancy, and the imaginary monster was an amiable and +deserving woman. "I could not be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> mistaken in the first view of her +understanding; her knowledge and the elegant spirit of her +conversation, her polite welcome, and her assiduous care to study and +gratify my wishes announced at least that the surface would be smooth; +and my suspicions of art and falsehood were gradually dispelled by the +full discovery of her warm and exquisite sensibility." He became +indeed deeply attached to his step-mother. "After some reserve on my +side, our minds associated in confidence and friendship, and as Mrs. +Gibbon had neither children nor the hopes of children, we more easily +adopted the tender names and genuine characters of mother and son." A +most creditable testimony surely to the worth and amiability of both +of them. The friendship thus begun continued without break or coolness +to the end of Gibbon's life. Thirty-five years after his first +interview with his step-mother, and only a few months before his own +death, when he was old and ailing, and the least exertion, by reason +of his excessive corpulence, involved pain and trouble, he made a long +journey to Bath for the sole purpose of paying Mrs. Gibbon a visit. He +was very far from being the selfish Epicurean that has been sometimes +represented.</p> + +<p>He had brought with him from Lausanne the first pages of a work which, +after much bashfulness and delay, he at length published in the French +language, under the title of <i>Essai sur l'Étude de la Littérature</i>, in +the year 1761, that is two years after its completion. In one respect +this juvenile work of Gibbon has little merit. The style is at once +poor and stilted, and the general quality of remark eminently +commonplace, where it does not fall into paradox. On the other hand, +it has an interesting and even original side. The main<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> idea of the +little book, so far as it has one, was excellent, and really above the +general thought of the age, namely, the vindication of classical +literature and history generally from the narrow and singular +prejudice which prevailed against them, especially in France. When +Gibbon ascribes the design of his first work to a "refinement of +vanity, the desire of justifying and praising the object of a +favourite pursuit," he does himself less than justice. This first +utterance of his historic genius was prompted by an unconscious but +deep reaction against that contempt for the past, which was the +greatest blot in the speculative movement of the eighteenth century. +He resists the temper of his time rather from instinct than reason, +and pleads the cause of learning with the hesitation of a man who has +not fully seen round his subject, or even mastered his own thoughts +upon it. Still there is his protest against the proposal of +D'Alembert, who recommended that after a selection of facts had been +made at the end of every century the remainder should be delivered to +the flames. "Let us preserve them all," he says, "most carefully. A +Montesquieu will detect in the most insignificant, relations which the +vulgar overlook." He resented the haughty pretensions of the +mathematical sciences to universal dominion, with sufficient vigour to +have satisfied Auguste Comte. "Physics and mathematics are at present +on the throne. They see their sister sciences prostrate before them, +chained to their chariot, or at most occupied in adorning their +triumph. Perhaps their downfall is not far off." To speak of a +positive downfall of exact sciences was a mistake. But we may fairly +suppose that Gibbon did not contemplate anything beyond a relative +change of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> position in the hierarchy of the sciences, by which history +and politics would recover or attain to a dignity which was denied +them in his day. In one passage Gibbon shows that he had dimly +foreseen the possibility of the modern inquiries into the conditions +of savage life and prehistoric man. "An Iroquois book, even were it +full of absurdities, would be an invaluable treasure. It would offer a +unique example of the nature of the human mind placed in circumstances +which we have never known, and influenced by manners and religious +opinions, the complete opposite of ours." In this sentence Gibbon +seems to call in anticipation for the researches which have since been +prosecuted with so much success by eminent writers among ourselves, +not to mention similar inquirers on the Continent.</p> + +<p>But in the meantime Gibbon had entered on a career which removed him +for long months from books and study. Without sufficiently reflecting +on what such a step involved, he had joined the militia, which was +embodied in the year 1760; and for the next two and a half years led, +as he says, a wandering life of military servitude. At first, indeed, +he was so pleased with his new mode of life that he had serious +thoughts of becoming a professional soldier. But this enthusiasm +speedily wore off, and our "mimic Bellona soon revealed to his eyes +her naked deformity." It was indeed no mere playing at soldiering that +he had undertaken. He was the practical working commander of "an +independent corps of 476 officers and men." "In the absence, or even +in the presence of the two field officers" (one of whom was his +father, the major) "I was intrusted with the effective labour of +dictating the orders and exercising the battalion." And his duty did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +not consist in occasional drilling and reviews, but in serious +marches, sometimes of thirty miles in a day, and camping under canvas. +One encampment, on Winchester Downs, lasted four months. Gibbon does +not hesitate to say that the superiority of his grenadiers to the +detachments of the regular army, with which they were often mingled, +was so striking that the most prejudiced regular could not have +hesitated a moment to admit it. But the drilling, and manoeuvring, and +all that pertained to the serious side of militia business interested +Gibbon, and though it took up time it gave him knowledge of a special +kind, of which he quite appreciated the value. He was much struck, for +instance, by the difference between the nominal and effective force of +every regiment he had seen, even when supposed to be complete, and +gravely doubts whether a nominal army of 100,000 men often brings +<i>fifty</i> thousand into the field. What he found unendurable was the +constant shifting of quarters, the utter want of privacy and leisure +it often entailed, and the distasteful society in which he was forced +to live. For eight months at a stretch he never took a book in his +hand. "From the day we marched from Blandford, I had hardly a moment I +could call my own, being almost continually in motion, or if I was +fixed for a day, it was in the guardroom, a barrack, or an inn." Even +worse were the drinking and late hours; sometimes in "rustic" company, +sometimes in company in which joviality and wit were more abundant +than decorum and common sense, which will surprise no one who hears +that the famous John Wilkes, who was colonel of the Buckingham +militia, was not unfrequently one of his boon companions. A few +extracts from his journal will be enough.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> "To-day (August 28, 1762), +Sir Thomas Worsley," the colonel of the battalion, "came to us to +dinner. Pleased to see him, we kept bumperising till after +roll-calling, Sir Thomas assuring us every fresh bottle how infinitely +sober he was growing." September 23rd. "Colonel Wilkes, of the +Buckingham militia, dined with us, and renewed the acquaintance Sir +Thomas and myself had begun with him at Reading. I scarcely ever met +with a better companion; he has inexhaustible spirits, infinite wit +and humour, and a great deal of knowledge.... This proved a very +debauched day; we drank a great deal both after dinner and supper; and +when at last Wilkes had retired, Sir Thomas and some others (of whom I +was not one) broke into his room and made him drink a bottle of claret +in bed." December 17. "We found old Captain Meard at Arlesford with +the second division of the Fourteenth. He and all his officers supped +with us, which made the evening rather a drunken one." Gibbon might +well say that the militia was unfit for and unworthy of him.</p> + +<p>Yet it is quite astonishing to see, as recorded in his journal, how +keen an interest he still managed to retain in literature in the midst +of all this dissipation, and how fertile he was of schemes and +projects of future historical works to be prosecuted under more +favourable auspices. Subject after subject occurred to him as eligible +and attractive; he caresses the idea for a time, then lays it aside +for good reasons. First, he pitched upon the expedition of Charles +VIII. of France into Italy. He read and meditated upon it, and wrote a +dissertation of ten folio pages, besides large notes, in which he +examined the right of Charles VIII. to the crown of Naples, and the +rival claims of the houses of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> Anjou and Aragon. In a few weeks he +gives up this idea, firstly, for the rather odd reason that the +subject was too remote from us; and, secondly, for the very good +reason that the expedition was rather the introduction to great events +than great and important in itself. He then successively chose and +rejected the Crusade of Richard the First; the Barons' War against +John and Henry III.; the history of Edward the Black Prince; the lives +and comparisons of Henry V. and the Emperor Titus; the life of Sir +Philip Sidney, and that of the Marquis of Montrose. At length he fixed +on Sir Walter Raleigh as his hero. On this he worked with all the +assiduity that his militia life allowed, read a great quantity of +original documents relating to it, and, after some months of labour, +declared that "his subject opened upon him, and in general improved +upon a nearer prospect." But half a year later he "is afraid he will +have to drop his hero." And he covers half a page with reasons to +persuade himself that he was right in doing so. Besides the obvious +one that he would be able to add little that was not already +accessible in Oldys' <i>Life of Raleigh</i>, that the topic was exhausted, +and so forth, he goes on to make these remarks, which have more +signification to us now than perhaps they had to him when he wrote +them. "Could I even surmount these obstacles, I should shrink with +terror from the modern history of England, where every character is a +problem and every reader a friend or an enemy: when a writer is +supposed to hoist a flag of party, and is devoted to damnation by the +adverse faction. Such would be <i>my</i> reception at home; and abroad the +historian of Raleigh must encounter an indifference far more bitter +than censure or reproach. The events of his life are interesting; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +his character is ambiguous; his actions are obscure; his writings are +English, and his fame is confined to the narrow limits of our language +and our island. <i>I must embrace a safer and more extensive theme.</i>" +Here we see the first gropings after a theme of cosmopolitan interest. +He has arrived at two negative conclusions: that it must not be +English, and must not be narrow. What it is to be, does not yet +appear, for he has still a series of subjects to go through, to be +taken up and discarded. The history of the liberty of the Swiss, which +at a later period he partially achieved, was one scheme; the history +of Florence under the Medici was another. He speaks with enthusiasm of +both projects, adding that he will most probably fix upon the latter; +but he never did anything of the kind.</p> + +<p>These were the topics which occupied Gibbon's mind during his service +in the militia, escaping when he could from the uproar and vulgarity +of the camp and the guardroom to the sanctuary of the historic muse, +to worship in secret. But these private devotions could not remove his +disgust at "the inn, the wine, and the company" he was forced to +endure, and latterly the militia became downright insupportable to +him. But honourable motives kept him to his post. "From a service +without danger I might have retired without disgrace; but as often as +I hinted a wish of resigning, my fetters were riveted by the friendly +intreaties of the colonel, the parental authority of the major, and my +own regard for the welfare of the battalion." At last the +long-wished-for day arrived, when the militia was disbanded. "Our two +companies," he writes in his journal, "were disembodied (December +23rd, 1762), mine at Alton, my father's at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> Buriton. They fired three +volleys, lodged the major's colours, delivered up their arms, received +their money, partook of a dinner at the major's expense, and then +separated, with great cheerfulness and regularity. Thus ended the +militia." The compression that his spirit had endured was shown by the +rapid energy with which he sought a change of scene and oblivion of +his woes. Within little more than a month after the scene just +described, Gibbon was in Paris beginning the grand tour.</p> + +<p>With that keen sense of the value of time which marked him, Gibbon +with great impartiality cast up and estimated the profit and loss of +his "bloodless campaigns." Both have been alluded to already. He +summed up with great fairness in the entry that he made in his journal +on the evening of the day on which he recovered his liberty. "I am +glad that the militia has been, and glad that it is no more." This +judgment he confirmed thirty years afterwards, when he composed his +Memoirs. "My principal obligation to the militia was the making me an +Englishman and a soldier. After my foreign education, with my reserved +temper, I should long have continued a stranger in my native country, +had I not been shaken in this various scene of new faces and new +friends; had not experience forced me to feel the characters of our +leading men, the state of parties, the forms of office, the operations +of our civil and military system. In this peaceful service I imbibed +the rudiments of the language and science of tactics, which opened a +new field of study and observation. I diligently read and meditated +the <i>Mémoires Militaires</i> of Quintus Icilius, the only writer who has +united the merits of a professor and a veteran.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> The discipline and +evolution of a modern battalion gave me a clearer notion of the +phalanx and the legion, and the captain of the Hampshire grenadiers +(the reader may smile) has not been useless to the historian of the +Roman Empire." No one can doubt it who compares Gibbon's numerous +narratives of military operations with the ordinary performances of +civil historians in those matters. The campaigns of Julian, +Belisarius, and Heraclius, not to mention many others, have not only +an uncommon lucidity, but also exhibit a clear appreciation of the +obstacles and arduousness of warlike operations, which is rare or +unknown to non-military writers. Macaulay has pointed out that Swift's +party pamphlets are superior in an especial way to the ordinary +productions of that class, in consequence of Swift's unavowed but very +serious participation in the cabinet councils of Oxford and +Bolingbroke. In the same manner Gibbon had an advantage through his +military training, which gives him no small superiority to even the +best historical writers who have been without it.</p> + +<p>The course of foreign travel which Gibbon was now about to commence +had been contemplated before, but the war and the militia had +postponed it for nearly three years. It appears that as early as the +year 1760 the elder Gibbon had conceived the project of procuring a +seat in Parliament for his son, and was willing to incur the +anticipated expense of £1500 for that object. Young Gibbon, who seems +to have very accurately gauged his own abilities at that early age, +was convinced that the money could be much better employed in another +way. He wrote in consequence, under his father's roof, a letter to the +latter which does such credit to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> head and to his heart, that, +although it is somewhat long, it cannot with propriety be omitted +here.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">EDWARD GIBBON TO HIS FATHER.</p> + + +<p class="sig1">"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>"An address in writing from a person who has the pleasure of +being with you every day may appear singular. However I have +preferred this method, as upon paper I can speak without a +blush and be heard without interruption. If my letter +displeases you, impute it, dear sir, to yourself. You have +treated me, not like a son, but like a friend. Can you be +surprised that I should communicate to a friend all my +thoughts and all my desires? Unless the friend approve them, +let the father never know them; or at least let him know at +the same time that however reasonable, however eligible, my +scheme may appear to me, I would rather forget it for ever +than cause him the slightest uneasiness.</p> + +<p>"When I first returned to England, attentive to my future +interests, you were so good as to give me hopes of a seat in +Parliament. This seat, it was supposed, would be an expense +of fifteen hundred pounds. This design flattered my vanity, +as it might enable me to shine in so august an assembly. It +flattered a nobler passion: I promised myself that, by the +means of this seat, I might one day be the instrument of +some good to my country. But I soon perceived how little +mere virtuous inclination, unassisted by talents, could +contribute towards that great end, and a very short +examination discovered to me that those talents had not +fallen to my lot. Do not, dear sir, impute this declaration +to a false modesty—the meanest species of pride. Whatever +else I may be ignorant of, I think I know myself, and shall +always endeavour to mention my good qualities without vanity +and my defects without repugnance. I shall say nothing of +the most intimate acquaintance with his country and +language, so absolutely necessary to every senator; since +they may be acquired, to allege my deficiency in them would +seem only the plea of laziness. But I shall say with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> great +truth that I never possessed that gift of speech, the first +requisite of an orator, which use and labour may improve, +but which nature can alone bestow; that my temper, quiet, +retired, somewhat reserved, could neither acquire +popularity, bear up against opposition, nor mix with ease in +the crowds of public life; that even my genius (if you allow +me any) is better qualified for the deliberate compositions +of the closet than for the extempore discourses of +Parliament. An unexpected objection would disconcert me, and +as I am incapable of explaining to others what I do not +understand myself, I should be meditating when I ought to be +answering. I even want necessary prejudices of party and of +nation. In popular assemblies it is often necessary to +inspire them, and never orator inspired well a passion which +he did not feel himself. Suppose me even mistaken in my own +character, to set out with the repugnance such an opinion +must produce offers but an indifferent prospect. But I hear +you say it is not necessary that every man should enter into +Parliament with such exalted hopes. It is to acquire a title +the most glorious of any in a free country, and to employ +the weight and consideration it gives in the service of +one's friends. Such motives, though not glorious, yet are +not dishonourable, and if we had a borough in our command, +if you could bring me in without any great expense, or if +our fortune enabled us to despise that expense, then indeed +I should think them of the greatest strength. But with our +private fortune, is it worthwhile to purchase at so high a +rate a title honourable in itself, but which I must share +with every fellow that can lay out 1500 pounds? Besides, +dear sir, a merchandise is of little value to the owner when +he is resolved not to sell it.</p> + +<p>"I should affront your penetration did I not suppose you now +see the drift of this letter. It is to appropriate to +another use the sum with which you destined to bring me into +Parliament; to employ it, not in making me great, but in +rendering me happy. I have often heard you say yourself that +the allowance you had been so indulgent as to grant me, +though very liberal in regard to your estate, was yet but +small when compared with the almost necessary extravagances +of the age. I have indeed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> found it so, notwithstanding a +good deal of economy, and an exemption from many of the +common expenses of youth. This, dear sir, would be a way of +supplying these deficiencies without any additional expense +to you. But I forbear—if you think my proposals reasonable, +you want no intreaties to engage you to comply with them, if +otherwise all will be without effect.</p> + +<p>"All that I am afraid of, dear sir, is that I should seem +not so much asking a favour, as this really is, as exacting +a debt. After all I can say, you will remain the best judge +of my good and your own circumstances. Perhaps, like most +landed gentlemen, an addition to my annuity would suit you +better than a sum of money given at once; perhaps the sum +itself may be too considerable. Whatever you may think +proper to bestow on me, or in whatever manner, will be +received with equal gratitude.</p> + +<p>"I intended to stop here, but as I abhor the least +appearance of art, I think it better to lay open my whole +scheme at once. The unhappy war which now desolates Europe +will oblige me to defer seeing France till a peace. But that +reason can have no influence on Italy, a country which every +scholar must long to see. Should you grant my request, and +not disapprove of my manner of employing your bounty, I +would leave England this autumn and pass the winter at +Lausanne with M. de Voltaire and my old friends. In the +spring I would cross the Alps, and after some stay in Italy, +as the war must then be terminated, return home through +France, to live happily with you and my dear mother. I am +now two-and-twenty; a tour must take up a considerable time; +and although I believe you have no thoughts of settling me +soon (and I am sure I have not), yet so many things may +intervene that the man who does not travel early runs a +great risk of not travelling at all. But this part of my +scheme, as well as the whole of it, I submit entirely to +you.</p> + +<p>"Permit me, dear sir, to add that I do not know whether the +complete compliance with my wishes could increase my love +and gratitude, but that I am very sure no refusal could +diminish those sentiments with which I shall always remain, +dear sir, your most dutiful and obedient son and servant.</p> + +<p class="sig2">"E. GIBBON, <span class="smcap">Jun.</span>"</p> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> + +<p>Instead of going to Italy in the autumn of 1760, as he fondly hoped +when he wrote this letter, Gibbon was marching about the south of +England at the head of his grenadiers. But the scheme sketched in the +above letter was only postponed, and ultimately realised in every +particular. The question of a seat in Parliament never came up again +during his father's life, and no doubt the money it would have cost +was, according to his wise suggestion, devoted to defray the expenses +of his foreign tour, which he is now about to begin.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>THE ITALIAN JOURNEY.</h3> +<p>Gibbon reached Paris on the 28th January, 1763; thirty-six days, as he +tells us, after the disbanding of the militia. He remained a little +over three months in the French capital, which on the whole pleased +him so well that he thinks that if he had been independent and rich, +he might have been tempted to make it his permanent residence.</p> + +<p>On the other hand he seems to have been little if at all aware of the +extraordinary character of the society of which he became a spectator +and for a time a member. He does not seem to have been conscious that +he was witnessing one of the most singular social phases which have +yet been presented in the history of man. And no blame attaches to him +for this. No one of his contemporaries saw deeper in this direction +than he did. It is a remarkable instance of the way in which the +widest and deepest social movements are veiled to the eyes of those +who see them, precisely because of their width and depth. Foreigners, +especially Englishmen, visited Paris in the latter half of the +eighteenth century and reported variously of their experience and +impressions. Some, like Hume and Sterne, are delighted;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> some, like +Gibbon, are quietly, but thoroughly pleased; some, like +Walpole—though he perhaps is a class by himself—are half pleased and +half disgusted. They all feel that there is something peculiar in what +they witness, but never seem to suspect that nothing like it was ever +seen before in the world. One is tempted to wish that they could have +seen with our eyes, or, much more, that we could have had the +privilege of enjoying their experience, of spending a few months in +that singular epoch when "society," properly so called, the assembling +of men and women in drawing-rooms for the purpose of conversation, was +the most serious as well as the most delightful business of life. Talk +and discussion in the senate, the market-place, and the schools are +cheap; even barbarians are not wholly without them. But their +refinement and concentration in the <i>salon</i>—of which the president is +a woman of tact and culture—this is a phenomenon which never appeared +but in Paris in the eighteenth century. And yet scholars, men of the +world, men of business passed through this wonderland with eyes +blindfolded. They are free to enter, they go, they come, without a +sign that they have realised the marvellous scene that they were +permitted to traverse. One does not wonder that they did not perceive +that in those graceful drawing-rooms, filled with stately company of +elaborate manners, ideas and sentiments were discussed and evolved +which would soon be more explosive than gunpowder. One does not wonder +that they did not see ahead of them—men never do. One does rather +wonder that they did not see what was before their eyes. But wonder is +useless and a mistake. People who have never seen a volcano<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> cannot be +expected to fear the burning lava, or even to see that a volcano +differs from any other mountain.</p> + +<p>Gibbon had brought good introductions from London, but he admits that +they were useless, or rather superfluous. His nationality and his +<i>Essai</i> were his best recommendations. It was the day of Anglomania, +and, as he says, "every Englishman was supposed to be a patriot and a +philosopher." "I had rather be," said Mdlle. de Lespinasse to Lord +Shelburne, "the least member of the House of Commons than even the +King of Prussia." Similar things must have been said to Gibbon, but he +has not recorded them; and generally it may be said that he is +disappointingly dull and indifferent to Paris, though he liked it well +enough when there. He never caught the Paris fever as Hume did, and +Sterne, or even as Walpole did, for all the hard things he says of the +underbred and overbearing manners of the philosophers. Gibbon had +ready access to the well-known houses of Madame Geoffrin, Madame +Helvétius and the Baron d'Holbach; and his perfect mastery of the +language must have removed every obstacle in the way of complete +social intercourse. But no word in his Memoirs or Letters shows that +he really saw with the eyes of the mind the singularities of that +strange epoch. And yet he was there at an exciting and important +moment. The Order of the Jesuits was tottering to its fall; the latter +volumes of the <i>Encyclopedia</i> were being printed, and it was no +secret; the coruscating wit and audacity of the <i>salons</i> were at their +height. He is not unjust or prejudiced, but somewhat cold. He dines +with Baron d'Holbach, and says his dinners were excellent, but nothing +of the guests. He goes to Madame Geoffrin, and pronounces her house an +excellent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> one. Such faint and commonplace praise reflects on the +eulogist. The only man of letters of whom he speaks with warmth is +Helvétius. He does not appear in this first visit to have known Madame +du Deffand, who was still keeping her <i>salon</i> with the help of the +pale deep-eyed L'Espinasse, though the final rupture was imminent. +Louis Racine died, and so did Marivaux, while he was in Paris. The old +Opera-house in the Palais Royal was burnt down when he had been there +a little over a month, and the representations were transferred to the +Salle des Machines, in the Tuileries. The equestrian statue of Louis +XV. was set up in the Place to which it gave its name (where the Luxor +column now stands, in the Place de la Concorde) amidst the jeers and +insults of the mob, who declared it would never be got to pass the +hotel of Madame de Pompadour. How much or how little of all this +touched Gibbon, we do not know. We do know one thing, that his English +clothes were unfashionable and looked very foreign, the French being +"excessively long-waisted." Doubtless his scanty purse could not +afford a new outfit, such as Walpole two years afterwards, under the +direction of Lady Hertford, promptly procured. On the 8th of May he +hurried off to Lausanne.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The chronicle of events which occurred during Gibbon's +sojourn in Paris will be found in the interesting <i>Mémoires de +Bachaumont.</i></p></div></div> + +<p>His ultimate object was Italy. But he wisely resolved to place a +period of solid study between the lively dissipation of Paris and his +classic pilgrimage. He knew the difference between seeing things he +had read about and reading about things after he had seen them; how +the mind, charged with associations of famous scenes, is delicately +susceptible of impressions, and how <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>rapidly old musings take form and +colour, when, stirred by outward realities; and contrariwise, how slow +and inadequate is the effort to reverse this process, and to clothe +with memories, monuments and sites over which the spirit has not sent +a halo of previous meditation. So he settled down quietly at Lausanne +for the space of nearly a year, and commenced a most austere and +systematic course of reading on the antiquities of Italy. The list of +learned works which he perused "with his pen in his hand" is +formidable, and fills a quarto page. But he went further than this, +and compiled an elaborate treatise on the nations, provinces, and +towns of ancient Italy (which we still have) digested in alphabetical +order, in which every Latin author, from Plautus to Rutilius, is laid +under contribution for illustrative passages, which are all copied out +in full. This laborious work was evidently Gibbon's own guidebook in +his Italian travels, and one sees not only what an admirable +preparation it was for the object in view, but what a promise it +contained of that scrupulous thoroughness which was to be his mark as +an historian. His mind was indeed rapidly maturing, and becoming +conscious in what direction its strength lay.</p> + +<p>His account of his first impressions of Rome has been often quoted, +and deserves to be so again. "My temper is not very susceptible of +enthusiasm, and the enthusiasm which I do not feel I have ever scorned +to affect. But at the distance of twenty-five years I can neither +forget nor express the strong emotions which agitated my mind as I +first approached and entered the Eternal City. After a sleepless +night, I trod with a lofty step the ruins of the Forum. Each memorable +spot where Romulus stood, or Tully spoke, or Cæsar fell, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> at once +present to my eye, and several days of intoxication were lost and +enjoyed before I could descend to a cool and minute examination." He +gave eighteen weeks to the study of Rome only, and six to Naples, and +we may rest assured that he made good use of his time. But what makes +this visit to Rome memorable in his life and in literary history is +that it was the occasion and date of the first conception of his great +work. "It was at Rome, on the 15th October, 1764, as I sat musing amid +the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing +vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline +and fall of the city first started to my mind." The scene, the +contrast of the old religion and the new, the priests of Christ +replacing the flamens of Jupiter, the evensong of Catholic Rome +swelling like a dirge over the prostrate Pagan Rome might well +concentrate in one grand luminous idea the manifold but unconnected +thoughts with which his mind had so long been teeming. Gibbon had +found his work, which was destined to fill the remainder of his life. +Henceforth there is a fixed centre around which his thoughts and +musings cluster spontaneously. Difficulties and interruptions are not +wanting. The plan then formed is not taken in hand at once; on the +contrary, it is contemplated at "an awful distance"; but it led him on +like a star guiding his steps, till he reached his appointed goal.</p> + +<p>After crossing the Alps on his homeward journey, Gibbon had had some +thoughts of visiting the southern provinces of France. But when he +reached Lyons he found letters "expressive of some impatience" for his +return. Though he does not exactly say as much, we may justly conclude +that the elder Gibbon's pecuniary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> difficulties were beginning to be +oppressive. So the traveller, with the dutifulness that he ever showed +to his father, at once bent his steps northward. Again he passed +through Paris, and the place had a new attraction in his eyes in the +person of Mdlle. Curchod, now become Madame Necker, and wife of the +great financier.</p> + +<p>This perhaps will be the most convenient place to notice and estimate +a certain amount of rather spiteful gossip, of which Gibbon was the +subject in Switzerland about this time. Rousseau and his friend +Moultou have preserved it for us, and it is probable that it has lost +none of its pungency in passing through the hands of the latter. The +substance of it is this:—that in the year 1763, when Gibbon revisited +Lausanne, as we have seen, Susanne Curchod was still in a pitiable +state of melancholy and well nigh broken-hearted at Gibbon's manifest +coldness, which we know he considered to be "friendship and esteem." +Whether he even saw her on this visit cannot be considered certain, +but it is at least highly probable. Be that as it may: this is the +picture of her condition as drawn by Moultou in a letter to Rousseau: +"How sorry I am for our poor Mdlle. Curchod! Gibbon, whom she loves, +and to whom I know she has sacrificed some excellent matches, has come +to Lausanne, but cold, insensible, and as entirely cured of his old +passion as she is far from cure. She has written me a letter that +makes my heart ache." Rousseau says in reply, "He who does not +appreciate Mdlle. Curchod is not worthy of her; he who appreciates her +and separates himself from her is a man to be despised. She does not +know what she wants. Gibbon serves her better than her own heart. I +would rather a hundred times that he left her poor and free among you +than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> that he should take her off to be rich and miserable in +England." One does not quite see how Gibbon could have acted to the +contentment of Jean-Jacques. For not taking Mdlle. Curchod to +England—as we may presume he would have done if he had married +her—he is contemptible. Yet if he does take her he will make her +miserable, and Rousseau would rather a hundred times he left her +alone—precisely what he was doing; but then he was despicable for +doing it. The question is whether there is not a good deal of +exaggeration in all this. Only a year after the tragic condition in +which Moultou describes Mdlle. Curchod she married M. Necker, and +became devoted to her husband. A few months after she married Necker +she cordially invited Gibbon to her house every day of his sojourn in +Paris. If Gibbon had behaved in the unworthy way asserted, if she had +had her feelings so profoundly touched and lacerated as Moultou +declares, would she, or even could she, have acted thus? If she was +conscious of being wronged, and he was conscious—as he must have +been—of having acted basely, or at least unfeelingly, is it not as +good as certain that both parties would have been careful to see as +little of each other as possible? A broken-off love-match, even +without complication of unworthy conduct on either side, is generally +an effective bar to further intercourse. But in this case the +intercourse is renewed on the very first opportunity, and never +dropped till the death of one of the persons concerned.</p> + +<p>Two letters have been preserved of Gibbon and Madame Necker +respectively, nearly of the same date, and both referring to this +rather delicate topic of their first interviews after her marriage. +Gibbon writes to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> his friend Holroyd, "The Curchod (Madame Necker) I +saw in Paris. She was very fond of me, and the husband particularly +civil. Could they insult me more cruelly? Ask me every evening to +supper, go to bed and leave me alone with his wife—what impertinent +security! It is making an old lover of mighty little consequence. She +is as handsome as ever, and much genteeler; seems pleased with her +wealth rather than proud of it. I was exalting Nanette d'Illens's good +luck and the fortune" (this evidently refers to some common +acquaintance, who had changed her name to advantage). "'What fortune,' +she said with an air of contempt:—'not above twenty thousand livres a +year.' I smiled, and she caught herself immediately, 'What airs I give +myself in despising twenty thousand livres a year, who a year ago +looked upon eight hundred as the summit of my wishes.'"</p> + +<p>Let us turn to the lady's account of the same scenes. "I do not know +if I told you," she writes to a friend at Lausanne, "that I have seen +Gibbon, and it has given me more pleasure than I know how to express. +Not indeed that I retain any sentiment for a man who I think does not +deserve much" (this little toss of pique or pride need not mislead +us); "but my feminine vanity could not have had a more complete and +honest triumph. He stayed two weeks in Paris, and I had him every day +at my house; he has become soft, yielding, humble, decorous to a +fault. He was a constant witness of my husband's kindness, wit, and +gaiety, and made me remark for the first time, by his admiration for +wealth, the opulence with which I am surrounded, and which up to this +moment had only produced a disagreeable impression upon me." +Considering the very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> different points of view of the writers, these +letters are remarkably in unison. The solid fact of the daily visits +is recorded in both. It is easy to gather from Madame Necker's letter +that she was very glad to show Mr. Gibbon that for going farther and +not marrying him she had not fared worse. The rather acid allusion to +"opulence" is found in both letters; but much more pronounced in hers +than in his. Each hints that the other thought too much of wealth. But +he does so with delicacy, and only by implication; she charges him +coarsely with vulgar admiration for it. We may reasonably suspect that +riches had been the subject of not altogether smooth conversation +between them, in the later part of the evening, perhaps, after M. +Necker had retired in triumph to bed. One might even fancy that there +was a tacit allusion by Madame Necker to the dialogue recorded by +Gibbon to Holroyd, when his smile checked her indirect pride in her +own wealth, and that she remembered that smile with just a touch of +resentment. If so, nothing was more natural and comforting than to +charge him with the failing that he had detected in her. But here are +the facts. Eight months after her marriage, Madame Necker admits that +she had Gibbon every day to her house. He says that she was very +cordial. She would have it understood that she received him only for +the sake of gratifying a feminine vanity. For her own sake one might +prefer his interpretation to hers. It is difficult to believe that the +essentially simple-minded Madame Necker would have asked a man every +day to her house merely to triumph over him; and more difficult still +to believe that the man would have gone if such had been the object. A +little tartness in these first interviews, following on a relation of +some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> ambiguity, cannot surprise one. But it was not the dominant +ingredient, or the interviews must have ceased of their own accord. In +any case few will admit that either of the persons concerned would +have written as they did if Moultou's statement were correct. In +neither epistle is there any trace of a grand passion felt or +slighted. We discover the much lower level of vanity and badinage. And +the subsequent relations of Gibbon and Madame Necker all tend to prove +that this was the real one.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>LITERARY SCHEMES.—THE HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND.—DISSERTATION ON THE +SIXTH ÆNEID.—FATHER'S DEATH.—SETTLEMENT IN LONDON.</h3> +<p>Gibbon now (June, 1765) returned to his father's house, and remained +there till the latter's death in 1770. He describes these five years +as having been the least pleasant and satisfactory of his whole life. +The reasons were not far to seek. The unthrifty habits of the elder +Gibbon were now producing their natural result. He was saddled with +debt, from which two mortgages, readily consented to by his son, and +the sale of the house at Putney, only partially relieved him. Gibbon +now began to fear that he had an old age of poverty before him. He had +pursued knowledge with single-hearted loyalty and now became aware +that from a worldly point of view knowledge is not often a profitable +investment. A more dejecting discovery cannot be made by the sincere +scholar. He is conscious of labour and protracted effort, which the +prosperous professional man and tradesman who pass him on their road +to wealth with a smile of scornful pity have never known. He has +forsaken comparatively all for knowledge, and the busy world meets him +with a blank stare, and surmises shrewdly that he is but an idler, +with an odd taste for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> wasting his time over books. It says much for +Gibbon's robustness of spirit that he did not break down in these +trying years, that he did not weakly take fright at his prospect, and +make hasty and violent efforts to mend it. On the contrary, he +remained steadfast and true to the things of the mind. With diminished +cheerfulness perhaps, but with no abatement of zeal, he pursued his +course and his studies, thereby proving that he belonged to the select +class of the strong and worthy who, penetrated with the loveliness of +science, will not be turned away from it.</p> + +<p>His first effort to redeem the time was a project of a history of +Switzerland. His choice was decided by two circumstances: (1) his love +for a country which he had made his own by adoption; (2) by the fact +that he had in his friend Deyverdun, a fellow-worker who could render +him most valuable assistance. Gibbon never knew German, which is not +surprising when we reflect what German literature amounted to, in +those days; and he soon discovered that the most valuable authorities +of his projected work were in the German language. But Deyverdun was a +perfect master of that tongue, and translated a mass of documents for +the use of his friend. They laboured for two years in collecting +materials, before Gibbon felt himself justified in entering on the +"more agreeable task of composition." And even then he considered the +preparation insufficient, as no doubt it was. He felt he could not do +justice to his subject; uninformed as he was "by the scholars and +statesmen, and remote from the archives and libraries of the Swiss +republic." Such a beginning was not of good augury for the success of +the undertaking. He never wrote more than about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> sixty quarto pages of +the projected work, and these, as they were in French, were submitted +to the judgment of a literary society of foreigners in London, before +whom the MS. was read. The author was unknown, and Gibbon attended the +meeting, and thus listened without being observed "to the free +strictures and unfavourable sentence of his judges." He admits that +the momentary sensation was painful; but the condemnation was ratified +by his cooler thoughts: and he declares that he did not regret the +loss of a slight and superficial essay, though it "had cost some +expense, much labour, and more time." He says in his Memoirs that he +burnt the sheets. But this, strange to say, was a mistake on his part. +They were found among his papers after his death, and though not +published by Lord Sheffield in the first two volumes of his +Miscellaneous Works, which the latter edited in 1796, they appeared in +the supplemental third volume which came out in 1815. We thus can +judge for ourselves of their value. One sees at once why and how they +failed to satisfy their author's mature judgment. They belong to that +style of historical writing which consists in the rhetorical +transcription and adornment of the original authorities, but in which +the writer never gets close enough to his subject to apply the +touchstone of a clear and trenchant criticism. Such criticism indeed +was not common in Switzerland in his day, and one cannot blame Gibbon +for not anticipating the researches of modern investigators. But his +historical sense was aroused to suspicion by the story of William +Tell, which he boldly sets down as a fable. Altogether, one may +pronounce the sketch to be pleasantly written in a flowing, +picturesque narrative, and showing immense advance in style beyond the +essay on the Study<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> of Literature. David Hume, to whom he submitted +it, urged him to persevere, and the advice was justified under the +circumstances, although one cannot now regret that it was not +followed.</p> + +<p>After the failure of this scheme Gibbon, still in connection with +Deyverdun, planned a periodical work under the title of <i>Mémoires +Littéraires de la Grande Bretagne</i>. Only two volumes ever appeared, +and the speculation does not seem to have met with much success. +Gibbon "presumes to say that their merit was superior to their +reputation, though they produced more reputation than emolument." The +first volume is executed with evident pains, and gives a fair picture +of the literary and social condition of England at the time. The heavy +review articles are interspersed with what is intended to be lighter +matter on the fashions, foibles, and prominent characters of the day. +Gibbon owns the authorship of the first article on Lord Lyttelton's +history of Henry the Second, and his hand is discernible in the +account of the fourth volume of Lardner's work <i>On the Credibility of +the Gospel History</i>. The first has no merit beyond a faithful report. +The latter is written with much more zest and vigour, and shows the +interest that he already took in Christian antiquities. Other +articles, evidently from the pen of Deyverdun, on the English theatre +and Beau Nash of Bath, are the liveliest in the collection. The +magazine was avowedly intended for Continental readers, and might have +obtained success if it had been continued long enough. But it died +before it had time to make itself known.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Two volumes appeared of the <i>Mémoires Littéraires</i>. Of +these only the first is to be found in the British Museum. It is a +small 12mo, containing 230 pages. Here is the Table des +Matières:—(1)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> Histoire de Henri II., par Milord Lyttelton; (2) Le +Nouveau Guide de Bath; (3) Essai sur l'Histoire de la Société Civile, +par M. Ferguson; (4) Conclusions des Mémoires de Miss Sydney Bidulph; +Théologie (5) Recueil des Témoignages Anciens, par Lardner; (6) Le +Confessional; (7) Transactions Philosophiques; (8) Le Gouverneur, par +D. L. F. Spectacles, Beaux Arts, Nouvelles Littéraires.</p></div></div> + +<p>When the <i>Mémoires Littéraires</i> collapsed Gibbon was again left +without a definite object to concentrate his energy, and with his work +still to seek. One might wonder why he did not seriously prepare for +the <i>Decline and Fall</i>. It must have been chiefly at this time that it +was "contemplated at an awful distance," perhaps even with numbing +doubt whether the distance would ever be lessened and the work +achieved, or even begun. The probability is he had too little peace of +mind to undertake anything that required calm and protracted labour. +"While so many of my acquaintance were married, or in Parliament, or +advancing with a rapid step in the various roads of honour or fortune +I stood alone, immovable, and insignificant.... The progress and the +knowledge of our domestic disorders aggravated my anxiety, and I began +to apprehend that in my old age I might be left without the fruits of +either industry or inheritance." Perhaps a reasonable apprehension of +poverty is more paralysing than the reality. In the latter case prompt +action is so imperatively commanded that the mind has no leisure for +the fatal indulgence of regrets; but when indigence seems only +imminent, and has not yet arrived, a certain lethargy is apt to be +produced out of which only the most practical characters can rouse +themselves, and these are not, as a rule, scholars by nature. We need +not be surprised that Gibbon <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>during these years did nothing serious, +and postponed undertaking his great work. The inspiration needed to +accomplish such a long and arduous course as it implied could not be +kindled in a mind harassed by pecuniary cares. The fervent heat of a +poet's imagination may glow as brightly in poverty as in opulence, but +the gentle yet prolonged enthusiasm of the historian is likely to be +quenched when the resources of life are too insecure.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Scholarship has been frequently cultivated amidst great +poverty; but from the time of Thucydides, the owner of mines, to +Grote, the banker, historians seem to have been in, at least, easy +circumstances.</p></div></div> + +<p>It is perhaps not wholly fanciful to suspect that Gibbon's next +literary effort was suggested and determined by the inward +discomposure he felt at this time. By nature he was not a +controversialist; not that he wanted the abilities to support that +character, but his mind was too full, fertile, and fond of real +knowledge to take much pleasure in the generally barren occupation of +gainsaying other men. But at this point in his life he made an +exception, and an unprovoked exception. When he wrote his famous +vindication of the first volume of the <i>Decline and Fall</i> he was +acting in self-defence, and repelling savage attacks upon his +historical veracity. But in his <i>Critical Observations on the Sixth +Book of the Æneid</i> he sought controversy for its own sake, and became +a polemic—shall we say out of gaiety or bitterness of heart? That +inward unrest easily produces an aggressive spirit is a matter of +common observation, and it may well have been that in attacking +Warburton he sought a diversion from the worry of domestic cares. Be +that as it may, his <i>Observations</i> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>are the most pungent and dashing +effusion he ever allowed himself. It was his first effort in English +prose, and it is doubtful whether he ever managed his mother tongue +better, if indeed he ever managed it so well. The little tract is +written with singular spirit and rapidity of style. It is clear, +trenchant, and direct to a fault. It is indeed far less critical than +polemical, and shows no trace of lofty calm, either moral or +intellectual. We are not repelled much by his eagerness to refute and +maltreat his opponent. That was not alien from the usages of the time, +and Warburton at least had no right to complain of such a style of +controversy. But there is no width and elevation of view. The writer +does not carry the discussion up to a higher level, and dominate his +adversary from a superior standpoint. Controversy is always ephemeral +and vulgar, unless it can rise to the discussion and establishment of +facts and principles valuable for themselves, independently of the +particular point at issue. It is this quality which has made the +master-works of Chillingworth and Bentley supereminent. The particular +point for which the writers contended is settled or forgotten. But in +moving up to that point they touched—such was their large discourse +of reason—on topics of perennial interest, did such justice, though +only in passing, to certain other truths, that they are gratefully +remembered ever after. Thus Bentley's dissertation on Phalaris is +read, not for the main thesis—proof of the spuriousness of the +letters—but for the profound knowledge and admirable logic with which +subsidiary positions are maintained on the way to it. Tried by this +standard, and he deserves to be tried by a high standard, Gibbon fails +not much, but entirely. The <i>Observations</i> are rarely,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> if ever, +quoted as an authority of weight by any one engaged on classical or +Virgilian literature. This arises from the attitude of the writer, who +is nearly solely occupied with establishing negative conclusions that +Æneas was <i>not</i> a lawgiver, that the Sixth Æneid is <i>not</i> an allegory, +that Virgil had <i>not</i> been initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries when +he wrote it, and so forth. Indeed the best judges now hold that he has +not done full justice to the grain of truth that was to be found in +Warburton's clumsy and prolix hypothesis.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> It should be added that +Gibbon very candidly admits and regrets the acrimonious style of the +pamphlet, and condemns still more "in a personal attack his cowardly +concealment of his name and character."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Conington, <i>Introduction to the Sixth Æneid</i>. "A reader +of the present day will, I think, be induced to award the palm of +learning and ingenuity to Warburton." "The language and imagery of the +sixth book more than once suggest that Virgil intended to embody in +his picture the poetical view of that inner side of ancient religion +which the mysteries may be supposed to have presented."—<i>Suggestion +on the Study of the Æneid</i>, by H. Nettleship, p. 13.</p></div></div> + +<p>The <i>Observations</i> were the last work which Gibbon published in his +father's lifetime. His account of the latter's death (November 10, +1770) is feelingly written, and shows the affectionate side of his own +nature to advantage. He acknowledges his father's failings, his +weakness and inconstancy, but insists that they were compensated by +the virtues of the head and heart, and the warmest sentiments of +honour and humanity. "His graceful person, polite address, gentle +manners, and unaffected cheerfulness recommended him to the favour of +every company." And Gibbon recalls with emotion "the pangs of shame, +tenderness, and self-reproach" <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>which preyed on his father's mind at +the prospect, no doubt, of leaving an embarrassed estate and +precarious fortune to his son and widow. He had no taste for study in +the fatal summer of 1770, and declares that he would have been ashamed +if he had. "I submitted to the order of nature," he says, in words +which recall his resignation on losing his mistress—"I submitted to +the order of nature, and my grief was soothed by the conscious +satisfaction that I had discharged all the duties of filial piety." We +see Gibbon very fairly in this remark. He had tenderness, steady and +warm attachments, but no passion.</p> + +<p>Nearly two years elapsed after his father's death, before he was able +to secure from the wreck of his estate a sufficient competence to +establish himself in London. His house was No. 7, Bentinck Street, +near Manchester Square, then a remote suburb close to the country +fields. His housekeeping was that of a solitary bachelor, who could +afford an occasional dinner-party. Though not absolutely straitened in +means, we shall presently see that he was never quite at his ease in +money matters while he remained in London. But he had now freedom and +no great anxieties, and he began seriously to contemplate the +execution of his great work.</p> + +<p>Gibbon, as we have seen, looked back with little satisfaction on the +five years between his return from his travels and his father's death. +They are also the years during which his biographer is able to follow +him with the least certainty. Hardly any of his letters which refer to +that period have been preserved, and he has glided rapidly over it in +his Memoirs. Yet it was, in other respects besides the matter of +pecuniary troubles, a momentous epoch in his life. The peculiar views<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +which he adopted and partly professed on religion must have been +formed then. But the date, the circumstance, and the occasion are left +in darkness. Up to December 18, 1763, Gibbon was evidently a believer. +In an entry in his private journal under that date he speaks of a +Communion Sunday at Lausanne as affording an "edifying spectacle," on +the ground that there is "neither business nor parties, and they +interdict even whist" on that day. How soon after this his opinions +began to change, it is impossible to say. But we are conscious of a +markedly different tone in the <i>Observations</i>, and a sneer at "the +ancient alliance between the avarice of the priests and the credulity +of the people" is in the familiar style of the Deists from Toland to +Chubb. There is no evidence of his familiarity with the widely +diffused works of the freethinkers, and as far as I am aware he does +not quote or refer to them even once. But they could hardly have +escaped his notice. Still his strong historic sense and solid +erudition would be more likely to be repelled than attracted by their +vague and inaccurate scholarship, and chimerical theories of the light +of Nature. Still we know that he practically adopted, in the end, at +least the negative portion of these views, and the question is, When +did he do so? His visit to Paris, and the company that he frequented +there, might suggest that as a probable date of his change of +opinions. But the entry just referred to was subsequent by several +months to that visit, and we may with confidence assume that no +freethinker of the eighteenth century would pronounce the austerities +of a Communion Sunday in a Calvinist town an edifying spectacle. It is +probable that his relinquishing of dogmatic faith was gradual, and for +a time unconscious. It was an age of tepid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> belief, except among the +Nonjurors and Methodists; and with neither of these groups could he +have had the least sympathy. His acquaintance with Hume, and his +partiality for the writings of Bayle, are more probable sources of a +change of sentiment which was in a way predestined by natural bias and +cast of mind. Any occasion would serve to precipitate the result. In +any case, this result had been attained some years before the +publication of the first volume of the <i>Decline and Fall</i>, in 1776. +Referring to his preparatory studies for the execution of that work, +he says, "As I believed, and as I still believe, that the propagation +of the Gospel and the triumph of the Church are inseparably connected +with the decline of the Roman monarchy, I weighed the causes and +effects of the revolution, and contrasted the narratives and apologies +of the Christians themselves with the glances of candour or enmity +which the pagans have cast on the rising sects. The Jewish and heathen +testimonies, as they are collected and illustrated by Dr. Lardner, +directed without superseding my search of the originals, and in an +ample dissertation on the miraculous darkness of the Passion I +privately drew my conclusions from the silence of an unbelieving age." +Here we have the argument which concludes the sixteenth chapter +distinctly announced. But the previous travail of spirit is not +indicated. Gibbon has marked with precision the stages of his +conversion to Romanism. But the following chapters of the history of +his religious opinions he has not written, or he has suppressed them, +and we can only vaguely guess their outline.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>LIFE IN LONDON.—PARLIAMENT.—THE BOARD OF TRADE.—THE DECLINE AND +FALL.—MIGRATION TO LAUSANNE.</h3> +<p>Gibbon's settlement in London as master in his own house did not come +too soon. A few more years of anxiety and dependence, such as he had +passed of late with his father in the country, would probably have +dried up the spring of literary ambition and made him miss his career. +He had no tastes to fit him for a country life. The pursuit of farming +only pleased him in Virgil's <i>Georgics</i>. He seems neither to have +liked nor to have needed exercise, and English rural sports had no +charms for him. "I never handled a gun, I seldom mounted a horse, and +my philosophic walks were soon terminated by a shady bench, where I +was long detained by the sedentary amusement of reading or +meditation." He was a born <i>citadin</i>. "Never," he writes to his friend +Holroyd, "never pretend to allure me by painting in odious colours the +dust of London. I love the dust, and whenever I move into the Weald it +is to visit you, and not your trees." His ideal was to devote the +morning, commencing early—at seven, say—to study, and the afternoon +and evening to society and recreation, not "disdaining the innocent +amusement of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> game at cards." And this plan of a happy life he very +fairly realised in his little house in Bentinck Street. The letters +that we have of his relating to this period are buoyant with spirits +and self-congratulation at his happy lot. He writes to his step-mother +that he is every day more satisfied with his present mode of life, +which he always believed was most calculated to make him happy. The +stable and moderate stimulus of congenial society, alternating with +study, was what he liked. The excitement and dissipation of a town +life, which purchase pleasure to-day at the expense of fatigue and +disgust to-morrow, were as little to his taste as the amusements of +the country. In 1772, when he settled in London, he was young in +years, but he was old in tastes, and he enjoyed himself with the +complacency often seen in healthy old men. "My library," he writes to +Holroyd in 1773, "Kensington Gardens, and a few parties with new +acquaintance, among whom I reckon Goldsmith and Sir Joshua Reynolds," +(poor Goldsmith was to die the year following), "fill up my time, and +the monster <i>ennui</i> preserves a very respectful distance. By the by, +your friends Batt, Sir John Russell, and Lascelles dined with me one +day before they set off: <i>for I sometimes give the prettiest little +dinner in the world</i>." One can imagine Gibbon, the picture of +plumpness and content, doing the honours of his modest household. +Still he was never prominent in society, even after the publication of +his great work had made him famous. Lord Sheffield says that his +conversation was superior to his writings, and in a circle of intimate +friends it is probable that this was true. But in the free encounter +of wit and argument, the same want of readiness that made him silent +in parliament would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> most likely restrict his conversational power. It +may be doubted if there is a striking remark or saying of his on +record. His name occurs in Boswell, but nearly always as a <i>persona +muta</i>. Certainly the arena where Johnson and Burke encountered each +other was not fitted to bring out a shy and not very quick man. +Against Johnson he manifestly harboured a sort of grudge, and if he +ever felt the weight of Ursa Major's paw it is not surprising.</p> + +<p>He rather oddly preserved an instance of his conversational skill, as +if aware that he would not easily get credit for it. The scene was in +Paris. "At the table of my old friend M. de Foncemagne, I was involved +in a dispute with the Abbé de Mably.... As I might be partial in my +own cause, I shall transcribe the words of an unknown critic. 'You +were, my dear Théodon, at M. de Foncemagne's house, when the Abbé de +Mably and Mr. Gibbon dined there along with a number of guests. The +conversation ran almost entirely on history. The Abbé, being a +profound politician, turned it while at dessert on the administration +of affairs, and as by genius and temper, and the habit of admiring +Livy, he values only the republican system, he began to boast of the +excellence of republics, being well persuaded that the learned +Englishman would approve of all he said and admire the profoundity of +genius that had enabled a Frenchman to discover all these advantages. +But Mr. Gibbon, knowing by experience the inconveniences of a popular +government, was not at all of his opinion, and generously took up the +defence of monarchy. The Abbé wished to convince him out of Livy, and +by some arguments drawn from Plutarch in favour of the Spartans. Mr. +Gibbon, being endowed with a most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> excellent memory, and having all +events present to his mind, soon got the command of the conversation. +The Abbé grew angry, they lost possession of themselves, and said hard +things of each other. The Englishman retaining his native coolness, +watched for his advantages, and pressed the Abbé with increasing +success in proportion as he was more disturbed by passion. The +conversation grew warmer, and was broken off by M. de Foncemagne's +rising from table and passing into the parlour, where no one was +tempted to renew it."</p> + +<p>But if not brilliant in society, he was very <i>répandu</i>, and was +welcomed in the best circles. He was a member of Boodle's, White's, +Brooks's, and Almack's,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> and "there were few persons in the literary +or political world to whom he was a stranger." It is to be regretted +that the best sketch of him at this period borders on caricature. "The +learned Gibbon," says Colman, "was a curious counterbalance to the +learned (may I not say the less learned) Johnson. Their manners and +tastes, both in writing and conversation, were as different as their +habiliments. On the day I first sat down with Johnson in his +rusty-brown suit and his black worsted stockings, Gibbon was placed +opposite to me in a suit of flowered velvet, with a bag and sword. +Each had his measured phraseology, and Johnson's famous parallel +between Dryden and Pope might be loosely parodied in reference to +himself and Gibbon. Johnson's style was grand, and Gibbon's elegant: +the stateliness of the former was sometimes pedantic, and the latter +was occasionally finical. Johnson marched to kettledrums and trumpets, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>Gibbon moved to flutes and hautboys. Johnson hewed passages through +the Alps, while Gibbon levelled walks through parks and gardens. +Mauled as I had been by Johnson, Gibbon poured balm upon my bruises by +condescending once or twice in the course of the evening to talk with +me. The great historian was light and playful, suiting his matter to +the capacity of the boy: but it was done <i>more suo</i>—still his +mannerism prevailed, still he tapped his snuff-box, still he smirked +and smiled, and rounded his periods with the same air of +good-breeding, as if he were conversing with men. His mouth, +mellifluous as Plato's, was a round hole nearly in the centre of his +visage." (Quoted in Croker's <i>Boswell</i>.)</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Not the assembly-room of that name, but a gaming-club +where the play was high. I find no evidence that Gibbon ever yielded +to the prevalent passion for gambling.</p></div></div> + +<p>Now and then he even joins in a masquerade, "the finest thing ever +seen," which costs two thousand guineas. But the chief charm of it to +him seems to have been the pleasure that it gave to his Aunt Porten. +These little vanities are however quite superficial, and are never +allowed to interfere with work.</p> + +<p>Now indeed he was no loiterer. In three years after his settlement in +London he had produced the first volume of the <i>Decline and Fall</i>: an +amount of diligence which will not be underrated by those who +appreciate the vast difference between commencing and continuing an +undertaking of that magnitude. "At the outset," he says, "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, the division +of the chapters, and the order of the narrative,—and I was often +tempted to cast away the labour of seven years;"—alternations no +doubt of hope and despair familiar to every sincere and competent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +student. But he had taken the best and only reliable means of securing +himself from the danger of these fluctuations of spirit. He finished +his reading and preparation before he began to write, and when he at +last put pen to paper his course lay open before him, with no fear of +sudden and disquieting stoppages arising from imperfect knowledge and +need of further inquiry. It is a pity that we cannot follow the +elaboration of the work in detail. That portion of his Memoirs in +which he speaks of it is very short and fragmentary, and the defect is +not supplied by his letters. He seems to have worked with singular +ease and mastery of his subject, and never to have felt his task as a +strain or a fatigue. Even his intimate friends were not aware that he +was engaged on a work of such magnitude, and it is amusing to see his +friend Holroyd warn him against a hasty and immature publication when +he learned that the book was in the press. He had apparently heard +little of it before. This alone would show with what ease and +smoothness Gibbon must have worked. He had excellent health—a strange +fact after his sickly childhood; society unbent his mind instead of +distracting it; his stomach was perfect—perhaps too good, as about +this time he began to be admonished by the gout. He never seems to +have needed change. "Sufficient for the summer is the evil thereof, +viz., one distant country excursion." There was an extraordinary +difference in this respect between the present age and those which +went before it; restlessness and change of scene have become almost a +necessity of life with us, whereas our ancestors could continue +healthy and happy for months and years without stirring from home. +What is there to explain the change? We must not pretend that we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> work +harder than they did.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> However, Gibbon was able to keep himself in +good condition with his long spell of work in the morning, and his +dinner-parties at home or elsewhere in the afternoon, and to have kept +at home as much as he could. Whenever he went away to the country, it +was on invitations which he could not well refuse. The result was a +leisurely, unhasting fulness of achievement, calm stretches of +thorough and contented work, which have left their marks on the +<i>Decline and Fall</i>. One of its charms is a constant good humour and +complacency; not a sign is visible that the writer is pressed for +time, or wants to get his performance out of hand; but, on the +contrary, a calm lingering over details, sprightly asides in the +notes, which the least hurry would have suppressed or passed by, and a +general impression conveyed of thorough enjoyment in the immensity of +the labour.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> The most remarkable instance of all is the case of +Newton, who, according to Dr. Whewell, resided in Trinity College "for +thirty-five years without the interruption of a month."—<i>Hist. of the +Inductive Sciences</i>, vol. ii. book vii.</p></div></div> + +<p>One would have liked to see this elaboration more clearly, to have +been allowed a glimpse into his workshop while he was so engaged. +Unfortunately the editor of his journals has selected the relatively +unimportant records of his earlier studies, and left us in the dark as +regards this far more interesting period. He was such an indefatigable +diarist that it is unlikely that he neglected to keep a journal in +this crisis of his studies. But it has not been published, and it may +have been destroyed. All that we have is this short paragraph in his +Memoirs:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The classics, as low as Tacitus and the younger Pliny and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>Juvenal, were my old and familiar companions. I insensibly +plunged into the ocean of the Augustan history, and in the +descending series I investigated, with my pen almost always +in my hand, the original records, both Greek and Latin, from +Dion Cassius to Ammianus Marcellinus, from the reign of +Trajan to the last age of the Western Cæsars. The subsidiary +rays of medals and inscriptions of geography and chronology, +were thrown on their proper objects, and I applied the +collections of Tillemont to fix and arrange within my reach +the loose and scattered atoms of historical information. +Through the darkness of the middle ages I explored my way in +the <i>Annals and Antiquities of Italy</i> of the learned +Muratori, and diligently compared them with the parallel or +transverse lines of Sigonius and Maffei, Baronius and Pagi, +till I almost grasped the ruins of Rome in the fourteenth +century, without suspecting that this final chapter must be +attained by the labour of six quartos and twenty years."</p></div> + +<p>When the time for composition arrived, he showed a fastidiousness +which was full of good augury. "Three times did I compose the first +chapter, and twice the second and third, before I was tolerably +satisfied with their effect." His hand grew firmer as he advanced. But +the two final chapters interposed a long delay, and needed "three +successive revisals to reduce them from a volume to their present +size." Gibbon spent more time over his first volume than over any one +of the five which followed it. To these he devoted almost regularly +two years apiece, more or less, whereas the first cost him three +years—so disproportionately difficult is the start in matters of this +kind.</p> + +<p>While engaged in the composition of the first volume, he became a +member of Parliament. One morning at half past seven, "as he was +destroying an army of barbarians," he heard a double rap at his door. +It was a friend who came to inquire if he was desirous of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> entering +the House of Commons. The answer may be imagined, and he took his seat +as member for the borough of Liskeard after the general election in +1774.</p> + +<p>Gibbon's political career is the side of his history from which a +friendly biographer would most readily turn away. Not that it was +exceptionally ignoble or self-seeking if tried by the standard of the +time, but it was altogether commonplace and unworthy of him. The fact +that he never even once opened his mouth in the House is not in itself +blameworthy, though disappointing in a man of his power. It was indeed +laudable enough if he had nothing to say. But why had he nothing to +say? His excuse is timidity and want of readiness. We may reasonably +assume that the cause lay deeper. With his mental vigour he would soon +have overcome such obstacles if he had really wished and tried to +overcome them. The fact is that he never tried because he never +wished. It is a singular thing to say of such a man, but nevertheless +true, that he had no taste or capacity whatever for politics. He lived +at one of the most exciting periods of our history; he assisted at +debates in which constitutional and imperial questions of the highest +moment were discussed by masters of eloquence and state policy, and he +hardly appears to have been aware of the fact. It was not that he +despised politics as Walpole affected to do, or that he regarded party +struggles as "barbarous and absurd faction," as Hume did; still less +did he pass by them with the supercilious indifference of a mystic +whose eyes are fixed on the individual spirit of man as the one spring +of good and evil. He never rose to the level of the ordinary citizen +or even partisan, who takes an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> exaggerated view perhaps of the +importance of the politics of the day, but who at any rate thereby +shows a sense of social solidarity and the claims of civic communion. +He called himself a Whig, but he had no zeal for Whig principles. He +voted steadily with Lord North, and quite approved of taxing and +coercing America into slavery; but he had no high notions of the royal +prerogative, and was lukewarm in this as in everything. With such +absence of passion one might have expected that he would be at least +shrewd and sagacious in his judgments on politics. But he is nothing +of the kind. In his familiar letters he reserves generally a few lines +for parliamentary gossip, amid chat about the weather and family +business. He never approaches to a broad survey of policy, or +expresses serious and settled convictions on home or foreign affairs. +Throughout the American war he never seems to have really made up his +mind on the nature of the struggle, and the momentous issues that it +involved. Favourable news puts him in high spirits, which are promptly +cooled by the announcement of reverses; not that he ever shows any +real anxiety or despondency about the commonwealth. His opinions on +the subject are at the mercy of the last mail. It is disappointing to +find an elegant trifler like Horace Walpole not only far more +discerning in his appreciation of such a crisis, but also far more +patriotically sensitive as to the wisdom of the means of meeting it, +than the historian of Rome. Gibbon's tone often amounts to levity, and +he chronicles the most serious measures with an unconcern really +surprising. "In a few days we stop the ports of New England. I cannot +write volumes: but I am more and more convinced that with firmness all +may go well: yet I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> sometimes doubt." (February 8, 1775.) "Something +will be done this year; but in the spring the force of the country +will be exerted to the utmost: Scotch Highlanders, Irish Papists, +Hanoverians, Canadians, Indians, &c., will all in various shapes be +employed." (August 1, 1775.) "What think you of the season, of Siberia +is it not? A pleasant campaign in America." (January 29, 1776.) At +precisely the same time the sagacious coxcomb of Strawberry Hill was +writing thus: "The times are indeed very serious. Pacification with +America is not the measure adopted. More regiments are ordered +thither, and to-morrow a plan, I fear equivalent to a declaration of +war, is to be laid before both Houses. They are bold ministers +methinks who do not hesitate on civil war, in which victory may bring +ruin, and disappointment endanger their heads.... Acquisition alone +can make burdens palatable, and in a war with our own colonies we must +inflict instead of acquiring them, and we cannot recover them without +undoing them. I am still to learn wisdom and experience, if these +things are not so." (Letter to Mann, January 25, 1775.) "A war with +our colonies, which is now declared, is a proof how much influence +jargon has on human actions. A war on our own trade is popular." +(February 15, 1775.) "The war with America goes on briskly, that is as +far as voting goes. A great majority in both houses is as brave as a +mob ducking a pick-pocket. They flatter themselves they shall terrify +the colonies into submission in three months, and are amazed to hear +that there is no such probability. They might as well have +excommunicated them, and left it to the devil to put the sentence into +execution." (February 18, 1775.) Not only is Walpole's judgment wiser, +but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> elements of a wise judgment were present to him in a way in +which they were not so to Gibbon. When the latter does attempt a +forecast, he shows, as might be expected, as little penetration of the +future as appreciation of the present. Writing from Paris on August +11, 1777, when all French society was ablaze with enthusiasm for +America, and the court just on the point of yielding to the current, +he is under no immediate apprehensions of a war with France, and +"would not be surprised if next summer the French were to lend their +cordial assistance to England as the weaker party." The emptiness of +his letters as regards home politics perhaps admits of a more +favourable explanation, and may be owing to the careful suppression by +their editor, Lord Sheffield, of everything of real interest. It is +impossible to estimate the weight of this consideration, but it may be +great. Still we have a sufficient number of his letters to be able to +say that on the whole they are neither thoughtful nor graphic: they +give us neither pictures of events nor insight into the times. It must +be, however, remembered that Gibbon greatly disliked letter-writing, +and never wrote unless he was obliged.</p> + +<p>It was no secret that Gibbon wanted a place under government. Moderate +as his establishment seems to have been, it was more expensive than he +could afford, and he looked, not without warrant, to a supplement of +income from one of the rich windfalls which, in that time of sinecures +were wont to refresh the spirits of sturdy supporters of +administration. He had influential friends, and even relatives, in and +near the government, and but for his parliamentary nullity he would +probably have been provided with a comfortable berth at an early +period. But his "sincere and silent vote" was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> not valuable enough to +command a high price from his patrons. Once only was he able to help +them with his pen, when he drew up, at the request of Lords Thurlow +and Weymouth, his <i>Mémoire Justificatif</i>, in French, in which "he +vindicated against the French manifesto the justice of the British +arms." It was a service worthy of a small fee, which no doubt he +received. He had to wait till 1779, when he had been five years in +Parliament, before his cousin Mr. Eliot, and his friend Wedderburne, +the Attorney-General, were able to find him a post as one of the Lords +Commissioners of Trade and Plantations. The Board of Trade, of which +he became one of the eight members, survives in mortal memory only +from being embalmed in the bright amber of one of Burke's great +speeches. "This board, Sir, has had both its original formation and +its regeneration in a job. In a job it was conceived, and in a job its +mother brought it forth.... This board is a sort of temperate bed of +influence: a sort of gently ripening hothouse, where eight members of +Parliament receive salaries of a thousand a year for a certain given +time, in order to mature at a proper season a claim to two thousand, +granted for doing less" (<i>Speech on Economical Reform</i>). Gibbon, with +entire good humour, acknowledges the justice of Burke's indictment, +and says he was "heard with delight, even by those whose existence he +proscribed." After all, he only enjoyed the emolument of his office +for three years, and he places that emolument at a lower figure than +Burke did. He could not have received more than between two and three +thousand pounds of public money; and when we consider what manner of +men have fattened on the national purse, it would be churlish to +grudge that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> small sum to the historian of the <i>Decline and Fall</i>. The +misfortune is that, reasonably or otherwise, doubts were raised as to +Gibbon's complete straightforwardness and honourable adhesion to party +ties in accepting office. He says himself: "My acceptance of a place +provoked some of the leaders of opposition with whom I had lived in +habits of intimacy, and I was most unjustly accused of deserting a +party in which I had never enlisted." There is certainly no evidence +that those who were most qualified to speak, those who gave him the +place and reckoned on his vote, ever complained of want of allegiance. +On the other hand, Gibbon's own letter to Edward Elliot, accepting the +place, betrays a somewhat uneasy conscience. He owns that he was far +from approving all the past measures of the administration, even some +of those in which he himself had silently concurred; that he saw many +capital defects in the characters of some of the present ministers, +and was sorry that in so alarming a situation of public affairs the +country had not the assistance of several able and honest men who were +now in opposition. Still, for various reasons, he did not consider +himself in any way implicated, and rather suspiciously concludes with +an allusion to his pecuniary difficulties and a flourish. "The +addition of the salary which is now offered will make my situation +perfectly easy, but I hope that you will do me the justice to believe +that my mind could not be so unless I were conscious of the rectitude +of my conduct."</p> + +<p>The strongest charge against Gibbon in reference to this matter is +asserted to come from his friend Fox, in this odd form. "In June 1781, +Mr. Fox's library came to be sold. Amongst his other books the first +volume<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> of Mr. Gibbon's history was brought to the hammer. In the +blank leaf of this was a note in the handwriting of Mr. Fox, stating a +remarkable declaration of our historian at a well-known tavern in Pall +Mall, and contrasting it with Mr. Gibbon's political conduct +afterwards. 'The author,' it observed, 'at Brooks's said that there +was no salvation for this country until six heads of the principal +persons in administration' (Lord North being then prime minister) +'were laid upon the table. Yet,' as the observation added, 'eleven +days afterwards this same gentleman accepted a place of a lord of +trade under these very ministers, and has acted with them ever +since.'" It is impossible to tell what amount of truth there is in +this story, and not very important to inquire. It rests on the +authority of a strong personal enemy, and the cordial intimacy which +ever subsisted between Gibbon and Fox seems to show that it was mere +calumny. Perhaps the fact that Gibbon had really no opinions in +politics may have led persons of opposite parties to think that he +agreed with them more than he did, and when he merely followed his own +interest, they may have inferred that he was deserting their +principles. After losing his post on the Board of Trade he still hoped +for Government employ, "either a secure seat at the Board of Customs +or Excise," or in a diplomatic capacity. He was disappointed. If Lord +Sheffield is to be believed, it was his friend Fox who frustrated his +appointment as secretary of embassy at Paris, when he had been already +named to that office.</p> + +<p>The way in which Gibbon acted and afterwards spoke in reference to the +celebrated Coalition gives perhaps the best measure of his political +calibre. He voted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> among the rank and file of Lord North's followers +for the Coalition with meek subserviency. He speaks of a "principle of +gratitude" which actuated him on this occasion. Lord North had given +him his seat, and if a man's conscience allows him to think rather of +his patron than of his country, there is nothing to be said, except +that his code of political ethics is low. We may admit that his vote +was pledged; but there is also no doubt that any gratitude that there +was in the matter was stimulated by a lively sense of favours to come. +The Portland ministry had not been long in office when he wrote in the +following terms to his friend Deyverdun: "You have not forgotten that +I went into Parliament without patriotism and without ambition, and +that all my views tended to the convenient and respectable place of a +lord of trade. This situation I at length obtained. I possessed it for +three years, from 1779 to 1782, and the net produce, which amounted to +750<i>l.</i> sterling, augmented my income to my wants and desires. But in +the spring of last year the storm burst over our heads. Lord North was +overthrown, your humble servant turned out, and even the Board of +Trade, of which I was a member, abolished and broken up for ever by +Mr. Burke's reform. To complete my misfortunes, I still remain a +member of the Lower House. At the end of the last Parliament, Mr. +Eliot withdrew his nomination. But the favour of Lord North +facilitated my re-election, and gratitude imposed on me the duty of +making available for his service the rights which I held in part from +him. That winter we fought under the allied standards of Lord North +and Mr. Fox: we triumphed over Lord Shelburne and the peace, and my +friend (<i>i.e.</i> Lord North) remounted his steed in the quality<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> of a +secretary of state. Now he can easily say to me, 'It was a great deal +for me, it was nothing for you;' and in spite of the strongest +assurances, I have too much reason to allow me to have much faith. +With great genius and very respectable talents, he has now neither the +title nor the credit of prime minister; more active colleagues carry +off the most savoury morsels which their voracious creatures +immediately devour; our misfortunes and reforms have diminished the +number of favours; either through pride or through indolence I am but +a bad suitor, and if at last I obtain something, it may perhaps be on +the eve of a fresh revolution, which will in an instant snatch from me +that which has cost me so many cares and pains."</p> + +<p>Such a letter speaks for itself. Gibbon might well say that he entered +parliament without patriotism and without ambition. The only redeeming +feature is the almost cynical frankness with which he openly regards +politics from a personal point of view. However, it may be pleaded +that the letter was written to a bosom friend at a moment of great +depression, and when Gibbon's pecuniary difficulties were pressing him +severely. The Coalition promised him a place, and that was enough; the +contempt for all principle which had brought it about was not thought +of. But even this minute excuse does not apply to the way in which, +years after, when he was in comfort at Lausanne, he refers to the +subject in his Memoirs. The light in which the Coalition deserved to +be regarded was clear by that time. Yet he speaks of it, not only +without blame or regret, but contrives to cast suspicion on the +motives of those who were disgusted by it, and bestowed their +allegiance elsewhere.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It is not the purpose of this narrative to expatiate on the +public or secret history of the times: the schism which +followed the death of the Marquis of Rockingham, the +appointment of the Earl of Shelbourne, the resignation of +Mr. Fox and his famous coalition with Lord North. But I may +assert with some degree of assurance that in their political +conflict those great antagonists had never felt any personal +animosity to each other, that their reconciliation was easy +and sincere, and that their friendship has never been +clouded by the shadow of suspicion or jealousy. The <i>most +violent</i> or <i>venal</i> of their respective followers embraced +this fair occasion of revolt, but their alliance still +commanded a majority of the House of Commons, the peace was +censured, Lord Shelbourne resigned, and the two friends +knelt on the same cushion to take the oath of secretary of +state. From a principle of gratitude I adhered to the +Coalition; my vote was counted in the day of battle, but I +was overlooked in the division of the spoil."</p></div> + +<p>From this we learn that it was only the <i>violent</i> and the <i>venal</i> who +disapproved of the Coalition. One would like to know how Gibbon +explained the fact that at the general election of 1784 no less than +one hundred and sixty of the supporters of the Coalition lost their +seats, and that Fox's political reputation was all but irretrievably +ruined from this time forward.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, he had not neglected, his own proper work. The first volume +of his history was published in February, 1776. It derived, he says, +"more credit from the name of the shop than from that of the author." +In the first instance he intended to print only five hundred copies, +but the number was doubled by the "prophetic taste" of his printer, +Mr. Strahan. The book was received with a burst of applause—it was a +<i>succès fou</i>. The first impression was exhausted in a few days, and a +second and third edition were scarcely adequate to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> demand. The +wiser few were as warm in their eulogies as the general public. Hume +declared that if he had not been personally acquainted with the +author, he should have been surprised by such a performance coming +from any Englishman in that age. Dr. Robertson, Adam Ferguson, and +Horace Walpole joined in the chorus. Walpole betrays an amusing +mixture of admiration and pique at not having found the author out +before. "I know him a little, and never suspected the extent of his +talents; for he is perfectly modest, or I want penetration, which I +know too; but I intend to know him a great deal more." He oddly enough +says that Gibbon was the "son of a foolish alderman," which shows at +least how little the author was known in the great world up to this +time. Now, however, society was determined to know more of him, the +surest proof, not of merit, but of success. It must have been a rather +intoxicating moment, but Gibbon had a cool head not easily turned. It +would be unfair not to add that he had something much better, a really +warm and affectionate regard for old friends, the best preservative +against the fumes of flattery and sudden fame. Holroyd, Deyverdun, +Madame Necker were more to him than all the great people with whom he +now became acquainted. Necker and his wife came over from Paris and +paid him a long visit in Bentinck Street, when his laurels were just +fresh. "I live with her" he writes, "just as I used to do twenty years +ago, laugh at her Paris varnish, and oblige her to become a simple +reasonable Suissesse. The man, who might read English husbands lessons +of proper and dutiful behaviour, is a sensible, good-natured +creature." The next year he returned the visit to Paris. His fame had +preceded him, and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> received the cordial but discriminating welcome +which <i>the ancien régime</i> at that time specially reserved for <i>gens +d'esprit</i>. Madame du Deffand writes to Walpole, "Mr. Gibbon has the +greatest success here; it is quite a struggle to get him." He did not +deny himself a rather sumptuous style of living while in Paris. +Perhaps the recollection of the unpleasant effect of his English +clothes and the long waists of the French on his former visit dwelt in +his mind, for now, like Walpole, he procured a new outfit at once. +"After decking myself out with silks and silver, the ordinary +establishment of coach, lodgings, servants, eating, and pocket +expenses, does not exceed 60<i>l.</i> per month. Yet I have two footmen in +handsome liveries behind my coach, and my apartment is hung with +damask."</p> + +<p>The remainder of his life in London has nothing important. He +persevered assiduously with his history, and had two more quartos +ready in 1781. They were received with less enthusiasm than the first, +although they were really superior. Gibbon was rather too modestly +inclined to agree with the public and "to believe that, especially in +the beginning, they were more prolix and less entertaining" than the +previous volume. He also wasted some weeks on his vindication of the +fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of that volume, which had excited a +host of feeble and ill-mannered attacks. His defence was complete, and +in excellent temper. But the piece has no permanent value. His +assailants were so ignorant and silly that they gave no scope for a +great controversial reply. Neither perhaps did the subject admit of +it. A literary war generally makes people think of Bentley's +incomparable <i>Phalaris</i>. But that was almost a unique occasion and +victory in the history<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> of letters. Bentley himself, the most +pugnacious of men, never found such another.</p> + +<p>And so the time glided by, till we come to the year 1783. Lord North +had resigned office, the Board of Trade was abolished, and Gibbon had +lost his convenient salary. The outlook was not pleasant. The seat on +the Board of Customs or Excise with which his hopes had been for a +time kept up, receded into a remote distance, and he came to the +conclusion "that the reign of pensions and sinecures was at an end." +It was clearly necessary to take some important step in the way of +retrenchment. After he had lost his official income, his expenses +exceeded his revenue by something like four hundred pounds. A less +expensive style of living in London never seems to have presented +itself as an alternative. So, like many an Englishman before and +since, he resolved to go abroad to economise.</p> + +<p>His old friend Deyverdun was now settled in a comfortable house at +Lausanne, overlooking the Lake of Geneva. They had not met for eight +years. But the friendship had begun a quarter of a century before, in +the old days when Gibbon was a boarder in Pavillard's house, and the +embers of old associations only wanted stirring to make them shoot up +into flame. In a moment of expansion Gibbon wrote off a warm and eager +letter to his friend, setting forth his unsatisfactory position, and +his wish and even necessity to change it. He gradually and with much +delicacy discloses his plan, that he and Deyverdun, both now old +bachelors, should combine their solitary lives in a common household +and carry out an old project, often discussed in younger days, of +living together. "You live in a charming house. I see from here my +apart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>ment, the rooms we shall share with one another, our table, our +walks. But such a marriage is worthless unless it suits both parties, +and I easily feel that circumstances, new tastes, and connections may +frustrate a design which appeared charming in the distance. To settle +my mind and to avoid regrets, you must be as frank as I have been, and +give me a true picture, external and internal, of George Deyverdun."</p> + +<p>This letter, written in fluent and perfect French, is one of the best +that we have of Gibbon. Deyverdun answered promptly, and met his +friend's advances with at least equal warmth. The few letters that +have been preserved of his connected with this subject give a highly +favourable idea of his mind and character, and show he was quite +worthy of the long and constant attachment that Gibbon felt for him. +He cannot express the delight he has felt at his friend's proposal; by +the rarest piece of good fortune, it so happens that he himself is in +a somewhat similar position of uncertainty and difficulty; a year ago +Gibbon's letter would have given him pleasure, now it offers +assistance and support. After a few details concerning the tenant who +occupies a portion of his house, he proceeds to urge Gibbon to carry +out the project he had suggested, to break loose from parliament and +politics, for which he was not fit, and to give himself up to the +charms of study and friendship. "Call to mind, my dear friend," he +goes on, "that I saw you enter parliament with regret, and I think I +was only too good a prophet. I am sure that career has caused you more +privations than joys, more pains than pleasures. Ever since I have +known you I have been convinced that your happiness lay in your study +and in society, and that any path which led you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> elsewhere was a +departure from happiness." Through nine pages of gentle and friendly +eloquence Deyverdun pursues his argument to induce his friend to +clinch the bargain. "I advise you not only not to solicit a place, but +to refuse one if it were offered to you. Would a thousand a year make +up to you for the loss of five days a week?... By making this retreat +to Switzerland, besides the beauty of the country and the pleasures of +its society, you will acquire two blessings which you have lost, +liberty and competence. You will also be useful, your works will +continue to enlighten us, and, independently of your talents, the man +of honour and refinement is never useless." He then skilfully exhibits +the attractions he has to offer. "You used to like my house and +garden; what would you do now? On the first floor, which looks on the +declivity of Ouchy, I have fitted up an apartment which is enough for +me. I have a servant's room, two <i>salons</i>, two cabinets. On a level +with the terrace two other <i>salons</i>, of which one serves as a +dining-room in summer, and the other a drawing-room for company. I +have arranged three more rooms between the house and the coachhouse, +so that I can offer you all the large apartment, which consists +actually of eleven rooms, great and small, looking east and south, not +splendidly furnished, I allow, but with a certain elegance which I +hope you will like. The terrace is but little altered ... it is lined +from end to end with boxes of orange-trees. The vine-trellis has +prospered, and extends nearly to the end. I have purchased the +vineyard below the garden, and in front of the house made it into a +lawn, which is watered by the water of the fountain.... In a word, +strangers come to see the place, and in spite of my pompous +description<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> of it I think you will like it.... If you come, you will +find a tranquillity which you cannot have in London, and a friend who +has not passed a single day without thinking of you, and who, in spite +of his defects, his foibles, and his inferiority, is still one of the +companions who suits you best."</p> + +<p>More letters followed from both sides in a similar strain. Yet Gibbon +quailed before a final resolution. His aunt, Mrs. Porten, his mother, +Mrs. Gibbon, his friend, Lord Sheffield, all joined in deprecating his +voluntary exile. "That is a nonsensical scheme," said the latter, "you +have got into your head of returning to Lausanne—a pretty fancy; you +remember how much you liked it in your youth, but now you have seen +more of the world, and if you were to try it again you would find +yourself woefully disappointed." Deyverdun, with complete sympathy, +begged him not to be in too great a hurry to decide on a course which +he himself desired so much. "I agree with you," he wrote to Gibbon, +"that this is a sort of marriage, but I could never forgive myself if +I saw you dissatisfied in the sequel, and in a position to reproach +me." Gibbon felt it was a case demanding decision of character, and he +came to a determination with a promptitude and energy not usual with +him. He promised Deyverdun in the next letter an ultimatum, stating +whether he meant to <i>go</i> or to <i>stay</i>, and a week after he wrote, "I +go." He had prudently refrained from consulting Lord Sheffield during +this critical period, knowing that his certain disapprobation of the +scheme would only complicate matters and render decision more +difficult. Then he wrote, "I have given Deyverdun my word of honour to +be at Lausanne at the beginning of October, and no power of +persuasion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> can divert me from this <i>irrevocable</i> resolution, which I +am every day proceeding to execute."</p> + +<p>This was no exaggeration. He cancelled the lease of his house in +Bentinck Street, packed the more necessary portion of his books and +shipped them for Rouen, and as his postchaise moved over Westminster +Bridge, "bade a long farewell to the <i>fumum et opes strepitumque +Romæ</i>." The only real pang he felt in leaving arose from the "silent +grief" of his Aunt Porten, whom he did not hope to see again. Nor did +he. He started on September 15, 1783, slept at Dover, was flattered +with the hope of making Calais harbour by the same tide in "three +hours and a half, as the wind was brisk and fair," but was driven into +Boulogne. He had not a symptom of seasickness. Then he went on by easy +stages through Aire, Bethune, Douay, Cambray, St. Quentin, La Fère, +Laon, Rheims, Chalons, St. Dizier, Langres, Besançon, and arrived at +Lausanne on the 27th. The inns he found more agreeable to the palate +than to the sight or the smell. At Langres he had an excellent bed +about six feet high from the ground. He beguiled the time with Homer +and Clarendon, talking with his servant, Caplin, and his dog Muff, and +sometimes with the French postilions, and he found them the least +rational of the animals mentioned.</p> + +<p>He reached his journey's end, to alight amid a number of minor +troubles, which to a less easy tempered man would have been real +annoyances. He found that Deyverdun had reckoned without his host, or +rather his tenant, and that they could not have possession of the +house for several months, so he had to take lodgings. Then he sprained +his ankle, and this brought on a bad attack of the gout, which laid +him up completely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> However, his spirits never gave way. In time his +books arrived, and the friends got installed in their own house. His +satisfaction has then no bounds, with the people, the place, the way +of living, and his daily companion. We must now leave him for a short +space in the enjoyment of his happiness, while we briefly consider the +labours of the previous ten years.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>THE FIRST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL.</h3> +<p>The historian who is also an artist is exposed to a particular +drawback from which his brethren in other fields are exempt. The mere +lapse of time destroys the value and even the fidelity of his +pictures. In other arts correct colouring and outline remain correct, +and if they are combined with imaginative power, age rather enhances +than diminishes their worth. But the historian lives under another +law. His reproduction of a past age, however full and true it may +appear to his contemporaries, appears less and less true to his +successors. The way in which he saw things ceases to be satisfactory; +we may admit his accuracy, but we add a qualification referring to the +time when he wrote, the point of view that he occupied. And we feel +that what was accurate for him is no longer accurate for us. This +superannuation of historical work is not similar to the superseding of +scientific work which is ever going on, and is the capital test of +progress. Scientific books become rapidly old-fashioned, because the +science to which they refer is in constant growth, and a work on +chemistry or biology is out of date by reason of incompleteness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> or +the discovery of unsuspected errors. The scientific side of history, +if we allow it to have a scientific side, conforms to this rule, and +presents no singularity. Closer inspection of our materials, the +employment of the comparative method, occasionally the bringing to +light of new authorities—all contribute to an increase of real +knowledge, and historical studies in this respect do not differ from +other branches of research. But this is not the sole or the chief +cause of the renovation and transformation constantly needed in +historic work. That depends on the ever-moving standpoint from which +the past is regarded, so that society in looking back on its previous +history never sees it for long together at quite the same angle, never +sees, we may say, quite the same thing. The past changes to us as we +move down the stream of time, as a distant mountain changes through +the windings of the road on which we travel away from it. To drop +figure and use language now becoming familiar, the social organism is +in constant growth, and receiving new additions, and each new addition +causes us to modify our view of the whole. The historian, in fact, is +engaged in the study of an unfinished organism, whose development is +constantly presenting him with surprises. It is as if the biologist +were suddenly to come upon new and unheard-of species and families +which would upset his old classification, or as if the chemist were to +find his laws of combination replaced by others which were not only +unknown to him, but which were really new and recent in the world. +Other inquirers have the whole of the phenomena with which their +science is concerned before them, and they may explore them at their +leisure. The sociologist has only an instalment, most likely a very +small instalment,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> of the phenomena with which his science is +concerned before him. They have not yet happened, are not yet +phenomena, and as they do happen and admit of investigation they +necessarily lead to constant modification of his views and deductions. +Not only does he acquire new knowledge like other inquirers, but he is +constantly having the subject-matter from which he derives his +knowledge augmented. Even in modern times society has thrown out with +much suddenness rapid and unexpected developments, of such scope and +volume that contemporaries have often lost self-possession at the +sight of them, and wondered if social order could survive. The +Reformation and the French Revolution are cases in point. And what a +principal part do these two great events always play in any +speculations instituted subsequent to them! How easy it is to see +whether a writer lived before the Reign of Terror, or after it, from +his gait and manner of approaching social inquiries! Is there any +reason to suppose that such mutations are now at an end? None. The +probability, well nigh a certainty, is that metamorphoses of the +social organism are in store for us which will equal, if they do not +vastly exceed, anything that the past has offered.</p> + +<p>Considerations of this kind need to be kept in view if we would be +just in our appreciation of historical writings which have already a +certain age. It is impossible that a history composed a century ago +should fully satisfy us now; but we must beware of blaming the writer +for his supposed or real shortcomings, till we have ascertained how +far they arose from his personal inadequacy to his task, and were not +the result of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> chronological position. It need not be said that +this remark does not refer to many books which are called histories, +but are really contemporary memoirs and original authorities +subservient to history proper. The works of Clarendon and Burnet, for +instance, can never lose a certain value on this account. The immortal +book which all subsequent generations have agreed to call a possession +for ever, is the unapproachable ideal of this class. But neither +Thucydides nor Clarendon were historians in the sense in which Gibbon +was an historian, that is, engaged in the delineation of a remote +epoch by the help of such materials as have escaped the ravages of +time. It is historians like Gibbon who are exposed to the particular +unhappiness referred to a little way back—that of growing out of date +through no fault of their own, but through the changed aspect +presented by the past in consequence of the movement which has brought +us to the present. But if this is the field of historical disaster, it +is also the opportunity of historical genius. In proportion as a +writer transcends the special limitations of his time, will "age fail +to wither him." That he cannot entirely shake off the fetters which +fasten him to his epoch is manifest. But in proportion as his vision +is clear, in proportion as he has with singleness of eye striven to +draw the past with reverent loyalty, will his bondage to his own time +be loosened, and his work will remain faithful work for which due +gratitude will not be withheld.</p> + +<p>The sudden and rapid expansion of historic studies in the middle of +the eighteenth century constitutes one of the great epochs in +literature. Up to the year 1750 no great historical work had appeared +in any modern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> language.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> The instances that seem to make against +this remark will be found to confirm it. They consist of memoirs, +contemporary documents, in short materials for history, but not +history itself. From Froissart and De Comines, or even from the +earlier monastic writers to St. Simon (who was just finishing his +incomparable Memoirs), history with wide outlook and the conception of +social progress and interconnection of events did not exist. Yet +history in its simple forms is one of the most spontaneous of human +achievements. Stories of mighty deeds, of the prowess and death of +heroes, are among the earliest productions of even semi-civilised +man—the earliest subjects of epic and lyric verse. But this +rudimentary form is never more than biographical. With increasing +complexity of social evolution it dies away, and history proper, as +distinct from annals and chronicle, does not arise till circumstances +allow of general and synthetic views, till societies can be surveyed +from a sufficient distance and elevation for their movements to be +discerned. Thucydides, Livy, and Tacitus do not appear till Greece and +Home have reached their highest point of homogeneous national life. +The tardy dawn of history in the modern world was owing to its immense +complexity. Materials also were wanting. They gradually emerged out of +manuscript all over Europe, during what may be called the great pedant +age (1550-1650), under the direction of meritorious antiquaries, +Camden, Savile, Duchesne, Gale, and others. Still official documents +and state papers were wanting, and had they been at hand would hardly +have been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>used with competence. The national and religious +limitations were still too marked and hostile to permit a free survey +over the historic field. The eighteenth century, though it opened with +a bloody war, was essentially peaceful in spirit: governments made +war, but men and nations longed for rest. The increased interest in +the past was shown by the publication nearly contemporary of the great +historic collections of Rymer (<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1704), Leibnitz (1707), and +Muratori (1723). Before the middle of the century the historic muse +had abundant oil to feed her lamp. Still the lamp would probably not +have been lighted but for the singular pass to which French thought +had come.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Mézeray's great history of France is next to valueless +till he reaches the sixteenth century, that was a period bordering on +his own. Thuanus deals with contemporary events.</p></div></div> + +<p>From the latter years of Louis XIV. till the third quarter of the +eighteenth century was all but closed, France had a government at once +so weak and wicked, so much below the culture of the people it +oppressed, that the better minds of the nation turned away in disgust +from their domestic ignominy, and sought consolation in contemplating +foreign virtue wherever they thought it was to be found; in short, +they became cosmopolitan. The country which has since been the +birthplace of Chauvinism, put away national pride almost with passion. +But this was not all. The country whose king was called the Eldest Son +of the Church, and with which untold pains had been taken to keep it +orthodox, had lapsed into such an abhorrence of the Church and of +orthodoxy that anything seemed preferable to them in its eyes.</p> + +<p>Thus, as if by enchantment, the old barriers disappeared, both +national and religious. Man and his fortunes, in all climes and all +ages, became topics of intense interest, especially when they tended +to degrade<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> by contrast the detested condition of things at home. This +was the weak side of historical speculation in France: it was +essentially polemical; prompted less by genuine interest in the past +than by strong hatred of the present. Of this perturbation note must +be taken. But it is none the less true that the disengagement of +French thought from the narrow limits of nation and creed produced, as +it were in a moment, a lofty conception of history such as subsequent +ages may equal, but can hardly surpass.</p> + +<p>The influence of French thought was European, and nowhere more +beneficial than in England. In other countries it was too despotic, +and produced in Germany, at least, Lessing's memorable reaction. But +the robust national and political life of England reduced it to a +welcome flavouring of our insular temperament. The Scotch, who had a +traditional connection with France, were the first importers of the +new views. Hume, who had practically grown in the same soil as +Voltaire, was only three years behind him in the historic field. The +<i>Age of Louis XIV.</i> was published in 1751, and the first volume of the +<i>History of England</i> in 1754. Hume was no disciple of Voltaire; he +simply wrote under the stimulus of the same order of ideas. Robertson, +who shortly followed him, no doubt drew direct inspiration from +Voltaire, and his weightiest achievement, the View of the State of +Europe, prefixed to his <i>History of Charles V.</i>, was largely +influenced, if it was not absolutely suggested, by the <i>Essay on +Manners</i>. But both Hume and Robertson surpassed their masters, if we +allow, as seems right, that the French were their masters. The Scotch +writers had no quarrel with their country or their age as the French +had. One was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> Tory, the other a Whig; and Hume allowed himself to be +unworthily affected by party bias in his historical judgment. But +neither was tempted to turn history into a covert attack on the +condition of things amid which they lived. Hence a calmness and +dignity of tone and language, very different from the petulant +brilliancy of Voltaire, who is never so happy as when he can make the +past look mean and ridiculous, merely because it was the parent of the +odious present. But, excellent as were the Scotch historians—Hume, in +style nearly perfect; Robertson, admirable for gravity and shrewd +sense—they yet left much to be desired. Hume had despatched his five +quartos, containing the whole history of England from the Roman period +to the Revolution, in nine years. Considering that the subject was new +to him when he began, such rapidity made genuine research out of the +question. Robertson had the oddest way of consulting his friends as to +what subject it would be advisable for him to treat, and was open to +proposals from any quarter with exemplary impartiality; this only +showed how little the stern conditions of real historic inquiry were +appreciated by him. In fact it is not doing them injustice to say that +these eminent men were a sort of modern Livies, chiefly occupied with +the rhetorical part of their work, and not over inclined to waste +their time in ungrateful digging in the deep mines of historic lore. +Obviously the place was open for a writer who should unite all the +broad spirit of comprehensive survey, with the thorough and minute +patience of a Benedictine; whose subject, mellowed by long brooding, +should have sought him rather than he it; whose whole previous course +of study had been an unconscious preparation for one great effort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +which was to fill his life. When Gibbon sat down to write his book, +the man had been found who united these difficult conditions.</p> + +<p>The decline and fall of Rome is the greatest event in history. It +occupied a larger portion of the earth's surface, it affected the +lives and fortunes of a larger number of human beings, than any other +revolution on record. For it was essentially one, though it took +centuries to consummate, and though it had for its theatre the +civilised world. Great evolutions and catastrophes happened before it, +and have happened since, but nothing which can compare with it in +volume and mere physical size. Nor was it less morally. The +destruction of Rome was not only a destruction of an empire, it was +the destruction of a phase of human thought, of a system of human +beliefs, of morals, politics, civilisation, as all these had existed +in the world for ages. The drama is so vast, the cataclysm so +appalling, that even at this day we are hardly removed from it far +enough to take it fully in. The mind is oppressed, the imagination +flags under the load imposed upon it. The capture and sack of a town +one can fairly conceive: the massacre, outrage, the flaming roofs, the +desolation. Even the devastation of a province can be approximately +reproduced in thought. But what thought can embrace the devastation +and destruction of all the civilised portions of Europe, Africa, and +Asia? Who can realise a Thirty Years War lasting five hundred years? a +devastation of the Palatinate extending through fifteen generations? +If we try to insert into the picture, as we undoubtedly should do, the +founding of the new, which was going on beside this destruction of the +old, the settling down of the barba<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>rian hosts in the conquered +provinces, the expansion of the victorious Church, driving paganism +from the towns to the country and at last extinguishing it entirely, +the effort becomes more difficult than ever. The legend of the Seven +Sleepers testifies to the need men felt, even before the tragedy had +come to an end, to symbolize in a manageable form the tremendous +changes they saw going on around them. But the legend only refers to +the changes in religion. The fall of Rome was much more than that. It +was the death of the old pagan world and the birth of the new +Christian world—the greatest transition in history.</p> + +<p>This, and no less than this, is Gibbon's subject.</p> + +<p>He has treated it in such a way as even now fills competent judges +with something like astonishment. His accuracy, coupled with the +extraordinary range of his matter, the variety of his topics, the +complexity of his undertaking, the fulness and thoroughness of his +knowledge, never failing at any point over the vast field, the ease +and mastery with which he lifts the enormous load, are appreciated in +proportion to the information and abilities of his critic. One +testimonial will suffice. Mr. Freeman says: "That Gibbon should ever +be displaced seems impossible. That wonderful man monopolised, so to +speak, the historical genius and the historical learning of a whole +generation, and left little, indeed, of either for his contemporaries. +He remains the one historian of the eighteenth century whom modern +research has neither set aside nor threatened to set aside. We may +correct and improve from the stores which have been opened since +Gibbon's time; we may write again large parts of his story from other +and often truer and more wholesome points of view, but the work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> of +Gibbon as a whole, as the encyclopædic history of 1300 years, as the +grandest of historical designs, carried out alike with wonderful power +and with wonderful accuracy, must ever keep its place. Whatever else +is read, Gibbon must be read too."</p> + +<p>Gibbon's immense scheme did not unfold itself to him at once: he +passed through at least two distinct stages in the conception of his +work. The original idea had been confined to the decline and fall of +the city of Rome. Before he began to write, this had been expanded to +the fall of the empire of the West. The first volume, which we saw him +publish in the last chapter, was only an instalment, limited to the +accession of Constantine, through a doubt as to how his labours would +be received. The two following volumes, published in 1781, completed +his primitive plan. Then he paused exactly a year before he resolved +to carry on his work to its true end, the taking of Constantinople by +the Turks in 1453. The latter portion he achieved in three volumes +more, which he gave to the world on his fifty-first birthday, in 1788. +Thus the work naturally falls into two equal parts. It will be more +convenient to disregard in our remarks the interval of five years +which separated the publication of the first volume from its two +immediate companions. The first three volumes constitute a whole in +themselves, which we will now consider.</p> + +<p>From the accession of Commodus, <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 180, to the last of the Western +Cæsars, <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 476, three centuries elapsed. The first date is a real +point of departure, the commencement of a new stage of decay in the +empire. The second is a mere official record of the final +disappearance of a series of phantom sovereigns, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> vanishing was +hardly noticed. Between these limits the empire passed from the +autumnal calm of the Antonine period, through the dreadful century of +anarchy between Pertinax and Diocletian, through the relative peace +brought about by Diocletian's reforms, the civil wars of the sons of +Constantine, the disastrous defeat of Julian, the calamities of the +Gothic war, the short respite under Theodosius, the growing anarchy +and misery under his incompetent sons, the three sieges of Rome and +its sack by the Goths, the awful appearance of Attila and his Huns, +the final submergence of the Western Empire under the barbarians, and +the universal ruin which marked the close of the fifth century. This +was the temporal side of affairs. On the spiritual, we have the silent +occult growth of the early Church, the conversion of Constantine, the +tremendous conflict of hostile sects, the heresy of Arius, the final +triumph of Athanasius, the spread of monasticism, the extinction of +paganism. Antiquity has ended, the middle ages have begun.</p> + +<p>Over all this immense field Gibbon moves with a striking attitude of +power, which arose from his consciousness of complete preparation. +What there was to be known of his subject he felt sure that he knew. +His method of treatment is very simple, one might say primitive, but +it is very effective. He masters his materials, and then condenses and +clarifies them into a broad, well-filled narrative, which is always or +nearly always perfectly lucid through his skill in grouping events and +characters, and his fine boldness in neglecting chronological sequence +for the sake of clearness and unity of action. It is doing the book +injustice to consult it only as a work of reference, or even to read +it in detached portions. It should be read through, if we would +appreciate the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> art with which the story is told. No part can be +fairly judged without regard to the remainder. In fact, Gibbon was +much more an artist than perhaps be suspected, and less of a +philosophic thinker on history than he would have been willing to +allow. His shortcomings in this latter respect will be adverted to +presently; we are now considering his merits. And among these the very +high one of lofty and vigorous narrative stands pre-eminent. The +campaigns of Julian, Belisarius, and Heraclius are painted with a dash +and clearness which few civil historians have equalled. His +descriptive power is also very great. The picture of Constantinople in +the seventeenth chapter is, as the writer of these pages can testify, +a wonderful achievement, both for fidelity and brilliancy, coming from +a man who had never seen the place.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"If we survey Byzantium in the extent which it acquired with +the august name of Constantinople, the figure of the +imperial city may be represented under that of an unequal +triangle. The obtuse point, which advances towards the east +and the shores of Asia, meets and repels the waves of the +Thracian Bosphorus. The northern side of the city is bounded +by the harbour; and the southern is washed by the Propontis, +or Sea of Marmora. The basis of the triangle is opposed to +the west, and terminates the continent of Europe. But the +admirable form and division of the circumjacent land and +water cannot, without a more ample explanation, be clearly +or sufficiently understood.</p> + +<p>"The winding channel through which the waters of the Euxine +flow with rapid and incessant course towards the +Mediterranean received the appellation of Bosphorus, a name +not less celebrated in the history than in the fables of +antiquity. A crowd of temples and of votive altars, +profusely scattered along its steep and woody banks, +attested the unskilfulness, the terrors, and the devotion of +the Grecian navigators, who, after the example of the +Argonauts, explored the dangers of the inhospitable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> Euxine. +On these banks tradition long preserved the memory of the +palace of Phineus, infested by the obscene Harpies, and of +the sylvan reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to +the combat of the cestus. The straits of the Bosphorus are +terminated by the Cyanean rocks, which, according to the +description of the poets, had once floated on the surface of +the waters, and were destined by the gods to protect the +entrance of the Euxine against the eye of profane curiosity. +From the Cyanean rocks to the point and harbour of Byzantium +the winding length of the Bosphorus extends about sixteen +miles, and its most ordinary breadth may be computed at +about one mile and a half. The <i>new</i> castles of Europe and +Asia are constructed on either continent upon the +foundations of two celebrated temples of Serapis and Jupiter +Urius. The <i>old</i> castles, a work of the Greek emperors, +command the narrowest part of the channel, in a place where +the opposite banks advance within five hundred yards of each +other. These fortresses were destroyed and strengthened by +Mahomet the Second when he meditated the siege of +Constantinople; but the Turkish conqueror was most probably +ignorant that near two thousand years before his reign +Darius had chosen the same situation to connect the two +continents by a bridge of boats. At a small distance from +the old castles we discover the little town of Chrysopolis +or Scutari, which may almost be considered as the Asiatic +suburb of Constantinople. The Bosphorus, as it begins to +open into the Propontis, passes between Byzantium and +Chalcedon. The latter of these two cities was built by the +Greeks a few years before the former, and the blindness of +its founders, who overlooked the superior advantages of the +opposite coast, has been stigmatised by a proverbial +expression of contempt.</p> + +<p>"The harbour of Constantinople, which may be considered as +an arm of the Bosphorus, obtained in a very remote period, +the denomination of the <i>Golden Horn</i>. The curve which it +describes might be compared to the horn of a stag, or as it +should seem with more propriety, to that of an ox. The +epithet of <i>golden</i> was expressive of the riches which every +wind wafted from the most distant countries into the secure +and capacious port of Constantinople. The river Lycus, +formed by the conflux of two little streams, pours into the +harbour a perpetual supply of fresh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> water, which serves to +cleanse the bottom and to invite the periodical shoals of +fish to seek their retreat in that convenient recess. As the +vicissitudes of the tides are scarcely felt in those seas, +the constant depth of the harbour allows goods to be landed +on the quays without the assistance of boats, and it has +been observed that in many places the largest vessels may +rest their prows against the houses while their sterns are +floating in the water. From the mouth of the Lycus to that +of the harbour, this arm of the Bosphorus is more than seven +miles in length. The entrance is about five hundred yards +broad, and a strong chain could be occasionally drawn across +it, to guard the port and the city from the attack of an +hostile navy.</p> + +<p>"Between the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, the shores of +Europe and Asia receding on either side include the Sea of +Marmora, which was known to the ancients by the denomination +of the Propontis. The navigation from the issue of the +Bosphorus to the entrance of the Hellespont is about one +hundred and twenty miles. Those who steer their westward +course through the middle of the Propontis may at once +descry the highlands of Thrace and Bithynia and never lose +sight of the lofty summit of Mount Olympus, covered with +eternal snows. They leave on the left a deep gulf, at the +bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the imperial residence +of Diocletian, and they pass the small islands of Cyzicus +and Proconnesus before they cast anchor at Gallipoli, where +the sea which separates Asia from Europe is again contracted +to a narrow channel.</p> + +<p>"The geographers, who with the most skilful accuracy have +surveyed the form and extent of the Hellespont, assign about +sixty miles for the winding course and about three miles for +the ordinary breadth of those celebrated straits. But the +narrowest part of the channel is found to the northward of +the old Turkish castles between the cities of Sestos and +Abydos. It was here that the adventurous Leander braved the +passage of the flood for the possession of his mistress. It +was here, likewise, in a place where the distance between +the opposite banks cannot exceed five hundred paces, that +Xerxes imposed a stupendous bridge of boats for the purpose +of transporting into Europe an hundred and seventy myriads +of barbarians. A sea contracted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> within such narrow limits +may seem but ill to deserve the singular epithet of <i>broad</i>, +which Homer, as well as Orpheus, has frequently bestowed on +the Hellespont. But our ideas of greatness are of a relative +nature; the traveller, and especially the poet, who sailed +along the Hellespont, who pursued the windings of the stream +and contemplated the rural scenery which appeared on every +side to terminate the prospect, insensibly lost the +remembrance of the sea, and his fancy painted those +celebrated straits with all the attributes of a mighty river +flowing with a swift current in the midst of a woody and +inland country, and at length through a wide mouth +discharging itself into the Ægean or Archipelago. Ancient +Troy, seated on an eminence at the foot of Mount Ida, +overlooked the mouth of the Hellespont, which scarcely +received an accession of waters from the tribute of those +immortal rivulets the Simois and Scamander. The Grecian camp +had stretched twelve miles along the shore from the Sigæan +to the Rhætian promontory, and the flanks of the army were +guarded by the bravest chiefs who fought under the banners +of Agamemnon. The first of these promontories was occupied +by Achilles with his invincible Myrmidons, and the dauntless +Ajax pitched his tents on the other. After Ajax had fallen a +sacrifice to his disappointed pride and to the ingratitude +of the Greeks, his sepulchre was erected on the ground where +he had defended the navy against the rage of Jove and +Hector, and the citizens of the rising town of Rhætium +celebrated his memory with divine honours. Before +Constantine gave a just preference to the situation of +Byzantium he had conceived the design of erecting the seat +of empire on this celebrated spot, from whence the Romans +derived their fabulous origin. The extensive plain which +lies below ancient Troy towards the Rhætian promontory was +first chosen for his new capital; and though the undertaking +was soon relinquished, the stately remains of unfinished +walls and towers attracted the notice of all who sailed +through the straits of the Hellespont.</p> + +<p>"We are at present qualified to view the advantageous +position of Constantinople; which appears to have been +formed by nature for the centre and capital of a great +monarchy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> Situated in the forty-first degree of latitude, +the imperial city commanded from her seven hills the +opposite shores of Europe and Asia; the climate was healthy +and temperate; the soil fertile; the harbour secure and +capacious; and the approach on the side of the continent was +of small extent and easy defence. The Bosphorus and the +Hellespont may be considered as the two gates of +Constantinople, and the prince who possesses those important +passages could always shut them against a naval enemy and +open them to the fleets of commerce. The preservation of the +eastern provinces may in some degree be ascribed to the +policy of Constantine, as the barbarians of the Euxine, who +in the preceding age had poured their armaments into the +heart of the Mediterranean, soon desisted from the exercise +of piracy, and despaired of forcing this insurmountable +barrier. When the gates of the Hellespont and Bosphorus were +shut, the capital still enjoyed within their spacious +inclosure every production which could supply the wants or +gratify the luxury of its numerous inhabitants. The +sea-coasts of Thrace and Bithynia, which languish under the +weight of Turkish oppression, still exhibit a rich prospect +of vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful harvests; and the +Propontis has ever been renowned for an inexhaustible store +of the most exquisite fish that are taken in their stated +seasons without skill and almost without labour. But when +the passages of the straits were thrown open for trade, they +alternately admitted the natural and artificial riches of +the north and south, of the Euxine and the Mediterranean. +Whatever rude commodities were collected in the forests of +Germany and Scythia, and as far as the sources of the Tanais +and Borysthenes; whatsoever was manufactured by the skill of +Europe or Asia, the corn of Egypt, the gems and spices of +the furthest India, were brought by the varying winds into +the port of Constantinople, which for many ages attracted +the commerce of the ancient world.</p> + +<p>"The prospect of beauty, of safety, and of wealth united in +a single spot was sufficient to justify the choice of +Constantine. But as some mixture of prodigy and fable has in +every age been supposed to reflect a becoming majesty on the +origin of great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> cities, the emperor was desirous of +ascribing his resolution not so much to the uncertain +counsels of human policy as to the eternal and infallible +decrees of divine wisdom. In one of his laws he has been +careful to instruct posterity that in obedience to the +commands of God he laid the everlasting foundations of +Constantinople, and though he has not condescended to relate +in what manner the celestial inspiration was communicated to +his mind, the defect of his modest silence has been +liberally supplied by the ingenuity of succeeding writers, +who describe the nocturnal vision which appeared to the +fancy of Constantine as he slept within the walls of +Byzantium. The tutelar genius of the city, a venerable +matron sinking under the weight of years and infirmities, +was suddenly transformed into a blooming maid, whom his own +hands adorned with all the symbols of imperial greatness. +The monarch awoke, interpreted the auspicious omen, and +obeyed without hesitation the will of Heaven. The day which +gave birth to a city or a colony was celebrated by the +Romans with such ceremonies as had been ordained by a +generous superstition: and though Constantine might omit +some rites which savoured too strongly of their pagan +origin, yet he was anxious to leave a deep impression of +hope and respect on the minds of the spectators. On foot, +with a lance in his hand, the emperor himself led the solemn +procession: and directed the line which was traced as the +boundary of the destined capital: till the growing +circumference was observed with astonishment by the +assistants, who at length ventured to observe that he had +already exceeded the most ample measure of a great city. 'I +shall still advance,' replied Constantine, 'till HE, the +invisible Guide who marches before me, thinks proper to +stop.'"</p></div> + +<p>Gibbon proceeds to describe the extent, limits, and edifices of +Constantinople. Unfortunately the limits of our space prevent us from +giving more than a portion of his brilliant picture.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In the actual state of the city the palace and gardens of +the Seraglio occupy the eastern promontory, the first of the +seven hills,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> and cover about one hundred and fifty acres of +our own measure. The seat of Turkish jealousy and despotism +is erected on the foundations of a Grecian republic: but it +may be supposed that the Byzantines were tempted by the +conveniency of the harbour to extend their habitations on +that side beyond the modern limits of the Seraglio. The new +walls of Constantine stretched from the port to the +Propontis across the enlarged breadth of the triangle, at +the distance of fifteen stadia from the ancient +fortifications: and with the city of Byzantium they inclosed +five of the seven hills, which to the eyes of those who +approach Constantinople appear to rise above each other in +beautiful order. About a century after the death of the +founder the new buildings, extending on one side up the +harbour, and on the other the Propontis, already covered the +narrow ridge of the sixth and the broad summit of the +seventh hill. The necessity of protecting those suburbs from +the incessant inroads of the barbarians engaged the younger +Theodosius to surround his capital with an adequate and +permanent inclosure of walls. From the eastern promontory to +the Golden Gate, the extreme length of Constantinople was +above three Roman miles; the circumference measured between +ten and eleven; and the surface might be computed as equal +to about two thousand English acres. It is impossible to +justify the vain and credulous exaggerations of modern +travellers, who have sometimes stretched the limits of +Constantinople over the adjacent villages of the European +and even Asiatic coasts. But the suburbs of Pera and Galata, +though situate beyond the harbour, may deserve to be +considered as a part of the city, and this addition may +perhaps authorise the measure of a Byzantine historian, who +assigns sixteen Greek (about sixteen Roman) miles for the +circumference of his native city. Such an extent may seem +not unworthy of an imperial residence. Yet Constantinople +must yield to Babylon and Thebes, to ancient Rome, to +London, and even to Paris....</p> + +<p>"Some estimate may be formed of the expense bestowed with +imperial liberality on Constantinople, by the allowance of +about two millions five hundred thousand pounds for the +construction of the walls, the porticoes, and the aqueducts. +The forests that overshadowed the shores of the Euxine, and +the celebrated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> quarries of white marble in the little +island of Proconnesus, supplied an inexhaustible stock of +materials ready to be conveyed by the convenience of a short +water carriage to the harbour of Byzantium. A multitude of +labourers and artificers urged the conclusion of the work +with incessant toil, but the impatience of Constantine soon +discovered that in the decline of the arts the skill as well +as the number of his architects bore a very unequal +proportion to the greatness of his design.... The buildings +of the new city were executed by such artificers as the age +of Constantine could afford, but they were decorated by the +hands of the most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles +and Alexander.... By Constantine's command the cities of +Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable +ornaments. The trophies of memorable wars, the objects of +religious veneration, the most finished statues of the gods +and heroes, of the sages and poets of ancient times, +contributed to the splendid triumph of Constantinople.</p> + +<p>"... The Circus, or Hippodrome, was a stately building of +about four hundred paces in length and one hundred in +breadth. The space between the two <i>metæ</i>, or goals, was +filled with statues and obelisks, and we may still remark a +very singular fragment of antiquity—the bodies of three +serpents twisted into one pillar of brass. Their triple +heads had once supported the golden tripod which, after the +defeat of Xerxes, was consecrated in the temple of Delphi by +the victorious Greeks. The beauty of the Hippodrome has been +long since defaced by the rude hands of the Turkish +conquerors; but, under the similar appellation of Atmeidan, +it still serves as a place of exercise for their horses. +From the throne whence the emperor viewed the Circensian +games a winding staircase descended to the palace, a +magnificent edifice, which scarcely yielded to the residence +of Rome itself, and which, together with the dependent +courts, gardens, and porticoes, covered a considerable +extent of ground upon the banks of the Propontis between the +Hippodrome and the church of St. Sophia. We might likewise +celebrate the baths, which still retained the name of +Zeuxippus, after they had been enriched by the magnificence +of Constantine with lofty columns, various marbles, and +above three score statues of bronze.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> But we should deviate +from the design of this history if we attempted minutely to +describe the different buildings or quarters of the city.... +A particular description, composed about a century after its +foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learning, a +circus, two theatres, eight public and one hundred and +fifty-three private baths, fifty-two porticoes, five +granaries, eight aqueducts or reservoirs of water, four +spacious halls for the meeting of the senate or courts of +justice, fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, and four +thousand three hundred and eighty-eight houses, which for +their size or beauty deserved to be distinguished from the +multitude of plebeian habitations."</p></div> + +<p>Gibbon's conception of history was that of a spacious panorama, in +which a series of tableaux pass in succession before the reader's eye. +He adverts but little, far too little, to that side of events which +does not strike the visual sense. He rarely generalises or sums up a +widely-scattered mass of facts into pregnant synthetic views. But +possibly he owes some of the permanence of his fame to this very +defect. As soon as ever a writer begins to support a thesis, to prove +a point, he runs imminent danger of one-sidedness and partiality in +his presentation of events. Gibbon's faithful transcript of the past +has neither the merit nor the drawback of generalisation, and he has +come in consequence to be regarded as a common mine of authentic facts +to which all speculators can resort.</p> + +<p>The first volume, which was received with such warm acclamation, is +inferior to those that followed. He seems to have been partly aware of +this himself, and speaks of the "concise and superficial narrative +from Commodus to Alexander." But the whole volume lacks the grasp and +easy mastery which distinguish its successors. No doubt the +subject-matter was comparatively meagre and ungrateful. The century +between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> Commodus and Diocletian was one long spasm of anarchy and +violence, which was, as Niebuhr said, incapable of historical +treatment. The obscure confusion of the age is aggravated into almost +complete darkness by the wretched materials which alone have survived, +and the attempt to found a dignified narrative on such scanty and +imperfect authorities was hardly wise. Gibbon would have shown a +greater sense of historic proportion if he had passed over this period +with a few bold strokes, and summed up with brevity such general +results as may be fairly deduced. We may say of the first volume that +it was tentative in every way. In it the author not only sounded his +public, but he was also trying his instrument, running over the keys +in preparatory search for the right note. He strikes it full and clear +in the two final chapters on the Early Church; these, whatever +objections may be made against them on other grounds, are the real +commencement of the Decline and Fall.</p> + +<p>From this point onwards he marches with the steady and measured tramp +of a Roman legion. His materials improve both in number and quality. +The fourth century, though a period of frightful anarchy and disaster +if compared to a settled epoch, is a period of relative peace and +order when compared to the third century. The fifth was calamitous +beyond example; but ecclesiastical history comes to the support of +secular history in a way which might have excited more gratitude in +Gibbon than it did. From Constantine to Augustulus Gibbon is able to +put forth all his strength. His style is less superfine, as his matter +becomes more copious; and the more definite cleavage of events brought +about by the separation between the Eastern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> and Western Empires, +enables him to display the higher qualities which marked him as an +historian.</p> + +<p>The merit of his work, it is again necessary to point out, will not be +justly estimated unless the considerations suggested at the beginning +of this chapter be kept in view. We have to remember that his culture +was chiefly French, and that his opinions were those which prevailed +in France in the latter half of the eighteenth century. He was the +friend of Voltaire, Helvétius, and D'Holbach; that is, of men who +regarded the past as one long nightmare of crime, imposture, and +folly, instigated by the selfish machinations of kings and priests. A +strong infusion of the spirit which animated not only Voltaire's +<i>Essay on Manners</i>, but certain parts of Hume's <i>History of England</i> +might have been expected as a matter of course. It is essentially +absent. Gibbon's private opinions may have been what they will, but he +has approved his high title to the character of an historian by +keeping them well in abeyance. When he turned his eyes to the past and +viewed it with intense gaze, he was absorbed in the spectacle, his +peculiar prejudices were hushed, he thought only of the object before +him and of reproducing it as well as he could. This is not the common +opinion, but, nevertheless, a great deal can be said to support it.</p> + +<p>It will be as well to take two concrete tests—his treatment of two +topics which of all others were most likely to betray him into +deviations from historic candour. If he stands these, he may be +admitted to stand any less severe. Let them be his account of Julian, +and his method of dealing with Christianity.</p> + +<p>The snare that was spread by Julian's apostasy for the philosophers of +the last century, and their haste to fall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> into it, are well known. +The spectacle of a philosopher on the throne who proclaimed +toleration, and contempt for Christianity, was too tempting and too +useful controversially to allow of much circumspection in handling it. +The odious comparisons it offered were so exactly what was wanted for +depreciating the Most Christian king and his courtly Church, that all +further inquiry into the apostate's merits seemed useless. Voltaire +finds that Julian had all the qualities of Trajan without his defects; +all the virtues of Cato without his ill-humour; all that one admires +in Julius Cæsar without his vices; he had the continency of Scipio, +and was in all ways equal to Marcus Aurelius, the first of men. Nay, +more. If he had only lived longer, he would have retarded the fall of +the Roman Empire, if he could not arrest it entirely. We here see the +length to which "polemical fury" could hurry a man of rare insight. +Julian had been a subject of contention for years between the hostile +factions. While one party made it a point of honour to prove that he +was a monster, warring consciously against the Most High, the other +was equally determined to prove that he was a paragon of all virtue, +by reason of his enmity to the Christian religion. The deep interest +attaching to the pagan reaction in the fourth century, and the social +and moral problems it suggests, were perceived by neither side, and it +is not difficult to see why they were not. The very word reaction, in +its modern sense, will hardly be found in the eighteenth century, and +the thing that it expresses was very imperfectly conceived. We, who +have been surrounded by reactions, real or supposed, in politics, in +religion, in philosophy, recognise an old acquaintance in the efforts +of the limited, intense Julian to stem the tide of progress as +repre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>sented in the Christian Church. It is a fine instance of the way +in which the ever-unfolding present is constantly lighting up the +past. Julian and his party were the Ultramontanes of their day in +matters of religion, and the Romantics in matters of literature. Those +radical innovators and reformers, the Christians, were marching from +conquest to conquest, over the old faith, making no concealment of +their revolutionary aims and intentions to wipe out the past as +speedily as possible. The conservatives of those times, after long +despising the reformers, passed easily to fearing them and hating them +as their success became threatening. "The attachment to paganism," +says Neander, "lingered especially in many of the ancient and noble +families of Greece and Rome." Old families, or new rich ones who +wished to be thought old, would be sure to take up the cause of +ancestral wisdom as against modern innovation. Before Julian came to +the throne, a pagan reaction was imminent, as Neander points out. +Julian himself was a remarkable man, as men of his class usually are. +In the breaking up of old modes of belief, as Mill has said, "the most +strong-minded and discerning, next to those who head the movement, are +generally those who bring up the rear." The energy of his mind and +character was quite exceptional, and if we reflect that he only +reigned sixteen months, and died in his thirty-second year, we must +admit that the mark he has left in history is very surprising. He and +his policy are now discussed with entire calm by inquirers of all +schools, and sincere Christians like Neander and Dean Milman are as +little disposed to attack him with acrimony, as those of a different +way of thought are inclined to make him a subject of unlimited +panegyric.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> + +<p>Through this difficult subject Gibbon has found his way with a +prudence and true insight which extorted admiration, even in his own +day. His account of Julian is essentially a modern account. The +influence of his private opinions can hardly be traced in the +brilliant chapters that he has devoted to the Apostate. He sees +through Julian's weaknesses in a way in which Voltaire never saw or +cared to see. His pitiful superstition, his huge vanity, his weak +affectation are brought out with an incisive clearness and subtle +penetration into character which Gibbon was not always so ready to +display. At the same time he does full justice to Julian's real +merits. And this is perhaps the most striking evidence of his +penetration. An error on the side of injustice to Julian is very +natural in a man who, having renounced allegiance to Christianity, yet +fully realises the futility of attempting to arrest it in the fourth +century. A certain intellectual disdain for the reactionary emperor is +difficult to avoid. Gibbon surmounts it completely, and he does so, +not in consequence of a general conception of the reactionary spirit, +as a constantly emerging element in society, but by sheer historical +insight, clear vision of the fact before him. It may be added that +nowhere is Gibbon's command of vivid narrative seen to greater +advantage than in the chapters that he has devoted to Julian. The +daring march from Gaul to Illyricum is told with immense spirit; but +the account of Julian's final campaign and death in Persia is still +better, and can hardly be surpassed. It has every merit of clearness +and rapidity, yet is full of dignity, which culminates in this fine +passage referring to the night before the emperor received his mortal +wound.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"While Julian struggled with the almost insuperable +difficulties of his situation, the silent hours of the night +were still devoted to study and contemplation. Whenever he +closed his eyes in short and interrupted slumbers, his mind +was agitated by painful anxiety; nor can it be thought +surprising that the Genius of the empire should once more +appear before him, covering with a funereal veil his head +and his horn of abundance, and slowly retiring from the +Imperial tent. The monarch started from his couch, and, +stepping forth to refresh his wearied spirits with the +coolness of the midnight air, he beheld a fiery meteor, +which shot athwart the sky and suddenly vanished. Julian was +convinced that he had seen the menacing countenance of the +god of war: the council which he summoned, of Tuscan +Haruspices, unanimously pronounced that he should abstain +from action; but on this occasion necessity and reason were +more prevalent than superstition, and the trumpets sounded +at the break of day."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> It is interesting to compare Gibbon's admirable picture +with the harsh original Latin of his authority, Ammianus Marcellinus. +"Ipse autem ad sollicitam suspensamque quietem paullisper protractus, +cum somno (ut solebat) depulso, ad æmulationem Cæsaris Julii quædam +sub pellibus scribens, obscuro noctis altitudine sensus cujusdam +philosophi teneretur, vidit squalidius, ut confessus est proximis, +speciem illam Genii publici, quam quum ad Augustum surgeret culmen, +conspexit in Galliis, velata cum capite cornucopia per aulæa tristius +discedentem. Et quamquam ad momentum hæsit, stupore defixus, omni +tamen superior metu, ventura decretis cælestibus commendabat; relicto +humi strato cubili, adulta jam excitus nocte, et numinibus per sacra +depulsoria supplicans, flagrantissimam facem cadenti similem visam, +aëris parte sulcata evanuisse existimavit: horroreque perfusus est, ne +ita aperte minax Martis adparuerit sidus."—<i>Amm. Marc.</i> lib. xxv. +cap. 2.</p></div></div> + +<p>It will not be so easy to absolve Gibbon from the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>charge of prejudice +in reference to his treatment of the Early Church. It cannot be denied +that in the two famous chapters, at least, which concluded his first +volume, he adopted a tone which must be pronounced offensive, not only +from the Christian point of view, but on the broad ground of +historical equity. His preconceived opinions were too strong for him +on this occasion, and obstructed his generally clear vision. Yet a +distinction must be made. The offensive tone in question is confined +to these two chapters. We need not think that it was in consequence of +the clamour they raised that he adopted a different style with +reference to church matters in his subsequent volumes. A more +creditable explanation of his different tone, which will be presently +suggested, is at least as probable. In any case, these two chapters +remain the chief slur on his historical impartiality, and it is worth +while to examine what his offence amounts to.</p> + +<p>Gibbon's account of the early Christians is vitiated by his narrow and +distorted conception of the emotional side of man's nature. Having no +spiritual aspirations himself, he could not appreciate or understand +them in others. Those emotions which have for their object the unseen +world and its centre, God, had no meaning for him; and he was tempted +to explain them away when he came across them, or to ascribe their +origin and effects to other instincts which were more intelligible to +him. The wonderland which the mystic inhabits was closed to him, he +remained outside of it and reproduced in sarcastic travesty the +reports he heard of its marvels. What he has called the secondary +causes of the growth of Christianity, were much rather its effects. +The first is "the inflexible and intolerant zeal of the Christians"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +and their abhorrence of idolatry. With great power of language, he +paints the early Christian "encompassed with infernal snares in every +convivial entertainment, as often as his friends, invoking the +hospitable deities, poured out libations to each other's happiness. +When the bride, struggling with well-affected reluctance, was forced +in hymenæal pomp over the threshold of her new habitation, or when the +sad procession of the dead slowly moved towards the funeral pile, the +Christian on these interesting occasions was compelled to desert the +persons who were dearest to him, rather than contract the guilt +inherent in those impious ceremonies." It is strange that Gibbon did +not ask himself what was the cause of this inflexible zeal. The zeal +produced the effects alleged, but what produced the zeal? He says that +it was derived from the Jewish religion, but neglects to point out +what could have induced Gentiles of every diversity of origin to +derive from a despised race tenets and sentiments which would make +their lives one long scene of self-denial and danger. The whole vein +of remark is so completely out of date, that it is not worth dwelling +on, except very summarily.</p> + +<p>The second cause is "the doctrine of a future life, improved by every +additional circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that +important truth." Again we have an effect treated as a cause. "The +ancient Christians were animated by a contempt for their present +existence, and by a just confidence of immortality." Very true; but +the fact of their being so animated was what wanted explaining. Gibbon +says it "was no wonder that so advantageous an offer" as that of +immortality was accepted. Yet he had just before told us that the +ablest orators at the bar and in the senate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> of Rome, could expose +this offer of immortality to ridicule without fear of giving offence. +Whence arose, then, the sudden blaze of conviction with which the +Christians embraced it?</p> + +<p>The third cause is the miraculous powers <i>ascribed</i> to the primitive +Church. Gibbon apparently had not the courage to admit that he agreed +with his friend Hume in rejecting miracles altogether. He conceals his +drift in a cloud of words, suggesting indirectly with innuendo and +sneer his real opinion. But this does not account for the stress he +lays on the <i>ascription</i> of miracles. He seems to think that the claim +of supernatural gifts somehow had the same efficacy as the gifts +themselves would have had, if they had existed.</p> + +<p>The fourth cause is the virtues of the primitive Christians. The +paragraphs upon it, Dean Milman considers the most uncandid in all the +history, and they certainly do Gibbon no credit. With a strange +ignorance of the human heart, he attributes the austere morals of the +early Christians to their care for their reputation. The ascetic +temper, one of the most widely manifested in history, was beyond his +comprehension.</p> + +<p>The fifth cause was the union and discipline of the Christian +republic. For the last time the effect figures as the cause. Union and +discipline we know are powerful, but we know also that they are the +result of deep antecedent forces, and that prudence and policy alone +never produced them.</p> + +<p>It can surprise no one that Gibbon has treated the early Church in a +way which is highly unsatisfactory if judged by a modern standard. Not +only is it a period which criticism has gone over again and again with +a microscope, but the standpoint from which such periods<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> are observed +has materially changed since his day. That dim epoch of nascent faith, +full of tender and subdued tints, with a high light on the brows of +the Crucified, was not one in which he could see clearly, or properly +see at all. He has as little insight into the religious condition of +the pagan world, as of the Christian. It is singular how he passes +over facts which were plain before him, which he knew quite well, as +he knew nearly everything connected with his subject, but the real +significance of which he missed. Thus he attributes to the scepticism +of the pagan world the easy introduction of Christianity. Misled by +the "eloquence of Cicero and the wit of Lucian," he supposes the +second century to have been vacant of beliefs, in which a "fashion of +incredulity" was widely diffused, and "many were almost disengaged +from artificial prejudices." He was evidently unaware of the striking +religious revival which uplifted paganism in the age of Hadrian, and +grew with the sinking empire: the first stirrings of it may even be +discerned in Tacitus, and go on increasing till we reach the theurgy +of the Neoplatonists. A growing fear of the gods, a weariness of life +and longing for death, a disposition to look for compensation for the +miseries of this world to a brighter one beyond the grave—these +traits are common in the literature of the second century, and show +the change which had come over the minds of men. Gibbon is +colour-blind to these shades of the religious spirit: he can only see +the banter of Lucian.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> In reference <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>to these matters he was a true +son of his age, and could hardly be expected to transcend it.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> On the religious revival of the second century, see +Hausrath's <i>Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte</i>, vol. iii., especially +the sections, "Hadrian's Mysticismus" and "Religiöse Tendenzen in +Kunst und Literatur," where this interesting subject is handled with a +freshness and insight quite remarkable.</p></div></div> + +<p>He cannot be cleared of this reproach. On the other hand, we must +remember that Gibbon's hard and accurate criticism set a good example +in one respect. The fertile fancy of the middle ages had run into wild +exaggerations of the number of the primitive martyrs, and their +legends had not always been submitted to impartial scrutiny even in +the eighteenth century. We may admit that Gibbon was not without bias +of another kind, and that his tone is often very offensive when he +seeks to depreciate the evidence of the sufferings of the early +confessors. His computation, which will allow of "an annual +consumption of a hundred and fifty martyrs," is nothing short of +cynical. Still he did good service in insisting on chapter and verse +and fair historical proof of these frightful stories, before they were +admitted. Dean Milman acknowledges so much, and defends him against +the hot zeal of M. Guizot, justly adding that "truth must not be +sacrificed even to well-grounded moral indignation," in which +sentiment all now will no doubt be willing to concur.</p> + +<p>The difference between the Church in the Catacombs, and the Church in +the Palaces at Constantinople or Ravenna, measures the difference +between Gibbon's treatment of early Christian history and his +treatment of ecclesiastical history. Just as the simple-hearted +emotions of God-fearing men were a puzzle and an irritation to him, so +he was completely at home in exposing the intrigues of courtly bishops +and in the metaphysics of theological controversy. His mode of dealing +with Church matters from this point onward is hardly ever unfair, and +has given rise to few protestations. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> has not succeeded in pleasing +everybody. What Church historian ever does? But he is candid, +impartial, and discerning. His account of the conversion of +Constantine is remarkably just, and he is more generous to the first +Christian Emperor than Niebuhr or Neander. He plunges into the Arian +controversy with manifest delight, and has given in a few pages one of +the clearest and most memorable <i>résumés</i> of that great struggle. But +it is when he comes to the hero of that struggle, to an historic +character who can be seen with clearness, that he shows his wonted +tact and insight. A great man hardly ever fails to awaken Gibbon into +admiration and sympathy. The "Great Athanasius," as he often calls +him, caught his eye at once, and the impulse to draw a fine character, +promptly silenced any prejudices which might interfere with faithful +portraiture. "Athanasius stands out more grandly in Gibbon, than in +the pages of the orthodox ecclesiastical historians"—Dr. Newman has +said,—a judge whose competence will not be questioned. And as if to +show how much insight depends on sympathy, Gibbon is immediately more +just and open to the merits of the Christian community, than he had +been hitherto. He now sees "that the privileges of the Church had +already revived a sense of order and freedom in the Roman government." +His chapter on the rise of monasticism is more fair and discriminating +than the average Protestant treatment of that subject. He distinctly +acknowledges the debt we owe the monks for their attention to +agriculture, the useful trades, and the preservation of ancient +literature. The more disgusting forms of asceticism he touches with +light irony, which is quite as effective as the vehement denunciations +of non-Catholic writers. It must not be forgotten that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> his +ecclesiastical history derives a great superiority of clearness and +proportion by its interweaving with the general history of the times, +and this fact of itself suffices to give Gibbon's picture a permanent +value even beside the master works of German erudition which have been +devoted exclusively to Church matters. If we lay down Gibbon and take +up Neander, for instance, we are conscious that with all the greater +fulness of detail, engaging candour, and sympathetic insight of the +great Berlin Professor, the general impression of the times is less +distinct and lasting. There is no specialism in Gibbon; his book is a +broad sociological picture in which the whole age is portrayed.</p> + +<p>To sum up. In two memorable chapters Gibbon has allowed his prejudices +to mar his work as an historian. But two chapters out of seventy-one +constitute a small proportion. In the remainder of his work he is as +free from bias and unfairness as human frailty can well allow. The +annotated editions of Milman and Guizot are guarantees of this. Their +critical animadversions become very few and far between after the +first volume is passed. If he had been animated by a polemical object +in writing; if he had used the past as an arsenal from which to draw +weapons to attack the present, we may depend that a swift blight would +have shrivelled his labours, as it did so many famous works of the +eighteenth century, when the great day of reaction set in. His mild +rebuke of the Abbé Raynal should not be forgotten. He admired the +<i>History of the Indies</i>. It is one of the few books that he has +honoured with mention and praise in the text of his own work. But he +points out that the "zeal of the philosophic historian for the rights +of mankind" had led him into a blunder. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> was not only Gibbon's +scholarly accuracy which saved him from such blunders. Perhaps he had +less zeal for the rights of mankind than men like Raynal, whose +general views he shared. But it is certain that he did not write with +their settled <i>parti pris</i> of making history a vehicle of controversy. +His object was to be a faithful historian, and due regard being had to +his limitations, he attained to it.</p> + +<p>If we now consider the defects of the <i>Decline and Fall</i>—which the +progress of historic study, and still more the lapse of time, have +gradually rendered visible, they will be found, as was to be expected, +to consist in the author's limited conception of society, and of the +multitudinous forces which mould and modify it. We are constantly +reminded by the tone of remark that he sees chiefly the surface of +events, and that the deeper causes which produce them have not been +seen with the same clearness. In proportion as an age is remote, and +therefore different from that in which a historian writes, does it +behove him to remember that the social and general side of history is +more important than the individual and particular. In reference to a +period adjacent to our own the fortunes of individuals properly take a +prominent place, the social conditions amid which they worked are +familiar to us, and we understand them and their position without +effort. But with regard to a remote age the case is different. Here +our difficulty is to understand the social conditions, so unlike those +with which we are acquainted, and as society is greater than man, so +we feel that society, and not individual men, should occupy the chief +place in the picture. Not that individuals are to be suppressed or +neglected, but their subordination to the large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> historic background +must be well maintained. The social, religious, and philosophic +conditions amid which they played their parts should dominate the +scene, and dwarf by their grandeur and importance the human actors who +move across it. The higher historical style now demands what may be +called compound narrative, that is narrative having reference to two +sets of phenomena—one the obvious surface events, the other the +larger and wider, but less obvious, sociological condition. A better +example could hardly be given than Grote's account of the mutilation +of the Hermæ. The fact of the mutilation is told in the briefest way +in a few lines, but the social condition which overarched it, and made +the disfiguring of a number of half-statues "one of the most +extraordinary events in Greek history," demands five pages of +reflections and commentary to bring out its full significance. Grote +insists on the duty "to take reasonable pains to realise in our minds +the religious and political associations of the Athenians," and helps +us to do it by a train of argument and illustration. The larger part +of the strength of the modern historical school lies in this method, +and in able hands it has produced great results.</p> + +<p>It would be unfair to compare Gibbon to these writers. They had a +training in social studies which he had not. But it is not certain +that he has always acquitted himself well, even if compared to his +contemporaries and predecessors, Montesquieu, Mably, and Voltaire. In +any case his narrative is generally wanting in historic perspective +and suggestive background. It adheres closely to the obvious surface +of events with little attempt to place behind them the deeper sky of +social evolution. In many of his crowded chapters one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> cannot see the +wood for the trees. The story is not lifted up and made lucid by +general points of view, but drags or hurries along in the hollow of +events, over which the author never seems to raise himself into a +position of commanding survey. The thirty-sixth chapter is a marked +instance of this defect. But the defect is general. The vigorous and +skilful narrative, and a certain grandeur and weightiness of language, +make us overlook it. It is only when we try to attain clear and +succinct views, which condense into portable propositions the enormous +mass of facts collected before us, that we feel that the writer has +not often surveyed his subject from a height and distance sufficient +to allow the great features of the epoch to be seen in bold outline. +By the side of the history of concrete events, we miss the +presentation of those others which are none the less events for being +vague, irregular, and wide-reaching, and requiring centuries for their +accomplishment. Gibbon's manner of dealing with the first is always +good, and sometimes consummate, and equal to anything in historical +literature. The thirty-first chapter, with its description of Rome, +soon to fall a prey to the Goths and Alaric, is a masterpiece, +artistic and spacious in the highest degree; though it is unnecessary +to cite particular instances, as nearly every chapter contains +passages of admirable historic power. But the noble flood of narrative +never stops in meditative pause to review the situation, and point out +with pregnant brevity what is happening in the sum total, abstraction +made of all confusing details. Besides the facts of the time, we seek +to have the tendencies of the age brought before us in their flow and +expansion, the filiation of events over long periods deduced in clear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +sequence, a synoptical view which is to the mind what a picture is to +the eye. In this respect Gibbon's method leaves not a little to be +desired.</p> + +<p>Take for instance two of the most important aspects of the subject +that he treated: the barbarian invasions, and the causes of the +decline and fall of the Roman empire. To the concrete side of both he +has done ample justice. The rational and abstract side of neither has +received the attention from him which it deserved. On the interesting +question of the introduction of the barbarians into the frontier +provinces, and their incorporation into the legions, he never seems to +have quite made up his mind. In the twelfth chapter he calls it a +"great and beneficial plan." Subsequently he calls it a disgraceful +and fatal expedient. He recurs frequently to the subject in isolated +passages, but never collects the facts, into a focus, with a view of +deducing their real meaning. Yet the point is second to none in +importance. Its elucidation throws more light on the fall of Rome than +any other considerations whatever. The question is, Whether Rome was +conquered by the barbarians in the ordinary sense of the word, +conquered. We know that it was not, and Gibbon knew that it was not. +Yet perhaps most people rise from reading his book with an impression +that the empire succumbed to the invasion of the barbarians, as +Carthage, Gaul, and Greece had succumbed to the invasion of the +Romans; that the struggle lay between classic Rome and outside +uncivilised foes; and that after two centuries of hard fighting the +latter were victorious. The fact that the struggle lay between +barbarians, who were within and friendly to the empire, and barbarians +who were without it, and hostile rather to their more fortunate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +brethren, than to the empire which employed them, is implicitly +involved in Gibbon's narrative, but it is not explicitly brought out. +Romanised Goths, Vandals, and Franks were the defenders, nearly the +only defenders, of the empire against other tribes and nations who +were not Romanised, and nothing can be more plain than that Gibbon saw +this as well as any one since, but he has not set it forth with +prominence and clearness. With his complete mastery of the subject he +would have done it admirably, if he had assumed the necessary point of +view.</p> + +<p>Similarly, with regard to the causes of the fall of the empire. It is +quite evident that he was not at all unconscious of the deep economic +and social vices which undermined the great fabric. Depopulation, +decay of agriculture, fiscal oppression, the general prostration +begotten of despotism—all these sources of the great collapse may be +traced in his text, or his wonderful notes, hinted very often with a +flashing insight which anticipates the most recent inquiries into the +subject. But these considerations are not brought together to a +luminous point, nor made to yield clear and tangible results. They lie +scattered, isolated, and barren over three volumes, and are easily +overlooked. One may say that generalised and synthetic views are +conspicuous by their absence in Gibbon.</p> + +<p>But what of that? These reflections, even if they be well founded, +hardly dim the majesty of the <i>Decline and Fall</i>. The book is such a +marvel of knowledge at once wide and minute, that even now, after +numbers of labourers have gone over the same ground, with only special +objects in view, small segments of the great circle which Gibbon fills +alone, his word is still one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> the weightiest that can be quoted. +Modern research has unquestionably opened out points of view to which +he did not attain. But when it comes to close investigation of any +particular question, we rarely fail to find that he has seen it, +dropped some pregnant hint about it, more valuable than the +dissertations of other men. As Mr. Freeman says, "Whatever else is +read, Gibbon must be read too."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>THE LAST TEN YEARS OF HIS LIFE IN LAUSANNE.</h3> +<p>After the preliminary troubles which met him on his arrival at +Lausanne, Gibbon had four years of unbroken calm and steady work, of +which there is nothing to record beyond the fact that they were filled +with peaceful industry. "One day," he wrote, "glides by another in +tranquil uniformity." During the whole period he never stirred ten +miles out of Lausanne. He had nearly completed the fourth volume +before he left England. Then came an interruption of a year—consumed +in the break-up of his London establishment, his journey, the +transport of his library, the delay in getting settled at Lausanne. +Then he sat down in grim earnest to finish his task, and certainly the +speed he used, considering the quality of the work, left nothing to be +desired. He achieved the fifth volume in twenty-one months, and the +sixth in little more than a year. He had hoped to finish sooner, but +it is no wonder that he found his work grow under his hands when he +passed from design to execution. "A long while ago, when I +contemplated the distant prospect of my work," he writes to Lord +Sheffield, "I gave you and myself some hopes of landing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> in England +last autumn; but alas! when autumn grew near, hills began to rise on +hills, Alps on Alps, and I found my journey far more tedious and +toilsome than I had imagined. When I look back on the length of the +undertaking and the variety of materials, I cannot accuse or suffer +myself to be accused of idleness; yet it appeared that unless I +doubled my diligence, another year, and perhaps more, would elapse +before I could embark with my complete manuscript. Under these +circumstances I took, and am still executing, a bold and meritorious +resolution. The mornings in winter, and in a country of early dinners, +are very concise. To them, my usual period of study, I now frequently +add the evenings, renounce cards and society, refuse the most +agreeable evenings, or perhaps make my appearance at a late supper. By +this extraordinary industry, which I never practised before, and to +which I hope never to be again reduced, I see the last part of my +history growing apace under my hands." He was indeed, as he said, now +straining for the goal which was at last reached "on the day, or +rather the night, of the 27th of June, 1787. Between the hours of +eleven and twelve I wrote the last lines of the last page in a +summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several +turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a +prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was +temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was +reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent. I will not +dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and +perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, +and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had +taken an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and +that whatsoever might be the future fate of my history, the life of +the historian must be short and precarious."</p> + +<p>A faint streak of poetry occasionally shoots across Gibbon's prose. +But both prose and poetry had now to yield to stern business. The +printing of three quarto volumes in those days of handpresses was a +formidable undertaking, and unless expedition were used the publishing +season of the ensuing year would be lost. A month had barely elapsed +before Gibbon with his precious cargo started for England. He went +straight to his printers. The printing of the fourth volume occupied +three months, and both author and publisher were warned that their +common interest required a quicker pace. Then Mr. Strahan "fulfilled +his engagement, which few printers could sustain, of delivering every +week three thousand copies of nine sheets." On the 8th of May, 1788, +the three concluding volumes were published, and Gibbon had discharged +his debt for the entertainment that he had had in this world.</p> + +<p>He returned as speedily as he could to Lausanne, to rest from his +labours. But he had a painful greeting in the sadly altered look of +his friend Deyverdun. Soon an apoplectic seizure confirmed his +forebodings, and within a twelvemonth the friend of his youth, whom he +had loved for thirty-three years, was taken away by death (July 4, +1789).<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> The letter in which Gibbon communicated the sad news to +Lord Sheffield was written on the 14th July, 1789, the day of the +taking of the Bastille. So "that evening sun of July" sent its beams +on Gibbon mourning the dead friend, as well as on "reapers amid +peaceful woods and fields, on old women spinning in cottages, on ships +far out on the silent main, on balls at the Orangerie of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>Versailles, +where high-rouged dames of the palace are even now dancing with +double-jacketed Hussar officers."</p></div></div> + +<p>Gibbon never got over this loss. His staid and solid nature was not +given to transports of joy or grief. But his constant references to +"poor Deyverdun," and the vacancy caused by his loss, show the depth +of the wound. "I want to change the scene," he writes, "and, beautiful +as the garden and prospect must appear to every eye, I feel that the +state of my mind casts a gloom over them: every spot, every walk, +every bench recalls the memory of those hours, those conversations, +which will return no more.... I almost hesitate whether I shall run +over to England to consult with you on the spot, and to fly from poor +Deyverdun's shade, which meets me at every turn." Not that he lacked +attached friends, and of mere society and acquaintance he had more +than abundance. He occupied at Lausanne a position of almost +patriarchal dignity, "and may be said," writes Lord Sheffield, "to +have almost given the law to a set of as willing subjects as any man +ever presided over." Soon the troubles in France sent wave after wave +of emigrants over the frontiers, and Lausanne had its full share of +the exiles. After a brief approval of the reforms in France he passed +rapidly to doubt, disgust, and horror at the "new birth of time" +there. "You will allow me to be a tolerable historian," he wrote to +his step-mother, "yet on a fair review of ancient and modern times I +can find none that bear any affinity to the present." The last social +evolution was beyond his power of classification. The mingled +bewilderment and anger with which he looks out from Lausanne on the +revolutionary welter, form an almost amusing contrast to his usual +apathy on political matters. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>He is full of alarm lest England should +catch the revolutionary fever. He is delighted with Burke's +<i>Reflections</i>. "I admire his eloquence, I approve his politics, I +adore his chivalry, and I can forgive even his superstition." His +wrath waxes hotter at every post. "Poor France! The state is +dissolved! the nation is mad." At last nothing but vituperation can +express his feelings, and he roundly calls the members of the +Convention "devils," and discovers that "democratical principles lead +by a path of flowers into the abyss of hell."</p> + +<p>In 1790 his friends the Neckers had fled to Switzerland, and on every +ground of duty and inclination he was called upon to show them the +warmest welcome, and he did so in a way that excited their liveliest +gratitude. Necker was cast down in utter despair, not only for the +loss of place and power, but on account of the strong animosity which +was shown to him by the exiled French, none of whom would set their +foot in his house. The Neckers were now Gibbon's chief intimates till +the end of his sojourn in Switzerland. They lived at Coppet, and +constant visits were exchanged there and at Lausanne. Madame Necker +wrote to him frequent letters, which prove that if she had ever had +any grievance to complain of in the past, it was not only forgiven, +but entirely forgotten. The letters, indeed, testify a warmth of +sentiment on her part which, coming from a lady of less spotless +propriety, would almost imply a revival of youthful affection for her +early lover. "You have always been dear to me," she writes, "but the +friendship you have shown to M. Necker adds to that which you inspire +me with on so many grounds, and I love you at present with a double +affection."—"Come to us when you are restored to health and to +yourself; that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> moment should always belong to your first and your +last friend (<i>amie</i>), and I do not know which of those titles is the +sweetest and dearest to my heart."—"Near you, the recollections you +recalled were pleasant to me, and you connected them easily with +present impressions; the chain of years seemed to link all times +together with electrical rapidity; you were at once twenty and fifty +years old for me. Away from you the different places, which I have +inhabited are only the milestones of my life telling me of the +distance I have come." With much more in the same strain. Of Madame de +Staël Gibbon does not speak in very warm praise. Her mother, who was +far from being contented with her, may perhaps have prejudiced him +against her. In one letter to him she complains of her daughter's +conduct in no measured terms. Yet Gibbon owns that Madame de Staël was +a "pleasant little woman;" and in another place says that she was +"wild, vain, but good-natured, with a much larger provision of wit +than of beauty." One wonders if he ever knew of her childish scheme of +marrying him in order that her parents might always have the pleasure +of his company and conversation.</p> + +<p>These closing years of Gibbon's life were not happy, through no fault +of his. No man was less inclined by disposition to look at the dark +side of things. But heavy blows fell on him in quick succession. His +health was seriously impaired, and he was often laid up for months +with the gout. His neglect of exercise had produced its effect, and he +had become a prodigy of unwieldy corpulency. Unfortunately his +digestion seems to have continued only too good, and neither his own +observation nor the medical science of that day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> sufficed to warn him +against certain errors of regimen which were really fatal. All this +time, while the gout was constantly torturing him, he drank Madeira +freely. There is frequent question of a pipe of that sweet wine in his +correspondence with Lord Sheffield. He cannot bear the thought of +being without a sufficient supply, as "good Madeira is now become +essential to his health and reputation." The last three years of his +residence at Lausanne were agitated by perpetual anxiety and dread of +an invasion of French democratic principles, or even of French troops. +Reluctance to quit "his paradise" keeps him still, but he is always +wondering how soon he will have to fly, and often regrets that he has +not done so already. "For my part," he writes, "till Geneva falls, I +do not think of a retreat; but at all events I am provided with two +strong horses and a hundred louis in gold." Fate was hard on the +kindly epicurean, who after his long toil had made his bed in the sun, +on which he was preparing to lie down in genial content till the end +came. But he feels he must not think of rest; and that, heavy as he +is, and irksome to him as it is to move, he must before long be a +rover again. Still he is never peevish upon his fortune; he puts the +best face on things as long as they will bear it.</p> + +<p>He was not so philosophical under the bereavements that he now +suffered. His aunt, Mrs. Porten, had died in 1786. He deplored her as +he was bound to do, and feelingly regrets and blames himself for not +having written to her as often as he might have done since their last +parting. Then came the irreparable loss of Deyverdun. Shortly, an old +Lausanne friend, M. de Severy, to whom he was much attached, died +after a long illness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> Lastly and suddenly, came the death of Lady +Sheffield, the wife of his friend Holroyd, with whom he had long lived +on such intimate terms that he was in the habit of calling her his +sister. The Sheffields, father and mother and two daughters, had spent +the summer of 1791 with him at Lausanne. The visit was evidently an +occasion of real happiness and <i>épanchement de cœur</i> to the two old +friends, and supplied Gibbon for nearly two years with tender regrets +and recollections. Then, without any warning, he heard of Lady +Sheffield's death. In a moment his mind was made up: he would go at +once to console his friend. All the fatigue and irksomeness of the +journey to one so ailing and feeble, all the dangers of the road lined +and perhaps barred by hostile armies, vanished on the spot. Within +twelve days he had made his preparations and started on his journey. +He was forced to travel through Germany, and in his ignorance of the +language he required an interpreter; young de Severy, the son of his +deceased friend, joyfully, and out of mere affection for him, +undertook the office of courier. "His attachment to me," wrote Gibbon, +"is the sole motive which prompts him to undertake this troublesome +journey." It is clear that he had the art of making himself loved. He +travelled through Frankfort, Cologne, Brussels, Ostend, and was by his +friend's side in little more than a month after he had received the +fatal tidings. Well might Lord Sheffield say, "I must ever regard it +as the most enduring proof of his sensibility, and of his possessing +the true spirit of friendship, that, after having relinquished the +thought of his intended visit, he hastened to England, in spite of +increasing impediments, to soothe me by the most generous sympathy, +and to alleviate my domestic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> affliction; neither his great corpulency +nor his extraordinary bodily infirmities, nor any other consideration, +could prevent him a moment from resolving on an undertaking that might +have deterred the most active young man. He almost immediately, with +an alertness by no means natural to him, undertook a great circuitous +journey along the frontier of an enemy worse than savage, within the +sound of their cannon, within the range of the light troops of the +different armies, and through roads ruined by the enormous machinery +of war."</p> + +<p>In this public and private gloom he bade for ever farewell to +Lausanne. He was himself rapidly approaching</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The dark portal, <br /> +Goal of all mortal,"</p></div> + +<p>but of this he knew not as yet. While he is in the house of mourning, +beside his bereaved friend, we will return for a short space to +consider the conclusion of his great work.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>THE LAST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL.</h3> +<p>The thousand years between the fifth and the fifteenth century +comprise the middle age, a period which only recently, through utterly +inadequate conceptions of social growth, was wont to be called the +dark ages. That long epoch of travail and growth, during which the old +field of civilisation was broken up and sown afresh with new and +various seed unknown to antiquity, receives now on all hands due +recognition, as being one of the most rich, fertile, and interesting +in the history of man. The all-embracing despotism of Rome was +replaced by the endless local divisions and subdivisions of feudal +tenure. The multiform rites and beliefs of polytheism were replaced by +the single faith and paramount authority of the Catholic Church. The +philosophies of Greece were dethroned, and the scholastic theology +reigned in their stead. The classic tongues crumbled away, and out of +their <i>débris</i> arose the modern idioms of France, Italy, and Spain, to +which were added in Northern Europe the new forms of Teutonic speech. +The fine and useful arts took a new departure; slavery was mitigated +into serfdom; industry and commerce became powers in the world as they +had never been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> before; the narrow municipal polity of the old world +was in time succeeded by the broader national institutions based on +various forms of representation. Gunpowder, America, and the art of +printing were discovered, and the most civilised portion of mankind +passed insensibly into the modern era.</p> + +<p>Such was the wide expanse which spread out before Gibbon when he +resolved to continue his work from the fall of the Western Empire to +the capture of Constantinople. Indeed his glance took in a still wider +field, as he was concerned as much with the decay of Eastern as of +Western Rome, and the long-retarded fall of the former demanded large +attention to the Oriental populations who assaulted the city and +remaining empire of Constantine. So bold an historic enterprise was +never conceived as when, standing on the limit of antiquity in the +fifth century, he determined to pursue in rapid but not hasty survey +the great lines of events for a thousand years, to follow in detail +the really great transactions while discarding the less important, +thereby giving prominence and clearness to what is memorable, and +reproducing on a small scale the flow of time through the ages. It is +to this portion of Gibbon's work that the happy comparison has been +made, that it resembles a magnificent Roman aqueduct spanning over the +chasm which separates the ancient from the modern world. In these +latter volumes he frees himself from the trammels of regular +annalistic narrative, deals with events in broad masses according to +their importance, expanding or contracting his story as occasion +requires; now painting in large panoramic view the events of a few +years, now compressing centuries into brief outline. Many of his +massive chapters afford materials for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> volumes, and are well worthy of +a fuller treatment than he could give without deranging his plan. But +works of greater detail and narrower compass can never compete with +Gibbon's history, any more than a county map can compete with a map of +England or of Europe.</p> + +<p>The variety of the contents of these last three volumes is amazing, +especially when the thoroughness and perfection of the workmanship are +considered. Prolix compilations or sketchy outlines of universal +history have their use and place, but they are removed by many degrees +from the <i>Decline and Fall</i>, or rather they belong to another species +of authorship. It is not only that Gibbon combines width and depth, +that the extent of his learning is as wonderful as its accuracy, +though in this respect he has hardly a full rival in literature. The +quality which places him not only in the first rank of historians, but +in a class by himself, and makes him greater than the greatest, lies +in his supreme power of moulding into lucid and coherent unity, the +manifold and rebellious mass of his multitudinous materials, of +coercing his divergent topics into such order that they seem +spontaneously to grow like branches out of one stem, clear and visible +to the mind. There is something truly epic in these latter volumes. +Tribes, nations, and empires are the characters; one after another +they come forth like Homeric heroes, and do their mighty deeds before +the assembled armies. The grand and lofty chapters on Justinian; on +the Arabs; on the Crusades, have a rounded completeness, coupled with +such artistic subordination to the main action, that they read more +like cantos of a great prose poem than the ordinary staple of +historical composition. It may well be questioned whether there is +another instance of such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> high literary form and finish, coupled with +such vast erudition. And two considerations have to be borne in mind, +which heighten Gibbon's merit in this respect. (1.) Almost the whole +of his subject had been as yet untouched by any preceding writer of +eminence, and he had no stimulus or example from his precursors. He +united thus in himself the two characters of pioneer and artist. (2.) +The barbarous and imperfect nature of the materials with which he +chiefly had to work,—dull inferior writers, whose debased style was +their least defect. A historian who has for his authorities masters of +reason and language such as Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, and Tacitus +is borne up by their genius; apt quotation and translation alone +suffice to produce considerable effects; or in the case of subjects +taken from modern times, weighty state papers, eloquent debates, or +finished memoirs supply ample materials for graphic narrative. But +Gibbon had little but dross to deal with. Yet he has smelted and cast +it into the grand shapes we see.</p> + +<p>The fourth volume is nearly confined to the reign, or rather epoch, of +Justinian,—a magnificent subject, which he has painted in his +loftiest style of gorgeous narrative. The campaigns of Belisarius and +Narses are related with a clearness and vigour that make us feel that +Gibbon's merits as a military historian have not been quite +sufficiently recognised. He had from the time of his service in the +militia taken continued interest in tactics and all that was connected +with the military art. It was no idle boast when he said that the +captain of the Hampshire grenadiers had not been useless to the +historian of the Roman empire. Military matters perhaps occupy a +somewhat excessive space in his pages.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> Still, if the operations of +war are to be related, it is highly important that they should be +treated with intelligence, and knowledge how masses of men are moved, +and by a writer to whom the various incidents of the camp, the march, +and the bivouac, are not matters of mere hearsay, but of personal +experience. The campaign of Belisarius in Africa may be quoted as an +example.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In the seventh year of the reign of Justinian, and about +the time of the summer solstice, the whole fleet of six +hundred ships was ranged in martial pomp before the gardens +of the palace. The patriarch pronounced his benediction, the +emperor signified his last commands, the general's trumpet +gave the signal of departure, and every heart, according to +its fears or wishes, explored with anxious curiosity the +omens of misfortune or success. The first halt was made at +Perintheus, or Heraclea, where Belisarius waited five days +to receive some Thracian horses, a military gift of his +sovereign. From thence the fleet pursued their course +through the midst of the Propontis; but as they struggled to +pass the straits of the Hellespont, an unfavourable wind +detained them four days at Abydos, where the general +exhibited a remarkable lesson of firmness and severity. Two +of the Huns who, in a drunken quarrel, had slain one of +their fellow-soldiers, were instantly shown to the army +suspended on a lofty gibbet. The national dignity was +resented by their countrymen, who disclaimed the servile +laws of the empire and asserted the free privileges of +Scythia, where a small fine was allowed to expiate the +sallies of intemperance and anger. Their complaints were +specious, their clamours were loud, and the Romans were not +averse to the example of disorder and impunity. But the +rising sedition was appeased by the authority and eloquence +of the general, and he represented to the assembled troops +the obligation of justice, the importance of discipline, the +rewards of piety and virtue, and the unpardonable guilt of +murder, which, in his apprehension, was aggravated rather +than excused by the vice of intoxication.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> In the navigation +from the Hellespont to the Peloponnesus, which the Greeks +after the siege of Troy had performed in four days, the +fleet of Belisarius was guided in their course by his +master-galley, conspicuous in the day by the redness of the +sails, and in the night by torches blazing from the +masthead. It was the duty of the pilots as they steered +between the islands and turned the capes of Malea and +Tænarium to preserve the just order and regular intervals of +such a multitude. As the wind was fair and moderate, their +labours were not unsuccessful, and the troops were safely +disembarked at Methone, on the Messenian coast, to repose +themselves for a while after the fatigues of the sea.... +From the port of Methone the pilots steered along the +western coast of Peloponnesus, as far as the island of +Zacynthus, or Zante, before they undertook the voyage (in +their eyes a most arduous voyage) of one hundred leagues +over the Ionian sea. As the fleet was surprised by a calm, +sixteen days were consumed in the slow navigation.... At +length the harbour of Caucana, on the southern side of +Sicily, afforded a secure and hospitable shelter.... +Belisarius determined to hasten his operations, and his wise +impatience was seconded by the winds. The fleet lost sight +of Sicily, passed before the island of Malta, discovered the +capes of Africa, ran along the coast with a strong gale from +the north-east, and finally cast anchor at the promontory of +Caput Vada, about five days journey to the south of +Carthage....</p> + +<p>"Three months after their departure from Constantinople, the +men and the horses, the arms and the military stores were +safely disembarked, and five soldiers were left as a guard +on each of the ships, which were disposed in the form of a +semicircle. The remainder of the troops occupied a camp on +the seashore, which they fortified, according to ancient +discipline, with a ditch and rampart, and the discovery of a +source of fresh water, while it allayed the thirst, excited +the superstitious confidence of the Romans.... The small +town of Sullecte, one day's journey from the camp, had the +honour of being foremost to open her gates and resume her +ancient allegiance; the larger cities of Leptis and +Adru<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>metum imitated the example of loyalty as soon as +Belisarius appeared, and he advanced without opposition as +far as Grasse, a palace of the Vandal kings, at the distance +of fifty miles from Carthage. The weary Romans indulged +themselves in the refreshment of shady groves, cool +fountains, and delicious fruits.... In three generations +prosperity and a warm climate had dissolved the hardy virtue +of the Vandals, who insensibly became the most luxurious of +mankind. In their villas and gardens, which might deserve +the Persian name of Paradise, they enjoyed a cool and +elegant repose, and after the daily use of the bath, the +barbarians were seated at a table profusely spread with the +delicacies of the land and sea. Their silken robes, loosely +flowing after the fashion of the Medes, were embroidered +with gold, love and hunting were the labours of their life, +and their vacant hours were amused by pantomimes, +chariot-races, and the music and dances of the theatre.</p> + +<p>"In a march of twelve days the vigilance of Belisarius was +constantly awake and active against his unseen enemies, by +whom in every place and at every hour he might be suddenly +attacked. An officer of confidence and merit, John the +Armenian, led the vanguard of three hundred horse. Six +hundred Massagetæ covered at a certain distance the left +flank, and the whole fleet, steering along the coast, seldom +lost sight of the army, which moved each day about twelve +miles, and lodged in the evening in strong camps or in +friendly towns. The near approach of the Romans to Carthage +filled the mind of Gelimer with anxiety and terror....</p> + +<p>"Yet the authority and promises of Gelimer collected a +formidable army, and his plans were concerted with some +degree of military skill. An order was despatched to his +brother Ammatas to collect all the forces of Carthage, and +to encounter the van of the Roman army at the distance of +ten miles from the city: his nephew Gibamund with two +thousand horse was destined to attack their left, when the +monarch himself, who silently followed, should charge their +rear in a situation which excluded them from the aid and +even the view of their fleet. But the rashness of Ammatas +was fatal to himself and his country. He anticipated the +hour of attack, outstripped his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> tardy followers, and was +pierced with a mortal wound, after he had slain with his own +hand twelve of his boldest antagonists. His Vandals fled to +Carthage: the highway, almost ten miles, was strewed with +dead bodies, and it seemed incredible that such multitudes +could be slaughtered by the swords of three hundred Romans. +The nephew of Gelimer was defeated after a slight combat by +the six hundred Massagetæ; they did not equal the third part +of his numbers, but each Scythian was fired by the example +of his chief, who gloriously exercised the privilege of his +family by riding foremost and alone to shoot the first arrow +against the enemy. In the meantime Gelimer himself, ignorant +of the event, and misguided by the windings of the hills, +inadvertently passed the Roman army and reached the scene of +action where Ammatas had fallen. He wept the fate of his +brother and of Carthage, charged with irresistible fury the +advancing squadrons, and might have pursued and perhaps +decided the victory, if he had not wasted those inestimable +moments in the discharge of a vain though pious duty to the +dead. While his spirit was broken by this mournful office, +he heard the trumpet of Belisarius, who, leaving Antonina +and his infantry in the camp, pressed forward with his +guards and the remainder of the cavalry to rally his flying +troops, and to restore the fortune of the day. Much room +could not be found in this disorderly battle for the talents +of a general; but the king fled before the hero, and the +Vandals, accustomed only to a Moorish enemy, were incapable +of withstanding the arms and the discipline of the +Romans....</p> + +<p>"As soon as the tumult had subsided, the several parts of +the army informed each other of the accidents of the day, +and Belisarius pitched his camp on the field of victory, to +which the tenth milestone from Carthage had applied the +Latin appellation of <i>Decimus</i>. From a wise suspicion of the +stratagems and resources of the Vandals, he marched the next +day in the order of battle; halted in the evening before the +gates of Carthage, and allowed a night of repose, that he +might not, in darkness and disorder, expose the city to the +licence of the soldiers, or the soldiers themselves to the +secret ambush of the city. But as the fears of Belisarius +were the result of calm and intrepid reason, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> was soon +satisfied that he might confide without danger in the +peaceful and friendly aspect of the capital. Carthage blazed +with innumerable torches, the signal of the public joy; the +chain was removed that guarded the entrance of the port, the +gates were thrown open, and the people with acclamations of +gratitude hailed and invited their Roman deliverers. The +defeat of the Vandals and the freedom of Africa were +announced to the city on the eve of St. Cyprian, when the +churches were already adorned and illuminated for the +festival of the martyr whom three centuries of superstition +had almost raised to a local deity.... One awful hour +reversed the fortunes of the contending parties. The +suppliant Vandals, who had so lately indulged the vices of +conquerors, sought an humble refuge in the sanctuary of the +church; while the merchants of the east were delivered from +the deepest dungeon of the palace by their affrighted +keeper, who implored the protection of his captives, and +showed them through an aperture in the wall the sails of the +Roman fleet. After their separation from the army, the naval +commanders had proceeded with slow caution along the coast, +till they reached the Hermæan promontory, and obtained the +first intelligence of the victory of Belisarius. Faithful to +his instructions, they would have cast anchor about twenty +miles from Carthage, if the more skilful had not represented +the perils of the shore and the signs of an impending +tempest. Still ignorant of the revolution, they declined +however the rash attempt of forcing the chain of the port, +and the adjacent harbour and suburb of Mandracium were +insulted only by the rapine of a private officer, who +disobeyed and deserted his leaders. But the imperial fleet, +advancing with a fair wind, steered through the narrow +entrance of the Goletta and occupied the deep and capacious +lake of Tunis, a secure station about five miles from the +capital. No sooner was Belisarius informed of the arrival +than he despatched orders that the greatest part of the +mariners should be immediately landed to join the triumph +and to swell the apparent numbers of the Romans. Before he +allowed them to enter the gates of Carthage he exhorted +them, in a discourse worthy of himself and the occasion, not +to disgrace the glory of their arms, and to remember that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +the Vandals had been the tyrants, but that <i>they</i> were the +deliverers of the Africans, who must now be respected as the +voluntary and affectionate subjects of their common +sovereign. The Romans marched through the street in close +ranks, prepared for battle if an enemy had appeared; the +strict order maintained by their general imprinted on their +minds the duty of obedience; and in an age in which custom +and impunity almost sanctified the abuse of conquest, the +genius of one man repressed the passions of a victorious +army. The voice of menace and complaint was silent, the +trade of Carthage was not interrupted; while Africa changed +her master and her government, the shops continued open and +busy; and the soldiers, after sufficient guards had been +posted, modestly departed to the houses which had been +allotted for their reception. Belisarius fixed his residence +in the palace, seated himself on the throne of Genseric, +accepted and distributed the barbaric spoil, granted their +lives to the suppliant Vandals, and laboured to restore the +damage which the suburb of Mandracium had sustained in the +preceding night. At supper he entertained his principal +officers with the form and magnificence of a royal banquet. +The victor was respectfully served by the captive officers +of the household, and in the moments of festivity, when the +impartial spectators applauded the fortune and merit of +Belisarius, his envious flatterers secretly shed their venom +on every word and gesture which might alarm the suspicions +of a jealous monarch. One day was given to these pompous +scenes, which may not be despised as useless if they +attracted the popular veneration; but the active mind of +Belisarius, which in the pride of victory could suppose +defeat, had already resolved that the Roman empire in Africa +should not depend on the chance of arms or the favour of the +people. The fortifications of Carthage had alone been +excepted from the general proscription; but in the reign of +ninety-five years they were suffered to decay by the +thoughtless and indolent Vandals. A wiser conqueror restored +with incredible despatch the walls and ditches of the city. +His liberality encouraged the workmen; the soldiers, the +mariners, and the citizens vied with each other in the +salutary labour; and Gelimer, who had feared to trust his +person in an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> open town, beheld with astonishment and +despair the rising strength of an impregnable fortress."</p></div> + +<p>But we have hardly finished admiring the brilliant picture of the +conquest of Africa and Italy, before Gibbon gives us further proofs of +his many-sided culture and catholicity of mind. His famous chapter on +the Roman law has been accepted by the most fastidious experts of an +esoteric science as a masterpiece of knowledge, condensation, and +lucidity. It has actually been received as a textbook in some of the +continental universities, published separately with notes and +illustrations. When we consider the neglect of Roman jurisprudence in +England till quite recent times, and its severe study on the +Continent, we shall better appreciate the mental grasp and vigour +which enabled an unprofessional Englishman in the last century to +produce such a dissertation. A little further on (chapter forty-seven) +the history of the doctrine of the Incarnation, and the controversies +that sprang up around it, are discussed with a subtlety worthy of a +scientific theologian. It is perhaps the first attempt towards a +philosophical history of dogma, less patient and minute than the works +of the specialists of modern Germany on the same subject, but for +spirit, clearness, and breadth it is superior to those profound but +somewhat barbarous writers. The flexibility of intellect which can do +justice in quick succession to such diverse subjects is very +extraordinary, and assuredly implies great width of sympathy and large +receptivity of nature.</p> + +<p>Having terminated the period of Justinian, Gibbon makes a halt, and +surveys the varied and immense scene through which he will presently +pass in many directions. He rapidly discovers <i>ten</i> main lines, along +which he will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> advance in succession to his final goal, the conquest +of Constantinople. The two pages at the commencement of the +forty-eighth chapter, in which he sketches out the remainder of his +plan and indicates the topics which he means to treat, are admirable +as a luminous <i>précis</i>, and for the powerful grasp which they show of +his immense subject. It lay spread out all before him, visible in +every part to his penetrating eye, and he seems to rejoice in his +conscious strength and ability to undertake the historical conquest on +which he is about to set out. "Nor will this scope of narrative," he +says, "the riches and variety of these materials, be incompatible with +the unity of design and composition. As in his daily prayers the +Mussulman of Fez or Delhi still turns his face towards the temple of +Mecca, the historian's eye will always be fixed on the city of +Constantinople." Then follows the catalogue of nations and empires +whose fortunes he means to sing. A grander vision, a more majestic +procession, never swept before the mind's eye of poet or historian.</p> + +<p>And the practical execution is worthy of the initial inspiration. +After a rapid and condensed narrative of Byzantine history till the +end of the twelfth century, he takes up the brilliant theme of Mahomet +and his successors. A few pages on the climate and physical features +of Arabia fittingly introduce the subject. And it may be noted in +passing that Gibbon's attention to geography, and his skill and taste +for geographical description, are remarkable among his many gifts. He +was as diligent a student of maps and travels as of historical +records, and seems to have had a rare faculty of realising in +imagination scenes and countries of which he had only read. In three +chapters, glowing with oriental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> colour and rapid as a charge of Arab +horse, he tells the story of the prophet and the Saracen empire. Then +the Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Russians appear on the scene, to be +soon followed by the Normans, and their short but brilliant dominion +in Southern Italy. But now the Seljukian Turks are emerging from the +depths of Asia, taking the place of the degenerate Saracens, invading +the Eastern empire and conquering Jerusalem. The two waves of hostile +fanaticism soon meet in the Crusades. The piratical seizure of +Constantinople by the Latins brings in view the French and Venetians, +the family of Courtenay and its pleasant digression. Then comes the +slow agony of the restored Greek empire. Threatened by the Moguls, it +is invaded and dismembered by the Ottoman Turks. Constantinople seems +ready to fall into their hands. But the timely diversion of Tamerlane +produces a respite of half a century. Nothing can be more artistic +than Gibbon's management of his subject as he approaches its +termination. He, who is such a master of swift narrative, at this +point introduces artful pauses, <i>suspensions</i> of the final +catastrophe, which heighten our interest in the fate which is hanging +over the city of Constantine. In 1425 the victorious Turks have +conquered all the Greek empire save the capital. Amurath II. besieged +it for two months, and was only prevented from taking it by a domestic +revolt in Asia Minor. At the end of his sixty-fifth chapter Gibbon +leaves Constantinople hanging on the brink of destruction, and paints +in glowing colours the military virtues of its deadly enemies, the +Ottomans. Then he interposes one of his most finished chapters, of +miscellaneous contents, but terminating in the grand and impressive +pages on the revival of learning in Italy. There we read of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +"curiosity and emulation of the Latins," of the zeal of Petrarch and +the success of Boccace in Greek studies, of Leontius, Pilatus, +Bessarion, and Lascaris. A glow of sober enthusiasm warms the great +scholar as he paints the early light of that happy dawn. He admits +that the "arms of the Turks pressed the flight of the Muses" from +Greece to Italy. But he "trembles at the thought that Greece might +have been overwhelmed with her schools and libraries, before Europe +had emerged from the deluge of barbarism, and that the seeds of +science might have been scattered on the winds, before the Italian +soil was prepared for their cultivation." In one of the most perfect +sentences to be found in English prose he thus describes the Greek +tongue: "In their lowest depths of servitude and depression, the +subjects of the Byzantine throne were still possessed of a golden key +that could unlock the treasures of antiquity, of a musical and +prolific language that gives a soul to the objects of sense and a body +to the abstractions of philosophy." Meanwhile we are made to feel that +the subjects of the Byzantine throne, with their musical speech, that +Constantinople with her libraries and schools, will all soon fall a +prey to the ravening and barbarous Turk. This brightening light of the +Western sky contending with the baleful gloom which is settling down +over the East, is one of the most happy contrasts in historical +literature. Then comes the end, the preparations and skill of the +savage invader, the futile but heroic defence, the overwhelming ruin +which struck down the Cross and erected the Crescent over the city of +Constantine the Great.</p> + +<p>It is one of the many proofs of Gibbon's artistic instinct that he did +not end with this great catastrophe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> On the contrary, he adds three +more chapters. His fine tact warned him that the tumult and thunder of +the final ruin must not be the last sounds to strike the ear. A +resolution of the discord was needed; a soft chorale should follow the +din and lead to a mellow <i>adagio</i> close. And this he does with supreme +skill. With ill-suppressed disgust, he turns from New to Old Home. +"Constantinople no longer appertains to the Roman historian—nor shall +I enumerate the civil and religious edifices that were profaned or +erected by its Turkish masters." Amid the decayed temples and +mutilated beauty of the Eternal City, he moves down to a melodious and +pathetic conclusion—piously visits the remaining fragments of ancient +splendour and art, deplores and describes the ravages wrought by time, +and still more by man, and recurring once again to the scene of his +first inspiration, bids farewell to the Roman empire among the ruins +of the Capitol.</p> + +<p>We have hitherto spoken in terms of warm, though perhaps not excessive +eulogy of this great work. But praise would lack the force of +moderation and equipoise, if allusion were not made to some of its +defects. The pervading defect of it all has been already referred to +in a preceding chapter—an inadequate conception of society as an +organism, living and growing, like other organisms, according to +special laws of its own. In these brilliant volumes on the Middle +Ages, the special problems which that period suggests are not stated, +far less solved; they are not even suspected. The feudal polity, the +Catholic Church, the theocratic supremacy of the Popes, considered as +institutions which the historian is called upon to estimate and judge; +the gradual dissolution of both feudalism and Catholicism, brought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +about by the spread of industry in the temporal order and of science +in the spiritual order, are not even referred to. Many more topics +might be added to this list of weighty omissions. It would be needless +to say that no blame attaches to Gibbon for neglecting views of +history which had not emerged in his time, if there were not persons +who, forgetting the slow progress of knowledge, are apt to ascribe the +defects of a book to incompetence in its author. If Gibbon's +conception of the Middle Ages seems to us inadequate now, it is +because since his time our conceptions of society in that and in all +periods have been much enlarged. We may be quite certain that if +Gibbon had had our experience, no one would have seen the +imperfections of particular sides of his work as we now have it more +clearly than he.</p> + +<p>Laying aside, therefore, reflexions of this kind as irrelevant and +unjust, we may ask whether there are any other faults which may fairly +be found with him. One must admit that there are. After all, they are +not very important.</p> + +<p>(1.) Striking as is his account of Justinian's reign, it has two +blemishes. First, the offensive details about the vices of Theodora. +Granting them to be well authenticated, which they are not, it was +quite unworthy of the author and his subject to soil his pages with +such a <i>chronique scandaleuse</i>. The defence which he sets up in his +Memoirs, that he is "justified in painting the manners of the times, +and that the vices of Theodora form an essential feature in the reign +and character of Justinian," cannot be admitted. First, we are not +sure that the vices existed, and were not the impure inventions of a +malignant calumniator. Secondly, Gibbon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> is far from painting the +manners of the time as a moralist or an historian; he paints them with +a zest for pruriency worthy of Bayle or Brantome. It was an occasion +for a wise scepticism to register grave doubts as to the infamous +stories of Procopius. A rehabilitation of Theodora is not a theme +calculated to provoke enthusiasm, and is impossible besides from the +entire want of adequate evidence. But a thoughtful writer would not +have lost his time, if he referred to the subject at all, in pointing +out the moral improbability of the current accounts. He might have +dwelt on the <i>unsupported</i> testimony of the only witness, the +unscrupulous Procopius, whom Gibbon himself convicts on another +subject of flagrant mendacity. But he would have been especially slow +to believe that a woman who had led the life of incredible profligacy +he has described, would, in consequence of "some vision either of +sleep or fancy," in which future exaltation was promised to her, +assume "like a skilful actress, a more decent character, relieve her +poverty by the laudable industry of spinning wool, and affect a life +of chastity and solitude in a small house, which she afterwards +changed into a magnificent temple." Magdalens have been converted, no +doubt, from immoral living, but not by considerations of astute +prudence suggested by day-dreams of imperial greatness. Gibbon might +have thought of the case of Madame de Maintenon, and how her +reputation fared in the hands of the vindictive courtiers of +Versailles; how a woman, cold as ice and pure as snow, was freely +charged with the most abhorrent vices without an atom of foundation. +But the truth probably is that he never thought of the subject +seriously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> at all, and that, yielding to a regrettable inclination, he +copied his licentious Greek notes with little reluctance.</p> + +<p>(2.) The character of Belisarius, enigmatical enough in itself, is +made by him more enigmatical still. He concludes the forty-first +chapter, in which the great deeds of the conqueror of Italy and +Africa, and the ingratitude with which Justinian rewarded his +services, are set forth in strong contrast, with the inept remark that +"Belisarius appears to be either below or above the character of a +MAN." The grounds of the apparent meekness with which Belisarius +supported his repeated disgraces cannot now be ascertained: but the +motives of Justinian's conduct are not so difficult to find. As Finlay +points out in his thoughtful history of Greece, Belisarius must have +been a peculator on a large and dangerous scale. "Though he refused +the Gothic throne and the empire of the West, he did not despise nor +neglect wealth: he accumulated riches which could not have been +acquired by any commander-in-chief amidst the wars and famines of the +period, without rendering the military and civil administration +subservient to his pecuniary profit. On his return from Italy he lived +at Constantinople in almost regal splendour, and maintained a body of +7,000 cavalry attached to his household. In an empire where +confiscation was an ordinary financial resource, and under a sovereign +whose situation rendered jealousy only common prudence, it is not +surprising that the wealth of Belisarius excited the imperial +cupidity, and induced Justinian to seize great part of it" (<i>Greece +under the Romans</i>, chap. 3). There is shrewd insight in this, and +though we may regret that we cannot attain to more, it is better than +leaving the subject with an unmeaning paradox.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p> + +<p>It may be said generally that Gibbon has not done justice to the +services rendered to Europe by the Byzantine empire. In his crowded +forty-eighth chapter, which is devoted to the subject, he passes over +events and characters with such speed that his history in this part +becomes little more than a chronicle, vivid indeed, but barren of +thoughtful political views. His account of the Isaurian period may be +instanced among others as an example of defective treatment. If we +turn to the judicious Finlay, we see what an immense but generally +unacknowledged debt Europe owes to the Greek empire. The saving of +Christendom from Mohammedan conquest is too easily attributed to the +genius of Charles Martel and his brave Franks. The victory at Tours +was important no doubt, but almost a century previously the followers +of the prophet had been checked by Heraclius; and their memorable +repulse before Constantinople under the Isaurian Leo was the real +barrier opposed to their conquest of the West. It requires but little +reflection to see that without this brave resistance to the Moslem +invasion, the course of mediæval history would have been completely +changed. Next in time, but hardly second in value to the services of +the Greeks at Marathon and Salamis, must be reckoned the services of +the Byzantine emperors in repelling the barbarians. Such an important +consideration as this should hardly have escaped Gibbon.</p> + +<p>Gibbon's account of Charlemagne is strangely inadequate. It is perhaps +the only instance in his work where he has failed to appreciate a +truly great man, and the failure is the more deplorable as it concerns +one of the greatest men who have ever lived. He did not realise the +greatness of the man, of his age, or of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> work. Properly +considered, the eighth century is the most important and memorable +which Europe has ever seen. During its course the geographical limits, +the ecclesiastical polity, and the feudal system within and under +which our western group of nations was destined to live for five or +six centuries, were provisionally settled and determined. The +wonderful house of the Carolings, which produced no less than five +successive rulers of genius (of whom two had extraordinary genius, +Charles Martel and Charlemagne), were the human instruments of this +great work. The Frankish Monarchy was hastening to ruin when they +saved it. Saxons in the East and Saracens in the South were on the +point of extinguishing the few surviving embers of civilisation which +still existed. The Bishop of Rome was ready to fall a prey to the +Lombards, and the progressive papacy of Hildebrand and Innocent ran +imminent risk of being extirpated at its root. Charles and his +ancestors prevented these evils. Of course it is open to any one to +say that there were no evils threatening, that Mohammedanism is as +good as Christianity, that the Papacy was a monstrous calamity, that +to have allowed Eastern Germany to remain pagan and barbarous would +have done no harm. The question cannot be discussed here. But every +law of historic equity compels us to admit that whether the result was +good or bad, the genius of men who could leave such lasting +impressions on the world as the Carolings did, must have been +exceptionally great. And this is what Gibbon has not seen; he has not +seen that, whether their work was good or bad in the issue, it was +colossal. His tone in reference to Charlemagne is unworthy to a +degree. "Without injustice to his fame, I may discern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> some blemishes +in the sanctity and greatness of the restorer of the Western Empire. +Of his moral virtues, chastity was not the most conspicuous." This +from the pen of Gibbon seems hardly serious. Again: "I touch with +reverence the laws of Charlemagne, so highly applauded by a +respectable judge. They compose not a system, but a series of +occasional and minute edicts, for the correction of abuses, the +reformation of manners, the economy of his farms, the care of his +poultry, and even the sale of his eggs." And yet Gibbon had read the +Capitularies. The struggle and care of the hero to master in some +degree the wide welter of barbarism surging around him, he never +recognised. It is a spot on Gibbon's fame.</p> + +<p>Dean Milman considers that Gibbon's account of the Crusades is the +least accurate and satisfactory chapter in his history, and "that he +has here failed in that lucid arrangement which in general gives +perspicuity to his most condensed and crowded narratives." This blame +seems to be fully merited, if restricted to the second of the two +chapters which Gibbon has devoted to the Crusades. The fifty-eighth +chapter, in which he treats of the First Crusade, leaves nothing to be +desired. It is not one of his best chapters, though it is quite up to +his usually high level. But the fifty-ninth chapter, it must be owned, +is not only weak, but what is unexampled elsewhere in him, confused +and badly written. It is not, as in the case of Charlemagne, a +question of imperfect appreciation of a great man or epoch; it is a +matter of careless and slovenly presentation of a period which he had +evidently mastered with his habitual thoroughness, but, owing to the +rapidity with which he composed his last volume, he did not do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> full +justice to it. He says significantly in his Memoirs, that "he wished +that a pause, an interval, had been allowed for a serious revisal" of +the last three volumes, and there can be little doubt that this +chapter was one of the sources of his regrets. It is in fact a mere +tangle. The Second and the Third Crusades are so jumbled together, +that it is only a reader who knows the subject very well who can find +his way through the labyrinth. Gibbon seems at this point, a thing +very unusual with him, to have become impatient with his subject, and +to have wished to hurry over it. "A brief parallel," he says, "may +save the repetition of a tedious narrative." The result of this +expeditious method has been far from happy. It is the only occasion +where Gibbon has failed in his usual high finish and admirable +literary form.</p> + +<p>Gibbon's style was at one period somewhat of a party question. Good +Christians felt a scruple in discerning any merits in the style of a +writer who had treated the martyrs of the early Church with so little +ceremony and generosity. On the other hand, those whose opinions +approached more or less to his, expatiated on the splendour and +majesty of his diction. Archbishop Whately went out of his way in a +note to his <i>Logic</i> to make a keen thrust at an author whom it was +well to depreciate whenever occasion served. "His way of writing," he +says, "reminds one of those persons who never dare look you full in +the face." Such criticisms are out of date now. The faults of Gibbon's +style are obvious enough, and its compensatory merits are not far to +seek. No one can overlook its frequent tumidity and constant want of +terseness. It lacks suppleness, ease, variety. It is not often +distinguished by happy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> selection of epithet, and seems to ignore all +delicacy of <i>nuance</i>. A prevailing grandiloquence, which easily slides +into pomposity, is its greatest blemish. The acute Porson saw this and +expressed it admirably. In the preface to his letters to Archdeacon +Travis, he says of Gibbon, "Though his style is in general correct and +elegant, he sometimes 'draws out the thread of his verbosity finer +than the staple of his argument.' In endeavouring to avoid vulgar +terms he too frequently dignifies trifles, and clothes common thoughts +in a splendid dress that would be rich enough for the noblest ideas. +In short we are too often reminded of that great man, Mr. Prig, the +auctioneer, whose manner was so inimitably fine that he had as much to +say on a ribbon as on a Raphael." It seems as if Gibbon had taken the +stilted tone of the old French tragedy for his model, rather than the +crisp and nervous prose of the best French writers. We are constantly +offended by a superfine diction lavished on barbarous chiefs and rough +soldiers of the Lower Empire, which almost reproduces the high-flown +rhetoric in which Corneille's and Racine's characters address each +other. Such phrases as the "majesty of the throne," "the dignity of +the purple," the "wisdom of the senate," recur with a rather jarring +monotony, especially when the rest of the narrative is designed to +show that there was no majesty nor dignity nor wisdom involved in the +matter. We feel that the writer was thinking more of his sonorous +sentence than of the real fact. On the other hand, nothing but a want +of candour or taste can lead any one to overlook the rare and great +excellences of Gibbon's style. First of all, it is singularly correct: +a rather common merit now, but not common in his day. But its +sustained vigour<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> and loftiness will always be uncommon; above all its +rapidity and masculine length of stride are quite admirable. When he +takes up his pen to describe a campaign, or any great historic scene, +we feel that we shall have something worthy of the occasion, that we +shall be carried swiftly and grandly through it all, without the +suspicion of a breakdown of any kind being possible. An indefinable +stamp of weightiness is impressed on Gibbon's writing; he has a +baritone manliness which banishes everything small, trivial, or weak. +When he is eloquent (and it should be remembered to his credit that he +never affects eloquence, though he occasionally affects dignity), he +rises without effort into real grandeur. On the whole we may say that +his manner, with certain manifest faults, is not unworthy of his +matter, and the praise is great.</p> + +<p>It is not quite easy to give expression to another feeling which is +often excited in reading Gibbon. It is somewhat of this kind, that it +is more fitted to inspire admiration than love or sympathy. Its merits +are so great, the mass of information it contains is so stupendous, +that all competent judges of such work feel bound to praise it. +Whether they like it in the same degree, may be questioned. Among +reading men and educated persons it is not common—such is my +experience—to meet with people who know their Gibbon well. Superior +women do not seem to take to him kindly, even when there is no +impediment on religious grounds. Madame du Deffand, writing to +Walpole, says, "I whisper it to you, but I am not pleased with Mr. +Gibbon's work. It is declamatory, oratorical.... I lay it aside +without regret, and it requires an effort to take it up again." +Another of Walpole's correspondents, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> Countess of Ossory, seems to +have made similar strictures. If we admit that women are less capable +than masculine scholars of doing justice to the strong side of Gibbon, +we may also acknowledge that they are better fitted than men to +appreciate and to be shocked by his defective side, which is a +prevailing want of moral elevation and nobility of sentiment. His +cheek rarely flushes in enthusiasm for a good cause. The tragedy of +human life never seems to touch him, no glimpse of the infinite ever +calms and raises the reader of his pages. Like nearly all the men of +his day, he was of the earth earthy, and it is impossible to get over +the fact.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>LAST ILLNESS.—DEATH.—CONCLUSION.</h3> +<p>Gibbon had now only about six months to live. He did not seem to have +suffered by his rapid journey from Lausanne to London. During the +summer which he spent with his friend Lord Sheffield, he was much as +usual; only his friend noticed that his habitual dislike to motion +appeared to increase, and he was so incapable of exercise that he was +confined to the library and dining-room. "Then he joined Mr. F. North +in pleasant arguments against exercise in general. He ridiculed the +unsettled and restless disposition that summer, the most uncomfortable +of all seasons, as he said, generally gives to those who have the use +of their limbs." The true disciples of Epicurus are not always the +least stout and stoical in the presence of irreparable evils.</p> + +<p>After spending three or four months at Sheffield Place, he went to +Bath to visit his step-mother, Mrs. Gibbon. His conduct to her through +life was highly honourable to him. It should be remembered that her +jointure, paid out of his father's decayed estate, was a great tax on +his small income. In his efforts to improve his position by selling +his landed property, Mrs. Gibbon seems to have been at times somewhat +difficult to satisfy as regards the security of her interests. It was +only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> prudent on her part. But it is easy to see what a source of +alienation and quarrel was here ready prepared, if both parties had +not risen superior to sordid motives. There never seems to have been +the smallest cloud between them. When one of his properties was sold +he writes: "Mrs. Gibbon's jointure is secured on the Buriton estate, +and her legal consent is requisite for the sale. Again and again I +must repeat my hope that she is perfectly satisfied, and that the +close of her life may not be embittered by suspicion, fear, or +discontent. What new security does she prefer—the funds, a mortgage, +or your land? At all events, she must be made easy." So Gibbon left +town and lay at Reading on his road to Bath: here he passed about ten +days with his step-mother, who was now nearly eighty years of age. "In +mind and conversation she is just the same as twenty years ago," he +writes to Lord Sheffield; "she has spirits, appetite, legs, and eyes, +and talks of living till ninety. I can say from my heart, Amen." And +in another letter, a few days later, he says: "A <i>tête-à-tête</i> of +eight or nine hours every day is rather difficult to support; yet I do +assure you that our conversation flows with more ease and spirit when +we are alone, than when any auxiliaries are summoned to our aid. She +is indeed a wonderful woman, and I think all her faculties of the mind +stronger and more active than I have ever known them.... I shall +therefore depart next Friday, but I may possibly reckon without my +host, as I have not yet apprised Mrs. G. of the term of my visit, and +will certainly not quarrel with her for a short delay." He then went +to Althorpe, and it is the last evidence of his touching a +book—"exhausted the morning (of the 5th November) among the first +editions of Cicero." Then he came to London, and in a few days was +seized with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> illness which in a little more than two months put an +end to his life.</p> + +<p>His malady was dropsy, complicated with other disorders. He had most +strangely neglected a very dangerous symptom for upwards of thirty +years, not only having failed to take medical advice about it, but +even avoiding all allusion to it to bosom friends like Lord Sheffield. +But longer concealment was now impossible. He sent for the eminent +surgeon Farquhar (the same who afterwards attended William Pitt), and +he, together with Cline, at once recognised the case as one of the +utmost gravity, though they did not say as much to the patient. On +Thursday, the 14th of November, he was tapped and greatly relieved. He +said he was not appalled by the operation, and during its progress he +did not lay aside his usual good-humoured pleasantry. He was soon out +again, but only for a few days, and a fortnight after another tapping +was necessary. Again he went out to dinners and parties, which must +have been most imprudent at his age and in his state. But he does not +seem to have acted contrary to medical advice. He was very anxious to +meet the prime minister, William Pitt, with whom he was not +acquainted, though he must have seen him in old days in the House. He +saw him twice; once at Eden Farm for a whole day, and was much +gratified, we are told. At last he got to what he called his home—the +house of his true and devoted friend, Lord Sheffield. "But," says the +latter, whose narrative of his friend's last illness is marked by a +deep and reserved tenderness that does him much honour, "this last +visit to Sheffield Place became far different from any he had ever +made before. That ready, cheerful, various and illuminating +conversation which we had before admired<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> in him, was not always to be +found in the library or the drawing-room. He moved with difficulty, +and retired from company sooner than he had been used to do. On the +23rd of December his appetite began to fail him. He observed to me +that it was a very bad sign <i>with him</i> when he could not eat his +breakfast, which he had done at all times very heartily; and this +seems to have been the strongest expression of apprehension that he +was ever observed to utter." He soon became too ill to remain beyond +the reach of the highest medical advice. On the 7th of January, 1794, +he left a houseful of company and friends for his lodgings in St. +James's Street. On arriving he sent the following note to Lord +Sheffield, the last lines he ever wrote:—</p> + +<p class="sig3">"<span class="smcap">St. James's, Four O'clock, Tuesday.</span></p> + +<p class="blockquot">"This date says everything. I was almost killed between Sheffield +Place and East Grinstead by hard, frozen, long, and cross ruts, that +would disgrace the approach of an Indian wigwam. The rest was somewhat +less painful, and I reached this place half dead, but not seriously +feverish or ill. I found a dinner invitation from Lord Lucan; but what +are dinners to me? I wish they did not know of my departure. I catch +the flying post. What an effort! Adieu till Thursday or Friday."</p> + +<p>The end was not far off. On the 13th of January he underwent another +operation, and, as usual, experienced much relief. "His spirits +continued good. He talked of passing his time at houses which he had +often frequented with great pleasure—the Duke of Devonshire's, Mr. +Craufurd's, Lord Spencer's, Lord Lucan's, Sir Ralph Payne's, Mr. +Batt's." On the 14th of January "he saw some company—Lady Lucan and +Lady Spencer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>—and thought himself well enough to omit the opium +draught which he had been used to take for some time. He slept very +indifferently; before nine the next morning he rose, but could not eat +his breakfast. However, he appeared tolerably well, yet complained at +times of a pain in his stomach. At one o'clock he received a visit of +an hour from Madame de Sylva; and at three, his friend, Mr. Craufurd, +of Auchinames (whom he always mentioned with particular regard), +called, and stayed with him till past five o'clock. They talked, as +usual, on various subjects; and twenty hours before his death Mr. +Gibbon happened to fall into a conversation not uncommon with him, on +the probable duration of his life. He said that he thought himself a +good life for ten, twelve, or perhaps twenty years. About six he ate +the wing of a chicken and drank three glasses of Madeira. After dinner +he became very uneasy and impatient, complained a good deal, and +appeared so weak that his servant was alarmed.</p> + +<p>"During the evening he complained much of his stomach, and of a +feeling of nausea. Soon after nine, he took his opium draught and went +to bed. About ten he complained of much pain, and desired that warm +napkins might be applied to his stomach. He almost incessantly +expressed a sense of pain till about four o'clock in the morning, when +he said he found his stomach much easier. About seven the servant +asked whether he should send for Mr. Farquhar. He answered, No; that +he was as well as the day before. At about half-past eight he got out +of bed, and said he was 'plus adroit' than he had been for three +months past, and got into bed again without assistance, better than +usual. About nine he said he would rise. The servant, however, +persuaded him to remain in bed till Mr. Farquhar, who was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> expected at +eleven, should come. Till about that hour he spoke with great +facility. Mr. Farquhar came at the time appointed, and he was then +visibly dying. When the <i>valet-de-chambre</i> returned, after attending +Mr. Farquhar out of the room, Mr. Gibbon said, 'Pourquoi est ce que +vous me quittez?' This was about half-past eleven. At twelve he drank +some brandy and water from a teapot, and desired his favourite servant +to stay with him. These were the last words he pronounced +articulately. To the last he preserved his senses; and when he could +no longer speak, his servant having asked a question, he made a sign +to show that he understood him. He was quite tranquil, and did not +stir, his eyes half shut. About a quarter before one he ceased to +breathe." He wanted just eighty-three days of fifty-seven years of +age.</p> + +<p>Thus, in consequence of his own strange self-neglect and imprudence, +was extinguished one of the most richly-stored minds that ever lived. +Occurring when it did, so near the last summons, Gibbon's prospective +hope of continued life "for ten, twelve, or twenty years" is harshly +pathetic, and full of that irony which mocks the vain cares of men. +But, truly, his forecast was not irrational if he had not neglected +ordinary precautions. In spite of his ailments he felt full, and was +full, of life, when he was cut off. We cannot be sure if lengthened +days would have added much to his work already achieved. There is +hardly a parallel case in literature of the great powers of a whole +life being so concentrated on one supreme and magnificent effort. Yet, +if he had lived to 1804, or as an extreme limit, to 1814, we should +have been all gainers. In the first place, he certainly would have +finished his admirable autobiography. We cannot imagine what he would +have made of it, judging<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> from the fragment which exists. And yet that +fragment is almost a masterpiece. But his fertile mind had other +schemes in prospect; and what such a diligent worker would have done +with a decade or two more of years it is impossible to say, except +that it is certain they would not have been wasted. The extinction of +a real mind is ever an irreparable loss.</p> + +<p>As it was, he went to his rest after one of the greatest victories +ever achieved in his own field of humane letters, and lived long +enough to taste the fruits of his toil. He was never puffed up, but +soberly and without arrogance received his laurels. His unselfish zeal +and haste to console his bereaved friend showed him warm and loving to +the last; and we may say that his last serious effort was consecrated +to the genius of pious friendship.</p> + +<p>In 1796, two years after Gibbon's death, Lord Sheffield published two +quarto volumes of the historian's miscellaneous works. They have been +republished in one thick octavo, and many persons suppose that it +contains the whole of the posthumous works; not unnaturally, as a +fraudulent statement on the title-page, "complete in one volume," is +well calculated to produce that impression. But in 1814 Lord Sheffield +issued a second edition in five volumes octavo, containing much +additional matter, which additional matter was again published in a +quarto form, no doubt for the convenience of the purchasers of the +original quarto edition.</p> + +<p>Of the posthumous works, the Memoirs are by far the most important +portion. Unfortunately, they were left in a most unfinished state, and +what we now read is nothing else than a mosaic put together by Lord +Sheffield from <i>six</i> different sketches. Next to the Memoirs are the +journals and diaries of his studies. As a picture of Gibbon's method, +zeal, and thoroughness in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> pursuit of knowledge, they are of the +highest interest. But they refer to an early period of his studies, +long previous to the concentration of his mind on his great work, and +one would like to know whether they present the best selection that +might have been made from these records. It is interesting to follow +Gibbon in his perusal of Homer and Juvenal at five-and-twenty. But one +would much like to be admitted to his study when he was a far riper +scholar, and preparing for or writing the <i>Decline and Fall</i>. Lord +Sheffield positively prohibited, by a clause in his will, any further +publication of the Gibbon papers, and although Dean Milman was +permitted to see them, it was with the express understanding that none +of their contents should be divulged. After the Memoirs and the +journals, the most interesting portion of the miscellaneous works are +<i>The Antiquities of the House of Brunswick</i>, which in their present +form are merely the preparatory sketch of a large work. It is too +imperfect to allow us to judge of what Gibbon even designed to make of +it. But it contains some masterly pages, and the style in many places +seems more nervous and supple than that of the <i>Decline and Fall.</i></p> + +<p>For instance, this account of Albert Azo the Second:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Like one of his Tuscan ancestors Azo the Second was +distinguished among the princes of Italy by the epithet of +the <i>Rich</i>. The particulars of his rentroll cannot now be +ascertained. An occasional though authentic deed of +investiture enumerates eighty-three fiefs or manors which he +held of the empire in Lombardy and Tuscany, from the +Marquisate of Este to the county of Luni; but to these +possessions must be added the lands which he enjoyed as the +vassal of the Church, the ancient patrimony of Otbert (the +terra Obertenga) in the counties of Arezzo, Pisa, and Lucca, +and the marriage portion of his first wife, which, according +to the various readings of the manuscripts, may be computed +either at twenty or two hundred thousand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> English acres. If +such a mass of landed property were now accumulated on the +head of an Italian nobleman, the annual revenue might +satisfy the largest demands of private luxury or avarice, +and the fortunate owner would be rich in the improvement of +agriculture, the manufactures of industry, the refinement of +taste, and the extent of commerce. But the barbarism of the +eleventh century diminished the income and aggravated the +expense of the Marquis of Este. In a long series of war and +anarchy, man and the works of man had been swept away, and +the introduction of each ferocious and idle stranger had +been overbalanced by the loss of five or six perhaps of the +peaceful industrious natives. The mischievous growth of +vegetation, the frequent inundations of the rivers were no +longer checked by the vigilance of labour; the face of the +country was again covered with forests and morasses; of the +vast domains which acknowledged Azo for their lord, the far +greater part was abandoned to the beasts of the field, and a +much smaller portion was reduced to the state of constant +and productive husbandry. An adequate rent may be obtained +from the skill and substance of a free tenant who fertilizes +a grateful soil, and enjoys the security and benefit of a +long lease. But faint is the hope and scanty is the produce +of those harvests which are raised by the reluctant toil of +peasants and slaves condemned to a bare subsistance and +careless of the interests of a rapacious master. If his +granaries are full, his purse is empty, and the want of +cities or commerce, the difficulty of finding or reaching a +market, obliges him to consume on the spot a part of his +useless stock, which cannot be exchanged for merchandise or +money.... The entertainment of his vassals and soldiers, +their pay and rewards, their arms and horses, surpassed the +measure of the most oppressive tribute, and the destruction +which he inflicted on his neighbours was often retaliated on +his own lands. The costly elegance of palaces and gardens +was superseded by the laborious and expensive construction +of strong castles on the summits of the most inaccessible +rocks, and some of these, like the fortress of Canossa in +the Apennine, were built and provided to sustain a three +years' siege against a royal army. But his defence in this +world was less burdensome to a wealthy lord than his +salvation in the next; the demands of his chapel, his +priests, his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> alms, his offerings, his pilgrimages were +incessantly renewed; the monastery chosen for his sepulchre +was endowed with his fairest possessions, and the naked heir +might often complain that his father's sins had been +redeemed at too high a price. The Marquis Azo was not exempt +from the contagion of the times; his devotion was animated +and inflamed by the frequent miracles that were performed in +his presence; and the monks of Vangadizza, who yielded to +his request the arm of a dead saint, were not ignorant of +the value of that inestimable jewel. After satisfying the +demands of war and superstition he might appropriate the +rest of his revenue to use and pleasure. But the Italians of +the eleventh century were imperfectly skilled in the liberal +and mechanical arts; the objects of foreign luxury were +furnished at an exorbitant price by the merchants of Pisa +and Venice; and the superfluous wealth which could not +purchase the real comforts of life, were idly wasted on some +rare occasions of vanity and pomp. Such were the nuptials of +Boniface, Duke or Marquis of Tuscany, whose family was long +after united with that of Azo by the marriage of their +children. These nuptials were celebrated on the banks of the +Mincius, which the fancy of Virgil has decorated with a more +beautiful picture. The princes and people of Italy were +invited to the feasts, which continued three months; the +fertile meadows, which are intersected by the slow and +winding course of the river, were covered with innumerable +tents, and the bridegroom displayed and diversified the +scenes of his proud and tasteless magnificence. All the +utensils of the service were of silver, and his horses were +shod with plates of the same metal, loosely nailed and +carelessly dropped, to indicate his contempt of riches. An +image of plenty and profusion was expressed in the banquet; +the most delicious wines were drawn in buckets from the +well; and the spices of the East were ground in water-mills +like common flour. The dramatic and musical arts were in the +rudest state; but the Marquis had summoned the most popular +singers, harpers, and buffoons to exercise their talents in +this splendid theatre. After this festival I might remark a +singular gift of this same Boniface to the Emperor Henry +III., a chariot and oxen of solid silver, which were +designed only as a vehicle for a hogshead of vinegar. If +such an example should seem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> above the imitation of Azo +himself, the Marquis of Este was at least superior in wealth +and dignity to the vassals of his compeer. One of these +vassals, the Viscount of Mantua, presented the German +monarch with one hundred falcons and one hundred bay horses, +a grateful contribution to the pleasures of a royal +sportsman. In that age the proud distinction between the +nobles and princes of Italy was guarded with jealous +ceremony. The Viscount of Mantua had never been seated at +the table of his immediate lord; he yielded to the +invitation of the Emperor; and a stag's skin filled with +pieces of gold was graciously accepted by the Marquis of +Tuscany as the fine of his presumption.</p> + +<p>"The temporal felicity of Azo was crowned by the long +possession of honour and riches; he died in the year 1097, +aged upwards of an hundred years; and the term of his mortal +existence was almost commensurate with the lapse of the +eleventh century. The character as well as the situation of +the Marquis of Este rendered him an actor in the revolutions +of that memorable period; but time has cast a veil over the +virtues and vices of the man, and I must be content to mark +some of the eras, the milestones of his which measure the +extent and intervals of the vacant way. Albert Azo the +Second was no more than seventeen when he first drew the +sword of rebellion and patriotism, when he was involved with +his grandfather, his father, and his three uncles in a +common proscription. In the vigour of his manhood, about his +fiftieth year, the Ligurian Marquis governed the cities of +Milan and Genoa as the minister of Imperial authority. He +was upwards of seventy when he passed the Alps to vindicate +the inheritance of Maine for the children of his second +marriage. He became the friend and servant of Gregory VII., +and in one of his epistles that ambitious pontiff recommends +the Marquis Azo, as the most faithful and best beloved of +the Italian princes, as the proper channel through which a +king of Hungary might convey his petitions to the apostolic +throne. In the mighty contest between the crown and the +mitre, the Marquis Azo and the Countess Matilda led the +powers of Italy. And when the standard of St. Peter was +displayed, neither the age of the one nor the sex of the +other could detain them from the field. With these two +affectionate clients the Pope maintained his station in the +fortress of Canossa, while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> the Emperor, barefoot on the +frozen ground, fasted and prayed three days at the foot of +the rock; they were witnesses to the abject ceremony of the +penance and pardon of Henry IV.; and in the triumph of the +Church a patriot might foresee the deliverance of Italy from +the German yoke. At the time of this event the Marquis of +Este was above fourscore; but in the twenty following years +he was still alive and active amidst the revolutions of +peace and war. The last act which he subscribed is dated +above a century after his birth; and in that the venerable +chief possesses the command of his faculties, his family, +and his fortune. In this rare prerogative the longevity of +Albert Azo the Second stands alone. Nor can I remember in +the <i>authentic</i> annals of mortality a single example of a +king or prince, of a statesman or general, of a philosopher +or poet, whose life has been extended beyond the period of a +hundred years.... Three approximations which will not +hastily be matched have distinguished the present century, +Aurungzebe, Cardinal Fleury, and Fontenelle. Had a fortnight +more been given to the philosopher, he might have celebrated +his secular festival; but the lives and labours of the Mogul +king and the French minister were terminated before they had +accomplished their ninetieth year."</p></div> + +<p>Then follow several striking and graceful pages on Lucrezia Borgia and +Renée of France, Duchess of Ferrara. The following description of the +University of Padua and the literary tastes of the house of Este is +all that we can give here:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"An university had been founded at Padua by the house of +Este, and the scholastic rust was polished away by the +revival of the literature of Greece and Rome. The studies of +Ferrara were directed by skilful and eloquent professors, +either natives or foreigners. The ducal library was filled +with a valuable collection of manuscripts and printed books, +and as soon as twelve new plays of Plautus had been found in +Germany, the Marquis Lionel of Este was impatient to obtain +a fair and faithful copy of that ancient poet. Nor were +these elegant pleasures confined to the learned world. Under +the reign of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> Hercules I. a wooden theatre at a moderate +cost of a thousand crowns was constructed in the largest +court of the palace, the scenery represented some houses, a +seaport and a ship, and the <i>Menechmi</i> of Plautus, which had +been translated into Italian by the Duke himself, was acted +before a numerous and polite audience. In the same language +and with the same success the <i>Amphytrion</i> of Plautus and +the <i>Eunuchus</i> of Terence were successively exhibited. And +these classic models, which formed the taste of the +spectators, excited the emulation of the poets of the age. +For the use of the court and theatre of Ferrara, Ariosto +composed his comedies, which were often played with +applause, which are still read with pleasure. And such was +the enthusiasm of the new arts that one of the sons of +Alphonso the First did not disdain to speak a prologue on +the stage. In the legitimate forms of dramatic composition +the Italians have not excelled; but it was in the court of +Ferrara that they invented and refined the <i>pastoral +comedy</i>, a romantic Arcadia which violates the truth of +manners and the simplicity of nature, but which commands our +indulgence by the elaborate luxury of eloquence and wit. The +<i>Aminta</i> of Tasso was written for the amusement and acted in +the presence of Alphonso the Second, and his sister Leonora +might apply to herself the language of a passion which +disordered the reason without clouding the genius of her +poetical lover. Of the numerous imitations, the <i>Pastor +Fido</i> of Guarini, which alone can vie with the fame and +merit of the original, is the work of the Duke's secretary +of state. It was exhibited in a private house in Ferrara.... +The father of the Tuscan muses, the sublime but unequal +Dante, had pronounced that Ferrara was never honoured with +the name of a poet; he would have been astonished to behold +the chorus of bards, of melodious swans (their own +allusion), which now peopled the banks of the Po. In the +court of Duke Borso and his successor, Boyardo Count +Scandiano, was respected as a noble, a soldier, and a +scholar: his vigorous fancy first celebrated the loves and +exploits of the paladin Orlando; and his fame has been +preserved and eclipsed by the brighter glories and +continuation of his work. Ferrara may boast that on classic +ground Ariosto and Tasso lived and sung; that the lines of +the <i>Orlando Furioso</i>, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> <i>Gierusalemme Liberata</i> were +inscribed in everlasting characters under the eye of the +First and Second Alphonso. In a period of near three +thousand years, five great epic poets have arisen in the +world, and it is a singular prerogative that two of the five +should be claimed as their own by a short age and a petty +state."</p></div> + +<p>It perhaps will be admitted that if the style of these passages is +less elaborate than that of the <i>Decline and Fall</i>, the deficiency, if +it is one, is compensated by greater ease and lightness of touch.</p> + +<p>It may be interesting to give a specimen of Gibbon's French style. His +command of that language was not inferior to his command of his native +idiom. One might even be inclined to say that his French prose is +controlled by a purer taste than his English prose. The following +excerpt, describing the Battle of Morgarten, will enable the reader to +judge. It is taken from his early unfinished work on the History of +the Swiss Republic, to which reference has already been made (p. +59):—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Léopold était parti de Zug vers le milieu de la nuit. Il se +flattait d'occuper sans résistance le défilé de Morgarten +qui ne perçait qu'avec difficulté entre le lac Aegré et le +pied d'une montagne escarpée. Il marchait à la tête de sa +gendarmerie. Une colonne profonde d'infanterie le suivait de +près, et les uns et les autres se promettaient une victoire +facile si les paysans osaient se présenter à leur rencontre. +Ils étaient à peine entrés dans un chemin rude et étroit, et +qui ne permettait qu'à trois ou quatre de marcher de front, +qu'ils se sentirent accablés d'une grêle de pierres et de +traits. Rodolphe de Reding, landamman de Schwitz et général +des Confédérés, n'avait oublié aucun des avantages que lui +offrit la situation des lieux. Il avait fait couper des +rochers énormes, qui en s'ébranlant dès qu'on retirait les +faibles appuis qui les retenaient encore, se détachaient du +sommet de la montaigne et se précipitaient avec un bruit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +affreux sur les bataillons serrés des Autrichiens. Déjà les +chevaux s'éffrayaient, les rangs se confondaient, et le +désordre égarait le courage et le rendait inutile, lorsque +les Suisses descendirent de la montagne en poussant de +grands cris. Accoutumés à poursuivre le chamois sur les +bords glissants des précipices, ils couraient d'un pas +assuré au milieu des neiges. Ils étaient armés de grosses et +pesantes hallebardes, auxquelles le fer le mieux trempé ne +résistait point. Les soldats de Léopold chancelants et +découragés cédèrent bientôt aux efforts désespérés d'une +troupe qui combattait pour tout ce qu'il y a de plus cher +aux hommes. L'Abbé d'Einsidlen, premier auteur de cette +guerre malheureuse, et le comte Henri de Montfort, donnèrent +les premiers l'example de la fuite. Le désordre devint +général, le carnage fut affreux, et les Suisses se livraient +au plaisir de la vengeance. A neuf heures du matin la +bataille était gagnée.... Un grand nombre d'Autrichiens se +précipitant les uns sur les autres, cherchèrent vainement +dans le lac un asyle contre la fureur de leurs ennemis. Ils +y périrent presque tous. Quinze cents hommes restèrent sur +le champ de bataille. Ils étaient pour la plupart de la +gendarmerie, qu'une valeur malheureuse et une armure pesante +arrêtaient dans un lieu où l'un et l'autre leur étaient +inutiles. Longtemps après l'on s'apercevait dans toutes les +provinces voisines que l'élite de la noblesse avait péri +dans cette fatale journée. L'infanterie beaucoup moins +engagée dans le défilé, vit en tremblant la défaite des +chevaliers qui passaient pour invincibles, et dont les +escadrons effrayés se renversaient sur elle. Elle s'arrêta, +voulut se retirer, et dans l'instant cette retraite devint +une fuite honteuse. Sa perte fut assez peu considérable, +mais les historiens de la nation ont conservé la mémoire de +cinquante braves Zuriquois dont on trouva les rangs couchés +morts sur la place. Léopold lui-même fut entrainé par la +foule qui le portait du côté de Zug. On le vit entrer dans +sa ville de Winterthur. La frayeur, la honte et +l'indignation étaient encore peintes sur son front. Dès que +la victoire se fut déclarée en faveur des Suisses, ils +s'assemblèrent sur le champ de bataille, s'embrassèrent e +versant des larmes d'allégresse, et remercièrent Dieu de la +grace qu'il venait de leur faire, et qui ne leur avait coûté +que quatorze de leurs compagnons."</p></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p> + +<p>His familiar letters and a number of essays, chiefly written in youth, +form the remainder of the miscellaneous works. Of the letters, some +have been quoted in this volume, and the reader can form his own +judgment of them. Of the small essays we may say that they augment, if +it is possible, one's notion of Gibbon's laborious diligence and +thoroughness in the field of historic research, and confirm his title +to the character of an intrepid student.</p> + +<p>The lives of scholars are proverbially dull, and that of Gibbon is +hardly an exception to the rule. In the case of historians, the +protracted silent labour of preparation, followed by the conscientious +exposition of knowledge acquired, into which the intrusion of the +writer's personality rarely appears to advantage, combine to give +prominence to the work achieved, and to throw into the background the +author who achieves it. If indeed the historian, forsaking his high +function and austere reserve, succumbs to the temptations that beset +his path, and turns history into political pamphlet, poetic rhapsody, +moral epigram, or garish melodrama, he may become conspicuous to a +fault at the expense of his work. Gibbon avoided these seductions. If +the <i>Decline and Fall</i> has no superior in historical literature, it is +not solely in consequence of Gibbon's profound learning, wide survey, +and masterly grasp of his subject. With wise discretion, he +subordinated himself to his task. The life of Gibbon is the less +interesting, but his work remains monumental and supreme.</p> + + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS.</h2> + +<h3>EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY.</h3> +<p><i>These Short Books are addressed to the general public with a view +both to stirring and satisfying an interest in literature and its +great topics in the minds of those who have to run as they read. An +immense class is growing up, and must every year increase, whose +education will have made them alive to the importance of the masters +of our literature, and capable of intelligent curiosity as to their +performances. The Series is intended to give the means of nourishing +this curiosity, to an extent that shall be copious enough to be +profitable for knowledge and life, and yet be brief enough to serve +those whose leisure is scanty</i>.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>The following are arranged for</i>:—</p> + +<table class="tb1" summary="List of Books"> + <tr> + <td>SPENSER</td> + <td>The Dean of St. Paul's.</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>HUME</td> + <td>Professor Huxley.</td> + <td>In the Press.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>BUNYAN</td> + <td>James Anthony Froude.</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>JOHNSON</td> + <td>Leslie Stephen.</td> + <td style="font-style:normal">[<i>Ready</i>.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>GOLDSMITH</td> + <td>William Black.</td> + <td style="font-style:normal">[<i>In the Press</i>.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>MILTON</td> + <td>Mark Pattison.</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>WORDSWORTH</td> + <td>Goldwin Smith.</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>SWIFT</td> + <td>John Morley.</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>BURNS</td> + <td>Principal Shairp.</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>SCOTT</td> + <td>Richard H. Hutton.</td> + <td style="font-style:normal">[<i>Ready</i>.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>SHELLEY</td> + <td>J. A. Symonds.</td> + <td style="font-style:normal">[<i>Ready</i>.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>GIBBON</td> + <td>J. C. Morison.</td> + <td style="font-style:normal">[<i>Ready</i>.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>BYRON</td> + <td>Professor Nichol.</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>DEFOE</td> + <td>W. Minto.</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>GRAY</td> + <td>John Morley.</td> + <td> </td> + </tr> +</table> + + + + + + + + +<p class="center">[<i>OTHERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED</i>]</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</h3> +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The new series opens well with Mr. Leslie Stephen's sketch +of Dr. Johnson. It could hardly have been done better; and +it will convey to the readers for whom it is intended a +juster estimate of Johnson than either of the two essays of +Lord Macaulay."—<i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>.</p> + +<p>"We have come across few writers who have had a clearer +insight into Johnson's character, or who have brought to the +study of it a better knowledge of the time in which Johnson +lived and the men whom he knew."—<i>Saturday Review</i>.</p> + +<p>"It must be admitted that Mr. Stephen has succeeded +admirably in his task. No writer could be more competent to +supply what is wanted in Boswell, a comprehensive sketch of +his hero's position in the literature of the eighteenth +century, and he has also shown great judgment and dexterity +in his illustration of Johnson's personal oddities and his +power as a talker.... All the traits of the personality +which Boswell has immortalized are to be found here, as well +as luminous sketches of the literature of the period, and a +solid judgment of the work that Johnson did in the +world."—<i>Examiner</i>.</p> + +<p>"We could not wish for a more suggestive introduction to +Scott and his poems and novels."—<i>Examiner</i>.</p> + +<p>"The tone of the volume is excellent +throughout."—<i>Athenæum</i> Review of "Scott."</p> + +<p>"As a clear, thoughtful, and attractive record of the life +and works of the greatest among the world's historians, it +deserves the highest praise."—<i>Examiner</i> Review of +"Gibbon."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MACMILLANS_GLOBE_LIBRARY" id="MACMILLANS_GLOBE_LIBRARY"></a>MACMILLAN'S GLOBE LIBRARY.</h2> + +<p><i>Beautifully printed on toned paper and bound in cloth +extra, gilt edges, price 4s. 6d. each; in cloth plain, 3s. +6d. Also kept in a variety of calf and morocco bindings, at +moderate prices</i>.</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><i>The</i> <span class="smcap">Saturday Review</span> <i>says: "The Globe Editions are +admirable for their scholarly editing, their typographical +excellence, their compendious form, and their cheapness." +The</i> <span class="smcap">British Quarterly Review</span> <i>says: "In compendiousness, +elegance, and scholarliness the Globe Editions of Messrs. +Macmillan surpass any popular series of our classics +hitherto given to the public. As near an approach to +miniature perfection as has ever been made</i>."</p></div> + +<p><b>Shakespeare's Complete Works.</b> Edited by W. G. <span class="smcap">Clark</span>, M.A., +and W. <span class="smcap">Aldis Wright</span>, M.A., Editors of the "Cambridge +Shakespeare." With Glossary, pp. 1075.</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><i>The</i> <span class="smcap">Athenæum</span> <i>says this edition is "a marvel of beauty, +cheapness, and compactness.... For the busy man, above all +for the working student, this is the best of all existing +Shakespeares.</i>"</p></div> + +<p><b>Spenser's Complete Works.</b> Edited from the Original Editions +and Manuscripts, by R. <span class="smcap">Morris</span>, with a Memoir by J. W. <span class="smcap">Hales</span>, +M.A. With Glossary. pp. lv., 736.</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"<i>Worthy—and higher praise it needs not—of the beautiful +'Globe Series</i>'"—<span class="smcap">Daily News</span>.</p></div> + +<p><b>Sir Walter Scott's Poetical Works.</b> Edited, with a +Biographical and Critical Memoir, by <span class="smcap">Francis Turner +Palgrave</span>, and Copious Notes. pp. xliii., 559.</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"<i>We can almost sympathise with a middle-aged grumbler, who, +after reading Mr. Palgrave's Memoir and Introduction, should +exclaim, 'Why was there not such an edition of Scott when I +was a schoolboy</i>?'"—<span class="smcap">Guardian</span>.</p></div> + +<p><b>Complete Works of Robert Burns.</b> Edited from the best Printed +and Manuscript authorities, with Glossarial Index, Notes, +and a Biographical Memoir by <span class="smcap">Alexander Smith</span>, pp. lxii., +636.</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"<i>Admirable in all respects</i>."—<span class="smcap">Spectator</span>.</p></div> + +<p><b>Robinson Crusoe.</b> Edited after the Original Editions, with a +Biographical Introduction by <span class="smcap">Henry Kingsley</span>. pp. xxxi., 607.</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"<i>A most excellent and in every way desirable +edition</i>."—<span class="smcap">Court Circular</span>.</p></div> + +<p><b>Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Works.</b> Edited with Biographical +Introduction, by Professor <span class="smcap">Masson</span>. pp. lx., 695.</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"<i>Such an admirable compendium of the facts of Goldsmith's +life, and so careful and minute a delineation of the mixed +traits of his peculiar character as to be a very model of a +literary biography in little</i>."—<span class="smcap">Scotsman</span>.</p></div> + +<p><b>Pope's Poetical Works.</b> Edited, with Notes, and Introductory +Memoir by A. W. <span class="smcap">Ward</span>, M.A., Professor of History in Owens +College Manchester, pp. lii., 508.</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><i>The</i> <span class="smcap">Literary Churchman</span> <i>remarks: "The Editor's own notes +and introductory memoir are excellent, the memoir alone +would be cheap and well worth buying at the price of the +whole volume</i>."</p></div> + +<p><b>Dryden's Poetical Works.</b> Edited, with a Memoir, Revised +Text, and Notes, by W.D. <span class="smcap">Christie</span>, M.A., of Trinity College, +Cambridge, pp. lxxxvii., 662.</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"<i>An admirable edition, the result of great research and of +a careful revision of the text</i>."—<span class="smcap">Pall Mall Gazette</span>.</p></div> + +<p><b>Cowper's Poetical Works.</b> Edited, with Notes and Biographical +Introduction, by <span class="smcap">William Benham</span>, Vicar of Margate, pp. +lxxiii., 536.</p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"<i>Mr. Benham's edition of Cowper is one of permanent +value</i>."—<span class="smcap">Saturday Review</span>.</p></div> + +<p><b>Morte d'Arthur.</b>—SIR THOMAS MALORY'S BOOK OF KING ARTHUR AND +OF HIS NOBLE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Gibbon + + +Author: James Cotter Morison + + + +Release Date: July 17, 2006 [eBook #18851] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GIBBON*** + + +E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Sankar Viswanathan, and +the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(http://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +English Men of Letters + +Edited by John Morley + +GIBBON + +by + +JAMES COTTER MORISON, M.A. +Lincoln College, Oxford + + + + + + + +London: +MacMillan and Co. +1878. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I. + +GIBBON'S EARLY LIFE UP TO THE TIME OF HIS LEAVING OXFORD + +CHAPTER II. + +AT LAUSANNE + +CHAPTER III. + +IN THE MILITIA + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE ITALIAN JOURNEY + +CHAPTER V. + +LITERARY SCHEMES.--THE HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND.--DISSERTATION ON THE + SIXTH AENEID.--FATHER'S DEATH.--SETTLEMENT IN LONDON + +CHAPTER VI. + +LIFE IN LONDON.--PARLIAMENT.--THE BOARD OF TRADE.--THE DECLINE AND + FALL.--MIGRATION TO LAUSANNE + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE FIRST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE LAST TEN TEARS OF HIS LIFE AT LAUSANNE + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE LAST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL + +CHAPTER X. + +LAST ILLNESS.--DEATH.--CONCLUSION + + + + + +GIBBON + +CHAPTER I. + +GIBBON'S EARLY LIFE UP TO THE TIME OF HIS LEAVING OXFORD. + + +Edward Gibbon[1] was born at Putney, near London, on 27th April in +the year 1737. After the reformation of the calendar his birthday +became the 8th of May. He was the eldest of a family of seven +children; but his five brothers and only sister all died in early +infancy, and he could remember in after life his sister alone, whom he +also regretted. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Gibbon's Memoirs and Letters are of such easy access that +I have not deemed it necessary to encumber these pages with references +to them. Any one who wishes to control my statements will have no +difficulty in doing so with the Miscellaneous Works, edited by Lord +Sheffield, in his hand. Whenever I advance anything that seems to +require corroboration, I have been careful to give my authority.] + +He is at some pains in his Memoirs to show the length and quality of +his pedigree, which he traces back to the times of the Second and +Third Edwards. Noting the fact, we pass on to a nearer ancestor, his +grandfather, who seems to have been a person of considerable energy +of character and business talent. He made a large fortune, which he +lost in the South-Sea Scheme, and then made another before his death. +He was one of the Commissioners of Customs, and sat at the Board with +the poet Prior; Bolingbroke was heard to declare that no man knew +better than Mr. Edward Gibbon the commerce and finances of England. +His son, the historian's father, was a person of very inferior stamp. +He was educated at Westminster and Cambridge, travelled on the +Continent, sat in Parliament, lived beyond his means as a country +gentleman, and here his achievements came to an end. He seems to have +been a kindly but a weak and impulsive man, who however had the merit +of obtaining and deserving his son's affection by genial sympathy and +kindly treatment. + +Gibbon's childhood was passed in chronic illness, debility, and +disease. All attempts to give him a regular education were frustrated +by his precarious health. The longest period he ever passed at school +were two years at Westminster, but he was constantly moved from one +school to another. This even his delicacy can hardly explain, and it +must have been fatal to all sustained study. Two facts he mentions of +his school life, which paint the manners of the age. In the year 1746 +such was the strength of party spirit that he, a child of nine years +of age, "was reviled and buffeted for the sins of his Tory ancestors." +Secondly, the worthy pedagogues of that day found no readier way of +leading the most studious of boys to a love of science than corporal +punishment. "At the expense of many tears and some blood I purchased +the knowledge of the Latin syntax." Whether all love of study would +have been flogged out of him if he had remained at school, it is +difficult to say, but it is not an improbable supposition that this +would have happened. The risk was removed by his complete failure of +health. "A strange nervous affection, which alternately contracted his +legs and produced, without any visible symptom, the most excruciating +pain," was his chief affliction, followed by intervals of languor and +debility. The saving of his life during these dangerous years Gibbon +unhesitatingly ascribes to the more than maternal care of his aunt, +Catherine Porten, on writing whose name for the first time in his +Memoirs, "he felt a tear of gratitude trickling down his cheek." "If +there be any," he continues, "as I trust there are some, who rejoice +that I live, to that dear and excellent woman they must hold +themselves indebted. Many anxious and solitary hours and days did she +consume in the patient trial of relief and amusement; many wakeful +nights did she sit by my bedside in trembling expectation that every +hour would be my last." Gibbon is rather anxious to get over these +details, and declares he has no wish to expatiate on a "disgusting +topic." This is quite in the style of the _ancien regime_. There was +no blame attached to any one for being ill in those days, but people +were expected to keep their infirmities to themselves. "People knew +how to live and die in those days, and kept their infirmities out of +sight. You might have the gout, but you must walk about all the same +without making grimaces. It was a point of good breeding to hide one's +sufferings."[2] Similarly Walpole was much offended by a too faithful +publication of Madame de Sevigne's _Letters_. "Heaven forbid," he +says, "that I should say that the letters of Madame de Sevigne were +bad. I only meant that they were full of family details and mortal +distempers, to which the most immortal of us are subject." But Gibbon +was above all things a veracious historian, and fortunately has not +refrained from giving us a truthful picture of his childhood. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: George Sand, quoted in Taine's _Ancien Regime_, p. 181.] + +Of his studies, or rather his reading--his early and invincible love +of reading, which he would not exchange for the treasures of India--he +gives us a full account, and we notice at once the interesting fact +that a considerable portion of the historical field afterwards +occupied by his great work had been already gone over by Gibbon before +he was well in his teens. "My indiscriminate appetite subsided by +degrees into the historic line, and since philosophy has exploded all +innate ideas and natural propensities, I must ascribe the choice to +the assiduous perusal of the _Universal History_ as the octavo volumes +successively appeared. This unequal work referred and introduced me to +the Greek and Roman historians, to as many at least as were accessible +to an English reader. All that I could find were greedily devoured, +from Littlebury's lame _Herodotus_ to Spelman's valuable _Xenophon_, +to the pompous folios of Gordon's _Tacitus_, and a ragged _Procopius_ +of the beginning of the last century." Referring to an accident which +threw the continuation of Echard's _Roman History_ in his way, he +says, "To me the reigns of the successors of Constantine were +absolutely new, and I was immersed in the passage of the Goths over +the Danube, when the summons of the dinner-bell reluctantly dragged me +from my intellectual feast.... I procured the second and third +volumes of Howell's _History of the World_, which exhibit the +Byzantine period on a larger scale. Mahomet and his Saracens soon +fixed my attention, and some instinct of criticism directed me to the +genuine sources. Simon Ockley first opened my eyes, and I was led from +one book to another till I had ranged round the circle of Oriental +history. Before I was sixteen I had exhausted all that could be +learned in English of the Arabs and Persians, the Tartars and Turks, +and the same ardour urged me to guess at the French of D'Herbelot and +to construe the barbarous Latin of Pocock's _Abulfaragius_." Here is +in rough outline a large portion at least of the _Decline and Fall_ +already surveyed. The fact shows how deep was the sympathy that Gibbon +had for his subject, and that there was a sort of pre-established +harmony between his mind and the historical period he afterwards +illustrated. + +Up to the age of fourteen it seemed that Gibbon, as he says, was +destined to remain through life an illiterate cripple. But as he +approached his sixteenth year, a great change took place in his +constitution, and his diseases, instead of growing with his growth and +strengthening with his strength, wonderfully vanished. This unexpected +recovery was not seized by his father in a rational spirit, as +affording a welcome opportunity of repairing the defects of a hitherto +imperfect education. Instead of using the occasion thus presented of +recovering some of the precious time lost, of laying a sound +foundation of scholarship and learning on which a superstructure at +the university or elsewhere could be ultimately built, he carried the +lad off in an impulse of perplexity and impatience, and entered him as +a gentleman commoner at Magdalen College just before he had completed +his fifteenth year (1752, April 3). This was perhaps the most unwise +step he could have taken under the circumstances. Gibbon was too young +and too ignorant to profit by the advantages offered by Oxford to a +more mature student, and his status as a gentleman commoner seemed +intended to class him among the idle and dissipated who are only +expected to waste their money and their time. A good education is +generally considered as reflecting no small credit on its possessor; +but in the majority of cases it reflects credit on the wise solicitude +of his parents or guardians rather than on himself. If Gibbon escaped +the peril of being an ignorant and frivolous lounger, the merit was +his own. + +At no period in their history had the English universities sunk to a +lower condition as places of education than at the time when Gibbon +went up to Oxford. To speak of them as seats of learning seems like +irony; they were seats of nothing but coarse living and clownish +manners, the centres where all the faction, party spirit, and bigotry +of the country were gathered to a head. In this evil pre-eminence both +of the universities and all the colleges appear to have been upon a +level, though Lincoln College, Oxford, is mentioned as a bright +exception in John Wesley's day to the prevalent degeneracy. The +strange thing is that, with all their neglect of learning and +morality, the colleges were not the resorts of jovial if unseemly boon +companionship; they were collections of quarrelsome and spiteful +litigants, who spent their time in angry lawsuits. The indecent +contentions between Bentley and the Fellows of Trinity were no +isolated scandal. They are best known and remembered on account of the +eminence of the chief disputants, and of the melancholy waste of +Bentley's genius which they occasioned. Hearne writes of Oxford in +1726, "There are such differences now in the University of Oxford +(hardly one college but where all the members are busied in law +business and quarrels not at all relating to the promotion of +learning), that good letters decay every day, insomuch that this +ordination on Trinity Sunday at Oxford there were no fewer (as I am +informed) than fifteen denied orders for insufficiency, which is the +more to be noted because our bishops, and those employed by them, are +themselves illiterate men."[3] The state of things had not much +improved twenty or thirty years later when Gibbon went up, but perhaps +it had improved a little. He does not mention lawsuits as a favourite +pastime of the Fellows. "The Fellows or monks of my time," he says, +"were decent, easy men, who supinely enjoyed the gifts of the founder: +their days were filled by a series of uniform employments--the chapel, +the hall, the coffee-house, and the common room--till they retired +weary and well satisfied to a long slumber. From the toil of reading, +writing, or thinking they had absolved their consciences. Their +conversation stagnated in a round of college business, Tory politics, +personal anecdotes, and private scandal. Their dull and deep potations +excused the brisk intemperance of youth, and their constitutional +toasts were not expressive of the most lively loyalty to the House of +Hanover." Some Oxonians perhaps could still partly realise the truth +of this original picture by their recollections of faint and feeble +copies of it drawn from their experience in youthful days. It seems to +be certain that the universities, far from setting a model of good +living, were really below the average standard of the morals and +manners of the age, and the standard was not high. Such a satire as +the _Terrae Filius_ of Amhurst cannot be accepted without large +deductions; but the caricaturist is compelled by the conditions of his +craft to aim at the _true seeming_, if he neglects the true, and with +the benefit of this limitation the _Terrae Filius_ reveals a deplorable +and revolting picture of vulgarity, insolence, and licence. The +universities are spoken of in terms of disparagement by men of all +classes. Lord Chesterfield speaks of the "rust" of Cambridge as +something of which a polished man should promptly rid himself. Adam +Smith showed his sense of the defects of Oxford in a stern section of +the _Wealth of Nations_, written twenty years after he had left the +place. Even youths like Gray and West, fresh from Eton, express +themselves with contempt for their respective universities. "Consider +me," says the latter, writing from Christ Church, "very seriously, +here is a strange country, inhabited by things that call themselves +Doctors and Masters of Arts, a country flowing with syllogisms and +ale; where Horace and Virgil are equally unknown." Gray, answering +from Peterhouse, can only do justice to his feelings by quoting the +words of the Hebrew prophet, and insists that Isaiah had Cambridge +equally with Babylon in view when he spoke of the wild beasts and wild +asses, of the satyrs that dance, of an inhabitation of dragons and a +court for owls. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: _Social Life at the English Universities_. By Christopher +Wordsworth. Page 57.] + +Into such untoward company was Gibbon thrust by his careless father at +the age of fifteen. That he succumbed to the unwholesome atmosphere +cannot surprise us. He does not conceal, perhaps he rather +exaggerates, in his Memoirs, the depth of his fall. As Bunyan in a +state of grace accused himself of dreadful sins which in all +likelihood he never committed, so it is probable that Gibbon, in his +old age, when study and learning were the only passions he knew, +reflected with too much severity on the boyish freaks of his +university life. Moreover there appears to have been nothing coarse or +unworthy in his dissipation; he was simply idle. He justly lays much +of the blame on the authorities. To say that the discipline was lax +would be to pay it an unmerited compliment. There was no discipline at +all. He lived in Magdalen as he might have lived at the Angel or the +Mitre Tavern. He not only left his college, but he left the +university, whenever he liked. In one winter he made a tour to Bath, +another to Buckinghamshire, and he made four excursions to London, +"without once hearing the voice of admonition, without once feeling +the hand of control." Of study he had just as much and as little as he +pleased. + +"As soon as my tutor had sounded the insufficiency of his disciple in +school learning, he proposed that we should read every morning from +ten to eleven the comedies of Terence. During the first weeks I +constantly attended these lessons in my tutor's room; but as they +appeared equally devoid of profit and pleasure, I was once tempted to +try the experiment of a formal apology. The apology was accepted with +a smile. I repeated the offence with less ceremony: the excuse was +admitted with the same indulgence; the slightest motive of laziness or +indisposition, the most trifling avocation at home or abroad was +allowed as a worthy impediment, nor did my tutor appear conscious of +my absence or neglect." No wonder he spoke with indignation of such +scandalous neglect. "To the University of Oxford," he says, "I +acknowledge no obligation, and she will as readily renounce me for a +son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. I spent fourteen +months at Magdalen College; they proved the most idle and unprofitable +of my whole life. The reader will pronounce between the school and the +scholar." This is only just and fully merited by the abuses denounced. +One appreciates the anguish of the true scholar mourning over lost +time as a miser over lost gold. There was another side of the question +which naturally did not occur to Gibbon, but which may properly occur +to us. Did Gibbon lose as much as he thought in missing the scholastic +drill of the regular public school and university man? Something he +undoubtedly lost: he was never a finished scholar, up to the standard +even of his own day. If he had been, is it certain that the +accomplishment would have been all gain? It may be doubted. At a later +period Gibbon read the classics with the free and eager curiosity of a +thoughtful mind. It was a labour of love, of passionate ardour, +similar to the manly zeal of the great scholars of the Renaissance. +This appetite had not been blunted by enforced toil in a prescribed +groove. How much of that zest for antiquity, of that keen relish for +the classic writers which he afterwards acquired and retained through +life, might have been quenched if he had first made their acquaintance +as school-books? Above all, would he have looked on the ancient world +with such freedom and originality as he afterwards gained, if he had +worn through youth the harness of academical study? These questions do +not suggest an answer, but they may furnish a doubt. Oxford and +Cambridge for nearly a century have been turning out crowds of +thorough-paced scholars of the orthodox pattern. It is odd that the +two greatest historians who have been scholars as well--Gibbon and +Grote--were not university-bred men. + +As if to prove by experiment where the fault lay, in "the school or +the scholar," Gibbon had no sooner left Oxford for the long vacation, +than his taste for study returned, and, not content with reading, he +attempted original composition. The subject he selected was a curious +one for a youth in his sixteenth year. It was an attempt to settle the +chronology of the age of Sesostris, and shows how soon the austere +side of history had attracted his attention. "In my childish balance," +he says, "I presumed to weigh the systems of Scaliger and Petavius, of +Marsham and of Newton; and my sleep has been disturbed by the +difficulty of reconciling the Septuagint with the Hebrew computation." +Of course his essay had the usual value of such juvenile productions; +that is, none at all, except as an indication of early bias to serious +study of history. On his return to Oxford, the age of Sesostris was +wisely relinquished. He indeed soon commenced a line of study which +was destined to have a lasting influence on the remainder of his +course through life. + +He had an inborn taste for theology and the controversies which have +arisen concerning religious dogma. "From my childhood," he says, "I +had been fond of religious disputation: my poor aunt has often been +puzzled by the mysteries which she strove to believe." How he carried +the taste into mature life, his great chapters on the heresies and +controversies of the Early Church are there to show. This inclination +for theology, co-existing with a very different temper towards +religious sentiment, recalls the similar case of the author of the +_Historical and Critical Dictionary_, the illustrious Pierre Bayle, +whom Gibbon resembled in more ways than one. At Oxford his religious +education, like everything else connected with culture, had been +entirely neglected. It seems hardly credible, yet we have his word for +it, that he never subscribed or studied the Articles of the Church of +England, and was never confirmed. When he first went up, he was judged +to be too young, but the Vice-Chancellor directed him to return as +soon as he had completed his fifteenth year, recommending him in the +meantime to the instruction of his college. "My college forgot to +instruct; I forgot to return, and was myself forgotten by the first +magistrate of the university. Without a single lecture, either public +or private, either Christian or Protestant, without any academical +subscription, without any episcopal ordination, I was left by light of +my catechism to grope my way to the chapel and communion table, where +I was admitted without question how far or by what means I might be +qualified to receive the sacrament. Such almost incredible neglect was +productive of the worst mischiefs." What did Gibbon mean by this last +sentence? Did he, when he wrote it, towards the end of his life, +regret the want of early religious instruction? Nothing leads us to +think so, or to suppose that his subsequent loss of faith was a heavy +grief, supported, but painful to bear. His mind was by nature +positive, or even pagan, and he had nothing of what the Germans call +_religiositaet_ in him. Still there is a passage in his Memoirs where +he oddly enough laments not having selected the _fat slumbers of the +Church_ as an eligible profession. Did he reflect that perhaps the +neglect of his religious education at Oxford had deprived him of a +bishopric or a good deanery, and the learned leisure which such +positions at that time conferred on those who cared for it? He could +not feel that he was morally, or even spiritually, unfit for an office +filled in his own time by such men as Warburton and Hurd. He would not +have disgraced the episcopal bench; he would have been dignified, +courteous, and hospitable; a patron and promoter of learning, we may +be sure. His literary labours would probably have consisted of an +edition of a Greek play or two, and certainly some treatise on the +Evidences of Christianity. But in that case we should not have had the +_Decline and Fall_. + +The "blind activity of idleness" to which he was exposed at Oxford, +prevented any result of this kind. For want of anything better to do, he +was led to read Middleton's _Free Enquiry into the Miraculous Powers +which are Supposed to have Subsisted in the Christian Church_. Gibbon +says that the effect of Middleton's "bold criticism" upon him was +singular, and that instead of making him a sceptic, it made him more of +a believer. He might have reflected that it is the commonest of +occurrences for controversialists to produce exactly the opposite result +to that which they intend, and that as many an apology for Christianity +has sown the first seeds of infidelity, so an attack upon it might well +intensify faith. What follows is very curious. "The elegance of style +and freedom of argument were repelled by a shield of prejudice. I still +revered the character, or rather the names of the saints and fathers +whom Dr. Middleton exposes; nor could he destroy my implicit belief +that the gift of miraculous powers was continued in the Church during +the first four or five centuries of Christianity. But I was unable to +resist the weight of historical evidence, that within the same period +most of the leading doctrines of Popery were already introduced in +theory and practice. Nor was my conclusion absurd that miracles are the +test of truth, and that the Church must be orthodox and pure which was +so often approved by the visible interposition of the Deity. The +marvellous tales which are boldly attested by the Basils and +Chrysostoms, the Austins and Jeromes, compelled me to embrace the +superior merits of celibacy, the institution of the monastic life, the +use of the sign of the cross, of holy oil, and even of images, the +invocation of saints, the worship of relics, the rudiments of purgatory +in prayers for the dead, and the tremendous mystery of the sacrifice of +the body and the blood of Christ, which insensibly swelled into the +prodigy of transubstantiation." In this remarkable passage we have a +distinct foreshadow of the Tractarian movement, which came seventy or +eighty years afterwards. Gibbon in 1752, at the age of fifteen, took up +a position practically the same as Froude and Newman took up about the +year 1830. In other words, he reached the famous _via media_ at a bound. +But a second spring soon carried him clear of it, into the bosom of the +Church of Rome. + +He had come to what are now called Church principles, by the energy of +his own mind working on the scanty data furnished him by Middleton. By +one of those accidents which usually happen in such cases, he made the +acquaintance of a young gentleman who had already embraced +Catholicism, and who was well provided with controversial tracts in +favour of Romanism. Among these were the two works of Bossuet, the +_Exposition of Catholic Doctrine_ and the _History of the Protestant +Variations_. Gibbon says: "I read, I applauded, I believed, and surely +I fell by a noble hand. I have since examined the originals with a +more discerning eye, and shall not hesitate to pronounce that Bossuet +is indeed a master of all the weapons of controversy. In the +_Exposition_, a specious apology, the orator assumes with consummate +art the tone of candour and simplicity, and the ten horned monster is +transformed at his magic touch into the milk-white hind, who must be +loved as soon as she is seen. In the _History_, a bold and well-aimed +attack, he displays, with a happy mixture of narrative and argument, +the faults and follies, the changes and contradictions of our first +Reformers, whose variations, as he dexterously contends, are the mark +of historical error, while the perpetual unity of the Catholic Church +is the sign and test of infallible truth. To my present feelings it +seems incredible that I should ever believe that I believed in +transubstantiation. But my conqueror oppressed me with the sacramental +words, '_Hoc est corpus meum_,' and dashed against each other the +figurative half meanings of the Protestant sects; every objection was +resolved into omnipotence, and, after repeating at St. Mary's the +Athanasian Creed, I humbly acquiesced in the mystery of the Real +Presence." + +Many reflections are suggested on the respective domains of reason and +faith by these words, but they cannot be enlarged on here. No one, +nowadays, one may hope, would think of making Gibbon's conversion a +subject of reproach to him. The danger is rather that it should be +regarded with too much honour. It unquestionably shows the early and +trenchant force of his intellect: he mastered the logical position in +a moment; saw the necessity of a criterion of faith; and being told +that it was to be found in the practice of antiquity, boldly went +there, and abided by the result. But this praise to his head does not +extend to his heart. A more tender and deep moral nature would not +have moved so rapidly. We must in fairness remember that it was not +his fault that his religious education had been neglected at home, at +school, and at college. But we have no reason to think that had it +been attended to, the result would have been much otherwise. The root +of spiritual life did not exist in him. It never withered, because it +never shot up. Thus when he applied his acute mind to a religious +problem, he contemplated it with the coolness and impartiality of a +geometer or chess player, his intellect operated _in vacuo_ so to +speak, untrammelled by any bias of sentiment or early training. He had +no profound associations to tear out of his heart. He merely altered +the premisses of a syllogism. When Catholicism was presented to him in +a logical form, it met with no inward bar and repugnance. The house +was empty and ready for a new guest, or rather the first guest. If +Gibbon anticipated the Tractarian movement intellectually, he was +farther removed than the poles are asunder from the mystic reverent +spirit which inspired that movement. If we read the _Apologia_ of Dr. +Newman, we perceive the likeness and unlikeness of the two cases. "As +a matter of simple conscience," says the latter, "I felt it to be a +duty to protest against the Church of Rome." At the time he refers to +Dr. Newman was a Catholic to a degree Gibbon never dreamed of. But in +the one case conscience and heart-ties "strong as life, stronger +almost than death," arrested the conclusions of the intellect. Ground +which Gibbon dashed over in a few months or weeks, the great +Tractarian took ten years to traverse. So different is the mystic from +the positive mind. + +Gibbon had no sooner settled his new religion than he resolved with a +frankness which did him all honour to profess it publicly. He wrote to +his father, announcing his conversion, a letter which he afterwards +described, when his sentiments had undergone a complete change, as +written with all the pomp, dignity, and self-satisfaction of a martyr. +A momentary glow of enthusiasm had raised him, as he said, above all +worldly considerations. He had no difficulty, in an excursion to +London, in finding a priest, who perceived in the first interview that +persuasion was needless. "After sounding the motives and merits of my +conversion, he consented to admit me into the pale of the Church, and +at his feet on the 8th of June 1753, I solemnly, though privately, +abjured the errors of heresy." He was exactly fifteen years and one +month old. Further details, which one would like to have, he does not +give. The scene even of the solemn act is not mentioned, nor whether +he was baptized again; but this may be taken for granted. + +The fact of any one "going over to Rome" is too common an occurrence +nowadays to attract notice. But in the eighteenth century it was a +rare and startling phenomenon. Gibbon's father, who was "neither a +bigot nor a philosopher," was shocked and astonished by his "son's +strange departure from the religion of his country." He divulged the +secret of young Gibbon's conversion, and "the gates of Magdalen +College were for ever shut" against the latter's return. They really +needed no shutting at all. By the fact of his conversion to Romanism +he had ceased to be a member of the University. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +AT LAUSANNE. + + +The elder Gibbon showed a decision of character and prompt energy in +dealing with his son's conversion to Romanism, which were by no means +habitual with him. He swiftly determined to send him out of the +country, far away from the influences and connections which had done +such harm. Lausanne in Switzerland was the place selected for his +exile, in which it was resolved he should spend some years in +wholesome reflections on the error he had committed in yielding to the +fascinations of Roman Catholic polemics. No time was lost: Gibbon had +been received into the Church on the 8th of June, 1753, and on the +30th of the same month he had reached his destination. He was placed +under the care of a M. Pavillard, a Calvinist minister, who had two +duties laid upon him, a general one, to superintend the young man's +studies, a particular and more urgent one, to bring him back to the +Protestant faith. + +It was a severe trial which Gibbon had now to undergo. He was by +nature shy and retiring; he was ignorant of French; he was very young; +and with these disadvantages he was thrown among entire strangers +alone. After the excitement and novelty of foreign travel were over, +and he could realise his position, he felt his heart sink within him. +From the luxury and freedom of Oxford he was degraded to the +dependence of a schoolboy. Pavillard managed his expenses, and his +supply of pocket-money was reduced to a small monthly allowance. "I +had exchanged," he says, "my elegant apartment in Magdalen College for +a narrow gloomy street, the most unfrequented in an unhandsome town, +for an old inconvenient house, and for a small chamber ill-contrived +and ill-furnished, which on the approach of winter, instead of a +companionable fire, must be warmed by the dull and invisible heat of a +stove." Under these gloomy auspices he began the most profitable, and +after a time the most pleasant, period of his whole life, one on which +he never ceased to look back with unmingled satisfaction as the +starting-point of his studies and intellectual progress. + +The first care of his preceptor was to bring about his religious +conversion. Gibbon showed an honourable tenacity to his new faith, and +a whole year after he had been exposed to the Protestant dialectics of +Pavillard he still, as the latter observed with much regret, continued +to abstain from meat on Fridays. There is something slightly +incongruous in the idea of Gibbon _fasting_ out of religious scruples, +but the fact shows that his religion had obtained no slight hold of +him, and that although he had embraced it quickly, he also accepted +with intrepid frankness all its consequences. His was not an intellect +that could endure half measures and half lights; he did not belong to +that class of persons who do not know their own minds. + +However it is not surprising that his religion, placed where he was, +was slowly but steadily undermined. The Swiss clergy, he says, were +acute and learned on the topics of controversy, and Pavillard seems to +have been a good specimen of his class. An adult and able man, in +daily contact with a youth in his own house, urging persistently but +with tact one side of a thesis, could hardly fail in the course of +time to carry his point. But though Gibbon is willing to allow his +tutor a handsome share in the work of his conversion, he maintains +that it was chiefly effected by his own private reflections. And this +is eminently probable. What logic had set up, logic could throw down. +He gives us a highly characteristic example of the reflections in +question. "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." He was unaware of the distinction between the logical +understanding and the higher reason, which has been made since his +time to the great comfort of thinkers of a certain stamp. Having +reached so far, his progress was easy and rapid. "The various articles +of the Romish creed disappeared like a dream, and after a full +conviction, on Christmas-day, 1754, I received the sacrament in the +church of Lausanne. It was here that I suspended my religious +inquiries, acquiescing with implicit belief in the tenets and +mysteries which are adopted by the general consent of Catholics and +Protestants." He thus had been a Catholic for about eighteen months. + +Gibbon's residence at Lausanne was a memorable epoch in his life on +two grounds. Firstly, it was during the five years he spent there that +he laid the foundations of that deep and extensive learning by which +he was afterwards distinguished. Secondly, the foreign education he +there received, at the critical period when the youth passes into the +man, gave a permanent bent to his mind, and made him a continental +European rather than an insular Englishman--two highly important +factors in his intellectual growth. + +He says that he went up to Oxford with a "stock of erudition which +might have puzzled a doctor, and a degree of ignorance of which a +schoolboy might have been ashamed." Both erudition and ignorance were +left pretty well undisturbed during his short and ill-starred +university career. At Lausanne he found himself, for the first time, +in possession of the means of successful study, good health, calm, +books, and tuition, up to a certain point: that point did not reach +very far. The good Pavillard, an excellent man, for whom Gibbon ever +entertained a sincere regard, was quite unequal to the task of forming +such a mind. There is no evidence that he was a ripe or even a fair +scholar, and the plain fact is that Gibbon belongs to the honourable +band of self-taught men. "My tutor," says Gibbon, "had the good sense +to discern how far he could be useful, and when he felt that I +advanced beyond his speed and measure, he wisely left me to my +genius." Under that good guidance he formed an extensive plan of +reviewing the Latin classics, in the four divisions of (1) Historians, +(2) Poets, (3) Orators, and (4) Philosophers, in "chronological series +from the days of Plautus and Sallust to the decline of the language +and empire of Rome." In one year he read over the following authors: +Virgil, Sallust, Livy, Velleius Paterculus, Valerius Maximus, Tacitus, +Suetonius, Quintus Curtius, Justin, Florus, Plautus, Terence, and +Lucretius. We may take his word when he says that this review, however +rapid, was neither hasty nor superficial. Gibbon had the root of all +scholarship in him, the most diligent accuracy and an unlimited +faculty of taking pains. But he was a great scholar, not a minute one, +and belonged to the robust race of the Scaligers and the Bentleys, +rather than to the smaller breed of the Elmsleys and Monks, and of +course he was at no time a professed philologer, occupied chiefly with +the niceties of language. The point which deserves notice in this +account of his studies is their wide sweep, so superior and bracing, +as compared with that narrow restriction to the "authors of the best +period," patronised by teachers who imperfectly comprehend their own +business. Gibbon proceeded on the common-sense principle, that if you +want to obtain a real grasp of the literature, history, and genius of +a people, you must master that literature with more or less +completeness from end to end, and that to select arbitrarily the +authors of a short period on the grounds that they are models of +style, is nothing short of foolish. It was the principle on which +Joseph Scaliger studied Greek, and indeed occurs spontaneously to a +vigorous mind eager for real knowledge.[4] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 4: Vix delibatis conjugationibus Graecis, Homerum cum +interpretatione arreptum uno et viginti diebus totum didici. Reliquos vero +poetas Graecos omnes intra quatuor menses devoravi. Neque ullum oratorem aut +historicum prius attigi quam poetas omnes tenerem.--_Scaligeri Epistolae, +Lib. 1. Epis. 1._] + +Nor did he confine himself to reading: he felt that no one is sure of +knowing a language who limits his study of it to the perusal of +authors. He practised diligently Latin prose composition, and this in +the simplest and most effectual way. "I translated an epistle of +Cicero into French, and after throwing it aside till the words and +phrases were obliterated from my memory, I retranslated my French into +such Latin as I could find, and then compared each sentence of my +imperfect version with the ease, the grace, the propriety of the Roman +orator." The only odd thing in connection with this excellent method +is that Gibbon in his Memoirs seems to think it was a novel discovery +of his own, and would recommend it to the imitation of students, +whereas it is as old as the days of Ascham at least. There is no +indication that he ever in the least degree attempted Latin verse, and +it is improbable that he should have done so, reading alone in +Lausanne, under the slight supervision of such a teacher as Pavillard. +The lack of this elegant frivolity will be less thought of now than it +would some years ago. But we may admit that it would have been +interesting to have a copy of hexameters or elegiacs by the historian +of Rome. So much for Latin. In Greek he made far less progress. He had +attained his nineteenth year before he learned the alphabet, and even +after so late a beginning he did not prosecute the study with much +energy. + +M. Pavillard seems to have taught him little more than the rudiments. +"After my tutor had left me to myself I worked my way through about +half the _Iliad_, and afterwards interpreted alone a large portion of +Xenophon and Herodotus. But my ardour, destitute of aid and emulation, +gradually cooled, and from the barren task of searching words in a +lexicon I withdrew to the free and familiar conversation of Virgil and +Tacitus." This statement of the Memoirs is more than confirmed by the +journal of his studies, where we find him, as late as the year 1762, +when he was twenty-five years of age, painfully reading Homer, it +would appear, for the first time. He read on an average about a book a +week, and when he had finished the _Iliad_ this is what he says: "I +have so far met with the success I hoped for, that I have acquired a +great facility in reading the language, and treasured up a very great +stock of words. What I have rather neglected is the grammatical +construction of them, and especially the many various inflections of +the verbs." To repair this defect he wisely resolved to bestow some +time every morning on the perusal of the Greek Grammar of Port Royal. +Thus we see that at an age when many men are beginning to forget their +Greek, Gibbon was beginning to learn it. Was this early deficiency +ever repaired in Greek as it was in Latin? I think not. He never was +at home in old Hellas as he was in old Rome. This may be inferred from +the discursive notes of his great work, in which he has with admirable +skill incorporated so much of his vast and miscellaneous reading. But +his references to classic Greek authors are relatively few and timid +compared with his grasp and mastery of the Latin. His judgments on +Greek authors are also, to say the least, singular. When he had +achieved the _Decline and Fall_, and was writing his Memoirs in the +last years of his life, the Greek writer whom he selects for especial +commendation is Xenophon. "Cicero in Latin and Xenophon in Greek are +indeed the two ancients whom I would first propose to a liberal +scholar, not only for the merit of their style and sentiments, but for +the admirable lessons which may be applied almost to every situation +of public and private life." Of the merit of Xenophon's sentiments, +most people would now admit that the less said the better. The warmth +of Gibbon's language with regard to Xenophon contrasts with the +coldness he shows with regard to Plato. "I involved myself," he says, +"in the philosophic maze of the writings of Plato, of which perhaps +the dramatic is more interesting than the argumentative part." That +Gibbon knew amply sufficient Greek for his purposes as an historian no +one doubts, but his honourable candour enables us to see that he was +never a Greek scholar in the proper sense of the word. + +It would be greatly to misknow Gibbon to suppose that his studies at +Lausanne were restricted to the learned languages. He obtained +something more than an elementary knowledge of mathematics, mastered +De Crousaz' _Logic_ and Locke's _Essay_, and filled up his spare time +with that wide and discursive reading to which his boundless curiosity +was always pushing him. He was thoroughly happy and contented, and +never ceased throughout his life to congratulate himself on the +fortunate exile which had placed him at Lausanne. In one respect he +did not use his opportunities while in Switzerland. He never climbed a +mountain all the time he was there, though he lived to see in his +later life the first commencement of the Alpine fever. On the other +hand, as became a historian and man of sense, the social and political +aspects of the country engaged his attention, as well they might. He +enjoyed access to the best society of the place, and the impression he +made seems to have been as favourable as the one he received. + +The influence of a foreign training is very marked in Gibbon, +affecting as it does his general cast of thought, and even his style. +It would be difficult to name any writer in our language, especially +among the few who deserve to be compared with him, who is so +un-English, not in a bad sense of the word, as implying objectionable +qualities, but as wanting the clear insular stamp and native flavour. +If an intelligent Chinese or Persian were to read his book in a French +translation, he would not readily guess that it was written by an +Englishman. It really bears the imprint of no nationality, and is +emphatically European. We may postpone the question whether this is a +merit or a defect, but it is a characteristic. The result has +certainly been that he is one of the best-known of English prose +writers on the Continent, and one whom foreigners most readily +comprehend. This peculiarity, of which he himself was fully aware, we +may agree with him in ascribing to his residence at Lausanne. At the +"flexible age of sixteen he soon learned to endure, and gradually to +adopt," foreign manners. French became the language in which he +spontaneously thought; "his views were enlarged, and his prejudices +were corrected." In one particular he cannot be complimented on the +effect of his continental education, when he congratulates himself +"that his taste for the French theatre had abated his idolatry for the +gigantic genius of Shakespeare, which is inculcated from our infancy +as the first duty of Englishmen." Still it is well to be rid of +idolatry and bigotry even with regard to Shakespeare. We must remember +that the insular prejudices from which Gibbon rejoiced to be free were +very different in their intensity and narrowness from anything of the +kind which exists now. The mixed hatred and contempt for foreigners +which prevailed in his day, were enough to excite disgust in any +liberal mind. + +The lucid order and admirable literary form of Gibbon's great work are +qualities which can escape no observant reader. But they are +qualities which are not common in English books. The French have a +saying, "Les Anglais ne savent pas faire un livre." This is unjust, +taken absolutely, but as a general rule it is not without foundation. +It is not a question of depth or originality of thought, nor of the +various merits belonging to style properly so-called. In these +respects English authors need not fear competition. But in the art of +clear and logical arrangement, of building up a book in such order and +method that each part contributes to the general effect of the whole, +we must own that we have many lessons to learn of our neighbours. Now +in this quality Gibbon is a Frenchman. Not Voltaire himself is more +perspicuous than Gibbon. Everything is in its place, and disposed in +such apparently natural sequence that the uninitiated are apt to think +the matter could not have been managed otherwise. It is a case, if +there ever was one, of consummate art concealing every trace, not only +of art, but even of effort. Of course the grasp and penetrating +insight which are implied here, were part of Gibbon's great endowment, +which only Nature could give. But it was fortunate that his genius was +educated in the best school for bringing out its innate quality. + +It would be difficult to explain why, except on that principle of +decimation by which Macaulay accounted for the outcry against Lord +Byron, Gibbon's solitary and innocent love passage has been made the +theme of a good deal of malicious comment. The parties most +interested, and who, we may presume, knew the circumstances better +than any one else, seem to have been quite satisfied with each other's +conduct. Gibbon and Mdlle. Curchod, afterwards Madame Necker, remained +on terms of the _most_ intimate friendship till the end of the +former's life. This might be supposed sufficient. But it has not been +so considered by evil tongues. The merits of the case, however, may be +more conveniently discussed in a later chapter. At this point it will +be enough to give the facts. + +Mdlle. Susanne Curchod was born about the year 1740; her father was +the Calvinist minister of Crassier, her mother a French Huguenot who +had preferred her religion to her country. She had received a liberal +and even learned education from her father, and was as attractive in +person as she was accomplished in mind. "She was beautiful with that +pure virginal beauty which depends on early youth" (Sainte-Beuve). In +1757 she was the talk of Lausanne, and could not appear in an assembly +or at the play without being surrounded by admirers; she was called La +Belle Curchod. Gibbon's curiosity was piqued to see such a prodigy, +and he was smitten with love at first sight. "I found her" he says +"learned without pedantry, lively in conversation, pure in sentiment, +and elegant in manners." He was twenty and she seventeen years of age; +no impediment was placed in the way of their meeting; and he was a +frequent guest in her father's house. In fact Gibbon paid his court +with an assiduity which makes an exception in his usually unromantic +nature. "She listened," he says, "to the voice of truth and passion, +and I might presume to hope that I had made some impression on a +virtuous heart." We must remember that this and other rather glowing +passages in his Memoirs were written in his old age, when he had +returned to Lausanne, and when, after a long separation and many +vicissitudes, he and Madame Necker were again thrown together in an +intimacy of friendship which revived old memories. Letters of hers to +him which will be quoted in a later chapter show this in a striking +light. He indulged, he says, his dream of felicity, but on his return +to England he soon discovered that his father would not hear of this +"strange alliance," and then follows the sentence which has lost him +in the eyes of some persons. "After a painful struggle I yielded to my +fate: I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son." What else he was to do +under the circumstances does not appear. He was wholly dependent on +his father, and on the Continent at least parental authority is not +regarded as a trifling impediment in such cases. Gibbon could only +have married Mdlle. Curchod as an exile and a pauper, if he had openly +withstood his father's wishes. "All for love" is a very pretty maxim, +but it is apt to entail trouble when practically applied. Jean-Jacques +Rousseau, who had the most beautiful sentiments on paper, but who in +real life was not always a model of self-denial, found, as we shall +see, grave fault with Gibbon's conduct. Gibbon, as a plain man of +rather prosaic good sense, behaved neither heroically nor meanly. +Time, absence, and the scenes of a new life, which he found in +England, had their usual effect; his passion vanished. "My cure," he +says, "was accelerated by a faithful report of the tranquillity and +cheerfulness of the lady herself, and my love subsided in friendship +and esteem." The probability, indeed, that he and Mdlle. Curchod would +ever see each other again, must have seemed remote in the extreme. +Europe and England were involved in the Seven Years War; he was fixed +at home, and an officer in the militia; Switzerland was far off: when +and where were they likely to meet? They did, contrary to all +expectation, meet again, and renewed terms not so much of friendship +as of affection. Mdlle. Curchod, as the wife of Necker, became +somewhat of a celebrity, and it is chiefly owing to these last-named +circumstances that the world has ever heard of Gibbon's early love. + +While he was at Lausanne Gibbon made the acquaintance of Voltaire, but +it led to no intimacy or fruitful reminiscence. "He received me with +civility as an English youth, but I cannot boast of any peculiar +notice or distinction." Still he had "the satisfaction of hearing--an +uncommon circumstance--a great poet declaim his own productions on the +stage." One is often tempted, in reading Gibbon's Memoirs, to regret +that he adopted the austere plan which led him "to condemn the +practice of transforming a private memorial into a vehicle of satire +or praise." As he truly says, "It was assuredly in his power to amuse +the reader with a gallery of portraits and a collection of anecdotes." +This reserve is particularly disappointing when a striking and +original figure like Voltaire passes across the field, without an +attempt to add one stroke to the portraiture of such a physiognomy. + +Gibbon had now (1758) been nearly five years at Lausanne, when his +father suddenly intimated that he was to return home immediately. The +Seven Years War was at its height, and the French had denied a passage +through France to English travellers. Gibbon, or more properly his +Swiss friends, thought that the alternative road through Germany might +be dangerous, though it might have been assumed that the Great +Frederick, so far as he was concerned, would make things as pleasant +as possible to British subjects, whose country had just consented to +supply him with a much-needed subsidy. The French route was preferred, +perhaps as much from a motive of frolic as anything else. Two Swiss +officers of his acquaintance undertook to convey Gibbon from France as +one of their companions, under an assumed name, and in borrowed +regimentals. His complete mastery of French removed any chance of +detection on the score of language, and with a "mixture of joy and +regret" on the 11th April, 1758, Gibbon left Lausanne. He had a +pleasant journey, but no adventures, and returned to his native land +after an absence of four years, ten months, and fifteen days. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +IN THE MILITIA. + + +The only person whom, on his return, Gibbon had the least wish to see +was his aunt, Catherine Porten. To her house he at once hastened, and +"the evening was spent in the effusions of joy and tenderness." He +looked forward to his first meeting with his father with no slight +anxiety, and that for two reasons. First, his father had parted from +him with anger and menace, and he had no idea how he would be received +now. Secondly, his mother's place was occupied by a second wife, and +an involuntary but strong prejudice possessed him against his +step-mother. He was most agreeably disappointed in both respects. His +father "received him as a man, as a friend, all constraint was +banished at our first interview, and we ever after continued on the +same terms of easy and equal politeness." So far the prospect was +pleasant. But the step-mother remained a possible obstacle to all +comfort at home. He seems to have regarded his father's second +marriage as an act of displeasure with himself, and he was disposed to +hate the rival of his mother. Gibbon soon found that the injustice was +in his own fancy, and the imaginary monster was an amiable and +deserving woman. "I could not be mistaken in the first view of her +understanding; her knowledge and the elegant spirit of her +conversation, her polite welcome, and her assiduous care to study and +gratify my wishes announced at least that the surface would be smooth; +and my suspicions of art and falsehood were gradually dispelled by the +full discovery of her warm and exquisite sensibility." He became +indeed deeply attached to his step-mother. "After some reserve on my +side, our minds associated in confidence and friendship, and as Mrs. +Gibbon had neither children nor the hopes of children, we more easily +adopted the tender names and genuine characters of mother and son." A +most creditable testimony surely to the worth and amiability of both +of them. The friendship thus begun continued without break or coolness +to the end of Gibbon's life. Thirty-five years after his first +interview with his step-mother, and only a few months before his own +death, when he was old and ailing, and the least exertion, by reason +of his excessive corpulence, involved pain and trouble, he made a long +journey to Bath for the sole purpose of paying Mrs. Gibbon a visit. He +was very far from being the selfish Epicurean that has been sometimes +represented. + +He had brought with him from Lausanne the first pages of a work which, +after much bashfulness and delay, he at length published in the French +language, under the title of _Essai sur l'Etude de la Litterature_, in +the year 1761, that is two years after its completion. In one respect +this juvenile work of Gibbon has little merit. The style is at once +poor and stilted, and the general quality of remark eminently +commonplace, where it does not fall into paradox. On the other hand, +it has an interesting and even original side. The main idea of the +little book, so far as it has one, was excellent, and really above the +general thought of the age, namely, the vindication of classical +literature and history generally from the narrow and singular +prejudice which prevailed against them, especially in France. When +Gibbon ascribes the design of his first work to a "refinement of +vanity, the desire of justifying and praising the object of a +favourite pursuit," he does himself less than justice. This first +utterance of his historic genius was prompted by an unconscious but +deep reaction against that contempt for the past, which was the +greatest blot in the speculative movement of the eighteenth century. +He resists the temper of his time rather from instinct than reason, +and pleads the cause of learning with the hesitation of a man who has +not fully seen round his subject, or even mastered his own thoughts +upon it. Still there is his protest against the proposal of +D'Alembert, who recommended that after a selection of facts had been +made at the end of every century the remainder should be delivered to +the flames. "Let us preserve them all," he says, "most carefully. A +Montesquieu will detect in the most insignificant, relations which the +vulgar overlook." He resented the haughty pretensions of the +mathematical sciences to universal dominion, with sufficient vigour to +have satisfied Auguste Comte. "Physics and mathematics are at present +on the throne. They see their sister sciences prostrate before them, +chained to their chariot, or at most occupied in adorning their +triumph. Perhaps their downfall is not far off." To speak of a +positive downfall of exact sciences was a mistake. But we may fairly +suppose that Gibbon did not contemplate anything beyond a relative +change of position in the hierarchy of the sciences, by which history +and politics would recover or attain to a dignity which was denied +them in his day. In one passage Gibbon shows that he had dimly +foreseen the possibility of the modern inquiries into the conditions +of savage life and prehistoric man. "An Iroquois book, even were it +full of absurdities, would be an invaluable treasure. It would offer a +unique example of the nature of the human mind placed in circumstances +which we have never known, and influenced by manners and religious +opinions, the complete opposite of ours." In this sentence Gibbon +seems to call in anticipation for the researches which have since been +prosecuted with so much success by eminent writers among ourselves, +not to mention similar inquirers on the Continent. + +But in the meantime Gibbon had entered on a career which removed him +for long months from books and study. Without sufficiently reflecting +on what such a step involved, he had joined the militia, which was +embodied in the year 1760; and for the next two and a half years led, +as he says, a wandering life of military servitude. At first, indeed, +he was so pleased with his new mode of life that he had serious +thoughts of becoming a professional soldier. But this enthusiasm +speedily wore off, and our "mimic Bellona soon revealed to his eyes +her naked deformity." It was indeed no mere playing at soldiering that +he had undertaken. He was the practical working commander of "an +independent corps of 476 officers and men." "In the absence, or even +in the presence of the two field officers" (one of whom was his +father, the major) "I was intrusted with the effective labour of +dictating the orders and exercising the battalion." And his duty did +not consist in occasional drilling and reviews, but in serious +marches, sometimes of thirty miles in a day, and camping under canvas. +One encampment, on Winchester Downs, lasted four months. Gibbon does +not hesitate to say that the superiority of his grenadiers to the +detachments of the regular army, with which they were often mingled, +was so striking that the most prejudiced regular could not have +hesitated a moment to admit it. But the drilling, and manoeuvring, and +all that pertained to the serious side of militia business interested +Gibbon, and though it took up time it gave him knowledge of a special +kind, of which he quite appreciated the value. He was much struck, for +instance, by the difference between the nominal and effective force of +every regiment he had seen, even when supposed to be complete, and +gravely doubts whether a nominal army of 100,000 men often brings +_fifty_ thousand into the field. What he found unendurable was the +constant shifting of quarters, the utter want of privacy and leisure +it often entailed, and the distasteful society in which he was forced +to live. For eight months at a stretch he never took a book in his +hand. "From the day we marched from Blandford, I had hardly a moment I +could call my own, being almost continually in motion, or if I was +fixed for a day, it was in the guardroom, a barrack, or an inn." Even +worse were the drinking and late hours; sometimes in "rustic" company, +sometimes in company in which joviality and wit were more abundant +than decorum and common sense, which will surprise no one who hears +that the famous John Wilkes, who was colonel of the Buckingham +militia, was not unfrequently one of his boon companions. A few +extracts from his journal will be enough. "To-day (August 28, 1762), +Sir Thomas Worsley," the colonel of the battalion, "came to us to +dinner. Pleased to see him, we kept bumperising till after +roll-calling, Sir Thomas assuring us every fresh bottle how infinitely +sober he was growing." September 23rd. "Colonel Wilkes, of the +Buckingham militia, dined with us, and renewed the acquaintance Sir +Thomas and myself had begun with him at Reading. I scarcely ever met +with a better companion; he has inexhaustible spirits, infinite wit +and humour, and a great deal of knowledge.... This proved a very +debauched day; we drank a great deal both after dinner and supper; and +when at last Wilkes had retired, Sir Thomas and some others (of whom I +was not one) broke into his room and made him drink a bottle of claret +in bed." December 17. "We found old Captain Meard at Arlesford with +the second division of the Fourteenth. He and all his officers supped +with us, which made the evening rather a drunken one." Gibbon might +well say that the militia was unfit for and unworthy of him. + +Yet it is quite astonishing to see, as recorded in his journal, how +keen an interest he still managed to retain in literature in the midst +of all this dissipation, and how fertile he was of schemes and +projects of future historical works to be prosecuted under more +favourable auspices. Subject after subject occurred to him as eligible +and attractive; he caresses the idea for a time, then lays it aside +for good reasons. First, he pitched upon the expedition of Charles +VIII. of France into Italy. He read and meditated upon it, and wrote a +dissertation of ten folio pages, besides large notes, in which he +examined the right of Charles VIII. to the crown of Naples, and the +rival claims of the houses of Anjou and Aragon. In a few weeks he +gives up this idea, firstly, for the rather odd reason that the +subject was too remote from us; and, secondly, for the very good +reason that the expedition was rather the introduction to great events +than great and important in itself. He then successively chose and +rejected the Crusade of Richard the First; the Barons' War against +John and Henry III.; the history of Edward the Black Prince; the lives +and comparisons of Henry V. and the Emperor Titus; the life of Sir +Philip Sidney, and that of the Marquis of Montrose. At length he fixed +on Sir Walter Raleigh as his hero. On this he worked with all the +assiduity that his militia life allowed, read a great quantity of +original documents relating to it, and, after some months of labour, +declared that "his subject opened upon him, and in general improved +upon a nearer prospect." But half a year later he "is afraid he will +have to drop his hero." And he covers half a page with reasons to +persuade himself that he was right in doing so. Besides the obvious +one that he would be able to add little that was not already +accessible in Oldys' _Life of Raleigh_, that the topic was exhausted, +and so forth, he goes on to make these remarks, which have more +signification to us now than perhaps they had to him when he wrote +them. "Could I even surmount these obstacles, I should shrink with +terror from the modern history of England, where every character is a +problem and every reader a friend or an enemy: when a writer is +supposed to hoist a flag of party, and is devoted to damnation by the +adverse faction. Such would be _my_ reception at home; and abroad the +historian of Raleigh must encounter an indifference far more bitter +than censure or reproach. The events of his life are interesting; but +his character is ambiguous; his actions are obscure; his writings are +English, and his fame is confined to the narrow limits of our language +and our island. _I must embrace a safer and more extensive theme._" +Here we see the first gropings after a theme of cosmopolitan interest. +He has arrived at two negative conclusions: that it must not be +English, and must not be narrow. What it is to be, does not yet +appear, for he has still a series of subjects to go through, to be +taken up and discarded. The history of the liberty of the Swiss, which +at a later period he partially achieved, was one scheme; the history +of Florence under the Medici was another. He speaks with enthusiasm of +both projects, adding that he will most probably fix upon the latter; +but he never did anything of the kind. + +These were the topics which occupied Gibbon's mind during his service +in the militia, escaping when he could from the uproar and vulgarity +of the camp and the guardroom to the sanctuary of the historic muse, +to worship in secret. But these private devotions could not remove his +disgust at "the inn, the wine, and the company" he was forced to +endure, and latterly the militia became downright insupportable to +him. But honourable motives kept him to his post. "From a service +without danger I might have retired without disgrace; but as often as +I hinted a wish of resigning, my fetters were riveted by the friendly +intreaties of the colonel, the parental authority of the major, and my +own regard for the welfare of the battalion." At last the +long-wished-for day arrived, when the militia was disbanded. "Our two +companies," he writes in his journal, "were disembodied (December +23rd, 1762), mine at Alton, my father's at Buriton. They fired three +volleys, lodged the major's colours, delivered up their arms, received +their money, partook of a dinner at the major's expense, and then +separated, with great cheerfulness and regularity. Thus ended the +militia." The compression that his spirit had endured was shown by the +rapid energy with which he sought a change of scene and oblivion of +his woes. Within little more than a month after the scene just +described, Gibbon was in Paris beginning the grand tour. + +With that keen sense of the value of time which marked him, Gibbon +with great impartiality cast up and estimated the profit and loss of +his "bloodless campaigns." Both have been alluded to already. He +summed up with great fairness in the entry that he made in his journal +on the evening of the day on which he recovered his liberty. "I am +glad that the militia has been, and glad that it is no more." This +judgment he confirmed thirty years afterwards, when he composed his +Memoirs. "My principal obligation to the militia was the making me an +Englishman and a soldier. After my foreign education, with my reserved +temper, I should long have continued a stranger in my native country, +had I not been shaken in this various scene of new faces and new +friends; had not experience forced me to feel the characters of our +leading men, the state of parties, the forms of office, the operations +of our civil and military system. In this peaceful service I imbibed +the rudiments of the language and science of tactics, which opened a +new field of study and observation. I diligently read and meditated +the _Memoires Militaires_ of Quintus Icilius, the only writer who has +united the merits of a professor and a veteran. The discipline and +evolution of a modern battalion gave me a clearer notion of the +phalanx and the legion, and the captain of the Hampshire grenadiers +(the reader may smile) has not been useless to the historian of the +Roman Empire." No one can doubt it who compares Gibbon's numerous +narratives of military operations with the ordinary performances of +civil historians in those matters. The campaigns of Julian, +Belisarius, and Heraclius, not to mention many others, have not only +an uncommon lucidity, but also exhibit a clear appreciation of the +obstacles and arduousness of warlike operations, which is rare or +unknown to non-military writers. Macaulay has pointed out that Swift's +party pamphlets are superior in an especial way to the ordinary +productions of that class, in consequence of Swift's unavowed but very +serious participation in the cabinet councils of Oxford and +Bolingbroke. In the same manner Gibbon had an advantage through his +military training, which gives him no small superiority to even the +best historical writers who have been without it. + +The course of foreign travel which Gibbon was now about to commence +had been contemplated before, but the war and the militia had +postponed it for nearly three years. It appears that as early as the +year 1760 the elder Gibbon had conceived the project of procuring a +seat in Parliament for his son, and was willing to incur the +anticipated expense of L1500 for that object. Young Gibbon, who seems +to have very accurately gauged his own abilities at that early age, +was convinced that the money could be much better employed in another +way. He wrote in consequence, under his father's roof, a letter to the +latter which does such credit to his head and to his heart, that, +although it is somewhat long, it cannot with propriety be omitted +here. + + EDWARD GIBBON TO HIS FATHER. + + "DEAR SIR, + + "An address in writing from a person who has the pleasure of + being with you every day may appear singular. However I have + preferred this method, as upon paper I can speak without a + blush and be heard without interruption. If my letter + displeases you, impute it, dear sir, to yourself. You have + treated me, not like a son, but like a friend. Can you be + surprised that I should communicate to a friend all my + thoughts and all my desires? Unless the friend approve them, + let the father never know them; or at least let him know at + the same time that however reasonable, however eligible, my + scheme may appear to me, I would rather forget it for ever + than cause him the slightest uneasiness. + + "When I first returned to England, attentive to my future + interests, you were so good as to give me hopes of a seat in + Parliament. This seat, it was supposed, would be an expense + of fifteen hundred pounds. This design flattered my vanity, + as it might enable me to shine in so august an assembly. It + flattered a nobler passion: I promised myself that, by the + means of this seat, I might one day be the instrument of + some good to my country. But I soon perceived how little + mere virtuous inclination, unassisted by talents, could + contribute towards that great end, and a very short + examination discovered to me that those talents had not + fallen to my lot. Do not, dear sir, impute this declaration + to a false modesty--the meanest species of pride. Whatever + else I may be ignorant of, I think I know myself, and shall + always endeavour to mention my good qualities without vanity + and my defects without repugnance. I shall say nothing of + the most intimate acquaintance with his country and + language, so absolutely necessary to every senator; since + they may be acquired, to allege my deficiency in them would + seem only the plea of laziness. But I shall say with great + truth that I never possessed that gift of speech, the first + requisite of an orator, which use and labour may improve, + but which nature can alone bestow; that my temper, quiet, + retired, somewhat reserved, could neither acquire + popularity, bear up against opposition, nor mix with ease in + the crowds of public life; that even my genius (if you allow + me any) is better qualified for the deliberate compositions + of the closet than for the extempore discourses of + Parliament. An unexpected objection would disconcert me, and + as I am incapable of explaining to others what I do not + understand myself, I should be meditating when I ought to be + answering. I even want necessary prejudices of party and of + nation. In popular assemblies it is often necessary to + inspire them, and never orator inspired well a passion which + he did not feel himself. Suppose me even mistaken in my own + character, to set out with the repugnance such an opinion + must produce offers but an indifferent prospect. But I hear + you say it is not necessary that every man should enter into + Parliament with such exalted hopes. It is to acquire a title + the most glorious of any in a free country, and to employ + the weight and consideration it gives in the service of + one's friends. Such motives, though not glorious, yet are + not dishonourable, and if we had a borough in our command, + if you could bring me in without any great expense, or if + our fortune enabled us to despise that expense, then indeed + I should think them of the greatest strength. But with our + private fortune, is it worthwhile to purchase at so high a + rate a title honourable in itself, but which I must share + with every fellow that can lay out 1500 pounds? Besides, + dear sir, a merchandise is of little value to the owner when + he is resolved not to sell it. + + "I should affront your penetration did I not suppose you now + see the drift of this letter. It is to appropriate to + another use the sum with which you destined to bring me into + Parliament; to employ it, not in making me great, but in + rendering me happy. I have often heard you say yourself that + the allowance you had been so indulgent as to grant me, + though very liberal in regard to your estate, was yet but + small when compared with the almost necessary extravagances + of the age. I have indeed found it so, notwithstanding a + good deal of economy, and an exemption from many of the + common expenses of youth. This, dear sir, would be a way of + supplying these deficiencies without any additional expense + to you. But I forbear--if you think my proposals reasonable, + you want no intreaties to engage you to comply with them, if + otherwise all will be without effect. + + "All that I am afraid of, dear sir, is that I should seem + not so much asking a favour, as this really is, as exacting + a debt. After all I can say, you will remain the best judge + of my good and your own circumstances. Perhaps, like most + landed gentlemen, an addition to my annuity would suit you + better than a sum of money given at once; perhaps the sum + itself may be too considerable. Whatever you may think + proper to bestow on me, or in whatever manner, will be + received with equal gratitude. + + "I intended to stop here, but as I abhor the least + appearance of art, I think it better to lay open my whole + scheme at once. The unhappy war which now desolates Europe + will oblige me to defer seeing France till a peace. But that + reason can have no influence on Italy, a country which every + scholar must long to see. Should you grant my request, and + not disapprove of my manner of employing your bounty, I + would leave England this autumn and pass the winter at + Lausanne with M. de Voltaire and my old friends. In the + spring I would cross the Alps, and after some stay in Italy, + as the war must then be terminated, return home through + France, to live happily with you and my dear mother. I am + now two-and-twenty; a tour must take up a considerable time; + and although I believe you have no thoughts of settling me + soon (and I am sure I have not), yet so many things may + intervene that the man who does not travel early runs a + great risk of not travelling at all. But this part of my + scheme, as well as the whole of it, I submit entirely to + you. + + "Permit me, dear sir, to add that I do not know whether the + complete compliance with my wishes could increase my love + and gratitude, but that I am very sure no refusal could + diminish those sentiments with which I shall always remain, + dear sir, your most dutiful and obedient son and servant. + + "E. GIBBON, JUN." + +Instead of going to Italy in the autumn of 1760, as he fondly hoped +when he wrote this letter, Gibbon was marching about the south of +England at the head of his grenadiers. But the scheme sketched in the +above letter was only postponed, and ultimately realised in every +particular. The question of a seat in Parliament never came up again +during his father's life, and no doubt the money it would have cost +was, according to his wise suggestion, devoted to defray the expenses +of his foreign tour, which he is now about to begin. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE ITALIAN JOURNEY. + + +Gibbon reached Paris on the 28th January, 1763; thirty-six days, as he +tells us, after the disbanding of the militia. He remained a little +over three months in the French capital, which on the whole pleased +him so well that he thinks that if he had been independent and rich, +he might have been tempted to make it his permanent residence. + +On the other hand he seems to have been little if at all aware of the +extraordinary character of the society of which he became a spectator +and for a time a member. He does not seem to have been conscious that +he was witnessing one of the most singular social phases which have +yet been presented in the history of man. And no blame attaches to him +for this. No one of his contemporaries saw deeper in this direction +than he did. It is a remarkable instance of the way in which the +widest and deepest social movements are veiled to the eyes of those +who see them, precisely because of their width and depth. Foreigners, +especially Englishmen, visited Paris in the latter half of the +eighteenth century and reported variously of their experience and +impressions. Some, like Hume and Sterne, are delighted; some, like +Gibbon, are quietly, but thoroughly pleased; some, like +Walpole--though he perhaps is a class by himself--are half pleased and +half disgusted. They all feel that there is something peculiar in what +they witness, but never seem to suspect that nothing like it was ever +seen before in the world. One is tempted to wish that they could have +seen with our eyes, or, much more, that we could have had the +privilege of enjoying their experience, of spending a few months in +that singular epoch when "society," properly so called, the assembling +of men and women in drawing-rooms for the purpose of conversation, was +the most serious as well as the most delightful business of life. Talk +and discussion in the senate, the market-place, and the schools are +cheap; even barbarians are not wholly without them. But their +refinement and concentration in the _salon_--of which the president is +a woman of tact and culture--this is a phenomenon which never appeared +but in Paris in the eighteenth century. And yet scholars, men of the +world, men of business passed through this wonderland with eyes +blindfolded. They are free to enter, they go, they come, without a +sign that they have realised the marvellous scene that they were +permitted to traverse. One does not wonder that they did not perceive +that in those graceful drawing-rooms, filled with stately company of +elaborate manners, ideas and sentiments were discussed and evolved +which would soon be more explosive than gunpowder. One does not wonder +that they did not see ahead of them--men never do. One does rather +wonder that they did not see what was before their eyes. But wonder is +useless and a mistake. People who have never seen a volcano cannot be +expected to fear the burning lava, or even to see that a volcano +differs from any other mountain. + +Gibbon had brought good introductions from London, but he admits that +they were useless, or rather superfluous. His nationality and his +_Essai_ were his best recommendations. It was the day of Anglomania, +and, as he says, "every Englishman was supposed to be a patriot and a +philosopher." "I had rather be," said Mdlle. de Lespinasse to Lord +Shelburne, "the least member of the House of Commons than even the +King of Prussia." Similar things must have been said to Gibbon, but he +has not recorded them; and generally it may be said that he is +disappointingly dull and indifferent to Paris, though he liked it well +enough when there. He never caught the Paris fever as Hume did, and +Sterne, or even as Walpole did, for all the hard things he says of the +underbred and overbearing manners of the philosophers. Gibbon had +ready access to the well-known houses of Madame Geoffrin, Madame +Helvetius and the Baron d'Holbach; and his perfect mastery of the +language must have removed every obstacle in the way of complete +social intercourse. But no word in his Memoirs or Letters shows that +he really saw with the eyes of the mind the singularities of that +strange epoch. And yet he was there at an exciting and important +moment. The Order of the Jesuits was tottering to its fall; the latter +volumes of the _Encyclopedia_ were being printed, and it was no +secret; the coruscating wit and audacity of the _salons_ were at their +height. He is not unjust or prejudiced, but somewhat cold. He dines +with Baron d'Holbach, and says his dinners were excellent, but nothing +of the guests. He goes to Madame Geoffrin, and pronounces her house an +excellent one. Such faint and commonplace praise reflects on the +eulogist. The only man of letters of whom he speaks with warmth is +Helvetius. He does not appear in this first visit to have known Madame +du Deffand, who was still keeping her _salon_ with the help of the +pale deep-eyed L'Espinasse, though the final rupture was imminent. +Louis Racine died, and so did Marivaux, while he was in Paris. The old +Opera-house in the Palais Royal was burnt down when he had been there +a little over a month, and the representations were transferred to the +Salle des Machines, in the Tuileries. The equestrian statue of Louis +XV. was set up in the Place to which it gave its name (where the Luxor +column now stands, in the Place de la Concorde) amidst the jeers and +insults of the mob, who declared it would never be got to pass the +hotel of Madame de Pompadour. How much or how little of all this +touched Gibbon, we do not know. We do know one thing, that his English +clothes were unfashionable and looked very foreign, the French being +"excessively long-waisted." Doubtless his scanty purse could not +afford a new outfit, such as Walpole two years afterwards, under the +direction of Lady Hertford, promptly procured. On the 8th of May he +hurried off to Lausanne.[5] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 5: The chronicle of events which occurred during Gibbon's +sojourn in Paris will be found in the interesting _Memoires de +Bachaumont._] + +His ultimate object was Italy. But he wisely resolved to place a +period of solid study between the lively dissipation of Paris and his +classic pilgrimage. He knew the difference between seeing things he +had read about and reading about things after he had seen them; how +the mind, charged with associations of famous scenes, is delicately +susceptible of impressions, and how rapidly old musings take form and +colour, when, stirred by outward realities; and contrariwise, how slow +and inadequate is the effort to reverse this process, and to clothe +with memories, monuments and sites over which the spirit has not sent +a halo of previous meditation. So he settled down quietly at Lausanne +for the space of nearly a year, and commenced a most austere and +systematic course of reading on the antiquities of Italy. The list of +learned works which he perused "with his pen in his hand" is +formidable, and fills a quarto page. But he went further than this, +and compiled an elaborate treatise on the nations, provinces, and +towns of ancient Italy (which we still have) digested in alphabetical +order, in which every Latin author, from Plautus to Rutilius, is laid +under contribution for illustrative passages, which are all copied out +in full. This laborious work was evidently Gibbon's own guidebook in +his Italian travels, and one sees not only what an admirable +preparation it was for the object in view, but what a promise it +contained of that scrupulous thoroughness which was to be his mark as +an historian. His mind was indeed rapidly maturing, and becoming +conscious in what direction its strength lay. + +His account of his first impressions of Rome has been often quoted, +and deserves to be so again. "My temper is not very susceptible of +enthusiasm, and the enthusiasm which I do not feel I have ever scorned +to affect. But at the distance of twenty-five years I can neither +forget nor express the strong emotions which agitated my mind as I +first approached and entered the Eternal City. After a sleepless +night, I trod with a lofty step the ruins of the Forum. Each memorable +spot where Romulus stood, or Tully spoke, or Caesar fell, was at once +present to my eye, and several days of intoxication were lost and +enjoyed before I could descend to a cool and minute examination." He +gave eighteen weeks to the study of Rome only, and six to Naples, and +we may rest assured that he made good use of his time. But what makes +this visit to Rome memorable in his life and in literary history is +that it was the occasion and date of the first conception of his great +work. "It was at Rome, on the 15th October, 1764, as I sat musing amid +the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing +vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline +and fall of the city first started to my mind." The scene, the +contrast of the old religion and the new, the priests of Christ +replacing the flamens of Jupiter, the evensong of Catholic Rome +swelling like a dirge over the prostrate Pagan Rome might well +concentrate in one grand luminous idea the manifold but unconnected +thoughts with which his mind had so long been teeming. Gibbon had +found his work, which was destined to fill the remainder of his life. +Henceforth there is a fixed centre around which his thoughts and +musings cluster spontaneously. Difficulties and interruptions are not +wanting. The plan then formed is not taken in hand at once; on the +contrary, it is contemplated at "an awful distance"; but it led him on +like a star guiding his steps, till he reached his appointed goal. + +After crossing the Alps on his homeward journey, Gibbon had had some +thoughts of visiting the southern provinces of France. But when he +reached Lyons he found letters "expressive of some impatience" for his +return. Though he does not exactly say as much, we may justly conclude +that the elder Gibbon's pecuniary difficulties were beginning to be +oppressive. So the traveller, with the dutifulness that he ever showed +to his father, at once bent his steps northward. Again he passed +through Paris, and the place had a new attraction in his eyes in the +person of Mdlle. Curchod, now become Madame Necker, and wife of the +great financier. + +This perhaps will be the most convenient place to notice and estimate +a certain amount of rather spiteful gossip, of which Gibbon was the +subject in Switzerland about this time. Rousseau and his friend +Moultou have preserved it for us, and it is probable that it has lost +none of its pungency in passing through the hands of the latter. The +substance of it is this:--that in the year 1763, when Gibbon revisited +Lausanne, as we have seen, Susanne Curchod was still in a pitiable +state of melancholy and well nigh broken-hearted at Gibbon's manifest +coldness, which we know he considered to be "friendship and esteem." +Whether he even saw her on this visit cannot be considered certain, +but it is at least highly probable. Be that as it may: this is the +picture of her condition as drawn by Moultou in a letter to Rousseau: +"How sorry I am for our poor Mdlle. Curchod! Gibbon, whom she loves, +and to whom I know she has sacrificed some excellent matches, has come +to Lausanne, but cold, insensible, and as entirely cured of his old +passion as she is far from cure. She has written me a letter that +makes my heart ache." Rousseau says in reply, "He who does not +appreciate Mdlle. Curchod is not worthy of her; he who appreciates her +and separates himself from her is a man to be despised. She does not +know what she wants. Gibbon serves her better than her own heart. I +would rather a hundred times that he left her poor and free among you +than that he should take her off to be rich and miserable in +England." One does not quite see how Gibbon could have acted to the +contentment of Jean-Jacques. For not taking Mdlle. Curchod to +England--as we may presume he would have done if he had married +her--he is contemptible. Yet if he does take her he will make her +miserable, and Rousseau would rather a hundred times he left her +alone--precisely what he was doing; but then he was despicable for +doing it. The question is whether there is not a good deal of +exaggeration in all this. Only a year after the tragic condition in +which Moultou describes Mdlle. Curchod she married M. Necker, and +became devoted to her husband. A few months after she married Necker +she cordially invited Gibbon to her house every day of his sojourn in +Paris. If Gibbon had behaved in the unworthy way asserted, if she had +had her feelings so profoundly touched and lacerated as Moultou +declares, would she, or even could she, have acted thus? If she was +conscious of being wronged, and he was conscious--as he must have +been--of having acted basely, or at least unfeelingly, is it not as +good as certain that both parties would have been careful to see as +little of each other as possible? A broken-off love-match, even +without complication of unworthy conduct on either side, is generally +an effective bar to further intercourse. But in this case the +intercourse is renewed on the very first opportunity, and never +dropped till the death of one of the persons concerned. + +Two letters have been preserved of Gibbon and Madame Necker +respectively, nearly of the same date, and both referring to this +rather delicate topic of their first interviews after her marriage. +Gibbon writes to his friend Holroyd, "The Curchod (Madame Necker) I +saw in Paris. She was very fond of me, and the husband particularly +civil. Could they insult me more cruelly? Ask me every evening to +supper, go to bed and leave me alone with his wife--what impertinent +security! It is making an old lover of mighty little consequence. She +is as handsome as ever, and much genteeler; seems pleased with her +wealth rather than proud of it. I was exalting Nanette d'Illens's good +luck and the fortune" (this evidently refers to some common +acquaintance, who had changed her name to advantage). "'What fortune,' +she said with an air of contempt:--'not above twenty thousand livres a +year.' I smiled, and she caught herself immediately, 'What airs I give +myself in despising twenty thousand livres a year, who a year ago +looked upon eight hundred as the summit of my wishes.'" + +Let us turn to the lady's account of the same scenes. "I do not know +if I told you," she writes to a friend at Lausanne, "that I have seen +Gibbon, and it has given me more pleasure than I know how to express. +Not indeed that I retain any sentiment for a man who I think does not +deserve much" (this little toss of pique or pride need not mislead +us); "but my feminine vanity could not have had a more complete and +honest triumph. He stayed two weeks in Paris, and I had him every day +at my house; he has become soft, yielding, humble, decorous to a +fault. He was a constant witness of my husband's kindness, wit, and +gaiety, and made me remark for the first time, by his admiration for +wealth, the opulence with which I am surrounded, and which up to this +moment had only produced a disagreeable impression upon me." +Considering the very different points of view of the writers, these +letters are remarkably in unison. The solid fact of the daily visits +is recorded in both. It is easy to gather from Madame Necker's letter +that she was very glad to show Mr. Gibbon that for going farther and +not marrying him she had not fared worse. The rather acid allusion to +"opulence" is found in both letters; but much more pronounced in hers +than in his. Each hints that the other thought too much of wealth. But +he does so with delicacy, and only by implication; she charges him +coarsely with vulgar admiration for it. We may reasonably suspect that +riches had been the subject of not altogether smooth conversation +between them, in the later part of the evening, perhaps, after M. +Necker had retired in triumph to bed. One might even fancy that there +was a tacit allusion by Madame Necker to the dialogue recorded by +Gibbon to Holroyd, when his smile checked her indirect pride in her +own wealth, and that she remembered that smile with just a touch of +resentment. If so, nothing was more natural and comforting than to +charge him with the failing that he had detected in her. But here are +the facts. Eight months after her marriage, Madame Necker admits that +she had Gibbon every day to her house. He says that she was very +cordial. She would have it understood that she received him only for +the sake of gratifying a feminine vanity. For her own sake one might +prefer his interpretation to hers. It is difficult to believe that the +essentially simple-minded Madame Necker would have asked a man every +day to her house merely to triumph over him; and more difficult still +to believe that the man would have gone if such had been the object. A +little tartness in these first interviews, following on a relation of +some ambiguity, cannot surprise one. But it was not the dominant +ingredient, or the interviews must have ceased of their own accord. In +any case few will admit that either of the persons concerned would +have written as they did if Moultou's statement were correct. In +neither epistle is there any trace of a grand passion felt or +slighted. We discover the much lower level of vanity and badinage. And +the subsequent relations of Gibbon and Madame Necker all tend to prove +that this was the real one. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +LITERARY SCHEMES.--THE HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND.--DISSERTATION ON THE +SIXTH AENEID.--FATHER'S DEATH.--SETTLEMENT IN LONDON. + + +Gibbon now (June, 1765) returned to his father's house, and remained +there till the latter's death in 1770. He describes these five years +as having been the least pleasant and satisfactory of his whole life. +The reasons were not far to seek. The unthrifty habits of the elder +Gibbon were now producing their natural result. He was saddled with +debt, from which two mortgages, readily consented to by his son, and +the sale of the house at Putney, only partially relieved him. Gibbon +now began to fear that he had an old age of poverty before him. He had +pursued knowledge with single-hearted loyalty and now became aware +that from a worldly point of view knowledge is not often a profitable +investment. A more dejecting discovery cannot be made by the sincere +scholar. He is conscious of labour and protracted effort, which the +prosperous professional man and tradesman who pass him on their road +to wealth with a smile of scornful pity have never known. He has +forsaken comparatively all for knowledge, and the busy world meets him +with a blank stare, and surmises shrewdly that he is but an idler, +with an odd taste for wasting his time over books. It says much for +Gibbon's robustness of spirit that he did not break down in these +trying years, that he did not weakly take fright at his prospect, and +make hasty and violent efforts to mend it. On the contrary, he +remained steadfast and true to the things of the mind. With diminished +cheerfulness perhaps, but with no abatement of zeal, he pursued his +course and his studies, thereby proving that he belonged to the select +class of the strong and worthy who, penetrated with the loveliness of +science, will not be turned away from it. + +His first effort to redeem the time was a project of a history of +Switzerland. His choice was decided by two circumstances: (1) his love +for a country which he had made his own by adoption; (2) by the fact +that he had in his friend Deyverdun, a fellow-worker who could render +him most valuable assistance. Gibbon never knew German, which is not +surprising when we reflect what German literature amounted to, in +those days; and he soon discovered that the most valuable authorities +of his projected work were in the German language. But Deyverdun was a +perfect master of that tongue, and translated a mass of documents for +the use of his friend. They laboured for two years in collecting +materials, before Gibbon felt himself justified in entering on the +"more agreeable task of composition." And even then he considered the +preparation insufficient, as no doubt it was. He felt he could not do +justice to his subject; uninformed as he was "by the scholars and +statesmen, and remote from the archives and libraries of the Swiss +republic." Such a beginning was not of good augury for the success of +the undertaking. He never wrote more than about sixty quarto pages of +the projected work, and these, as they were in French, were submitted +to the judgment of a literary society of foreigners in London, before +whom the MS. was read. The author was unknown, and Gibbon attended the +meeting, and thus listened without being observed "to the free +strictures and unfavourable sentence of his judges." He admits that +the momentary sensation was painful; but the condemnation was ratified +by his cooler thoughts: and he declares that he did not regret the +loss of a slight and superficial essay, though it "had cost some +expense, much labour, and more time." He says in his Memoirs that he +burnt the sheets. But this, strange to say, was a mistake on his part. +They were found among his papers after his death, and though not +published by Lord Sheffield in the first two volumes of his +Miscellaneous Works, which the latter edited in 1796, they appeared in +the supplemental third volume which came out in 1815. We thus can +judge for ourselves of their value. One sees at once why and how they +failed to satisfy their author's mature judgment. They belong to that +style of historical writing which consists in the rhetorical +transcription and adornment of the original authorities, but in which +the writer never gets close enough to his subject to apply the +touchstone of a clear and trenchant criticism. Such criticism indeed +was not common in Switzerland in his day, and one cannot blame Gibbon +for not anticipating the researches of modern investigators. But his +historical sense was aroused to suspicion by the story of William +Tell, which he boldly sets down as a fable. Altogether, one may +pronounce the sketch to be pleasantly written in a flowing, +picturesque narrative, and showing immense advance in style beyond the +essay on the Study of Literature. David Hume, to whom he submitted +it, urged him to persevere, and the advice was justified under the +circumstances, although one cannot now regret that it was not +followed. + +After the failure of this scheme Gibbon, still in connection with +Deyverdun, planned a periodical work under the title of _Memoires +Litteraires de la Grande Bretagne_. Only two volumes ever appeared, +and the speculation does not seem to have met with much success. +Gibbon "presumes to say that their merit was superior to their +reputation, though they produced more reputation than emolument." The +first volume is executed with evident pains, and gives a fair picture +of the literary and social condition of England at the time. The heavy +review articles are interspersed with what is intended to be lighter +matter on the fashions, foibles, and prominent characters of the day. +Gibbon owns the authorship of the first article on Lord Lyttelton's +history of Henry the Second, and his hand is discernible in the +account of the fourth volume of Lardner's work _On the Credibility of +the Gospel History_. The first has no merit beyond a faithful report. +The latter is written with much more zest and vigour, and shows the +interest that he already took in Christian antiquities. Other +articles, evidently from the pen of Deyverdun, on the English theatre +and Beau Nash of Bath, are the liveliest in the collection. The +magazine was avowedly intended for Continental readers, and might have +obtained success if it had been continued long enough. But it died +before it had time to make itself known.[6] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 6: Two volumes appeared of the _Memoires Litteraires_. Of +these only the first is to be found in the British Museum. It is a +small 12mo, containing 230 pages. Here is the Table des +Matieres:--(1) Histoire de Henri II., par Milord Lyttelton; (2) Le +Nouveau Guide de Bath; (3) Essai sur l'Histoire de la Societe Civile, +par M. Ferguson; (4) Conclusions des Memoires de Miss Sydney Bidulph; +Theologie (5) Recueil des Temoignages Anciens, par Lardner; (6) Le +Confessional; (7) Transactions Philosophiques; (8) Le Gouverneur, par +D. L. F. Spectacles, Beaux Arts, Nouvelles Litteraires.] + +When the _Memoires Litteraires_ collapsed Gibbon was again left +without a definite object to concentrate his energy, and with his work +still to seek. One might wonder why he did not seriously prepare for +the _Decline and Fall_. It must have been chiefly at this time that it +was "contemplated at an awful distance," perhaps even with numbing +doubt whether the distance would ever be lessened and the work +achieved, or even begun. The probability is he had too little peace of +mind to undertake anything that required calm and protracted labour. +"While so many of my acquaintance were married, or in Parliament, or +advancing with a rapid step in the various roads of honour or fortune +I stood alone, immovable, and insignificant.... The progress and the +knowledge of our domestic disorders aggravated my anxiety, and I began +to apprehend that in my old age I might be left without the fruits of +either industry or inheritance." Perhaps a reasonable apprehension of +poverty is more paralysing than the reality. In the latter case prompt +action is so imperatively commanded that the mind has no leisure for +the fatal indulgence of regrets; but when indigence seems only +imminent, and has not yet arrived, a certain lethargy is apt to be +produced out of which only the most practical characters can rouse +themselves, and these are not, as a rule, scholars by nature. We need +not be surprised that Gibbon during these years did nothing serious, +and postponed undertaking his great work. The inspiration needed to +accomplish such a long and arduous course as it implied could not be +kindled in a mind harassed by pecuniary cares. The fervent heat of a +poet's imagination may glow as brightly in poverty as in opulence, but +the gentle yet prolonged enthusiasm of the historian is likely to be +quenched when the resources of life are too insecure.[7] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 7: Scholarship has been frequently cultivated amidst great +poverty; but from the time of Thucydides, the owner of mines, to +Grote, the banker, historians seem to have been in, at least, easy +circumstances.] + +It is perhaps not wholly fanciful to suspect that Gibbon's next +literary effort was suggested and determined by the inward +discomposure he felt at this time. By nature he was not a +controversialist; not that he wanted the abilities to support that +character, but his mind was too full, fertile, and fond of real +knowledge to take much pleasure in the generally barren occupation of +gainsaying other men. But at this point in his life he made an +exception, and an unprovoked exception. When he wrote his famous +vindication of the first volume of the _Decline and Fall_ he was +acting in self-defence, and repelling savage attacks upon his +historical veracity. But in his _Critical Observations on the Sixth +Book of the AEneid_ he sought controversy for its own sake, and became +a polemic--shall we say out of gaiety or bitterness of heart? That +inward unrest easily produces an aggressive spirit is a matter of +common observation, and it may well have been that in attacking +Warburton he sought a diversion from the worry of domestic cares. Be +that as it may, his _Observations_ are the most pungent and dashing +effusion he ever allowed himself. It was his first effort in English +prose, and it is doubtful whether he ever managed his mother tongue +better, if indeed he ever managed it so well. The little tract is +written with singular spirit and rapidity of style. It is clear, +trenchant, and direct to a fault. It is indeed far less critical than +polemical, and shows no trace of lofty calm, either moral or +intellectual. We are not repelled much by his eagerness to refute and +maltreat his opponent. That was not alien from the usages of the time, +and Warburton at least had no right to complain of such a style of +controversy. But there is no width and elevation of view. The writer +does not carry the discussion up to a higher level, and dominate his +adversary from a superior standpoint. Controversy is always ephemeral +and vulgar, unless it can rise to the discussion and establishment of +facts and principles valuable for themselves, independently of the +particular point at issue. It is this quality which has made the +master-works of Chillingworth and Bentley supereminent. The particular +point for which the writers contended is settled or forgotten. But in +moving up to that point they touched--such was their large discourse +of reason--on topics of perennial interest, did such justice, though +only in passing, to certain other truths, that they are gratefully +remembered ever after. Thus Bentley's dissertation on Phalaris is +read, not for the main thesis--proof of the spuriousness of the +letters--but for the profound knowledge and admirable logic with which +subsidiary positions are maintained on the way to it. Tried by this +standard, and he deserves to be tried by a high standard, Gibbon fails +not much, but entirely. The _Observations_ are rarely, if ever, +quoted as an authority of weight by any one engaged on classical or +Virgilian literature. This arises from the attitude of the writer, who +is nearly solely occupied with establishing negative conclusions that +AEneas was _not_ a lawgiver, that the Sixth AEneid is _not_ an allegory, +that Virgil had _not_ been initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries when +he wrote it, and so forth. Indeed the best judges now hold that he has +not done full justice to the grain of truth that was to be found in +Warburton's clumsy and prolix hypothesis.[8] It should be added that +Gibbon very candidly admits and regrets the acrimonious style of the +pamphlet, and condemns still more "in a personal attack his cowardly +concealment of his name and character." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 8: Conington, _Introduction to the Sixth AEneid_. "A reader +of the present day will, I think, be induced to award the palm of +learning and ingenuity to Warburton." "The language and imagery of the +sixth book more than once suggest that Virgil intended to embody in +his picture the poetical view of that inner side of ancient religion +which the mysteries may be supposed to have presented."--_Suggestion +on the Study of the AEneid_, by H. Nettleship, p. 13.] + +The _Observations_ were the last work which Gibbon published in his +father's lifetime. His account of the latter's death (November 10, +1770) is feelingly written, and shows the affectionate side of his own +nature to advantage. He acknowledges his father's failings, his +weakness and inconstancy, but insists that they were compensated by +the virtues of the head and heart, and the warmest sentiments of +honour and humanity. "His graceful person, polite address, gentle +manners, and unaffected cheerfulness recommended him to the favour of +every company." And Gibbon recalls with emotion "the pangs of shame, +tenderness, and self-reproach" which preyed on his father's mind at +the prospect, no doubt, of leaving an embarrassed estate and +precarious fortune to his son and widow. He had no taste for study in +the fatal summer of 1770, and declares that he would have been ashamed +if he had. "I submitted to the order of nature," he says, in words +which recall his resignation on losing his mistress--"I submitted to +the order of nature, and my grief was soothed by the conscious +satisfaction that I had discharged all the duties of filial piety." We +see Gibbon very fairly in this remark. He had tenderness, steady and +warm attachments, but no passion. + +Nearly two years elapsed after his father's death, before he was able +to secure from the wreck of his estate a sufficient competence to +establish himself in London. His house was No. 7, Bentinck Street, +near Manchester Square, then a remote suburb close to the country +fields. His housekeeping was that of a solitary bachelor, who could +afford an occasional dinner-party. Though not absolutely straitened in +means, we shall presently see that he was never quite at his ease in +money matters while he remained in London. But he had now freedom and +no great anxieties, and he began seriously to contemplate the +execution of his great work. + +Gibbon, as we have seen, looked back with little satisfaction on the +five years between his return from his travels and his father's death. +They are also the years during which his biographer is able to follow +him with the least certainty. Hardly any of his letters which refer to +that period have been preserved, and he has glided rapidly over it in +his Memoirs. Yet it was, in other respects besides the matter of +pecuniary troubles, a momentous epoch in his life. The peculiar views +which he adopted and partly professed on religion must have been +formed then. But the date, the circumstance, and the occasion are left +in darkness. Up to December 18, 1763, Gibbon was evidently a believer. +In an entry in his private journal under that date he speaks of a +Communion Sunday at Lausanne as affording an "edifying spectacle," on +the ground that there is "neither business nor parties, and they +interdict even whist" on that day. How soon after this his opinions +began to change, it is impossible to say. But we are conscious of a +markedly different tone in the _Observations_, and a sneer at "the +ancient alliance between the avarice of the priests and the credulity +of the people" is in the familiar style of the Deists from Toland to +Chubb. There is no evidence of his familiarity with the widely +diffused works of the freethinkers, and as far as I am aware he does +not quote or refer to them even once. But they could hardly have +escaped his notice. Still his strong historic sense and solid +erudition would be more likely to be repelled than attracted by their +vague and inaccurate scholarship, and chimerical theories of the light +of Nature. Still we know that he practically adopted, in the end, at +least the negative portion of these views, and the question is, When +did he do so? His visit to Paris, and the company that he frequented +there, might suggest that as a probable date of his change of +opinions. But the entry just referred to was subsequent by several +months to that visit, and we may with confidence assume that no +freethinker of the eighteenth century would pronounce the austerities +of a Communion Sunday in a Calvinist town an edifying spectacle. It is +probable that his relinquishing of dogmatic faith was gradual, and for +a time unconscious. It was an age of tepid belief, except among the +Nonjurors and Methodists; and with neither of these groups could he +have had the least sympathy. His acquaintance with Hume, and his +partiality for the writings of Bayle, are more probable sources of a +change of sentiment which was in a way predestined by natural bias and +cast of mind. Any occasion would serve to precipitate the result. In +any case, this result had been attained some years before the +publication of the first volume of the _Decline and Fall_, in 1776. +Referring to his preparatory studies for the execution of that work, +he says, "As I believed, and as I still believe, that the propagation +of the Gospel and the triumph of the Church are inseparably connected +with the decline of the Roman monarchy, I weighed the causes and +effects of the revolution, and contrasted the narratives and apologies +of the Christians themselves with the glances of candour or enmity +which the pagans have cast on the rising sects. The Jewish and heathen +testimonies, as they are collected and illustrated by Dr. Lardner, +directed without superseding my search of the originals, and in an +ample dissertation on the miraculous darkness of the Passion I +privately drew my conclusions from the silence of an unbelieving age." +Here we have the argument which concludes the sixteenth chapter +distinctly announced. But the previous travail of spirit is not +indicated. Gibbon has marked with precision the stages of his +conversion to Romanism. But the following chapters of the history of +his religious opinions he has not written, or he has suppressed them, +and we can only vaguely guess their outline. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +LIFE IN LONDON.--PARLIAMENT.--THE BOARD OF TRADE.--THE DECLINE AND +FALL.--MIGRATION TO LAUSANNE. + + +Gibbon's settlement in London as master in his own house did not come +too soon. A few more years of anxiety and dependence, such as he had +passed of late with his father in the country, would probably have +dried up the spring of literary ambition and made him miss his career. +He had no tastes to fit him for a country life. The pursuit of farming +only pleased him in Virgil's _Georgics_. He seems neither to have +liked nor to have needed exercise, and English rural sports had no +charms for him. "I never handled a gun, I seldom mounted a horse, and +my philosophic walks were soon terminated by a shady bench, where I +was long detained by the sedentary amusement of reading or +meditation." He was a born _citadin_. "Never," he writes to his friend +Holroyd, "never pretend to allure me by painting in odious colours the +dust of London. I love the dust, and whenever I move into the Weald it +is to visit you, and not your trees." His ideal was to devote the +morning, commencing early--at seven, say--to study, and the afternoon +and evening to society and recreation, not "disdaining the innocent +amusement of a game at cards." And this plan of a happy life he very +fairly realised in his little house in Bentinck Street. The letters +that we have of his relating to this period are buoyant with spirits +and self-congratulation at his happy lot. He writes to his step-mother +that he is every day more satisfied with his present mode of life, +which he always believed was most calculated to make him happy. The +stable and moderate stimulus of congenial society, alternating with +study, was what he liked. The excitement and dissipation of a town +life, which purchase pleasure to-day at the expense of fatigue and +disgust to-morrow, were as little to his taste as the amusements of +the country. In 1772, when he settled in London, he was young in +years, but he was old in tastes, and he enjoyed himself with the +complacency often seen in healthy old men. "My library," he writes to +Holroyd in 1773, "Kensington Gardens, and a few parties with new +acquaintance, among whom I reckon Goldsmith and Sir Joshua Reynolds," +(poor Goldsmith was to die the year following), "fill up my time, and +the monster _ennui_ preserves a very respectful distance. By the by, +your friends Batt, Sir John Russell, and Lascelles dined with me one +day before they set off: _for I sometimes give the prettiest little +dinner in the world_." One can imagine Gibbon, the picture of +plumpness and content, doing the honours of his modest household. +Still he was never prominent in society, even after the publication of +his great work had made him famous. Lord Sheffield says that his +conversation was superior to his writings, and in a circle of intimate +friends it is probable that this was true. But in the free encounter +of wit and argument, the same want of readiness that made him silent +in parliament would most likely restrict his conversational power. It +may be doubted if there is a striking remark or saying of his on +record. His name occurs in Boswell, but nearly always as a _persona +muta_. Certainly the arena where Johnson and Burke encountered each +other was not fitted to bring out a shy and not very quick man. +Against Johnson he manifestly harboured a sort of grudge, and if he +ever felt the weight of Ursa Major's paw it is not surprising. + +He rather oddly preserved an instance of his conversational skill, as +if aware that he would not easily get credit for it. The scene was in +Paris. "At the table of my old friend M. de Foncemagne, I was involved +in a dispute with the Abbe de Mably.... As I might be partial in my +own cause, I shall transcribe the words of an unknown critic. 'You +were, my dear Theodon, at M. de Foncemagne's house, when the Abbe de +Mably and Mr. Gibbon dined there along with a number of guests. The +conversation ran almost entirely on history. The Abbe, being a +profound politician, turned it while at dessert on the administration +of affairs, and as by genius and temper, and the habit of admiring +Livy, he values only the republican system, he began to boast of the +excellence of republics, being well persuaded that the learned +Englishman would approve of all he said and admire the profoundity of +genius that had enabled a Frenchman to discover all these advantages. +But Mr. Gibbon, knowing by experience the inconveniences of a popular +government, was not at all of his opinion, and generously took up the +defence of monarchy. The Abbe wished to convince him out of Livy, and +by some arguments drawn from Plutarch in favour of the Spartans. Mr. +Gibbon, being endowed with a most excellent memory, and having all +events present to his mind, soon got the command of the conversation. +The Abbe grew angry, they lost possession of themselves, and said hard +things of each other. The Englishman retaining his native coolness, +watched for his advantages, and pressed the Abbe with increasing +success in proportion as he was more disturbed by passion. The +conversation grew warmer, and was broken off by M. de Foncemagne's +rising from table and passing into the parlour, where no one was +tempted to renew it." + +But if not brilliant in society, he was very _repandu_, and was +welcomed in the best circles. He was a member of Boodle's, White's, +Brooks's, and Almack's,[9] and "there were few persons in the literary +or political world to whom he was a stranger." It is to be regretted +that the best sketch of him at this period borders on caricature. "The +learned Gibbon," says Colman, "was a curious counterbalance to the +learned (may I not say the less learned) Johnson. Their manners and +tastes, both in writing and conversation, were as different as their +habiliments. On the day I first sat down with Johnson in his +rusty-brown suit and his black worsted stockings, Gibbon was placed +opposite to me in a suit of flowered velvet, with a bag and sword. +Each had his measured phraseology, and Johnson's famous parallel +between Dryden and Pope might be loosely parodied in reference to +himself and Gibbon. Johnson's style was grand, and Gibbon's elegant: +the stateliness of the former was sometimes pedantic, and the latter +was occasionally finical. Johnson marched to kettledrums and trumpets, +Gibbon moved to flutes and hautboys. Johnson hewed passages through +the Alps, while Gibbon levelled walks through parks and gardens. +Mauled as I had been by Johnson, Gibbon poured balm upon my bruises by +condescending once or twice in the course of the evening to talk with +me. The great historian was light and playful, suiting his matter to +the capacity of the boy: but it was done _more suo_--still his +mannerism prevailed, still he tapped his snuff-box, still he smirked +and smiled, and rounded his periods with the same air of +good-breeding, as if he were conversing with men. His mouth, +mellifluous as Plato's, was a round hole nearly in the centre of his +visage." (Quoted in Croker's _Boswell_.) + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 9: Not the assembly-room of that name, but a gaming-club +where the play was high. I find no evidence that Gibbon ever yielded +to the prevalent passion for gambling.] + +Now and then he even joins in a masquerade, "the finest thing ever +seen," which costs two thousand guineas. But the chief charm of it to +him seems to have been the pleasure that it gave to his Aunt Porten. +These little vanities are however quite superficial, and are never +allowed to interfere with work. + +Now indeed he was no loiterer. In three years after his settlement in +London he had produced the first volume of the _Decline and Fall_: an +amount of diligence which will not be underrated by those who +appreciate the vast difference between commencing and continuing an +undertaking of that magnitude. "At the outset," he says, "all was dark +and doubtful; even the title of the work, the true aera of the decline +and fall of the empire, the limits of the Introduction, the division +of the chapters, and the order of the narrative,--and I was often +tempted to cast away the labour of seven years;"--alternations no +doubt of hope and despair familiar to every sincere and competent +student. But he had taken the best and only reliable means of securing +himself from the danger of these fluctuations of spirit. He finished +his reading and preparation before he began to write, and when he at +last put pen to paper his course lay open before him, with no fear of +sudden and disquieting stoppages arising from imperfect knowledge and +need of further inquiry. It is a pity that we cannot follow the +elaboration of the work in detail. That portion of his Memoirs in +which he speaks of it is very short and fragmentary, and the defect is +not supplied by his letters. He seems to have worked with singular +ease and mastery of his subject, and never to have felt his task as a +strain or a fatigue. Even his intimate friends were not aware that he +was engaged on a work of such magnitude, and it is amusing to see his +friend Holroyd warn him against a hasty and immature publication when +he learned that the book was in the press. He had apparently heard +little of it before. This alone would show with what ease and +smoothness Gibbon must have worked. He had excellent health--a strange +fact after his sickly childhood; society unbent his mind instead of +distracting it; his stomach was perfect--perhaps too good, as about +this time he began to be admonished by the gout. He never seems to +have needed change. "Sufficient for the summer is the evil thereof, +viz., one distant country excursion." There was an extraordinary +difference in this respect between the present age and those which +went before it; restlessness and change of scene have become almost a +necessity of life with us, whereas our ancestors could continue +healthy and happy for months and years without stirring from home. +What is there to explain the change? We must not pretend that we work +harder than they did.[10] However, Gibbon was able to keep himself in +good condition with his long spell of work in the morning, and his +dinner-parties at home or elsewhere in the afternoon, and to have kept +at home as much as he could. Whenever he went away to the country, it +was on invitations which he could not well refuse. The result was a +leisurely, unhasting fulness of achievement, calm stretches of +thorough and contented work, which have left their marks on the +_Decline and Fall_. One of its charms is a constant good humour and +complacency; not a sign is visible that the writer is pressed for +time, or wants to get his performance out of hand; but, on the +contrary, a calm lingering over details, sprightly asides in the +notes, which the least hurry would have suppressed or passed by, and a +general impression conveyed of thorough enjoyment in the immensity of +the labour. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 10: The most remarkable instance of all is the case of +Newton, who, according to Dr. Whewell, resided in Trinity College "for +thirty-five years without the interruption of a month."--_Hist. of the +Inductive Sciences_, vol. ii. book vii.] + +One would have liked to see this elaboration more clearly, to have +been allowed a glimpse into his workshop while he was so engaged. +Unfortunately the editor of his journals has selected the relatively +unimportant records of his earlier studies, and left us in the dark as +regards this far more interesting period. He was such an indefatigable +diarist that it is unlikely that he neglected to keep a journal in +this crisis of his studies. But it has not been published, and it may +have been destroyed. All that we have is this short paragraph in his +Memoirs:-- + + "The classics, as low as Tacitus and the younger Pliny and + Juvenal, were my old and familiar companions. I insensibly + plunged into the ocean of the Augustan history, and in the + descending series I investigated, with my pen almost always + in my hand, the original records, both Greek and Latin, from + Dion Cassius to Ammianus Marcellinus, from the reign of + Trajan to the last age of the Western Caesars. The subsidiary + rays of medals and inscriptions of geography and chronology, + were thrown on their proper objects, and I applied the + collections of Tillemont to fix and arrange within my reach + the loose and scattered atoms of historical information. + Through the darkness of the middle ages I explored my way in + the _Annals and Antiquities of Italy_ of the learned + Muratori, and diligently compared them with the parallel or + transverse lines of Sigonius and Maffei, Baronius and Pagi, + till I almost grasped the ruins of Rome in the fourteenth + century, without suspecting that this final chapter must be + attained by the labour of six quartos and twenty years." + +When the time for composition arrived, he showed a fastidiousness +which was full of good augury. "Three times did I compose the first +chapter, and twice the second and third, before I was tolerably +satisfied with their effect." His hand grew firmer as he advanced. But +the two final chapters interposed a long delay, and needed "three +successive revisals to reduce them from a volume to their present +size." Gibbon spent more time over his first volume than over any one +of the five which followed it. To these he devoted almost regularly +two years apiece, more or less, whereas the first cost him three +years--so disproportionately difficult is the start in matters of this +kind. + +While engaged in the composition of the first volume, he became a +member of Parliament. One morning at half past seven, "as he was +destroying an army of barbarians," he heard a double rap at his door. +It was a friend who came to inquire if he was desirous of entering +the House of Commons. The answer may be imagined, and he took his seat +as member for the borough of Liskeard after the general election in +1774. + +Gibbon's political career is the side of his history from which a +friendly biographer would most readily turn away. Not that it was +exceptionally ignoble or self-seeking if tried by the standard of the +time, but it was altogether commonplace and unworthy of him. The fact +that he never even once opened his mouth in the House is not in itself +blameworthy, though disappointing in a man of his power. It was indeed +laudable enough if he had nothing to say. But why had he nothing to +say? His excuse is timidity and want of readiness. We may reasonably +assume that the cause lay deeper. With his mental vigour he would soon +have overcome such obstacles if he had really wished and tried to +overcome them. The fact is that he never tried because he never +wished. It is a singular thing to say of such a man, but nevertheless +true, that he had no taste or capacity whatever for politics. He lived +at one of the most exciting periods of our history; he assisted at +debates in which constitutional and imperial questions of the highest +moment were discussed by masters of eloquence and state policy, and he +hardly appears to have been aware of the fact. It was not that he +despised politics as Walpole affected to do, or that he regarded party +struggles as "barbarous and absurd faction," as Hume did; still less +did he pass by them with the supercilious indifference of a mystic +whose eyes are fixed on the individual spirit of man as the one spring +of good and evil. He never rose to the level of the ordinary citizen +or even partisan, who takes an exaggerated view perhaps of the +importance of the politics of the day, but who at any rate thereby +shows a sense of social solidarity and the claims of civic communion. +He called himself a Whig, but he had no zeal for Whig principles. He +voted steadily with Lord North, and quite approved of taxing and +coercing America into slavery; but he had no high notions of the royal +prerogative, and was lukewarm in this as in everything. With such +absence of passion one might have expected that he would be at least +shrewd and sagacious in his judgments on politics. But he is nothing +of the kind. In his familiar letters he reserves generally a few lines +for parliamentary gossip, amid chat about the weather and family +business. He never approaches to a broad survey of policy, or +expresses serious and settled convictions on home or foreign affairs. +Throughout the American war he never seems to have really made up his +mind on the nature of the struggle, and the momentous issues that it +involved. Favourable news puts him in high spirits, which are promptly +cooled by the announcement of reverses; not that he ever shows any +real anxiety or despondency about the commonwealth. His opinions on +the subject are at the mercy of the last mail. It is disappointing to +find an elegant trifler like Horace Walpole not only far more +discerning in his appreciation of such a crisis, but also far more +patriotically sensitive as to the wisdom of the means of meeting it, +than the historian of Rome. Gibbon's tone often amounts to levity, and +he chronicles the most serious measures with an unconcern really +surprising. "In a few days we stop the ports of New England. I cannot +write volumes: but I am more and more convinced that with firmness all +may go well: yet I sometimes doubt." (February 8, 1775.) "Something +will be done this year; but in the spring the force of the country +will be exerted to the utmost: Scotch Highlanders, Irish Papists, +Hanoverians, Canadians, Indians, &c., will all in various shapes be +employed." (August 1, 1775.) "What think you of the season, of Siberia +is it not? A pleasant campaign in America." (January 29, 1776.) At +precisely the same time the sagacious coxcomb of Strawberry Hill was +writing thus: "The times are indeed very serious. Pacification with +America is not the measure adopted. More regiments are ordered +thither, and to-morrow a plan, I fear equivalent to a declaration of +war, is to be laid before both Houses. They are bold ministers +methinks who do not hesitate on civil war, in which victory may bring +ruin, and disappointment endanger their heads.... Acquisition alone +can make burdens palatable, and in a war with our own colonies we must +inflict instead of acquiring them, and we cannot recover them without +undoing them. I am still to learn wisdom and experience, if these +things are not so." (Letter to Mann, January 25, 1775.) "A war with +our colonies, which is now declared, is a proof how much influence +jargon has on human actions. A war on our own trade is popular." +(February 15, 1775.) "The war with America goes on briskly, that is as +far as voting goes. A great majority in both houses is as brave as a +mob ducking a pick-pocket. They flatter themselves they shall terrify +the colonies into submission in three months, and are amazed to hear +that there is no such probability. They might as well have +excommunicated them, and left it to the devil to put the sentence into +execution." (February 18, 1775.) Not only is Walpole's judgment wiser, +but the elements of a wise judgment were present to him in a way in +which they were not so to Gibbon. When the latter does attempt a +forecast, he shows, as might be expected, as little penetration of the +future as appreciation of the present. Writing from Paris on August +11, 1777, when all French society was ablaze with enthusiasm for +America, and the court just on the point of yielding to the current, +he is under no immediate apprehensions of a war with France, and +"would not be surprised if next summer the French were to lend their +cordial assistance to England as the weaker party." The emptiness of +his letters as regards home politics perhaps admits of a more +favourable explanation, and may be owing to the careful suppression by +their editor, Lord Sheffield, of everything of real interest. It is +impossible to estimate the weight of this consideration, but it may be +great. Still we have a sufficient number of his letters to be able to +say that on the whole they are neither thoughtful nor graphic: they +give us neither pictures of events nor insight into the times. It must +be, however, remembered that Gibbon greatly disliked letter-writing, +and never wrote unless he was obliged. + +It was no secret that Gibbon wanted a place under government. Moderate +as his establishment seems to have been, it was more expensive than he +could afford, and he looked, not without warrant, to a supplement of +income from one of the rich windfalls which, in that time of sinecures +were wont to refresh the spirits of sturdy supporters of +administration. He had influential friends, and even relatives, in and +near the government, and but for his parliamentary nullity he would +probably have been provided with a comfortable berth at an early +period. But his "sincere and silent vote" was not valuable enough to +command a high price from his patrons. Once only was he able to help +them with his pen, when he drew up, at the request of Lords Thurlow +and Weymouth, his _Memoire Justificatif_, in French, in which "he +vindicated against the French manifesto the justice of the British +arms." It was a service worthy of a small fee, which no doubt he +received. He had to wait till 1779, when he had been five years in +Parliament, before his cousin Mr. Eliot, and his friend Wedderburne, +the Attorney-General, were able to find him a post as one of the Lords +Commissioners of Trade and Plantations. The Board of Trade, of which +he became one of the eight members, survives in mortal memory only +from being embalmed in the bright amber of one of Burke's great +speeches. "This board, Sir, has had both its original formation and +its regeneration in a job. In a job it was conceived, and in a job its +mother brought it forth.... This board is a sort of temperate bed of +influence: a sort of gently ripening hothouse, where eight members of +Parliament receive salaries of a thousand a year for a certain given +time, in order to mature at a proper season a claim to two thousand, +granted for doing less" (_Speech on Economical Reform_). Gibbon, with +entire good humour, acknowledges the justice of Burke's indictment, +and says he was "heard with delight, even by those whose existence he +proscribed." After all, he only enjoyed the emolument of his office +for three years, and he places that emolument at a lower figure than +Burke did. He could not have received more than between two and three +thousand pounds of public money; and when we consider what manner of +men have fattened on the national purse, it would be churlish to +grudge that small sum to the historian of the _Decline and Fall_. The +misfortune is that, reasonably or otherwise, doubts were raised as to +Gibbon's complete straightforwardness and honourable adhesion to party +ties in accepting office. He says himself: "My acceptance of a place +provoked some of the leaders of opposition with whom I had lived in +habits of intimacy, and I was most unjustly accused of deserting a +party in which I had never enlisted." There is certainly no evidence +that those who were most qualified to speak, those who gave him the +place and reckoned on his vote, ever complained of want of allegiance. +On the other hand, Gibbon's own letter to Edward Elliot, accepting the +place, betrays a somewhat uneasy conscience. He owns that he was far +from approving all the past measures of the administration, even some +of those in which he himself had silently concurred; that he saw many +capital defects in the characters of some of the present ministers, +and was sorry that in so alarming a situation of public affairs the +country had not the assistance of several able and honest men who were +now in opposition. Still, for various reasons, he did not consider +himself in any way implicated, and rather suspiciously concludes with +an allusion to his pecuniary difficulties and a flourish. "The +addition of the salary which is now offered will make my situation +perfectly easy, but I hope that you will do me the justice to believe +that my mind could not be so unless I were conscious of the rectitude +of my conduct." + +The strongest charge against Gibbon in reference to this matter is +asserted to come from his friend Fox, in this odd form. "In June 1781, +Mr. Fox's library came to be sold. Amongst his other books the first +volume of Mr. Gibbon's history was brought to the hammer. In the +blank leaf of this was a note in the handwriting of Mr. Fox, stating a +remarkable declaration of our historian at a well-known tavern in Pall +Mall, and contrasting it with Mr. Gibbon's political conduct +afterwards. 'The author,' it observed, 'at Brooks's said that there +was no salvation for this country until six heads of the principal +persons in administration' (Lord North being then prime minister) +'were laid upon the table. Yet,' as the observation added, 'eleven +days afterwards this same gentleman accepted a place of a lord of +trade under these very ministers, and has acted with them ever +since.'" It is impossible to tell what amount of truth there is in +this story, and not very important to inquire. It rests on the +authority of a strong personal enemy, and the cordial intimacy which +ever subsisted between Gibbon and Fox seems to show that it was mere +calumny. Perhaps the fact that Gibbon had really no opinions in +politics may have led persons of opposite parties to think that he +agreed with them more than he did, and when he merely followed his own +interest, they may have inferred that he was deserting their +principles. After losing his post on the Board of Trade he still hoped +for Government employ, "either a secure seat at the Board of Customs +or Excise," or in a diplomatic capacity. He was disappointed. If Lord +Sheffield is to be believed, it was his friend Fox who frustrated his +appointment as secretary of embassy at Paris, when he had been already +named to that office. + +The way in which Gibbon acted and afterwards spoke in reference to the +celebrated Coalition gives perhaps the best measure of his political +calibre. He voted among the rank and file of Lord North's followers +for the Coalition with meek subserviency. He speaks of a "principle of +gratitude" which actuated him on this occasion. Lord North had given +him his seat, and if a man's conscience allows him to think rather of +his patron than of his country, there is nothing to be said, except +that his code of political ethics is low. We may admit that his vote +was pledged; but there is also no doubt that any gratitude that there +was in the matter was stimulated by a lively sense of favours to come. +The Portland ministry had not been long in office when he wrote in the +following terms to his friend Deyverdun: "You have not forgotten that +I went into Parliament without patriotism and without ambition, and +that all my views tended to the convenient and respectable place of a +lord of trade. This situation I at length obtained. I possessed it for +three years, from 1779 to 1782, and the net produce, which amounted to +750_l._ sterling, augmented my income to my wants and desires. But in +the spring of last year the storm burst over our heads. Lord North was +overthrown, your humble servant turned out, and even the Board of +Trade, of which I was a member, abolished and broken up for ever by +Mr. Burke's reform. To complete my misfortunes, I still remain a +member of the Lower House. At the end of the last Parliament, Mr. +Eliot withdrew his nomination. But the favour of Lord North +facilitated my re-election, and gratitude imposed on me the duty of +making available for his service the rights which I held in part from +him. That winter we fought under the allied standards of Lord North +and Mr. Fox: we triumphed over Lord Shelburne and the peace, and my +friend (_i.e._ Lord North) remounted his steed in the quality of a +secretary of state. Now he can easily say to me, 'It was a great deal +for me, it was nothing for you;' and in spite of the strongest +assurances, I have too much reason to allow me to have much faith. +With great genius and very respectable talents, he has now neither the +title nor the credit of prime minister; more active colleagues carry +off the most savoury morsels which their voracious creatures +immediately devour; our misfortunes and reforms have diminished the +number of favours; either through pride or through indolence I am but +a bad suitor, and if at last I obtain something, it may perhaps be on +the eve of a fresh revolution, which will in an instant snatch from me +that which has cost me so many cares and pains." + +Such a letter speaks for itself. Gibbon might well say that he entered +parliament without patriotism and without ambition. The only redeeming +feature is the almost cynical frankness with which he openly regards +politics from a personal point of view. However, it may be pleaded +that the letter was written to a bosom friend at a moment of great +depression, and when Gibbon's pecuniary difficulties were pressing him +severely. The Coalition promised him a place, and that was enough; the +contempt for all principle which had brought it about was not thought +of. But even this minute excuse does not apply to the way in which, +years after, when he was in comfort at Lausanne, he refers to the +subject in his Memoirs. The light in which the Coalition deserved to +be regarded was clear by that time. Yet he speaks of it, not only +without blame or regret, but contrives to cast suspicion on the +motives of those who were disgusted by it, and bestowed their +allegiance elsewhere. + + "It is not the purpose of this narrative to expatiate on the + public or secret history of the times: the schism which + followed the death of the Marquis of Rockingham, the + appointment of the Earl of Shelbourne, the resignation of + Mr. Fox and his famous coalition with Lord North. But I may + assert with some degree of assurance that in their political + conflict those great antagonists had never felt any personal + animosity to each other, that their reconciliation was easy + and sincere, and that their friendship has never been + clouded by the shadow of suspicion or jealousy. The _most + violent_ or _venal_ of their respective followers embraced + this fair occasion of revolt, but their alliance still + commanded a majority of the House of Commons, the peace was + censured, Lord Shelbourne resigned, and the two friends + knelt on the same cushion to take the oath of secretary of + state. From a principle of gratitude I adhered to the + Coalition; my vote was counted in the day of battle, but I + was overlooked in the division of the spoil." + +From this we learn that it was only the _violent_ and the _venal_ who +disapproved of the Coalition. One would like to know how Gibbon +explained the fact that at the general election of 1784 no less than +one hundred and sixty of the supporters of the Coalition lost their +seats, and that Fox's political reputation was all but irretrievably +ruined from this time forward. + +Meanwhile, he had not neglected, his own proper work. The first volume +of his history was published in February, 1776. It derived, he says, +"more credit from the name of the shop than from that of the author." +In the first instance he intended to print only five hundred copies, +but the number was doubled by the "prophetic taste" of his printer, +Mr. Strahan. The book was received with a burst of applause--it was a +_succes fou_. The first impression was exhausted in a few days, and a +second and third edition were scarcely adequate to the demand. The +wiser few were as warm in their eulogies as the general public. Hume +declared that if he had not been personally acquainted with the +author, he should have been surprised by such a performance coming +from any Englishman in that age. Dr. Robertson, Adam Ferguson, and +Horace Walpole joined in the chorus. Walpole betrays an amusing +mixture of admiration and pique at not having found the author out +before. "I know him a little, and never suspected the extent of his +talents; for he is perfectly modest, or I want penetration, which I +know too; but I intend to know him a great deal more." He oddly enough +says that Gibbon was the "son of a foolish alderman," which shows at +least how little the author was known in the great world up to this +time. Now, however, society was determined to know more of him, the +surest proof, not of merit, but of success. It must have been a rather +intoxicating moment, but Gibbon had a cool head not easily turned. It +would be unfair not to add that he had something much better, a really +warm and affectionate regard for old friends, the best preservative +against the fumes of flattery and sudden fame. Holroyd, Deyverdun, +Madame Necker were more to him than all the great people with whom he +now became acquainted. Necker and his wife came over from Paris and +paid him a long visit in Bentinck Street, when his laurels were just +fresh. "I live with her" he writes, "just as I used to do twenty years +ago, laugh at her Paris varnish, and oblige her to become a simple +reasonable Suissesse. The man, who might read English husbands lessons +of proper and dutiful behaviour, is a sensible, good-natured +creature." The next year he returned the visit to Paris. His fame had +preceded him, and he received the cordial but discriminating welcome +which _the ancien regime_ at that time specially reserved for _gens +d'esprit_. Madame du Deffand writes to Walpole, "Mr. Gibbon has the +greatest success here; it is quite a struggle to get him." He did not +deny himself a rather sumptuous style of living while in Paris. +Perhaps the recollection of the unpleasant effect of his English +clothes and the long waists of the French on his former visit dwelt in +his mind, for now, like Walpole, he procured a new outfit at once. +"After decking myself out with silks and silver, the ordinary +establishment of coach, lodgings, servants, eating, and pocket +expenses, does not exceed 60_l._ per month. Yet I have two footmen in +handsome liveries behind my coach, and my apartment is hung with +damask." + +The remainder of his life in London has nothing important. He +persevered assiduously with his history, and had two more quartos +ready in 1781. They were received with less enthusiasm than the first, +although they were really superior. Gibbon was rather too modestly +inclined to agree with the public and "to believe that, especially in +the beginning, they were more prolix and less entertaining" than the +previous volume. He also wasted some weeks on his vindication of the +fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of that volume, which had excited a +host of feeble and ill-mannered attacks. His defence was complete, and +in excellent temper. But the piece has no permanent value. His +assailants were so ignorant and silly that they gave no scope for a +great controversial reply. Neither perhaps did the subject admit of +it. A literary war generally makes people think of Bentley's +incomparable _Phalaris_. But that was almost a unique occasion and +victory in the history of letters. Bentley himself, the most +pugnacious of men, never found such another. + +And so the time glided by, till we come to the year 1783. Lord North +had resigned office, the Board of Trade was abolished, and Gibbon had +lost his convenient salary. The outlook was not pleasant. The seat on +the Board of Customs or Excise with which his hopes had been for a +time kept up, receded into a remote distance, and he came to the +conclusion "that the reign of pensions and sinecures was at an end." +It was clearly necessary to take some important step in the way of +retrenchment. After he had lost his official income, his expenses +exceeded his revenue by something like four hundred pounds. A less +expensive style of living in London never seems to have presented +itself as an alternative. So, like many an Englishman before and +since, he resolved to go abroad to economise. + +His old friend Deyverdun was now settled in a comfortable house at +Lausanne, overlooking the Lake of Geneva. They had not met for eight +years. But the friendship had begun a quarter of a century before, in +the old days when Gibbon was a boarder in Pavillard's house, and the +embers of old associations only wanted stirring to make them shoot up +into flame. In a moment of expansion Gibbon wrote off a warm and eager +letter to his friend, setting forth his unsatisfactory position, and +his wish and even necessity to change it. He gradually and with much +delicacy discloses his plan, that he and Deyverdun, both now old +bachelors, should combine their solitary lives in a common household +and carry out an old project, often discussed in younger days, of +living together. "You live in a charming house. I see from here my +apartment, the rooms we shall share with one another, our table, our +walks. But such a marriage is worthless unless it suits both parties, +and I easily feel that circumstances, new tastes, and connections may +frustrate a design which appeared charming in the distance. To settle +my mind and to avoid regrets, you must be as frank as I have been, and +give me a true picture, external and internal, of George Deyverdun." + +This letter, written in fluent and perfect French, is one of the best +that we have of Gibbon. Deyverdun answered promptly, and met his +friend's advances with at least equal warmth. The few letters that +have been preserved of his connected with this subject give a highly +favourable idea of his mind and character, and show he was quite +worthy of the long and constant attachment that Gibbon felt for him. +He cannot express the delight he has felt at his friend's proposal; by +the rarest piece of good fortune, it so happens that he himself is in +a somewhat similar position of uncertainty and difficulty; a year ago +Gibbon's letter would have given him pleasure, now it offers +assistance and support. After a few details concerning the tenant who +occupies a portion of his house, he proceeds to urge Gibbon to carry +out the project he had suggested, to break loose from parliament and +politics, for which he was not fit, and to give himself up to the +charms of study and friendship. "Call to mind, my dear friend," he +goes on, "that I saw you enter parliament with regret, and I think I +was only too good a prophet. I am sure that career has caused you more +privations than joys, more pains than pleasures. Ever since I have +known you I have been convinced that your happiness lay in your study +and in society, and that any path which led you elsewhere was a +departure from happiness." Through nine pages of gentle and friendly +eloquence Deyverdun pursues his argument to induce his friend to +clinch the bargain. "I advise you not only not to solicit a place, but +to refuse one if it were offered to you. Would a thousand a year make +up to you for the loss of five days a week?... By making this retreat +to Switzerland, besides the beauty of the country and the pleasures of +its society, you will acquire two blessings which you have lost, +liberty and competence. You will also be useful, your works will +continue to enlighten us, and, independently of your talents, the man +of honour and refinement is never useless." He then skilfully exhibits +the attractions he has to offer. "You used to like my house and +garden; what would you do now? On the first floor, which looks on the +declivity of Ouchy, I have fitted up an apartment which is enough for +me. I have a servant's room, two _salons_, two cabinets. On a level +with the terrace two other _salons_, of which one serves as a +dining-room in summer, and the other a drawing-room for company. I +have arranged three more rooms between the house and the coachhouse, +so that I can offer you all the large apartment, which consists +actually of eleven rooms, great and small, looking east and south, not +splendidly furnished, I allow, but with a certain elegance which I +hope you will like. The terrace is but little altered ... it is lined +from end to end with boxes of orange-trees. The vine-trellis has +prospered, and extends nearly to the end. I have purchased the +vineyard below the garden, and in front of the house made it into a +lawn, which is watered by the water of the fountain.... In a word, +strangers come to see the place, and in spite of my pompous +description of it I think you will like it.... If you come, you will +find a tranquillity which you cannot have in London, and a friend who +has not passed a single day without thinking of you, and who, in spite +of his defects, his foibles, and his inferiority, is still one of the +companions who suits you best." + +More letters followed from both sides in a similar strain. Yet Gibbon +quailed before a final resolution. His aunt, Mrs. Porten, his mother, +Mrs. Gibbon, his friend, Lord Sheffield, all joined in deprecating his +voluntary exile. "That is a nonsensical scheme," said the latter, "you +have got into your head of returning to Lausanne--a pretty fancy; you +remember how much you liked it in your youth, but now you have seen +more of the world, and if you were to try it again you would find +yourself woefully disappointed." Deyverdun, with complete sympathy, +begged him not to be in too great a hurry to decide on a course which +he himself desired so much. "I agree with you," he wrote to Gibbon, +"that this is a sort of marriage, but I could never forgive myself if +I saw you dissatisfied in the sequel, and in a position to reproach +me." Gibbon felt it was a case demanding decision of character, and he +came to a determination with a promptitude and energy not usual with +him. He promised Deyverdun in the next letter an ultimatum, stating +whether he meant to _go_ or to _stay_, and a week after he wrote, "I +go." He had prudently refrained from consulting Lord Sheffield during +this critical period, knowing that his certain disapprobation of the +scheme would only complicate matters and render decision more +difficult. Then he wrote, "I have given Deyverdun my word of honour to +be at Lausanne at the beginning of October, and no power of +persuasion can divert me from this _irrevocable_ resolution, which I +am every day proceeding to execute." + +This was no exaggeration. He cancelled the lease of his house in +Bentinck Street, packed the more necessary portion of his books and +shipped them for Rouen, and as his postchaise moved over Westminster +Bridge, "bade a long farewell to the _fumum et opes strepitumque +Romae_." The only real pang he felt in leaving arose from the "silent +grief" of his Aunt Porten, whom he did not hope to see again. Nor did +he. He started on September 15, 1783, slept at Dover, was flattered +with the hope of making Calais harbour by the same tide in "three +hours and a half, as the wind was brisk and fair," but was driven into +Boulogne. He had not a symptom of seasickness. Then he went on by easy +stages through Aire, Bethune, Douay, Cambray, St. Quentin, La Fere, +Laon, Rheims, Chalons, St. Dizier, Langres, Besancon, and arrived at +Lausanne on the 27th. The inns he found more agreeable to the palate +than to the sight or the smell. At Langres he had an excellent bed +about six feet high from the ground. He beguiled the time with Homer +and Clarendon, talking with his servant, Caplin, and his dog Muff, and +sometimes with the French postilions, and he found them the least +rational of the animals mentioned. + +He reached his journey's end, to alight amid a number of minor +troubles, which to a less easy tempered man would have been real +annoyances. He found that Deyverdun had reckoned without his host, or +rather his tenant, and that they could not have possession of the +house for several months, so he had to take lodgings. Then he sprained +his ankle, and this brought on a bad attack of the gout, which laid +him up completely. However, his spirits never gave way. In time his +books arrived, and the friends got installed in their own house. His +satisfaction has then no bounds, with the people, the place, the way +of living, and his daily companion. We must now leave him for a short +space in the enjoyment of his happiness, while we briefly consider the +labours of the previous ten years. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE FIRST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL. + + +The historian who is also an artist is exposed to a particular +drawback from which his brethren in other fields are exempt. The mere +lapse of time destroys the value and even the fidelity of his +pictures. In other arts correct colouring and outline remain correct, +and if they are combined with imaginative power, age rather enhances +than diminishes their worth. But the historian lives under another +law. His reproduction of a past age, however full and true it may +appear to his contemporaries, appears less and less true to his +successors. The way in which he saw things ceases to be satisfactory; +we may admit his accuracy, but we add a qualification referring to the +time when he wrote, the point of view that he occupied. And we feel +that what was accurate for him is no longer accurate for us. This +superannuation of historical work is not similar to the superseding of +scientific work which is ever going on, and is the capital test of +progress. Scientific books become rapidly old-fashioned, because the +science to which they refer is in constant growth, and a work on +chemistry or biology is out of date by reason of incompleteness or +the discovery of unsuspected errors. The scientific side of history, +if we allow it to have a scientific side, conforms to this rule, and +presents no singularity. Closer inspection of our materials, the +employment of the comparative method, occasionally the bringing to +light of new authorities--all contribute to an increase of real +knowledge, and historical studies in this respect do not differ from +other branches of research. But this is not the sole or the chief +cause of the renovation and transformation constantly needed in +historic work. That depends on the ever-moving standpoint from which +the past is regarded, so that society in looking back on its previous +history never sees it for long together at quite the same angle, never +sees, we may say, quite the same thing. The past changes to us as we +move down the stream of time, as a distant mountain changes through +the windings of the road on which we travel away from it. To drop +figure and use language now becoming familiar, the social organism is +in constant growth, and receiving new additions, and each new addition +causes us to modify our view of the whole. The historian, in fact, is +engaged in the study of an unfinished organism, whose development is +constantly presenting him with surprises. It is as if the biologist +were suddenly to come upon new and unheard-of species and families +which would upset his old classification, or as if the chemist were to +find his laws of combination replaced by others which were not only +unknown to him, but which were really new and recent in the world. +Other inquirers have the whole of the phenomena with which their +science is concerned before them, and they may explore them at their +leisure. The sociologist has only an instalment, most likely a very +small instalment, of the phenomena with which his science is +concerned before him. They have not yet happened, are not yet +phenomena, and as they do happen and admit of investigation they +necessarily lead to constant modification of his views and deductions. +Not only does he acquire new knowledge like other inquirers, but he is +constantly having the subject-matter from which he derives his +knowledge augmented. Even in modern times society has thrown out with +much suddenness rapid and unexpected developments, of such scope and +volume that contemporaries have often lost self-possession at the +sight of them, and wondered if social order could survive. The +Reformation and the French Revolution are cases in point. And what a +principal part do these two great events always play in any +speculations instituted subsequent to them! How easy it is to see +whether a writer lived before the Reign of Terror, or after it, from +his gait and manner of approaching social inquiries! Is there any +reason to suppose that such mutations are now at an end? None. The +probability, well nigh a certainty, is that metamorphoses of the +social organism are in store for us which will equal, if they do not +vastly exceed, anything that the past has offered. + +Considerations of this kind need to be kept in view if we would be +just in our appreciation of historical writings which have already a +certain age. It is impossible that a history composed a century ago +should fully satisfy us now; but we must beware of blaming the writer +for his supposed or real shortcomings, till we have ascertained how +far they arose from his personal inadequacy to his task, and were not +the result of his chronological position. It need not be said that +this remark does not refer to many books which are called histories, +but are really contemporary memoirs and original authorities +subservient to history proper. The works of Clarendon and Burnet, for +instance, can never lose a certain value on this account. The immortal +book which all subsequent generations have agreed to call a possession +for ever, is the unapproachable ideal of this class. But neither +Thucydides nor Clarendon were historians in the sense in which Gibbon +was an historian, that is, engaged in the delineation of a remote +epoch by the help of such materials as have escaped the ravages of +time. It is historians like Gibbon who are exposed to the particular +unhappiness referred to a little way back--that of growing out of date +through no fault of their own, but through the changed aspect +presented by the past in consequence of the movement which has brought +us to the present. But if this is the field of historical disaster, it +is also the opportunity of historical genius. In proportion as a +writer transcends the special limitations of his time, will "age fail +to wither him." That he cannot entirely shake off the fetters which +fasten him to his epoch is manifest. But in proportion as his vision +is clear, in proportion as he has with singleness of eye striven to +draw the past with reverent loyalty, will his bondage to his own time +be loosened, and his work will remain faithful work for which due +gratitude will not be withheld. + +The sudden and rapid expansion of historic studies in the middle of +the eighteenth century constitutes one of the great epochs in +literature. Up to the year 1750 no great historical work had appeared +in any modern language.[11] The instances that seem to make against +this remark will be found to confirm it. They consist of memoirs, +contemporary documents, in short materials for history, but not +history itself. From Froissart and De Comines, or even from the +earlier monastic writers to St. Simon (who was just finishing his +incomparable Memoirs), history with wide outlook and the conception of +social progress and interconnection of events did not exist. Yet +history in its simple forms is one of the most spontaneous of human +achievements. Stories of mighty deeds, of the prowess and death of +heroes, are among the earliest productions of even semi-civilised +man--the earliest subjects of epic and lyric verse. But this +rudimentary form is never more than biographical. With increasing +complexity of social evolution it dies away, and history proper, as +distinct from annals and chronicle, does not arise till circumstances +allow of general and synthetic views, till societies can be surveyed +from a sufficient distance and elevation for their movements to be +discerned. Thucydides, Livy, and Tacitus do not appear till Greece and +Home have reached their highest point of homogeneous national life. +The tardy dawn of history in the modern world was owing to its immense +complexity. Materials also were wanting. They gradually emerged out of +manuscript all over Europe, during what may be called the great pedant +age (1550-1650), under the direction of meritorious antiquaries, +Camden, Savile, Duchesne, Gale, and others. Still official documents +and state papers were wanting, and had they been at hand would hardly +have been used with competence. The national and religious +limitations were still too marked and hostile to permit a free survey +over the historic field. The eighteenth century, though it opened with +a bloody war, was essentially peaceful in spirit: governments made +war, but men and nations longed for rest. The increased interest in +the past was shown by the publication nearly contemporary of the great +historic collections of Rymer (A.D. 1704), Leibnitz (1707), and +Muratori (1723). Before the middle of the century the historic muse +had abundant oil to feed her lamp. Still the lamp would probably not +have been lighted but for the singular pass to which French thought +had come. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 11: Mezeray's great history of France is next to valueless +till he reaches the sixteenth century, that was a period bordering on +his own. Thuanus deals with contemporary events.] + +From the latter years of Louis XIV. till the third quarter of the +eighteenth century was all but closed, France had a government at once +so weak and wicked, so much below the culture of the people it +oppressed, that the better minds of the nation turned away in disgust +from their domestic ignominy, and sought consolation in contemplating +foreign virtue wherever they thought it was to be found; in short, +they became cosmopolitan. The country which has since been the +birthplace of Chauvinism, put away national pride almost with passion. +But this was not all. The country whose king was called the Eldest Son +of the Church, and with which untold pains had been taken to keep it +orthodox, had lapsed into such an abhorrence of the Church and of +orthodoxy that anything seemed preferable to them in its eyes. + +Thus, as if by enchantment, the old barriers disappeared, both +national and religious. Man and his fortunes, in all climes and all +ages, became topics of intense interest, especially when they tended +to degrade by contrast the detested condition of things at home. This +was the weak side of historical speculation in France: it was +essentially polemical; prompted less by genuine interest in the past +than by strong hatred of the present. Of this perturbation note must +be taken. But it is none the less true that the disengagement of +French thought from the narrow limits of nation and creed produced, as +it were in a moment, a lofty conception of history such as subsequent +ages may equal, but can hardly surpass. + +The influence of French thought was European, and nowhere more +beneficial than in England. In other countries it was too despotic, +and produced in Germany, at least, Lessing's memorable reaction. But +the robust national and political life of England reduced it to a +welcome flavouring of our insular temperament. The Scotch, who had a +traditional connection with France, were the first importers of the +new views. Hume, who had practically grown in the same soil as +Voltaire, was only three years behind him in the historic field. The +_Age of Louis XIV._ was published in 1751, and the first volume of the +_History of England_ in 1754. Hume was no disciple of Voltaire; he +simply wrote under the stimulus of the same order of ideas. Robertson, +who shortly followed him, no doubt drew direct inspiration from +Voltaire, and his weightiest achievement, the View of the State of +Europe, prefixed to his _History of Charles V._, was largely +influenced, if it was not absolutely suggested, by the _Essay on +Manners_. But both Hume and Robertson surpassed their masters, if we +allow, as seems right, that the French were their masters. The Scotch +writers had no quarrel with their country or their age as the French +had. One was a Tory, the other a Whig; and Hume allowed himself to be +unworthily affected by party bias in his historical judgment. But +neither was tempted to turn history into a covert attack on the +condition of things amid which they lived. Hence a calmness and +dignity of tone and language, very different from the petulant +brilliancy of Voltaire, who is never so happy as when he can make the +past look mean and ridiculous, merely because it was the parent of the +odious present. But, excellent as were the Scotch historians--Hume, in +style nearly perfect; Robertson, admirable for gravity and shrewd +sense--they yet left much to be desired. Hume had despatched his five +quartos, containing the whole history of England from the Roman period +to the Revolution, in nine years. Considering that the subject was new +to him when he began, such rapidity made genuine research out of the +question. Robertson had the oddest way of consulting his friends as to +what subject it would be advisable for him to treat, and was open to +proposals from any quarter with exemplary impartiality; this only +showed how little the stern conditions of real historic inquiry were +appreciated by him. In fact it is not doing them injustice to say that +these eminent men were a sort of modern Livies, chiefly occupied with +the rhetorical part of their work, and not over inclined to waste +their time in ungrateful digging in the deep mines of historic lore. +Obviously the place was open for a writer who should unite all the +broad spirit of comprehensive survey, with the thorough and minute +patience of a Benedictine; whose subject, mellowed by long brooding, +should have sought him rather than he it; whose whole previous course +of study had been an unconscious preparation for one great effort +which was to fill his life. When Gibbon sat down to write his book, +the man had been found who united these difficult conditions. + +The decline and fall of Rome is the greatest event in history. It +occupied a larger portion of the earth's surface, it affected the +lives and fortunes of a larger number of human beings, than any other +revolution on record. For it was essentially one, though it took +centuries to consummate, and though it had for its theatre the +civilised world. Great evolutions and catastrophes happened before it, +and have happened since, but nothing which can compare with it in +volume and mere physical size. Nor was it less morally. The +destruction of Rome was not only a destruction of an empire, it was +the destruction of a phase of human thought, of a system of human +beliefs, of morals, politics, civilisation, as all these had existed +in the world for ages. The drama is so vast, the cataclysm so +appalling, that even at this day we are hardly removed from it far +enough to take it fully in. The mind is oppressed, the imagination +flags under the load imposed upon it. The capture and sack of a town +one can fairly conceive: the massacre, outrage, the flaming roofs, the +desolation. Even the devastation of a province can be approximately +reproduced in thought. But what thought can embrace the devastation +and destruction of all the civilised portions of Europe, Africa, and +Asia? Who can realise a Thirty Years War lasting five hundred years? a +devastation of the Palatinate extending through fifteen generations? +If we try to insert into the picture, as we undoubtedly should do, the +founding of the new, which was going on beside this destruction of the +old, the settling down of the barbarian hosts in the conquered +provinces, the expansion of the victorious Church, driving paganism +from the towns to the country and at last extinguishing it entirely, +the effort becomes more difficult than ever. The legend of the Seven +Sleepers testifies to the need men felt, even before the tragedy had +come to an end, to symbolize in a manageable form the tremendous +changes they saw going on around them. But the legend only refers to +the changes in religion. The fall of Rome was much more than that. It +was the death of the old pagan world and the birth of the new +Christian world--the greatest transition in history. + +This, and no less than this, is Gibbon's subject. + +He has treated it in such a way as even now fills competent judges +with something like astonishment. His accuracy, coupled with the +extraordinary range of his matter, the variety of his topics, the +complexity of his undertaking, the fulness and thoroughness of his +knowledge, never failing at any point over the vast field, the ease +and mastery with which he lifts the enormous load, are appreciated in +proportion to the information and abilities of his critic. One +testimonial will suffice. Mr. Freeman says: "That Gibbon should ever +be displaced seems impossible. That wonderful man monopolised, so to +speak, the historical genius and the historical learning of a whole +generation, and left little, indeed, of either for his contemporaries. +He remains the one historian of the eighteenth century whom modern +research has neither set aside nor threatened to set aside. We may +correct and improve from the stores which have been opened since +Gibbon's time; we may write again large parts of his story from other +and often truer and more wholesome points of view, but the work of +Gibbon as a whole, as the encyclopaedic history of 1300 years, as the +grandest of historical designs, carried out alike with wonderful power +and with wonderful accuracy, must ever keep its place. Whatever else +is read, Gibbon must be read too." + +Gibbon's immense scheme did not unfold itself to him at once: he +passed through at least two distinct stages in the conception of his +work. The original idea had been confined to the decline and fall of +the city of Rome. Before he began to write, this had been expanded to +the fall of the empire of the West. The first volume, which we saw him +publish in the last chapter, was only an instalment, limited to the +accession of Constantine, through a doubt as to how his labours would +be received. The two following volumes, published in 1781, completed +his primitive plan. Then he paused exactly a year before he resolved +to carry on his work to its true end, the taking of Constantinople by +the Turks in 1453. The latter portion he achieved in three volumes +more, which he gave to the world on his fifty-first birthday, in 1788. +Thus the work naturally falls into two equal parts. It will be more +convenient to disregard in our remarks the interval of five years +which separated the publication of the first volume from its two +immediate companions. The first three volumes constitute a whole in +themselves, which we will now consider. + +From the accession of Commodus, A.D. 180, to the last of the Western +Caesars, A.D. 476, three centuries elapsed. The first date is a real +point of departure, the commencement of a new stage of decay in the +empire. The second is a mere official record of the final +disappearance of a series of phantom sovereigns, whose vanishing was +hardly noticed. Between these limits the empire passed from the +autumnal calm of the Antonine period, through the dreadful century of +anarchy between Pertinax and Diocletian, through the relative peace +brought about by Diocletian's reforms, the civil wars of the sons of +Constantine, the disastrous defeat of Julian, the calamities of the +Gothic war, the short respite under Theodosius, the growing anarchy +and misery under his incompetent sons, the three sieges of Rome and +its sack by the Goths, the awful appearance of Attila and his Huns, +the final submergence of the Western Empire under the barbarians, and +the universal ruin which marked the close of the fifth century. This +was the temporal side of affairs. On the spiritual, we have the silent +occult growth of the early Church, the conversion of Constantine, the +tremendous conflict of hostile sects, the heresy of Arius, the final +triumph of Athanasius, the spread of monasticism, the extinction of +paganism. Antiquity has ended, the middle ages have begun. + +Over all this immense field Gibbon moves with a striking attitude of +power, which arose from his consciousness of complete preparation. +What there was to be known of his subject he felt sure that he knew. +His method of treatment is very simple, one might say primitive, but +it is very effective. He masters his materials, and then condenses and +clarifies them into a broad, well-filled narrative, which is always or +nearly always perfectly lucid through his skill in grouping events and +characters, and his fine boldness in neglecting chronological sequence +for the sake of clearness and unity of action. It is doing the book +injustice to consult it only as a work of reference, or even to read +it in detached portions. It should be read through, if we would +appreciate the art with which the story is told. No part can be +fairly judged without regard to the remainder. In fact, Gibbon was +much more an artist than perhaps be suspected, and less of a +philosophic thinker on history than he would have been willing to +allow. His shortcomings in this latter respect will be adverted to +presently; we are now considering his merits. And among these the very +high one of lofty and vigorous narrative stands pre-eminent. The +campaigns of Julian, Belisarius, and Heraclius are painted with a dash +and clearness which few civil historians have equalled. His +descriptive power is also very great. The picture of Constantinople in +the seventeenth chapter is, as the writer of these pages can testify, +a wonderful achievement, both for fidelity and brilliancy, coming from +a man who had never seen the place. + + "If we survey Byzantium in the extent which it acquired with + the august name of Constantinople, the figure of the + imperial city may be represented under that of an unequal + triangle. The obtuse point, which advances towards the east + and the shores of Asia, meets and repels the waves of the + Thracian Bosphorus. The northern side of the city is bounded + by the harbour; and the southern is washed by the Propontis, + or Sea of Marmora. The basis of the triangle is opposed to + the west, and terminates the continent of Europe. But the + admirable form and division of the circumjacent land and + water cannot, without a more ample explanation, be clearly + or sufficiently understood. + + "The winding channel through which the waters of the Euxine + flow with rapid and incessant course towards the + Mediterranean received the appellation of Bosphorus, a name + not less celebrated in the history than in the fables of + antiquity. A crowd of temples and of votive altars, + profusely scattered along its steep and woody banks, + attested the unskilfulness, the terrors, and the devotion of + the Grecian navigators, who, after the example of the + Argonauts, explored the dangers of the inhospitable Euxine. + On these banks tradition long preserved the memory of the + palace of Phineus, infested by the obscene Harpies, and of + the sylvan reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to + the combat of the cestus. The straits of the Bosphorus are + terminated by the Cyanean rocks, which, according to the + description of the poets, had once floated on the surface of + the waters, and were destined by the gods to protect the + entrance of the Euxine against the eye of profane curiosity. + From the Cyanean rocks to the point and harbour of Byzantium + the winding length of the Bosphorus extends about sixteen + miles, and its most ordinary breadth may be computed at + about one mile and a half. The _new_ castles of Europe and + Asia are constructed on either continent upon the + foundations of two celebrated temples of Serapis and Jupiter + Urius. The _old_ castles, a work of the Greek emperors, + command the narrowest part of the channel, in a place where + the opposite banks advance within five hundred yards of each + other. These fortresses were destroyed and strengthened by + Mahomet the Second when he meditated the siege of + Constantinople; but the Turkish conqueror was most probably + ignorant that near two thousand years before his reign + Darius had chosen the same situation to connect the two + continents by a bridge of boats. At a small distance from + the old castles we discover the little town of Chrysopolis + or Scutari, which may almost be considered as the Asiatic + suburb of Constantinople. The Bosphorus, as it begins to + open into the Propontis, passes between Byzantium and + Chalcedon. The latter of these two cities was built by the + Greeks a few years before the former, and the blindness of + its founders, who overlooked the superior advantages of the + opposite coast, has been stigmatised by a proverbial + expression of contempt. + + "The harbour of Constantinople, which may be considered as + an arm of the Bosphorus, obtained in a very remote period, + the denomination of the _Golden Horn_. The curve which it + describes might be compared to the horn of a stag, or as it + should seem with more propriety, to that of an ox. The + epithet of _golden_ was expressive of the riches which every + wind wafted from the most distant countries into the secure + and capacious port of Constantinople. The river Lycus, + formed by the conflux of two little streams, pours into the + harbour a perpetual supply of fresh water, which serves to + cleanse the bottom and to invite the periodical shoals of + fish to seek their retreat in that convenient recess. As the + vicissitudes of the tides are scarcely felt in those seas, + the constant depth of the harbour allows goods to be landed + on the quays without the assistance of boats, and it has + been observed that in many places the largest vessels may + rest their prows against the houses while their sterns are + floating in the water. From the mouth of the Lycus to that + of the harbour, this arm of the Bosphorus is more than seven + miles in length. The entrance is about five hundred yards + broad, and a strong chain could be occasionally drawn across + it, to guard the port and the city from the attack of an + hostile navy. + + "Between the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, the shores of + Europe and Asia receding on either side include the Sea of + Marmora, which was known to the ancients by the denomination + of the Propontis. The navigation from the issue of the + Bosphorus to the entrance of the Hellespont is about one + hundred and twenty miles. Those who steer their westward + course through the middle of the Propontis may at once + descry the highlands of Thrace and Bithynia and never lose + sight of the lofty summit of Mount Olympus, covered with + eternal snows. They leave on the left a deep gulf, at the + bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the imperial residence + of Diocletian, and they pass the small islands of Cyzicus + and Proconnesus before they cast anchor at Gallipoli, where + the sea which separates Asia from Europe is again contracted + to a narrow channel. + + "The geographers, who with the most skilful accuracy have + surveyed the form and extent of the Hellespont, assign about + sixty miles for the winding course and about three miles for + the ordinary breadth of those celebrated straits. But the + narrowest part of the channel is found to the northward of + the old Turkish castles between the cities of Sestos and + Abydos. It was here that the adventurous Leander braved the + passage of the flood for the possession of his mistress. It + was here, likewise, in a place where the distance between + the opposite banks cannot exceed five hundred paces, that + Xerxes imposed a stupendous bridge of boats for the purpose + of transporting into Europe an hundred and seventy myriads + of barbarians. A sea contracted within such narrow limits + may seem but ill to deserve the singular epithet of _broad_, + which Homer, as well as Orpheus, has frequently bestowed on + the Hellespont. But our ideas of greatness are of a relative + nature; the traveller, and especially the poet, who sailed + along the Hellespont, who pursued the windings of the stream + and contemplated the rural scenery which appeared on every + side to terminate the prospect, insensibly lost the + remembrance of the sea, and his fancy painted those + celebrated straits with all the attributes of a mighty river + flowing with a swift current in the midst of a woody and + inland country, and at length through a wide mouth + discharging itself into the AEgean or Archipelago. Ancient + Troy, seated on an eminence at the foot of Mount Ida, + overlooked the mouth of the Hellespont, which scarcely + received an accession of waters from the tribute of those + immortal rivulets the Simois and Scamander. The Grecian camp + had stretched twelve miles along the shore from the Sigaean + to the Rhaetian promontory, and the flanks of the army were + guarded by the bravest chiefs who fought under the banners + of Agamemnon. The first of these promontories was occupied + by Achilles with his invincible Myrmidons, and the dauntless + Ajax pitched his tents on the other. After Ajax had fallen a + sacrifice to his disappointed pride and to the ingratitude + of the Greeks, his sepulchre was erected on the ground where + he had defended the navy against the rage of Jove and + Hector, and the citizens of the rising town of Rhaetium + celebrated his memory with divine honours. Before + Constantine gave a just preference to the situation of + Byzantium he had conceived the design of erecting the seat + of empire on this celebrated spot, from whence the Romans + derived their fabulous origin. The extensive plain which + lies below ancient Troy towards the Rhaetian promontory was + first chosen for his new capital; and though the undertaking + was soon relinquished, the stately remains of unfinished + walls and towers attracted the notice of all who sailed + through the straits of the Hellespont. + + "We are at present qualified to view the advantageous + position of Constantinople; which appears to have been + formed by nature for the centre and capital of a great + monarchy. Situated in the forty-first degree of latitude, + the imperial city commanded from her seven hills the + opposite shores of Europe and Asia; the climate was healthy + and temperate; the soil fertile; the harbour secure and + capacious; and the approach on the side of the continent was + of small extent and easy defence. The Bosphorus and the + Hellespont may be considered as the two gates of + Constantinople, and the prince who possesses those important + passages could always shut them against a naval enemy and + open them to the fleets of commerce. The preservation of the + eastern provinces may in some degree be ascribed to the + policy of Constantine, as the barbarians of the Euxine, who + in the preceding age had poured their armaments into the + heart of the Mediterranean, soon desisted from the exercise + of piracy, and despaired of forcing this insurmountable + barrier. When the gates of the Hellespont and Bosphorus were + shut, the capital still enjoyed within their spacious + inclosure every production which could supply the wants or + gratify the luxury of its numerous inhabitants. The + sea-coasts of Thrace and Bithynia, which languish under the + weight of Turkish oppression, still exhibit a rich prospect + of vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful harvests; and the + Propontis has ever been renowned for an inexhaustible store + of the most exquisite fish that are taken in their stated + seasons without skill and almost without labour. But when + the passages of the straits were thrown open for trade, they + alternately admitted the natural and artificial riches of + the north and south, of the Euxine and the Mediterranean. + Whatever rude commodities were collected in the forests of + Germany and Scythia, and as far as the sources of the Tanais + and Borysthenes; whatsoever was manufactured by the skill of + Europe or Asia, the corn of Egypt, the gems and spices of + the furthest India, were brought by the varying winds into + the port of Constantinople, which for many ages attracted + the commerce of the ancient world. + + "The prospect of beauty, of safety, and of wealth united in + a single spot was sufficient to justify the choice of + Constantine. But as some mixture of prodigy and fable has in + every age been supposed to reflect a becoming majesty on the + origin of great cities, the emperor was desirous of + ascribing his resolution not so much to the uncertain + counsels of human policy as to the eternal and infallible + decrees of divine wisdom. In one of his laws he has been + careful to instruct posterity that in obedience to the + commands of God he laid the everlasting foundations of + Constantinople, and though he has not condescended to relate + in what manner the celestial inspiration was communicated to + his mind, the defect of his modest silence has been + liberally supplied by the ingenuity of succeeding writers, + who describe the nocturnal vision which appeared to the + fancy of Constantine as he slept within the walls of + Byzantium. The tutelar genius of the city, a venerable + matron sinking under the weight of years and infirmities, + was suddenly transformed into a blooming maid, whom his own + hands adorned with all the symbols of imperial greatness. + The monarch awoke, interpreted the auspicious omen, and + obeyed without hesitation the will of Heaven. The day which + gave birth to a city or a colony was celebrated by the + Romans with such ceremonies as had been ordained by a + generous superstition: and though Constantine might omit + some rites which savoured too strongly of their pagan + origin, yet he was anxious to leave a deep impression of + hope and respect on the minds of the spectators. On foot, + with a lance in his hand, the emperor himself led the solemn + procession: and directed the line which was traced as the + boundary of the destined capital: till the growing + circumference was observed with astonishment by the + assistants, who at length ventured to observe that he had + already exceeded the most ample measure of a great city. 'I + shall still advance,' replied Constantine, 'till HE, the + invisible Guide who marches before me, thinks proper to + stop.'" + +Gibbon proceeds to describe the extent, limits, and edifices of +Constantinople. Unfortunately the limits of our space prevent us from +giving more than a portion of his brilliant picture. + + "In the actual state of the city the palace and gardens of + the Seraglio occupy the eastern promontory, the first of the + seven hills, and cover about one hundred and fifty acres of + our own measure. The seat of Turkish jealousy and despotism + is erected on the foundations of a Grecian republic: but it + may be supposed that the Byzantines were tempted by the + conveniency of the harbour to extend their habitations on + that side beyond the modern limits of the Seraglio. The new + walls of Constantine stretched from the port to the + Propontis across the enlarged breadth of the triangle, at + the distance of fifteen stadia from the ancient + fortifications: and with the city of Byzantium they inclosed + five of the seven hills, which to the eyes of those who + approach Constantinople appear to rise above each other in + beautiful order. About a century after the death of the + founder the new buildings, extending on one side up the + harbour, and on the other the Propontis, already covered the + narrow ridge of the sixth and the broad summit of the + seventh hill. The necessity of protecting those suburbs from + the incessant inroads of the barbarians engaged the younger + Theodosius to surround his capital with an adequate and + permanent inclosure of walls. From the eastern promontory to + the Golden Gate, the extreme length of Constantinople was + above three Roman miles; the circumference measured between + ten and eleven; and the surface might be computed as equal + to about two thousand English acres. It is impossible to + justify the vain and credulous exaggerations of modern + travellers, who have sometimes stretched the limits of + Constantinople over the adjacent villages of the European + and even Asiatic coasts. But the suburbs of Pera and Galata, + though situate beyond the harbour, may deserve to be + considered as a part of the city, and this addition may + perhaps authorise the measure of a Byzantine historian, who + assigns sixteen Greek (about sixteen Roman) miles for the + circumference of his native city. Such an extent may seem + not unworthy of an imperial residence. Yet Constantinople + must yield to Babylon and Thebes, to ancient Rome, to + London, and even to Paris.... + + "Some estimate may be formed of the expense bestowed with + imperial liberality on Constantinople, by the allowance of + about two millions five hundred thousand pounds for the + construction of the walls, the porticoes, and the aqueducts. + The forests that overshadowed the shores of the Euxine, and + the celebrated quarries of white marble in the little + island of Proconnesus, supplied an inexhaustible stock of + materials ready to be conveyed by the convenience of a short + water carriage to the harbour of Byzantium. A multitude of + labourers and artificers urged the conclusion of the work + with incessant toil, but the impatience of Constantine soon + discovered that in the decline of the arts the skill as well + as the number of his architects bore a very unequal + proportion to the greatness of his design.... The buildings + of the new city were executed by such artificers as the age + of Constantine could afford, but they were decorated by the + hands of the most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles + and Alexander.... By Constantine's command the cities of + Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable + ornaments. The trophies of memorable wars, the objects of + religious veneration, the most finished statues of the gods + and heroes, of the sages and poets of ancient times, + contributed to the splendid triumph of Constantinople. + + "... The Circus, or Hippodrome, was a stately building of + about four hundred paces in length and one hundred in + breadth. The space between the two _metae_, or goals, was + filled with statues and obelisks, and we may still remark a + very singular fragment of antiquity--the bodies of three + serpents twisted into one pillar of brass. Their triple + heads had once supported the golden tripod which, after the + defeat of Xerxes, was consecrated in the temple of Delphi by + the victorious Greeks. The beauty of the Hippodrome has been + long since defaced by the rude hands of the Turkish + conquerors; but, under the similar appellation of Atmeidan, + it still serves as a place of exercise for their horses. + From the throne whence the emperor viewed the Circensian + games a winding staircase descended to the palace, a + magnificent edifice, which scarcely yielded to the residence + of Rome itself, and which, together with the dependent + courts, gardens, and porticoes, covered a considerable + extent of ground upon the banks of the Propontis between the + Hippodrome and the church of St. Sophia. We might likewise + celebrate the baths, which still retained the name of + Zeuxippus, after they had been enriched by the magnificence + of Constantine with lofty columns, various marbles, and + above three score statues of bronze. But we should deviate + from the design of this history if we attempted minutely to + describe the different buildings or quarters of the city.... + A particular description, composed about a century after its + foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learning, a + circus, two theatres, eight public and one hundred and + fifty-three private baths, fifty-two porticoes, five + granaries, eight aqueducts or reservoirs of water, four + spacious halls for the meeting of the senate or courts of + justice, fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, and four + thousand three hundred and eighty-eight houses, which for + their size or beauty deserved to be distinguished from the + multitude of plebeian habitations." + +Gibbon's conception of history was that of a spacious panorama, in +which a series of tableaux pass in succession before the reader's eye. +He adverts but little, far too little, to that side of events which +does not strike the visual sense. He rarely generalises or sums up a +widely-scattered mass of facts into pregnant synthetic views. But +possibly he owes some of the permanence of his fame to this very +defect. As soon as ever a writer begins to support a thesis, to prove +a point, he runs imminent danger of one-sidedness and partiality in +his presentation of events. Gibbon's faithful transcript of the past +has neither the merit nor the drawback of generalisation, and he has +come in consequence to be regarded as a common mine of authentic facts +to which all speculators can resort. + +The first volume, which was received with such warm acclamation, is +inferior to those that followed. He seems to have been partly aware of +this himself, and speaks of the "concise and superficial narrative +from Commodus to Alexander." But the whole volume lacks the grasp and +easy mastery which distinguish its successors. No doubt the +subject-matter was comparatively meagre and ungrateful. The century +between Commodus and Diocletian was one long spasm of anarchy and +violence, which was, as Niebuhr said, incapable of historical +treatment. The obscure confusion of the age is aggravated into almost +complete darkness by the wretched materials which alone have survived, +and the attempt to found a dignified narrative on such scanty and +imperfect authorities was hardly wise. Gibbon would have shown a +greater sense of historic proportion if he had passed over this period +with a few bold strokes, and summed up with brevity such general +results as may be fairly deduced. We may say of the first volume that +it was tentative in every way. In it the author not only sounded his +public, but he was also trying his instrument, running over the keys +in preparatory search for the right note. He strikes it full and clear +in the two final chapters on the Early Church; these, whatever +objections may be made against them on other grounds, are the real +commencement of the Decline and Fall. + +From this point onwards he marches with the steady and measured tramp +of a Roman legion. His materials improve both in number and quality. +The fourth century, though a period of frightful anarchy and disaster +if compared to a settled epoch, is a period of relative peace and +order when compared to the third century. The fifth was calamitous +beyond example; but ecclesiastical history comes to the support of +secular history in a way which might have excited more gratitude in +Gibbon than it did. From Constantine to Augustulus Gibbon is able to +put forth all his strength. His style is less superfine, as his matter +becomes more copious; and the more definite cleavage of events brought +about by the separation between the Eastern and Western Empires, +enables him to display the higher qualities which marked him as an +historian. + +The merit of his work, it is again necessary to point out, will not be +justly estimated unless the considerations suggested at the beginning +of this chapter be kept in view. We have to remember that his culture +was chiefly French, and that his opinions were those which prevailed +in France in the latter half of the eighteenth century. He was the +friend of Voltaire, Helvetius, and D'Holbach; that is, of men who +regarded the past as one long nightmare of crime, imposture, and +folly, instigated by the selfish machinations of kings and priests. A +strong infusion of the spirit which animated not only Voltaire's +_Essay on Manners_, but certain parts of Hume's _History of England_ +might have been expected as a matter of course. It is essentially +absent. Gibbon's private opinions may have been what they will, but he +has approved his high title to the character of an historian by +keeping them well in abeyance. When he turned his eyes to the past and +viewed it with intense gaze, he was absorbed in the spectacle, his +peculiar prejudices were hushed, he thought only of the object before +him and of reproducing it as well as he could. This is not the common +opinion, but, nevertheless, a great deal can be said to support it. + +It will be as well to take two concrete tests--his treatment of two +topics which of all others were most likely to betray him into +deviations from historic candour. If he stands these, he may be +admitted to stand any less severe. Let them be his account of Julian, +and his method of dealing with Christianity. + +The snare that was spread by Julian's apostasy for the philosophers of +the last century, and their haste to fall into it, are well known. +The spectacle of a philosopher on the throne who proclaimed +toleration, and contempt for Christianity, was too tempting and too +useful controversially to allow of much circumspection in handling it. +The odious comparisons it offered were so exactly what was wanted for +depreciating the Most Christian king and his courtly Church, that all +further inquiry into the apostate's merits seemed useless. Voltaire +finds that Julian had all the qualities of Trajan without his defects; +all the virtues of Cato without his ill-humour; all that one admires +in Julius Caesar without his vices; he had the continency of Scipio, +and was in all ways equal to Marcus Aurelius, the first of men. Nay, +more. If he had only lived longer, he would have retarded the fall of +the Roman Empire, if he could not arrest it entirely. We here see the +length to which "polemical fury" could hurry a man of rare insight. +Julian had been a subject of contention for years between the hostile +factions. While one party made it a point of honour to prove that he +was a monster, warring consciously against the Most High, the other +was equally determined to prove that he was a paragon of all virtue, +by reason of his enmity to the Christian religion. The deep interest +attaching to the pagan reaction in the fourth century, and the social +and moral problems it suggests, were perceived by neither side, and it +is not difficult to see why they were not. The very word reaction, in +its modern sense, will hardly be found in the eighteenth century, and +the thing that it expresses was very imperfectly conceived. We, who +have been surrounded by reactions, real or supposed, in politics, in +religion, in philosophy, recognise an old acquaintance in the efforts +of the limited, intense Julian to stem the tide of progress as +represented in the Christian Church. It is a fine instance of the way +in which the ever-unfolding present is constantly lighting up the +past. Julian and his party were the Ultramontanes of their day in +matters of religion, and the Romantics in matters of literature. Those +radical innovators and reformers, the Christians, were marching from +conquest to conquest, over the old faith, making no concealment of +their revolutionary aims and intentions to wipe out the past as +speedily as possible. The conservatives of those times, after long +despising the reformers, passed easily to fearing them and hating them +as their success became threatening. "The attachment to paganism," +says Neander, "lingered especially in many of the ancient and noble +families of Greece and Rome." Old families, or new rich ones who +wished to be thought old, would be sure to take up the cause of +ancestral wisdom as against modern innovation. Before Julian came to +the throne, a pagan reaction was imminent, as Neander points out. +Julian himself was a remarkable man, as men of his class usually are. +In the breaking up of old modes of belief, as Mill has said, "the most +strong-minded and discerning, next to those who head the movement, are +generally those who bring up the rear." The energy of his mind and +character was quite exceptional, and if we reflect that he only +reigned sixteen months, and died in his thirty-second year, we must +admit that the mark he has left in history is very surprising. He and +his policy are now discussed with entire calm by inquirers of all +schools, and sincere Christians like Neander and Dean Milman are as +little disposed to attack him with acrimony, as those of a different +way of thought are inclined to make him a subject of unlimited +panegyric. + +Through this difficult subject Gibbon has found his way with a +prudence and true insight which extorted admiration, even in his own +day. His account of Julian is essentially a modern account. The +influence of his private opinions can hardly be traced in the +brilliant chapters that he has devoted to the Apostate. He sees +through Julian's weaknesses in a way in which Voltaire never saw or +cared to see. His pitiful superstition, his huge vanity, his weak +affectation are brought out with an incisive clearness and subtle +penetration into character which Gibbon was not always so ready to +display. At the same time he does full justice to Julian's real +merits. And this is perhaps the most striking evidence of his +penetration. An error on the side of injustice to Julian is very +natural in a man who, having renounced allegiance to Christianity, yet +fully realises the futility of attempting to arrest it in the fourth +century. A certain intellectual disdain for the reactionary emperor is +difficult to avoid. Gibbon surmounts it completely, and he does so, +not in consequence of a general conception of the reactionary spirit, +as a constantly emerging element in society, but by sheer historical +insight, clear vision of the fact before him. It may be added that +nowhere is Gibbon's command of vivid narrative seen to greater +advantage than in the chapters that he has devoted to Julian. The +daring march from Gaul to Illyricum is told with immense spirit; but +the account of Julian's final campaign and death in Persia is still +better, and can hardly be surpassed. It has every merit of clearness +and rapidity, yet is full of dignity, which culminates in this fine +passage referring to the night before the emperor received his mortal +wound. + + "While Julian struggled with the almost insuperable + difficulties of his situation, the silent hours of the night + were still devoted to study and contemplation. Whenever he + closed his eyes in short and interrupted slumbers, his mind + was agitated by painful anxiety; nor can it be thought + surprising that the Genius of the empire should once more + appear before him, covering with a funereal veil his head + and his horn of abundance, and slowly retiring from the + Imperial tent. The monarch started from his couch, and, + stepping forth to refresh his wearied spirits with the + coolness of the midnight air, he beheld a fiery meteor, + which shot athwart the sky and suddenly vanished. Julian was + convinced that he had seen the menacing countenance of the + god of war: the council which he summoned, of Tuscan + Haruspices, unanimously pronounced that he should abstain + from action; but on this occasion necessity and reason were + more prevalent than superstition, and the trumpets sounded + at the break of day."[12] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 12: It is interesting to compare Gibbon's admirable picture +with the harsh original Latin of his authority, Ammianus Marcellinus. +"Ipse autem ad sollicitam suspensamque quietem paullisper protractus, +cum somno (ut solebat) depulso, ad aemulationem Caesaris Julii quaedam +sub pellibus scribens, obscuro noctis altitudine sensus cujusdam +philosophi teneretur, vidit squalidius, ut confessus est proximis, +speciem illam Genii publici, quam quum ad Augustum surgeret culmen, +conspexit in Galliis, velata cum capite cornucopia per aulaea tristius +discedentem. Et quamquam ad momentum haesit, stupore defixus, omni +tamen superior metu, ventura decretis caelestibus commendabat; relicto +humi strato cubili, adulta jam excitus nocte, et numinibus per sacra +depulsoria supplicans, flagrantissimam facem cadenti similem visam, +aeris parte sulcata evanuisse existimavit: horroreque perfusus est, ne +ita aperte minax Martis adparuerit sidus."--_Amm. Marc._ lib. xxv. +cap. 2.] + +It will not be so easy to absolve Gibbon from the charge of prejudice +in reference to his treatment of the Early Church. It cannot be denied +that in the two famous chapters, at least, which concluded his first +volume, he adopted a tone which must be pronounced offensive, not only +from the Christian point of view, but on the broad ground of +historical equity. His preconceived opinions were too strong for him +on this occasion, and obstructed his generally clear vision. Yet a +distinction must be made. The offensive tone in question is confined +to these two chapters. We need not think that it was in consequence of +the clamour they raised that he adopted a different style with +reference to church matters in his subsequent volumes. A more +creditable explanation of his different tone, which will be presently +suggested, is at least as probable. In any case, these two chapters +remain the chief slur on his historical impartiality, and it is worth +while to examine what his offence amounts to. + +Gibbon's account of the early Christians is vitiated by his narrow and +distorted conception of the emotional side of man's nature. Having no +spiritual aspirations himself, he could not appreciate or understand +them in others. Those emotions which have for their object the unseen +world and its centre, God, had no meaning for him; and he was tempted +to explain them away when he came across them, or to ascribe their +origin and effects to other instincts which were more intelligible to +him. The wonderland which the mystic inhabits was closed to him, he +remained outside of it and reproduced in sarcastic travesty the +reports he heard of its marvels. What he has called the secondary +causes of the growth of Christianity, were much rather its effects. +The first is "the inflexible and intolerant zeal of the Christians" +and their abhorrence of idolatry. With great power of language, he +paints the early Christian "encompassed with infernal snares in every +convivial entertainment, as often as his friends, invoking the +hospitable deities, poured out libations to each other's happiness. +When the bride, struggling with well-affected reluctance, was forced +in hymenaeal pomp over the threshold of her new habitation, or when the +sad procession of the dead slowly moved towards the funeral pile, the +Christian on these interesting occasions was compelled to desert the +persons who were dearest to him, rather than contract the guilt +inherent in those impious ceremonies." It is strange that Gibbon did +not ask himself what was the cause of this inflexible zeal. The zeal +produced the effects alleged, but what produced the zeal? He says that +it was derived from the Jewish religion, but neglects to point out +what could have induced Gentiles of every diversity of origin to +derive from a despised race tenets and sentiments which would make +their lives one long scene of self-denial and danger. The whole vein +of remark is so completely out of date, that it is not worth dwelling +on, except very summarily. + +The second cause is "the doctrine of a future life, improved by every +additional circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that +important truth." Again we have an effect treated as a cause. "The +ancient Christians were animated by a contempt for their present +existence, and by a just confidence of immortality." Very true; but +the fact of their being so animated was what wanted explaining. Gibbon +says it "was no wonder that so advantageous an offer" as that of +immortality was accepted. Yet he had just before told us that the +ablest orators at the bar and in the senate of Rome, could expose +this offer of immortality to ridicule without fear of giving offence. +Whence arose, then, the sudden blaze of conviction with which the +Christians embraced it? + +The third cause is the miraculous powers _ascribed_ to the primitive +Church. Gibbon apparently had not the courage to admit that he agreed +with his friend Hume in rejecting miracles altogether. He conceals his +drift in a cloud of words, suggesting indirectly with innuendo and +sneer his real opinion. But this does not account for the stress he +lays on the _ascription_ of miracles. He seems to think that the claim +of supernatural gifts somehow had the same efficacy as the gifts +themselves would have had, if they had existed. + +The fourth cause is the virtues of the primitive Christians. The +paragraphs upon it, Dean Milman considers the most uncandid in all the +history, and they certainly do Gibbon no credit. With a strange +ignorance of the human heart, he attributes the austere morals of the +early Christians to their care for their reputation. The ascetic +temper, one of the most widely manifested in history, was beyond his +comprehension. + +The fifth cause was the union and discipline of the Christian +republic. For the last time the effect figures as the cause. Union and +discipline we know are powerful, but we know also that they are the +result of deep antecedent forces, and that prudence and policy alone +never produced them. + +It can surprise no one that Gibbon has treated the early Church in a +way which is highly unsatisfactory if judged by a modern standard. Not +only is it a period which criticism has gone over again and again with +a microscope, but the standpoint from which such periods are observed +has materially changed since his day. That dim epoch of nascent faith, +full of tender and subdued tints, with a high light on the brows of +the Crucified, was not one in which he could see clearly, or properly +see at all. He has as little insight into the religious condition of +the pagan world, as of the Christian. It is singular how he passes +over facts which were plain before him, which he knew quite well, as +he knew nearly everything connected with his subject, but the real +significance of which he missed. Thus he attributes to the scepticism +of the pagan world the easy introduction of Christianity. Misled by +the "eloquence of Cicero and the wit of Lucian," he supposes the +second century to have been vacant of beliefs, in which a "fashion of +incredulity" was widely diffused, and "many were almost disengaged +from artificial prejudices." He was evidently unaware of the striking +religious revival which uplifted paganism in the age of Hadrian, and +grew with the sinking empire: the first stirrings of it may even be +discerned in Tacitus, and go on increasing till we reach the theurgy +of the Neoplatonists. A growing fear of the gods, a weariness of life +and longing for death, a disposition to look for compensation for the +miseries of this world to a brighter one beyond the grave--these +traits are common in the literature of the second century, and show +the change which had come over the minds of men. Gibbon is +colour-blind to these shades of the religious spirit: he can only see +the banter of Lucian.[13] In reference to these matters he was a true +son of his age, and could hardly be expected to transcend it. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 13: On the religious revival of the second century, see +Hausrath's _Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte_, vol. iii., especially +the sections, "Hadrian's Mysticismus" and "Religioese Tendenzen in +Kunst und Literatur," where this interesting subject is handled with a +freshness and insight quite remarkable.] + +He cannot be cleared of this reproach. On the other hand, we must +remember that Gibbon's hard and accurate criticism set a good example +in one respect. The fertile fancy of the middle ages had run into wild +exaggerations of the number of the primitive martyrs, and their +legends had not always been submitted to impartial scrutiny even in +the eighteenth century. We may admit that Gibbon was not without bias +of another kind, and that his tone is often very offensive when he +seeks to depreciate the evidence of the sufferings of the early +confessors. His computation, which will allow of "an annual +consumption of a hundred and fifty martyrs," is nothing short of +cynical. Still he did good service in insisting on chapter and verse +and fair historical proof of these frightful stories, before they were +admitted. Dean Milman acknowledges so much, and defends him against +the hot zeal of M. Guizot, justly adding that "truth must not be +sacrificed even to well-grounded moral indignation," in which +sentiment all now will no doubt be willing to concur. + +The difference between the Church in the Catacombs, and the Church in +the Palaces at Constantinople or Ravenna, measures the difference +between Gibbon's treatment of early Christian history and his +treatment of ecclesiastical history. Just as the simple-hearted +emotions of God-fearing men were a puzzle and an irritation to him, so +he was completely at home in exposing the intrigues of courtly bishops +and in the metaphysics of theological controversy. His mode of dealing +with Church matters from this point onward is hardly ever unfair, and +has given rise to few protestations. He has not succeeded in pleasing +everybody. What Church historian ever does? But he is candid, +impartial, and discerning. His account of the conversion of +Constantine is remarkably just, and he is more generous to the first +Christian Emperor than Niebuhr or Neander. He plunges into the Arian +controversy with manifest delight, and has given in a few pages one of +the clearest and most memorable _resumes_ of that great struggle. But +it is when he comes to the hero of that struggle, to an historic +character who can be seen with clearness, that he shows his wonted +tact and insight. A great man hardly ever fails to awaken Gibbon into +admiration and sympathy. The "Great Athanasius," as he often calls +him, caught his eye at once, and the impulse to draw a fine character, +promptly silenced any prejudices which might interfere with faithful +portraiture. "Athanasius stands out more grandly in Gibbon, than in +the pages of the orthodox ecclesiastical historians"--Dr. Newman has +said,--a judge whose competence will not be questioned. And as if to +show how much insight depends on sympathy, Gibbon is immediately more +just and open to the merits of the Christian community, than he had +been hitherto. He now sees "that the privileges of the Church had +already revived a sense of order and freedom in the Roman government." +His chapter on the rise of monasticism is more fair and discriminating +than the average Protestant treatment of that subject. He distinctly +acknowledges the debt we owe the monks for their attention to +agriculture, the useful trades, and the preservation of ancient +literature. The more disgusting forms of asceticism he touches with +light irony, which is quite as effective as the vehement denunciations +of non-Catholic writers. It must not be forgotten that his +ecclesiastical history derives a great superiority of clearness and +proportion by its interweaving with the general history of the times, +and this fact of itself suffices to give Gibbon's picture a permanent +value even beside the master works of German erudition which have been +devoted exclusively to Church matters. If we lay down Gibbon and take +up Neander, for instance, we are conscious that with all the greater +fulness of detail, engaging candour, and sympathetic insight of the +great Berlin Professor, the general impression of the times is less +distinct and lasting. There is no specialism in Gibbon; his book is a +broad sociological picture in which the whole age is portrayed. + +To sum up. In two memorable chapters Gibbon has allowed his prejudices +to mar his work as an historian. But two chapters out of seventy-one +constitute a small proportion. In the remainder of his work he is as +free from bias and unfairness as human frailty can well allow. The +annotated editions of Milman and Guizot are guarantees of this. Their +critical animadversions become very few and far between after the +first volume is passed. If he had been animated by a polemical object +in writing; if he had used the past as an arsenal from which to draw +weapons to attack the present, we may depend that a swift blight would +have shrivelled his labours, as it did so many famous works of the +eighteenth century, when the great day of reaction set in. His mild +rebuke of the Abbe Raynal should not be forgotten. He admired the +_History of the Indies_. It is one of the few books that he has +honoured with mention and praise in the text of his own work. But he +points out that the "zeal of the philosophic historian for the rights +of mankind" had led him into a blunder. It was not only Gibbon's +scholarly accuracy which saved him from such blunders. Perhaps he had +less zeal for the rights of mankind than men like Raynal, whose +general views he shared. But it is certain that he did not write with +their settled _parti pris_ of making history a vehicle of controversy. +His object was to be a faithful historian, and due regard being had to +his limitations, he attained to it. + +If we now consider the defects of the _Decline and Fall_--which the +progress of historic study, and still more the lapse of time, have +gradually rendered visible, they will be found, as was to be expected, +to consist in the author's limited conception of society, and of the +multitudinous forces which mould and modify it. We are constantly +reminded by the tone of remark that he sees chiefly the surface of +events, and that the deeper causes which produce them have not been +seen with the same clearness. In proportion as an age is remote, and +therefore different from that in which a historian writes, does it +behove him to remember that the social and general side of history is +more important than the individual and particular. In reference to a +period adjacent to our own the fortunes of individuals properly take a +prominent place, the social conditions amid which they worked are +familiar to us, and we understand them and their position without +effort. But with regard to a remote age the case is different. Here +our difficulty is to understand the social conditions, so unlike those +with which we are acquainted, and as society is greater than man, so +we feel that society, and not individual men, should occupy the chief +place in the picture. Not that individuals are to be suppressed or +neglected, but their subordination to the large historic background +must be well maintained. The social, religious, and philosophic +conditions amid which they played their parts should dominate the +scene, and dwarf by their grandeur and importance the human actors who +move across it. The higher historical style now demands what may be +called compound narrative, that is narrative having reference to two +sets of phenomena--one the obvious surface events, the other the +larger and wider, but less obvious, sociological condition. A better +example could hardly be given than Grote's account of the mutilation +of the Hermae. The fact of the mutilation is told in the briefest way +in a few lines, but the social condition which overarched it, and made +the disfiguring of a number of half-statues "one of the most +extraordinary events in Greek history," demands five pages of +reflections and commentary to bring out its full significance. Grote +insists on the duty "to take reasonable pains to realise in our minds +the religious and political associations of the Athenians," and helps +us to do it by a train of argument and illustration. The larger part +of the strength of the modern historical school lies in this method, +and in able hands it has produced great results. + +It would be unfair to compare Gibbon to these writers. They had a +training in social studies which he had not. But it is not certain +that he has always acquitted himself well, even if compared to his +contemporaries and predecessors, Montesquieu, Mably, and Voltaire. In +any case his narrative is generally wanting in historic perspective +and suggestive background. It adheres closely to the obvious surface +of events with little attempt to place behind them the deeper sky of +social evolution. In many of his crowded chapters one cannot see the +wood for the trees. The story is not lifted up and made lucid by +general points of view, but drags or hurries along in the hollow of +events, over which the author never seems to raise himself into a +position of commanding survey. The thirty-sixth chapter is a marked +instance of this defect. But the defect is general. The vigorous and +skilful narrative, and a certain grandeur and weightiness of language, +make us overlook it. It is only when we try to attain clear and +succinct views, which condense into portable propositions the enormous +mass of facts collected before us, that we feel that the writer has +not often surveyed his subject from a height and distance sufficient +to allow the great features of the epoch to be seen in bold outline. +By the side of the history of concrete events, we miss the +presentation of those others which are none the less events for being +vague, irregular, and wide-reaching, and requiring centuries for their +accomplishment. Gibbon's manner of dealing with the first is always +good, and sometimes consummate, and equal to anything in historical +literature. The thirty-first chapter, with its description of Rome, +soon to fall a prey to the Goths and Alaric, is a masterpiece, +artistic and spacious in the highest degree; though it is unnecessary +to cite particular instances, as nearly every chapter contains +passages of admirable historic power. But the noble flood of narrative +never stops in meditative pause to review the situation, and point out +with pregnant brevity what is happening in the sum total, abstraction +made of all confusing details. Besides the facts of the time, we seek +to have the tendencies of the age brought before us in their flow and +expansion, the filiation of events over long periods deduced in clear +sequence, a synoptical view which is to the mind what a picture is to +the eye. In this respect Gibbon's method leaves not a little to be +desired. + +Take for instance two of the most important aspects of the subject +that he treated: the barbarian invasions, and the causes of the +decline and fall of the Roman empire. To the concrete side of both he +has done ample justice. The rational and abstract side of neither has +received the attention from him which it deserved. On the interesting +question of the introduction of the barbarians into the frontier +provinces, and their incorporation into the legions, he never seems to +have quite made up his mind. In the twelfth chapter he calls it a +"great and beneficial plan." Subsequently he calls it a disgraceful +and fatal expedient. He recurs frequently to the subject in isolated +passages, but never collects the facts, into a focus, with a view of +deducing their real meaning. Yet the point is second to none in +importance. Its elucidation throws more light on the fall of Rome than +any other considerations whatever. The question is, Whether Rome was +conquered by the barbarians in the ordinary sense of the word, +conquered. We know that it was not, and Gibbon knew that it was not. +Yet perhaps most people rise from reading his book with an impression +that the empire succumbed to the invasion of the barbarians, as +Carthage, Gaul, and Greece had succumbed to the invasion of the +Romans; that the struggle lay between classic Rome and outside +uncivilised foes; and that after two centuries of hard fighting the +latter were victorious. The fact that the struggle lay between +barbarians, who were within and friendly to the empire, and barbarians +who were without it, and hostile rather to their more fortunate +brethren, than to the empire which employed them, is implicitly +involved in Gibbon's narrative, but it is not explicitly brought out. +Romanised Goths, Vandals, and Franks were the defenders, nearly the +only defenders, of the empire against other tribes and nations who +were not Romanised, and nothing can be more plain than that Gibbon saw +this as well as any one since, but he has not set it forth with +prominence and clearness. With his complete mastery of the subject he +would have done it admirably, if he had assumed the necessary point of +view. + +Similarly, with regard to the causes of the fall of the empire. It is +quite evident that he was not at all unconscious of the deep economic +and social vices which undermined the great fabric. Depopulation, +decay of agriculture, fiscal oppression, the general prostration +begotten of despotism--all these sources of the great collapse may be +traced in his text, or his wonderful notes, hinted very often with a +flashing insight which anticipates the most recent inquiries into the +subject. But these considerations are not brought together to a +luminous point, nor made to yield clear and tangible results. They lie +scattered, isolated, and barren over three volumes, and are easily +overlooked. One may say that generalised and synthetic views are +conspicuous by their absence in Gibbon. + +But what of that? These reflections, even if they be well founded, +hardly dim the majesty of the _Decline and Fall_. The book is such a +marvel of knowledge at once wide and minute, that even now, after +numbers of labourers have gone over the same ground, with only special +objects in view, small segments of the great circle which Gibbon fills +alone, his word is still one of the weightiest that can be quoted. +Modern research has unquestionably opened out points of view to which +he did not attain. But when it comes to close investigation of any +particular question, we rarely fail to find that he has seen it, +dropped some pregnant hint about it, more valuable than the +dissertations of other men. As Mr. Freeman says, "Whatever else is +read, Gibbon must be read too." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE LAST TEN YEARS OF HIS LIFE IN LAUSANNE. + + +After the preliminary troubles which met him on his arrival at +Lausanne, Gibbon had four years of unbroken calm and steady work, of +which there is nothing to record beyond the fact that they were filled +with peaceful industry. "One day," he wrote, "glides by another in +tranquil uniformity." During the whole period he never stirred ten +miles out of Lausanne. He had nearly completed the fourth volume +before he left England. Then came an interruption of a year--consumed +in the break-up of his London establishment, his journey, the +transport of his library, the delay in getting settled at Lausanne. +Then he sat down in grim earnest to finish his task, and certainly the +speed he used, considering the quality of the work, left nothing to be +desired. He achieved the fifth volume in twenty-one months, and the +sixth in little more than a year. He had hoped to finish sooner, but +it is no wonder that he found his work grow under his hands when he +passed from design to execution. "A long while ago, when I +contemplated the distant prospect of my work," he writes to Lord +Sheffield, "I gave you and myself some hopes of landing in England +last autumn; but alas! when autumn grew near, hills began to rise on +hills, Alps on Alps, and I found my journey far more tedious and +toilsome than I had imagined. When I look back on the length of the +undertaking and the variety of materials, I cannot accuse or suffer +myself to be accused of idleness; yet it appeared that unless I +doubled my diligence, another year, and perhaps more, would elapse +before I could embark with my complete manuscript. Under these +circumstances I took, and am still executing, a bold and meritorious +resolution. The mornings in winter, and in a country of early dinners, +are very concise. To them, my usual period of study, I now frequently +add the evenings, renounce cards and society, refuse the most +agreeable evenings, or perhaps make my appearance at a late supper. By +this extraordinary industry, which I never practised before, and to +which I hope never to be again reduced, I see the last part of my +history growing apace under my hands." He was indeed, as he said, now +straining for the goal which was at last reached "on the day, or +rather the night, of the 27th of June, 1787. Between the hours of +eleven and twelve I wrote the last lines of the last page in a +summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several +turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a +prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was +temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was +reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent. I will not +dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and +perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, +and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had +taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and +that whatsoever might be the future fate of my history, the life of +the historian must be short and precarious." + +A faint streak of poetry occasionally shoots across Gibbon's prose. +But both prose and poetry had now to yield to stern business. The +printing of three quarto volumes in those days of handpresses was a +formidable undertaking, and unless expedition were used the publishing +season of the ensuing year would be lost. A month had barely elapsed +before Gibbon with his precious cargo started for England. He went +straight to his printers. The printing of the fourth volume occupied +three months, and both author and publisher were warned that their +common interest required a quicker pace. Then Mr. Strahan "fulfilled +his engagement, which few printers could sustain, of delivering every +week three thousand copies of nine sheets." On the 8th of May, 1788, +the three concluding volumes were published, and Gibbon had discharged +his debt for the entertainment that he had had in this world. + +He returned as speedily as he could to Lausanne, to rest from his +labours. But he had a painful greeting in the sadly altered look of +his friend Deyverdun. Soon an apoplectic seizure confirmed his +forebodings, and within a twelvemonth the friend of his youth, whom he +had loved for thirty-three years, was taken away by death (July 4, +1789).[14] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 14: The letter in which Gibbon communicated the sad news to +Lord Sheffield was written on the 14th July, 1789, the day of the +taking of the Bastille. So "that evening sun of July" sent its beams +on Gibbon mourning the dead friend, as well as on "reapers amid +peaceful woods and fields, on old women spinning in cottages, on ships +far out on the silent main, on balls at the Orangerie of Versailles, +where high-rouged dames of the palace are even now dancing with +double-jacketed Hussar officers."] + +Gibbon never got over this loss. His staid and solid nature was not +given to transports of joy or grief. But his constant references to +"poor Deyverdun," and the vacancy caused by his loss, show the depth +of the wound. "I want to change the scene," he writes, "and, beautiful +as the garden and prospect must appear to every eye, I feel that the +state of my mind casts a gloom over them: every spot, every walk, +every bench recalls the memory of those hours, those conversations, +which will return no more.... I almost hesitate whether I shall run +over to England to consult with you on the spot, and to fly from poor +Deyverdun's shade, which meets me at every turn." Not that he lacked +attached friends, and of mere society and acquaintance he had more +than abundance. He occupied at Lausanne a position of almost +patriarchal dignity, "and may be said," writes Lord Sheffield, "to +have almost given the law to a set of as willing subjects as any man +ever presided over." Soon the troubles in France sent wave after wave +of emigrants over the frontiers, and Lausanne had its full share of +the exiles. After a brief approval of the reforms in France he passed +rapidly to doubt, disgust, and horror at the "new birth of time" +there. "You will allow me to be a tolerable historian," he wrote to +his step-mother, "yet on a fair review of ancient and modern times I +can find none that bear any affinity to the present." The last social +evolution was beyond his power of classification. The mingled +bewilderment and anger with which he looks out from Lausanne on the +revolutionary welter, form an almost amusing contrast to his usual +apathy on political matters. He is full of alarm lest England should +catch the revolutionary fever. He is delighted with Burke's +_Reflections_. "I admire his eloquence, I approve his politics, I +adore his chivalry, and I can forgive even his superstition." His +wrath waxes hotter at every post. "Poor France! The state is +dissolved! the nation is mad." At last nothing but vituperation can +express his feelings, and he roundly calls the members of the +Convention "devils," and discovers that "democratical principles lead +by a path of flowers into the abyss of hell." + +In 1790 his friends the Neckers had fled to Switzerland, and on every +ground of duty and inclination he was called upon to show them the +warmest welcome, and he did so in a way that excited their liveliest +gratitude. Necker was cast down in utter despair, not only for the +loss of place and power, but on account of the strong animosity which +was shown to him by the exiled French, none of whom would set their +foot in his house. The Neckers were now Gibbon's chief intimates till +the end of his sojourn in Switzerland. They lived at Coppet, and +constant visits were exchanged there and at Lausanne. Madame Necker +wrote to him frequent letters, which prove that if she had ever had +any grievance to complain of in the past, it was not only forgiven, +but entirely forgotten. The letters, indeed, testify a warmth of +sentiment on her part which, coming from a lady of less spotless +propriety, would almost imply a revival of youthful affection for her +early lover. "You have always been dear to me," she writes, "but the +friendship you have shown to M. Necker adds to that which you inspire +me with on so many grounds, and I love you at present with a double +affection."--"Come to us when you are restored to health and to +yourself; that moment should always belong to your first and your +last friend (_amie_), and I do not know which of those titles is the +sweetest and dearest to my heart."--"Near you, the recollections you +recalled were pleasant to me, and you connected them easily with +present impressions; the chain of years seemed to link all times +together with electrical rapidity; you were at once twenty and fifty +years old for me. Away from you the different places, which I have +inhabited are only the milestones of my life telling me of the +distance I have come." With much more in the same strain. Of Madame de +Stael Gibbon does not speak in very warm praise. Her mother, who was +far from being contented with her, may perhaps have prejudiced him +against her. In one letter to him she complains of her daughter's +conduct in no measured terms. Yet Gibbon owns that Madame de Stael was +a "pleasant little woman;" and in another place says that she was +"wild, vain, but good-natured, with a much larger provision of wit +than of beauty." One wonders if he ever knew of her childish scheme of +marrying him in order that her parents might always have the pleasure +of his company and conversation. + +These closing years of Gibbon's life were not happy, through no fault +of his. No man was less inclined by disposition to look at the dark +side of things. But heavy blows fell on him in quick succession. His +health was seriously impaired, and he was often laid up for months +with the gout. His neglect of exercise had produced its effect, and he +had become a prodigy of unwieldy corpulency. Unfortunately his +digestion seems to have continued only too good, and neither his own +observation nor the medical science of that day sufficed to warn him +against certain errors of regimen which were really fatal. All this +time, while the gout was constantly torturing him, he drank Madeira +freely. There is frequent question of a pipe of that sweet wine in his +correspondence with Lord Sheffield. He cannot bear the thought of +being without a sufficient supply, as "good Madeira is now become +essential to his health and reputation." The last three years of his +residence at Lausanne were agitated by perpetual anxiety and dread of +an invasion of French democratic principles, or even of French troops. +Reluctance to quit "his paradise" keeps him still, but he is always +wondering how soon he will have to fly, and often regrets that he has +not done so already. "For my part," he writes, "till Geneva falls, I +do not think of a retreat; but at all events I am provided with two +strong horses and a hundred louis in gold." Fate was hard on the +kindly epicurean, who after his long toil had made his bed in the sun, +on which he was preparing to lie down in genial content till the end +came. But he feels he must not think of rest; and that, heavy as he +is, and irksome to him as it is to move, he must before long be a +rover again. Still he is never peevish upon his fortune; he puts the +best face on things as long as they will bear it. + +He was not so philosophical under the bereavements that he now +suffered. His aunt, Mrs. Porten, had died in 1786. He deplored her as +he was bound to do, and feelingly regrets and blames himself for not +having written to her as often as he might have done since their last +parting. Then came the irreparable loss of Deyverdun. Shortly, an old +Lausanne friend, M. de Severy, to whom he was much attached, died +after a long illness. Lastly and suddenly, came the death of Lady +Sheffield, the wife of his friend Holroyd, with whom he had long lived +on such intimate terms that he was in the habit of calling her his +sister. The Sheffields, father and mother and two daughters, had spent +the summer of 1791 with him at Lausanne. The visit was evidently an +occasion of real happiness and _epanchement de coeur_ to the two old +friends, and supplied Gibbon for nearly two years with tender regrets +and recollections. Then, without any warning, he heard of Lady +Sheffield's death. In a moment his mind was made up: he would go at +once to console his friend. All the fatigue and irksomeness of the +journey to one so ailing and feeble, all the dangers of the road lined +and perhaps barred by hostile armies, vanished on the spot. Within +twelve days he had made his preparations and started on his journey. +He was forced to travel through Germany, and in his ignorance of the +language he required an interpreter; young de Severy, the son of his +deceased friend, joyfully, and out of mere affection for him, +undertook the office of courier. "His attachment to me," wrote Gibbon, +"is the sole motive which prompts him to undertake this troublesome +journey." It is clear that he had the art of making himself loved. He +travelled through Frankfort, Cologne, Brussels, Ostend, and was by his +friend's side in little more than a month after he had received the +fatal tidings. Well might Lord Sheffield say, "I must ever regard it +as the most enduring proof of his sensibility, and of his possessing +the true spirit of friendship, that, after having relinquished the +thought of his intended visit, he hastened to England, in spite of +increasing impediments, to soothe me by the most generous sympathy, +and to alleviate my domestic affliction; neither his great corpulency +nor his extraordinary bodily infirmities, nor any other consideration, +could prevent him a moment from resolving on an undertaking that might +have deterred the most active young man. He almost immediately, with +an alertness by no means natural to him, undertook a great circuitous +journey along the frontier of an enemy worse than savage, within the +sound of their cannon, within the range of the light troops of the +different armies, and through roads ruined by the enormous machinery +of war." + +In this public and private gloom he bade for ever farewell to +Lausanne. He was himself rapidly approaching + + "The dark portal, + Goal of all mortal," + +but of this he knew not as yet. While he is in the house of mourning, +beside his bereaved friend, we will return for a short space to +consider the conclusion of his great work. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE LAST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL. + + +The thousand years between the fifth and the fifteenth century +comprise the middle age, a period which only recently, through utterly +inadequate conceptions of social growth, was wont to be called the +dark ages. That long epoch of travail and growth, during which the old +field of civilisation was broken up and sown afresh with new and +various seed unknown to antiquity, receives now on all hands due +recognition, as being one of the most rich, fertile, and interesting +in the history of man. The all-embracing despotism of Rome was +replaced by the endless local divisions and subdivisions of feudal +tenure. The multiform rites and beliefs of polytheism were replaced by +the single faith and paramount authority of the Catholic Church. The +philosophies of Greece were dethroned, and the scholastic theology +reigned in their stead. The classic tongues crumbled away, and out of +their _debris_ arose the modern idioms of France, Italy, and Spain, to +which were added in Northern Europe the new forms of Teutonic speech. +The fine and useful arts took a new departure; slavery was mitigated +into serfdom; industry and commerce became powers in the world as they +had never been before; the narrow municipal polity of the old world +was in time succeeded by the broader national institutions based on +various forms of representation. Gunpowder, America, and the art of +printing were discovered, and the most civilised portion of mankind +passed insensibly into the modern era. + +Such was the wide expanse which spread out before Gibbon when he +resolved to continue his work from the fall of the Western Empire to +the capture of Constantinople. Indeed his glance took in a still wider +field, as he was concerned as much with the decay of Eastern as of +Western Rome, and the long-retarded fall of the former demanded large +attention to the Oriental populations who assaulted the city and +remaining empire of Constantine. So bold an historic enterprise was +never conceived as when, standing on the limit of antiquity in the +fifth century, he determined to pursue in rapid but not hasty survey +the great lines of events for a thousand years, to follow in detail +the really great transactions while discarding the less important, +thereby giving prominence and clearness to what is memorable, and +reproducing on a small scale the flow of time through the ages. It is +to this portion of Gibbon's work that the happy comparison has been +made, that it resembles a magnificent Roman aqueduct spanning over the +chasm which separates the ancient from the modern world. In these +latter volumes he frees himself from the trammels of regular +annalistic narrative, deals with events in broad masses according to +their importance, expanding or contracting his story as occasion +requires; now painting in large panoramic view the events of a few +years, now compressing centuries into brief outline. Many of his +massive chapters afford materials for volumes, and are well worthy of +a fuller treatment than he could give without deranging his plan. But +works of greater detail and narrower compass can never compete with +Gibbon's history, any more than a county map can compete with a map of +England or of Europe. + +The variety of the contents of these last three volumes is amazing, +especially when the thoroughness and perfection of the workmanship are +considered. Prolix compilations or sketchy outlines of universal +history have their use and place, but they are removed by many degrees +from the _Decline and Fall_, or rather they belong to another species +of authorship. It is not only that Gibbon combines width and depth, +that the extent of his learning is as wonderful as its accuracy, +though in this respect he has hardly a full rival in literature. The +quality which places him not only in the first rank of historians, but +in a class by himself, and makes him greater than the greatest, lies +in his supreme power of moulding into lucid and coherent unity, the +manifold and rebellious mass of his multitudinous materials, of +coercing his divergent topics into such order that they seem +spontaneously to grow like branches out of one stem, clear and visible +to the mind. There is something truly epic in these latter volumes. +Tribes, nations, and empires are the characters; one after another +they come forth like Homeric heroes, and do their mighty deeds before +the assembled armies. The grand and lofty chapters on Justinian; on +the Arabs; on the Crusades, have a rounded completeness, coupled with +such artistic subordination to the main action, that they read more +like cantos of a great prose poem than the ordinary staple of +historical composition. It may well be questioned whether there is +another instance of such high literary form and finish, coupled with +such vast erudition. And two considerations have to be borne in mind, +which heighten Gibbon's merit in this respect. (1.) Almost the whole +of his subject had been as yet untouched by any preceding writer of +eminence, and he had no stimulus or example from his precursors. He +united thus in himself the two characters of pioneer and artist. (2.) +The barbarous and imperfect nature of the materials with which he +chiefly had to work,--dull inferior writers, whose debased style was +their least defect. A historian who has for his authorities masters of +reason and language such as Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, and Tacitus +is borne up by their genius; apt quotation and translation alone +suffice to produce considerable effects; or in the case of subjects +taken from modern times, weighty state papers, eloquent debates, or +finished memoirs supply ample materials for graphic narrative. But +Gibbon had little but dross to deal with. Yet he has smelted and cast +it into the grand shapes we see. + +The fourth volume is nearly confined to the reign, or rather epoch, of +Justinian,--a magnificent subject, which he has painted in his +loftiest style of gorgeous narrative. The campaigns of Belisarius and +Narses are related with a clearness and vigour that make us feel that +Gibbon's merits as a military historian have not been quite +sufficiently recognised. He had from the time of his service in the +militia taken continued interest in tactics and all that was connected +with the military art. It was no idle boast when he said that the +captain of the Hampshire grenadiers had not been useless to the +historian of the Roman empire. Military matters perhaps occupy a +somewhat excessive space in his pages. Still, if the operations of +war are to be related, it is highly important that they should be +treated with intelligence, and knowledge how masses of men are moved, +and by a writer to whom the various incidents of the camp, the march, +and the bivouac, are not matters of mere hearsay, but of personal +experience. The campaign of Belisarius in Africa may be quoted as an +example. + + "In the seventh year of the reign of Justinian, and about + the time of the summer solstice, the whole fleet of six + hundred ships was ranged in martial pomp before the gardens + of the palace. The patriarch pronounced his benediction, the + emperor signified his last commands, the general's trumpet + gave the signal of departure, and every heart, according to + its fears or wishes, explored with anxious curiosity the + omens of misfortune or success. The first halt was made at + Perintheus, or Heraclea, where Belisarius waited five days + to receive some Thracian horses, a military gift of his + sovereign. From thence the fleet pursued their course + through the midst of the Propontis; but as they struggled to + pass the straits of the Hellespont, an unfavourable wind + detained them four days at Abydos, where the general + exhibited a remarkable lesson of firmness and severity. Two + of the Huns who, in a drunken quarrel, had slain one of + their fellow-soldiers, were instantly shown to the army + suspended on a lofty gibbet. The national dignity was + resented by their countrymen, who disclaimed the servile + laws of the empire and asserted the free privileges of + Scythia, where a small fine was allowed to expiate the + sallies of intemperance and anger. Their complaints were + specious, their clamours were loud, and the Romans were not + averse to the example of disorder and impunity. But the + rising sedition was appeased by the authority and eloquence + of the general, and he represented to the assembled troops + the obligation of justice, the importance of discipline, the + rewards of piety and virtue, and the unpardonable guilt of + murder, which, in his apprehension, was aggravated rather + than excused by the vice of intoxication. In the navigation + from the Hellespont to the Peloponnesus, which the Greeks + after the siege of Troy had performed in four days, the + fleet of Belisarius was guided in their course by his + master-galley, conspicuous in the day by the redness of the + sails, and in the night by torches blazing from the + masthead. It was the duty of the pilots as they steered + between the islands and turned the capes of Malea and + Taenarium to preserve the just order and regular intervals of + such a multitude. As the wind was fair and moderate, their + labours were not unsuccessful, and the troops were safely + disembarked at Methone, on the Messenian coast, to repose + themselves for a while after the fatigues of the sea.... + From the port of Methone the pilots steered along the + western coast of Peloponnesus, as far as the island of + Zacynthus, or Zante, before they undertook the voyage (in + their eyes a most arduous voyage) of one hundred leagues + over the Ionian sea. As the fleet was surprised by a calm, + sixteen days were consumed in the slow navigation.... At + length the harbour of Caucana, on the southern side of + Sicily, afforded a secure and hospitable shelter.... + Belisarius determined to hasten his operations, and his wise + impatience was seconded by the winds. The fleet lost sight + of Sicily, passed before the island of Malta, discovered the + capes of Africa, ran along the coast with a strong gale from + the north-east, and finally cast anchor at the promontory of + Caput Vada, about five days journey to the south of + Carthage.... + + "Three months after their departure from Constantinople, the + men and the horses, the arms and the military stores were + safely disembarked, and five soldiers were left as a guard + on each of the ships, which were disposed in the form of a + semicircle. The remainder of the troops occupied a camp on + the seashore, which they fortified, according to ancient + discipline, with a ditch and rampart, and the discovery of a + source of fresh water, while it allayed the thirst, excited + the superstitious confidence of the Romans.... The small + town of Sullecte, one day's journey from the camp, had the + honour of being foremost to open her gates and resume her + ancient allegiance; the larger cities of Leptis and + Adrumetum imitated the example of loyalty as soon as + Belisarius appeared, and he advanced without opposition as + far as Grasse, a palace of the Vandal kings, at the distance + of fifty miles from Carthage. The weary Romans indulged + themselves in the refreshment of shady groves, cool + fountains, and delicious fruits.... In three generations + prosperity and a warm climate had dissolved the hardy virtue + of the Vandals, who insensibly became the most luxurious of + mankind. In their villas and gardens, which might deserve + the Persian name of Paradise, they enjoyed a cool and + elegant repose, and after the daily use of the bath, the + barbarians were seated at a table profusely spread with the + delicacies of the land and sea. Their silken robes, loosely + flowing after the fashion of the Medes, were embroidered + with gold, love and hunting were the labours of their life, + and their vacant hours were amused by pantomimes, + chariot-races, and the music and dances of the theatre. + + "In a march of twelve days the vigilance of Belisarius was + constantly awake and active against his unseen enemies, by + whom in every place and at every hour he might be suddenly + attacked. An officer of confidence and merit, John the + Armenian, led the vanguard of three hundred horse. Six + hundred Massagetae covered at a certain distance the left + flank, and the whole fleet, steering along the coast, seldom + lost sight of the army, which moved each day about twelve + miles, and lodged in the evening in strong camps or in + friendly towns. The near approach of the Romans to Carthage + filled the mind of Gelimer with anxiety and terror.... + + "Yet the authority and promises of Gelimer collected a + formidable army, and his plans were concerted with some + degree of military skill. An order was despatched to his + brother Ammatas to collect all the forces of Carthage, and + to encounter the van of the Roman army at the distance of + ten miles from the city: his nephew Gibamund with two + thousand horse was destined to attack their left, when the + monarch himself, who silently followed, should charge their + rear in a situation which excluded them from the aid and + even the view of their fleet. But the rashness of Ammatas + was fatal to himself and his country. He anticipated the + hour of attack, outstripped his tardy followers, and was + pierced with a mortal wound, after he had slain with his own + hand twelve of his boldest antagonists. His Vandals fled to + Carthage: the highway, almost ten miles, was strewed with + dead bodies, and it seemed incredible that such multitudes + could be slaughtered by the swords of three hundred Romans. + The nephew of Gelimer was defeated after a slight combat by + the six hundred Massagetae; they did not equal the third part + of his numbers, but each Scythian was fired by the example + of his chief, who gloriously exercised the privilege of his + family by riding foremost and alone to shoot the first arrow + against the enemy. In the meantime Gelimer himself, ignorant + of the event, and misguided by the windings of the hills, + inadvertently passed the Roman army and reached the scene of + action where Ammatas had fallen. He wept the fate of his + brother and of Carthage, charged with irresistible fury the + advancing squadrons, and might have pursued and perhaps + decided the victory, if he had not wasted those inestimable + moments in the discharge of a vain though pious duty to the + dead. While his spirit was broken by this mournful office, + he heard the trumpet of Belisarius, who, leaving Antonina + and his infantry in the camp, pressed forward with his + guards and the remainder of the cavalry to rally his flying + troops, and to restore the fortune of the day. Much room + could not be found in this disorderly battle for the talents + of a general; but the king fled before the hero, and the + Vandals, accustomed only to a Moorish enemy, were incapable + of withstanding the arms and the discipline of the + Romans.... + + "As soon as the tumult had subsided, the several parts of + the army informed each other of the accidents of the day, + and Belisarius pitched his camp on the field of victory, to + which the tenth milestone from Carthage had applied the + Latin appellation of _Decimus_. From a wise suspicion of the + stratagems and resources of the Vandals, he marched the next + day in the order of battle; halted in the evening before the + gates of Carthage, and allowed a night of repose, that he + might not, in darkness and disorder, expose the city to the + licence of the soldiers, or the soldiers themselves to the + secret ambush of the city. But as the fears of Belisarius + were the result of calm and intrepid reason, he was soon + satisfied that he might confide without danger in the + peaceful and friendly aspect of the capital. Carthage blazed + with innumerable torches, the signal of the public joy; the + chain was removed that guarded the entrance of the port, the + gates were thrown open, and the people with acclamations of + gratitude hailed and invited their Roman deliverers. The + defeat of the Vandals and the freedom of Africa were + announced to the city on the eve of St. Cyprian, when the + churches were already adorned and illuminated for the + festival of the martyr whom three centuries of superstition + had almost raised to a local deity.... One awful hour + reversed the fortunes of the contending parties. The + suppliant Vandals, who had so lately indulged the vices of + conquerors, sought an humble refuge in the sanctuary of the + church; while the merchants of the east were delivered from + the deepest dungeon of the palace by their affrighted + keeper, who implored the protection of his captives, and + showed them through an aperture in the wall the sails of the + Roman fleet. After their separation from the army, the naval + commanders had proceeded with slow caution along the coast, + till they reached the Hermaean promontory, and obtained the + first intelligence of the victory of Belisarius. Faithful to + his instructions, they would have cast anchor about twenty + miles from Carthage, if the more skilful had not represented + the perils of the shore and the signs of an impending + tempest. Still ignorant of the revolution, they declined + however the rash attempt of forcing the chain of the port, + and the adjacent harbour and suburb of Mandracium were + insulted only by the rapine of a private officer, who + disobeyed and deserted his leaders. But the imperial fleet, + advancing with a fair wind, steered through the narrow + entrance of the Goletta and occupied the deep and capacious + lake of Tunis, a secure station about five miles from the + capital. No sooner was Belisarius informed of the arrival + than he despatched orders that the greatest part of the + mariners should be immediately landed to join the triumph + and to swell the apparent numbers of the Romans. Before he + allowed them to enter the gates of Carthage he exhorted + them, in a discourse worthy of himself and the occasion, not + to disgrace the glory of their arms, and to remember that + the Vandals had been the tyrants, but that _they_ were the + deliverers of the Africans, who must now be respected as the + voluntary and affectionate subjects of their common + sovereign. The Romans marched through the street in close + ranks, prepared for battle if an enemy had appeared; the + strict order maintained by their general imprinted on their + minds the duty of obedience; and in an age in which custom + and impunity almost sanctified the abuse of conquest, the + genius of one man repressed the passions of a victorious + army. The voice of menace and complaint was silent, the + trade of Carthage was not interrupted; while Africa changed + her master and her government, the shops continued open and + busy; and the soldiers, after sufficient guards had been + posted, modestly departed to the houses which had been + allotted for their reception. Belisarius fixed his residence + in the palace, seated himself on the throne of Genseric, + accepted and distributed the barbaric spoil, granted their + lives to the suppliant Vandals, and laboured to restore the + damage which the suburb of Mandracium had sustained in the + preceding night. At supper he entertained his principal + officers with the form and magnificence of a royal banquet. + The victor was respectfully served by the captive officers + of the household, and in the moments of festivity, when the + impartial spectators applauded the fortune and merit of + Belisarius, his envious flatterers secretly shed their venom + on every word and gesture which might alarm the suspicions + of a jealous monarch. One day was given to these pompous + scenes, which may not be despised as useless if they + attracted the popular veneration; but the active mind of + Belisarius, which in the pride of victory could suppose + defeat, had already resolved that the Roman empire in Africa + should not depend on the chance of arms or the favour of the + people. The fortifications of Carthage had alone been + excepted from the general proscription; but in the reign of + ninety-five years they were suffered to decay by the + thoughtless and indolent Vandals. A wiser conqueror restored + with incredible despatch the walls and ditches of the city. + His liberality encouraged the workmen; the soldiers, the + mariners, and the citizens vied with each other in the + salutary labour; and Gelimer, who had feared to trust his + person in an open town, beheld with astonishment and + despair the rising strength of an impregnable fortress." + +But we have hardly finished admiring the brilliant picture of the +conquest of Africa and Italy, before Gibbon gives us further proofs of +his many-sided culture and catholicity of mind. His famous chapter on +the Roman law has been accepted by the most fastidious experts of an +esoteric science as a masterpiece of knowledge, condensation, and +lucidity. It has actually been received as a textbook in some of the +continental universities, published separately with notes and +illustrations. When we consider the neglect of Roman jurisprudence in +England till quite recent times, and its severe study on the +Continent, we shall better appreciate the mental grasp and vigour +which enabled an unprofessional Englishman in the last century to +produce such a dissertation. A little further on (chapter forty-seven) +the history of the doctrine of the Incarnation, and the controversies +that sprang up around it, are discussed with a subtlety worthy of a +scientific theologian. It is perhaps the first attempt towards a +philosophical history of dogma, less patient and minute than the works +of the specialists of modern Germany on the same subject, but for +spirit, clearness, and breadth it is superior to those profound but +somewhat barbarous writers. The flexibility of intellect which can do +justice in quick succession to such diverse subjects is very +extraordinary, and assuredly implies great width of sympathy and large +receptivity of nature. + +Having terminated the period of Justinian, Gibbon makes a halt, and +surveys the varied and immense scene through which he will presently +pass in many directions. He rapidly discovers _ten_ main lines, along +which he will advance in succession to his final goal, the conquest +of Constantinople. The two pages at the commencement of the +forty-eighth chapter, in which he sketches out the remainder of his +plan and indicates the topics which he means to treat, are admirable +as a luminous _precis_, and for the powerful grasp which they show of +his immense subject. It lay spread out all before him, visible in +every part to his penetrating eye, and he seems to rejoice in his +conscious strength and ability to undertake the historical conquest on +which he is about to set out. "Nor will this scope of narrative," he +says, "the riches and variety of these materials, be incompatible with +the unity of design and composition. As in his daily prayers the +Mussulman of Fez or Delhi still turns his face towards the temple of +Mecca, the historian's eye will always be fixed on the city of +Constantinople." Then follows the catalogue of nations and empires +whose fortunes he means to sing. A grander vision, a more majestic +procession, never swept before the mind's eye of poet or historian. + +And the practical execution is worthy of the initial inspiration. +After a rapid and condensed narrative of Byzantine history till the +end of the twelfth century, he takes up the brilliant theme of Mahomet +and his successors. A few pages on the climate and physical features +of Arabia fittingly introduce the subject. And it may be noted in +passing that Gibbon's attention to geography, and his skill and taste +for geographical description, are remarkable among his many gifts. He +was as diligent a student of maps and travels as of historical +records, and seems to have had a rare faculty of realising in +imagination scenes and countries of which he had only read. In three +chapters, glowing with oriental colour and rapid as a charge of Arab +horse, he tells the story of the prophet and the Saracen empire. Then +the Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Russians appear on the scene, to be +soon followed by the Normans, and their short but brilliant dominion +in Southern Italy. But now the Seljukian Turks are emerging from the +depths of Asia, taking the place of the degenerate Saracens, invading +the Eastern empire and conquering Jerusalem. The two waves of hostile +fanaticism soon meet in the Crusades. The piratical seizure of +Constantinople by the Latins brings in view the French and Venetians, +the family of Courtenay and its pleasant digression. Then comes the +slow agony of the restored Greek empire. Threatened by the Moguls, it +is invaded and dismembered by the Ottoman Turks. Constantinople seems +ready to fall into their hands. But the timely diversion of Tamerlane +produces a respite of half a century. Nothing can be more artistic +than Gibbon's management of his subject as he approaches its +termination. He, who is such a master of swift narrative, at this +point introduces artful pauses, _suspensions_ of the final +catastrophe, which heighten our interest in the fate which is hanging +over the city of Constantine. In 1425 the victorious Turks have +conquered all the Greek empire save the capital. Amurath II. besieged +it for two months, and was only prevented from taking it by a domestic +revolt in Asia Minor. At the end of his sixty-fifth chapter Gibbon +leaves Constantinople hanging on the brink of destruction, and paints +in glowing colours the military virtues of its deadly enemies, the +Ottomans. Then he interposes one of his most finished chapters, of +miscellaneous contents, but terminating in the grand and impressive +pages on the revival of learning in Italy. There we read of the +"curiosity and emulation of the Latins," of the zeal of Petrarch and +the success of Boccace in Greek studies, of Leontius, Pilatus, +Bessarion, and Lascaris. A glow of sober enthusiasm warms the great +scholar as he paints the early light of that happy dawn. He admits +that the "arms of the Turks pressed the flight of the Muses" from +Greece to Italy. But he "trembles at the thought that Greece might +have been overwhelmed with her schools and libraries, before Europe +had emerged from the deluge of barbarism, and that the seeds of +science might have been scattered on the winds, before the Italian +soil was prepared for their cultivation." In one of the most perfect +sentences to be found in English prose he thus describes the Greek +tongue: "In their lowest depths of servitude and depression, the +subjects of the Byzantine throne were still possessed of a golden key +that could unlock the treasures of antiquity, of a musical and +prolific language that gives a soul to the objects of sense and a body +to the abstractions of philosophy." Meanwhile we are made to feel that +the subjects of the Byzantine throne, with their musical speech, that +Constantinople with her libraries and schools, will all soon fall a +prey to the ravening and barbarous Turk. This brightening light of the +Western sky contending with the baleful gloom which is settling down +over the East, is one of the most happy contrasts in historical +literature. Then comes the end, the preparations and skill of the +savage invader, the futile but heroic defence, the overwhelming ruin +which struck down the Cross and erected the Crescent over the city of +Constantine the Great. + +It is one of the many proofs of Gibbon's artistic instinct that he did +not end with this great catastrophe. On the contrary, he adds three +more chapters. His fine tact warned him that the tumult and thunder of +the final ruin must not be the last sounds to strike the ear. A +resolution of the discord was needed; a soft chorale should follow the +din and lead to a mellow _adagio_ close. And this he does with supreme +skill. With ill-suppressed disgust, he turns from New to Old Home. +"Constantinople no longer appertains to the Roman historian--nor shall +I enumerate the civil and religious edifices that were profaned or +erected by its Turkish masters." Amid the decayed temples and +mutilated beauty of the Eternal City, he moves down to a melodious and +pathetic conclusion--piously visits the remaining fragments of ancient +splendour and art, deplores and describes the ravages wrought by time, +and still more by man, and recurring once again to the scene of his +first inspiration, bids farewell to the Roman empire among the ruins +of the Capitol. + +We have hitherto spoken in terms of warm, though perhaps not excessive +eulogy of this great work. But praise would lack the force of +moderation and equipoise, if allusion were not made to some of its +defects. The pervading defect of it all has been already referred to +in a preceding chapter--an inadequate conception of society as an +organism, living and growing, like other organisms, according to +special laws of its own. In these brilliant volumes on the Middle +Ages, the special problems which that period suggests are not stated, +far less solved; they are not even suspected. The feudal polity, the +Catholic Church, the theocratic supremacy of the Popes, considered as +institutions which the historian is called upon to estimate and judge; +the gradual dissolution of both feudalism and Catholicism, brought +about by the spread of industry in the temporal order and of science +in the spiritual order, are not even referred to. Many more topics +might be added to this list of weighty omissions. It would be needless +to say that no blame attaches to Gibbon for neglecting views of +history which had not emerged in his time, if there were not persons +who, forgetting the slow progress of knowledge, are apt to ascribe the +defects of a book to incompetence in its author. If Gibbon's +conception of the Middle Ages seems to us inadequate now, it is +because since his time our conceptions of society in that and in all +periods have been much enlarged. We may be quite certain that if +Gibbon had had our experience, no one would have seen the +imperfections of particular sides of his work as we now have it more +clearly than he. + +Laying aside, therefore, reflexions of this kind as irrelevant and +unjust, we may ask whether there are any other faults which may fairly +be found with him. One must admit that there are. After all, they are +not very important. + +(1.) Striking as is his account of Justinian's reign, it has two +blemishes. First, the offensive details about the vices of Theodora. +Granting them to be well authenticated, which they are not, it was +quite unworthy of the author and his subject to soil his pages with +such a _chronique scandaleuse_. The defence which he sets up in his +Memoirs, that he is "justified in painting the manners of the times, +and that the vices of Theodora form an essential feature in the reign +and character of Justinian," cannot be admitted. First, we are not +sure that the vices existed, and were not the impure inventions of a +malignant calumniator. Secondly, Gibbon is far from painting the +manners of the time as a moralist or an historian; he paints them with +a zest for pruriency worthy of Bayle or Brantome. It was an occasion +for a wise scepticism to register grave doubts as to the infamous +stories of Procopius. A rehabilitation of Theodora is not a theme +calculated to provoke enthusiasm, and is impossible besides from the +entire want of adequate evidence. But a thoughtful writer would not +have lost his time, if he referred to the subject at all, in pointing +out the moral improbability of the current accounts. He might have +dwelt on the _unsupported_ testimony of the only witness, the +unscrupulous Procopius, whom Gibbon himself convicts on another +subject of flagrant mendacity. But he would have been especially slow +to believe that a woman who had led the life of incredible profligacy +he has described, would, in consequence of "some vision either of +sleep or fancy," in which future exaltation was promised to her, +assume "like a skilful actress, a more decent character, relieve her +poverty by the laudable industry of spinning wool, and affect a life +of chastity and solitude in a small house, which she afterwards +changed into a magnificent temple." Magdalens have been converted, no +doubt, from immoral living, but not by considerations of astute +prudence suggested by day-dreams of imperial greatness. Gibbon might +have thought of the case of Madame de Maintenon, and how her +reputation fared in the hands of the vindictive courtiers of +Versailles; how a woman, cold as ice and pure as snow, was freely +charged with the most abhorrent vices without an atom of foundation. +But the truth probably is that he never thought of the subject +seriously at all, and that, yielding to a regrettable inclination, he +copied his licentious Greek notes with little reluctance. + +(2.) The character of Belisarius, enigmatical enough in itself, is +made by him more enigmatical still. He concludes the forty-first +chapter, in which the great deeds of the conqueror of Italy and +Africa, and the ingratitude with which Justinian rewarded his +services, are set forth in strong contrast, with the inept remark that +"Belisarius appears to be either below or above the character of a +MAN." The grounds of the apparent meekness with which Belisarius +supported his repeated disgraces cannot now be ascertained: but the +motives of Justinian's conduct are not so difficult to find. As Finlay +points out in his thoughtful history of Greece, Belisarius must have +been a peculator on a large and dangerous scale. "Though he refused +the Gothic throne and the empire of the West, he did not despise nor +neglect wealth: he accumulated riches which could not have been +acquired by any commander-in-chief amidst the wars and famines of the +period, without rendering the military and civil administration +subservient to his pecuniary profit. On his return from Italy he lived +at Constantinople in almost regal splendour, and maintained a body of +7,000 cavalry attached to his household. In an empire where +confiscation was an ordinary financial resource, and under a sovereign +whose situation rendered jealousy only common prudence, it is not +surprising that the wealth of Belisarius excited the imperial +cupidity, and induced Justinian to seize great part of it" (_Greece +under the Romans_, chap. 3). There is shrewd insight in this, and +though we may regret that we cannot attain to more, it is better than +leaving the subject with an unmeaning paradox. + +It may be said generally that Gibbon has not done justice to the +services rendered to Europe by the Byzantine empire. In his crowded +forty-eighth chapter, which is devoted to the subject, he passes over +events and characters with such speed that his history in this part +becomes little more than a chronicle, vivid indeed, but barren of +thoughtful political views. His account of the Isaurian period may be +instanced among others as an example of defective treatment. If we +turn to the judicious Finlay, we see what an immense but generally +unacknowledged debt Europe owes to the Greek empire. The saving of +Christendom from Mohammedan conquest is too easily attributed to the +genius of Charles Martel and his brave Franks. The victory at Tours +was important no doubt, but almost a century previously the followers +of the prophet had been checked by Heraclius; and their memorable +repulse before Constantinople under the Isaurian Leo was the real +barrier opposed to their conquest of the West. It requires but little +reflection to see that without this brave resistance to the Moslem +invasion, the course of mediaeval history would have been completely +changed. Next in time, but hardly second in value to the services of +the Greeks at Marathon and Salamis, must be reckoned the services of +the Byzantine emperors in repelling the barbarians. Such an important +consideration as this should hardly have escaped Gibbon. + +Gibbon's account of Charlemagne is strangely inadequate. It is perhaps +the only instance in his work where he has failed to appreciate a +truly great man, and the failure is the more deplorable as it concerns +one of the greatest men who have ever lived. He did not realise the +greatness of the man, of his age, or of his work. Properly +considered, the eighth century is the most important and memorable +which Europe has ever seen. During its course the geographical limits, +the ecclesiastical polity, and the feudal system within and under +which our western group of nations was destined to live for five or +six centuries, were provisionally settled and determined. The +wonderful house of the Carolings, which produced no less than five +successive rulers of genius (of whom two had extraordinary genius, +Charles Martel and Charlemagne), were the human instruments of this +great work. The Frankish Monarchy was hastening to ruin when they +saved it. Saxons in the East and Saracens in the South were on the +point of extinguishing the few surviving embers of civilisation which +still existed. The Bishop of Rome was ready to fall a prey to the +Lombards, and the progressive papacy of Hildebrand and Innocent ran +imminent risk of being extirpated at its root. Charles and his +ancestors prevented these evils. Of course it is open to any one to +say that there were no evils threatening, that Mohammedanism is as +good as Christianity, that the Papacy was a monstrous calamity, that +to have allowed Eastern Germany to remain pagan and barbarous would +have done no harm. The question cannot be discussed here. But every +law of historic equity compels us to admit that whether the result was +good or bad, the genius of men who could leave such lasting +impressions on the world as the Carolings did, must have been +exceptionally great. And this is what Gibbon has not seen; he has not +seen that, whether their work was good or bad in the issue, it was +colossal. His tone in reference to Charlemagne is unworthy to a +degree. "Without injustice to his fame, I may discern some blemishes +in the sanctity and greatness of the restorer of the Western Empire. +Of his moral virtues, chastity was not the most conspicuous." This +from the pen of Gibbon seems hardly serious. Again: "I touch with +reverence the laws of Charlemagne, so highly applauded by a +respectable judge. They compose not a system, but a series of +occasional and minute edicts, for the correction of abuses, the +reformation of manners, the economy of his farms, the care of his +poultry, and even the sale of his eggs." And yet Gibbon had read the +Capitularies. The struggle and care of the hero to master in some +degree the wide welter of barbarism surging around him, he never +recognised. It is a spot on Gibbon's fame. + +Dean Milman considers that Gibbon's account of the Crusades is the +least accurate and satisfactory chapter in his history, and "that he +has here failed in that lucid arrangement which in general gives +perspicuity to his most condensed and crowded narratives." This blame +seems to be fully merited, if restricted to the second of the two +chapters which Gibbon has devoted to the Crusades. The fifty-eighth +chapter, in which he treats of the First Crusade, leaves nothing to be +desired. It is not one of his best chapters, though it is quite up to +his usually high level. But the fifty-ninth chapter, it must be owned, +is not only weak, but what is unexampled elsewhere in him, confused +and badly written. It is not, as in the case of Charlemagne, a +question of imperfect appreciation of a great man or epoch; it is a +matter of careless and slovenly presentation of a period which he had +evidently mastered with his habitual thoroughness, but, owing to the +rapidity with which he composed his last volume, he did not do full +justice to it. He says significantly in his Memoirs, that "he wished +that a pause, an interval, had been allowed for a serious revisal" of +the last three volumes, and there can be little doubt that this +chapter was one of the sources of his regrets. It is in fact a mere +tangle. The Second and the Third Crusades are so jumbled together, +that it is only a reader who knows the subject very well who can find +his way through the labyrinth. Gibbon seems at this point, a thing +very unusual with him, to have become impatient with his subject, and +to have wished to hurry over it. "A brief parallel," he says, "may +save the repetition of a tedious narrative." The result of this +expeditious method has been far from happy. It is the only occasion +where Gibbon has failed in his usual high finish and admirable +literary form. + +Gibbon's style was at one period somewhat of a party question. Good +Christians felt a scruple in discerning any merits in the style of a +writer who had treated the martyrs of the early Church with so little +ceremony and generosity. On the other hand, those whose opinions +approached more or less to his, expatiated on the splendour and +majesty of his diction. Archbishop Whately went out of his way in a +note to his _Logic_ to make a keen thrust at an author whom it was +well to depreciate whenever occasion served. "His way of writing," he +says, "reminds one of those persons who never dare look you full in +the face." Such criticisms are out of date now. The faults of Gibbon's +style are obvious enough, and its compensatory merits are not far to +seek. No one can overlook its frequent tumidity and constant want of +terseness. It lacks suppleness, ease, variety. It is not often +distinguished by happy selection of epithet, and seems to ignore all +delicacy of _nuance_. A prevailing grandiloquence, which easily slides +into pomposity, is its greatest blemish. The acute Porson saw this and +expressed it admirably. In the preface to his letters to Archdeacon +Travis, he says of Gibbon, "Though his style is in general correct and +elegant, he sometimes 'draws out the thread of his verbosity finer +than the staple of his argument.' In endeavouring to avoid vulgar +terms he too frequently dignifies trifles, and clothes common thoughts +in a splendid dress that would be rich enough for the noblest ideas. +In short we are too often reminded of that great man, Mr. Prig, the +auctioneer, whose manner was so inimitably fine that he had as much to +say on a ribbon as on a Raphael." It seems as if Gibbon had taken the +stilted tone of the old French tragedy for his model, rather than the +crisp and nervous prose of the best French writers. We are constantly +offended by a superfine diction lavished on barbarous chiefs and rough +soldiers of the Lower Empire, which almost reproduces the high-flown +rhetoric in which Corneille's and Racine's characters address each +other. Such phrases as the "majesty of the throne," "the dignity of +the purple," the "wisdom of the senate," recur with a rather jarring +monotony, especially when the rest of the narrative is designed to +show that there was no majesty nor dignity nor wisdom involved in the +matter. We feel that the writer was thinking more of his sonorous +sentence than of the real fact. On the other hand, nothing but a want +of candour or taste can lead any one to overlook the rare and great +excellences of Gibbon's style. First of all, it is singularly correct: +a rather common merit now, but not common in his day. But its +sustained vigour and loftiness will always be uncommon; above all its +rapidity and masculine length of stride are quite admirable. When he +takes up his pen to describe a campaign, or any great historic scene, +we feel that we shall have something worthy of the occasion, that we +shall be carried swiftly and grandly through it all, without the +suspicion of a breakdown of any kind being possible. An indefinable +stamp of weightiness is impressed on Gibbon's writing; he has a +baritone manliness which banishes everything small, trivial, or weak. +When he is eloquent (and it should be remembered to his credit that he +never affects eloquence, though he occasionally affects dignity), he +rises without effort into real grandeur. On the whole we may say that +his manner, with certain manifest faults, is not unworthy of his +matter, and the praise is great. + +It is not quite easy to give expression to another feeling which is +often excited in reading Gibbon. It is somewhat of this kind, that it +is more fitted to inspire admiration than love or sympathy. Its merits +are so great, the mass of information it contains is so stupendous, +that all competent judges of such work feel bound to praise it. +Whether they like it in the same degree, may be questioned. Among +reading men and educated persons it is not common--such is my +experience--to meet with people who know their Gibbon well. Superior +women do not seem to take to him kindly, even when there is no +impediment on religious grounds. Madame du Deffand, writing to +Walpole, says, "I whisper it to you, but I am not pleased with Mr. +Gibbon's work. It is declamatory, oratorical.... I lay it aside +without regret, and it requires an effort to take it up again." +Another of Walpole's correspondents, the Countess of Ossory, seems to +have made similar strictures. If we admit that women are less capable +than masculine scholars of doing justice to the strong side of Gibbon, +we may also acknowledge that they are better fitted than men to +appreciate and to be shocked by his defective side, which is a +prevailing want of moral elevation and nobility of sentiment. His +cheek rarely flushes in enthusiasm for a good cause. The tragedy of +human life never seems to touch him, no glimpse of the infinite ever +calms and raises the reader of his pages. Like nearly all the men of +his day, he was of the earth earthy, and it is impossible to get over +the fact. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +LAST ILLNESS.--DEATH.--CONCLUSION. + + +Gibbon had now only about six months to live. He did not seem to have +suffered by his rapid journey from Lausanne to London. During the +summer which he spent with his friend Lord Sheffield, he was much as +usual; only his friend noticed that his habitual dislike to motion +appeared to increase, and he was so incapable of exercise that he was +confined to the library and dining-room. "Then he joined Mr. F. North +in pleasant arguments against exercise in general. He ridiculed the +unsettled and restless disposition that summer, the most uncomfortable +of all seasons, as he said, generally gives to those who have the use +of their limbs." The true disciples of Epicurus are not always the +least stout and stoical in the presence of irreparable evils. + +After spending three or four months at Sheffield Place, he went to +Bath to visit his step-mother, Mrs. Gibbon. His conduct to her through +life was highly honourable to him. It should be remembered that her +jointure, paid out of his father's decayed estate, was a great tax on +his small income. In his efforts to improve his position by selling +his landed property, Mrs. Gibbon seems to have been at times somewhat +difficult to satisfy as regards the security of her interests. It was +only prudent on her part. But it is easy to see what a source of +alienation and quarrel was here ready prepared, if both parties had +not risen superior to sordid motives. There never seems to have been +the smallest cloud between them. When one of his properties was sold +he writes: "Mrs. Gibbon's jointure is secured on the Buriton estate, +and her legal consent is requisite for the sale. Again and again I +must repeat my hope that she is perfectly satisfied, and that the +close of her life may not be embittered by suspicion, fear, or +discontent. What new security does she prefer--the funds, a mortgage, +or your land? At all events, she must be made easy." So Gibbon left +town and lay at Reading on his road to Bath: here he passed about ten +days with his step-mother, who was now nearly eighty years of age. "In +mind and conversation she is just the same as twenty years ago," he +writes to Lord Sheffield; "she has spirits, appetite, legs, and eyes, +and talks of living till ninety. I can say from my heart, Amen." And +in another letter, a few days later, he says: "A _tete-a-tete_ of +eight or nine hours every day is rather difficult to support; yet I do +assure you that our conversation flows with more ease and spirit when +we are alone, than when any auxiliaries are summoned to our aid. She +is indeed a wonderful woman, and I think all her faculties of the mind +stronger and more active than I have ever known them.... I shall +therefore depart next Friday, but I may possibly reckon without my +host, as I have not yet apprised Mrs. G. of the term of my visit, and +will certainly not quarrel with her for a short delay." He then went +to Althorpe, and it is the last evidence of his touching a +book--"exhausted the morning (of the 5th November) among the first +editions of Cicero." Then he came to London, and in a few days was +seized with the illness which in a little more than two months put an +end to his life. + +His malady was dropsy, complicated with other disorders. He had most +strangely neglected a very dangerous symptom for upwards of thirty +years, not only having failed to take medical advice about it, but +even avoiding all allusion to it to bosom friends like Lord Sheffield. +But longer concealment was now impossible. He sent for the eminent +surgeon Farquhar (the same who afterwards attended William Pitt), and +he, together with Cline, at once recognised the case as one of the +utmost gravity, though they did not say as much to the patient. On +Thursday, the 14th of November, he was tapped and greatly relieved. He +said he was not appalled by the operation, and during its progress he +did not lay aside his usual good-humoured pleasantry. He was soon out +again, but only for a few days, and a fortnight after another tapping +was necessary. Again he went out to dinners and parties, which must +have been most imprudent at his age and in his state. But he does not +seem to have acted contrary to medical advice. He was very anxious to +meet the prime minister, William Pitt, with whom he was not +acquainted, though he must have seen him in old days in the House. He +saw him twice; once at Eden Farm for a whole day, and was much +gratified, we are told. At last he got to what he called his home--the +house of his true and devoted friend, Lord Sheffield. "But," says the +latter, whose narrative of his friend's last illness is marked by a +deep and reserved tenderness that does him much honour, "this last +visit to Sheffield Place became far different from any he had ever +made before. That ready, cheerful, various and illuminating +conversation which we had before admired in him, was not always to be +found in the library or the drawing-room. He moved with difficulty, +and retired from company sooner than he had been used to do. On the +23rd of December his appetite began to fail him. He observed to me +that it was a very bad sign _with him_ when he could not eat his +breakfast, which he had done at all times very heartily; and this +seems to have been the strongest expression of apprehension that he +was ever observed to utter." He soon became too ill to remain beyond +the reach of the highest medical advice. On the 7th of January, 1794, +he left a houseful of company and friends for his lodgings in St. +James's Street. On arriving he sent the following note to Lord +Sheffield, the last lines he ever wrote:-- + + "ST. JAMES'S, FOUR O'CLOCK, TUESDAY. + + "This date says everything. I was almost killed between + Sheffield Place and East Grinstead by hard, frozen, long, and + cross ruts, that would disgrace the approach of an Indian + wigwam. The rest was somewhat less painful, and I reached + this place half dead, but not seriously feverish or ill. I + found a dinner invitation from Lord Lucan; but what are + dinners to me? I wish they did not know of my departure. I + catch the flying post. What an effort! Adieu till Thursday or + Friday." + +The end was not far off. On the 13th of January he underwent another +operation, and, as usual, experienced much relief. "His spirits +continued good. He talked of passing his time at houses which he had +often frequented with great pleasure--the Duke of Devonshire's, Mr. +Craufurd's, Lord Spencer's, Lord Lucan's, Sir Ralph Payne's, Mr. +Batt's." On the 14th of January "he saw some company--Lady Lucan and +Lady Spencer--and thought himself well enough to omit the opium +draught which he had been used to take for some time. He slept very +indifferently; before nine the next morning he rose, but could not eat +his breakfast. However, he appeared tolerably well, yet complained at +times of a pain in his stomach. At one o'clock he received a visit of +an hour from Madame de Sylva; and at three, his friend, Mr. Craufurd, +of Auchinames (whom he always mentioned with particular regard), +called, and stayed with him till past five o'clock. They talked, as +usual, on various subjects; and twenty hours before his death Mr. +Gibbon happened to fall into a conversation not uncommon with him, on +the probable duration of his life. He said that he thought himself a +good life for ten, twelve, or perhaps twenty years. About six he ate +the wing of a chicken and drank three glasses of Madeira. After dinner +he became very uneasy and impatient, complained a good deal, and +appeared so weak that his servant was alarmed. + +"During the evening he complained much of his stomach, and of a +feeling of nausea. Soon after nine, he took his opium draught and went +to bed. About ten he complained of much pain, and desired that warm +napkins might be applied to his stomach. He almost incessantly +expressed a sense of pain till about four o'clock in the morning, when +he said he found his stomach much easier. About seven the servant +asked whether he should send for Mr. Farquhar. He answered, No; that +he was as well as the day before. At about half-past eight he got out +of bed, and said he was 'plus adroit' than he had been for three +months past, and got into bed again without assistance, better than +usual. About nine he said he would rise. The servant, however, +persuaded him to remain in bed till Mr. Farquhar, who was expected at +eleven, should come. Till about that hour he spoke with great +facility. Mr. Farquhar came at the time appointed, and he was then +visibly dying. When the _valet-de-chambre_ returned, after attending +Mr. Farquhar out of the room, Mr. Gibbon said, 'Pourquoi est ce que +vous me quittez?' This was about half-past eleven. At twelve he drank +some brandy and water from a teapot, and desired his favourite servant +to stay with him. These were the last words he pronounced +articulately. To the last he preserved his senses; and when he could +no longer speak, his servant having asked a question, he made a sign +to show that he understood him. He was quite tranquil, and did not +stir, his eyes half shut. About a quarter before one he ceased to +breathe." He wanted just eighty-three days of fifty-seven years of +age. + +Thus, in consequence of his own strange self-neglect and imprudence, +was extinguished one of the most richly-stored minds that ever lived. +Occurring when it did, so near the last summons, Gibbon's prospective +hope of continued life "for ten, twelve, or twenty years" is harshly +pathetic, and full of that irony which mocks the vain cares of men. +But, truly, his forecast was not irrational if he had not neglected +ordinary precautions. In spite of his ailments he felt full, and was +full, of life, when he was cut off. We cannot be sure if lengthened +days would have added much to his work already achieved. There is +hardly a parallel case in literature of the great powers of a whole +life being so concentrated on one supreme and magnificent effort. Yet, +if he had lived to 1804, or as an extreme limit, to 1814, we should +have been all gainers. In the first place, he certainly would have +finished his admirable autobiography. We cannot imagine what he would +have made of it, judging from the fragment which exists. And yet that +fragment is almost a masterpiece. But his fertile mind had other +schemes in prospect; and what such a diligent worker would have done +with a decade or two more of years it is impossible to say, except +that it is certain they would not have been wasted. The extinction of +a real mind is ever an irreparable loss. + +As it was, he went to his rest after one of the greatest victories +ever achieved in his own field of humane letters, and lived long +enough to taste the fruits of his toil. He was never puffed up, but +soberly and without arrogance received his laurels. His unselfish zeal +and haste to console his bereaved friend showed him warm and loving to +the last; and we may say that his last serious effort was consecrated +to the genius of pious friendship. + +In 1796, two years after Gibbon's death, Lord Sheffield published two +quarto volumes of the historian's miscellaneous works. They have been +republished in one thick octavo, and many persons suppose that it +contains the whole of the posthumous works; not unnaturally, as a +fraudulent statement on the title-page, "complete in one volume," is +well calculated to produce that impression. But in 1814 Lord Sheffield +issued a second edition in five volumes octavo, containing much +additional matter, which additional matter was again published in a +quarto form, no doubt for the convenience of the purchasers of the +original quarto edition. + +Of the posthumous works, the Memoirs are by far the most important +portion. Unfortunately, they were left in a most unfinished state, and +what we now read is nothing else than a mosaic put together by Lord +Sheffield from _six_ different sketches. Next to the Memoirs are the +journals and diaries of his studies. As a picture of Gibbon's method, +zeal, and thoroughness in the pursuit of knowledge, they are of the +highest interest. But they refer to an early period of his studies, +long previous to the concentration of his mind on his great work, and +one would like to know whether they present the best selection that +might have been made from these records. It is interesting to follow +Gibbon in his perusal of Homer and Juvenal at five-and-twenty. But one +would much like to be admitted to his study when he was a far riper +scholar, and preparing for or writing the _Decline and Fall_. Lord +Sheffield positively prohibited, by a clause in his will, any further +publication of the Gibbon papers, and although Dean Milman was +permitted to see them, it was with the express understanding that none +of their contents should be divulged. After the Memoirs and the +journals, the most interesting portion of the miscellaneous works are +_The Antiquities of the House of Brunswick_, which in their present +form are merely the preparatory sketch of a large work. It is too +imperfect to allow us to judge of what Gibbon even designed to make of +it. But it contains some masterly pages, and the style in many places +seems more nervous and supple than that of the _Decline and Fall._ + +For instance, this account of Albert Azo the Second:-- + + "Like one of his Tuscan ancestors Azo the Second was + distinguished among the princes of Italy by the epithet of + the _Rich_. The particulars of his rentroll cannot now be + ascertained. An occasional though authentic deed of + investiture enumerates eighty-three fiefs or manors which he + held of the empire in Lombardy and Tuscany, from the + Marquisate of Este to the county of Luni; but to these + possessions must be added the lands which he enjoyed as the + vassal of the Church, the ancient patrimony of Otbert (the + terra Obertenga) in the counties of Arezzo, Pisa, and Lucca, + and the marriage portion of his first wife, which, according + to the various readings of the manuscripts, may be computed + either at twenty or two hundred thousand English acres. If + such a mass of landed property were now accumulated on the + head of an Italian nobleman, the annual revenue might + satisfy the largest demands of private luxury or avarice, + and the fortunate owner would be rich in the improvement of + agriculture, the manufactures of industry, the refinement of + taste, and the extent of commerce. But the barbarism of the + eleventh century diminished the income and aggravated the + expense of the Marquis of Este. In a long series of war and + anarchy, man and the works of man had been swept away, and + the introduction of each ferocious and idle stranger had + been overbalanced by the loss of five or six perhaps of the + peaceful industrious natives. The mischievous growth of + vegetation, the frequent inundations of the rivers were no + longer checked by the vigilance of labour; the face of the + country was again covered with forests and morasses; of the + vast domains which acknowledged Azo for their lord, the far + greater part was abandoned to the beasts of the field, and a + much smaller portion was reduced to the state of constant + and productive husbandry. An adequate rent may be obtained + from the skill and substance of a free tenant who fertilizes + a grateful soil, and enjoys the security and benefit of a + long lease. But faint is the hope and scanty is the produce + of those harvests which are raised by the reluctant toil of + peasants and slaves condemned to a bare subsistance and + careless of the interests of a rapacious master. If his + granaries are full, his purse is empty, and the want of + cities or commerce, the difficulty of finding or reaching a + market, obliges him to consume on the spot a part of his + useless stock, which cannot be exchanged for merchandise or + money.... The entertainment of his vassals and soldiers, + their pay and rewards, their arms and horses, surpassed the + measure of the most oppressive tribute, and the destruction + which he inflicted on his neighbours was often retaliated on + his own lands. The costly elegance of palaces and gardens + was superseded by the laborious and expensive construction + of strong castles on the summits of the most inaccessible + rocks, and some of these, like the fortress of Canossa in + the Apennine, were built and provided to sustain a three + years' siege against a royal army. But his defence in this + world was less burdensome to a wealthy lord than his + salvation in the next; the demands of his chapel, his + priests, his alms, his offerings, his pilgrimages were + incessantly renewed; the monastery chosen for his sepulchre + was endowed with his fairest possessions, and the naked heir + might often complain that his father's sins had been + redeemed at too high a price. The Marquis Azo was not exempt + from the contagion of the times; his devotion was animated + and inflamed by the frequent miracles that were performed in + his presence; and the monks of Vangadizza, who yielded to + his request the arm of a dead saint, were not ignorant of + the value of that inestimable jewel. After satisfying the + demands of war and superstition he might appropriate the + rest of his revenue to use and pleasure. But the Italians of + the eleventh century were imperfectly skilled in the liberal + and mechanical arts; the objects of foreign luxury were + furnished at an exorbitant price by the merchants of Pisa + and Venice; and the superfluous wealth which could not + purchase the real comforts of life, were idly wasted on some + rare occasions of vanity and pomp. Such were the nuptials of + Boniface, Duke or Marquis of Tuscany, whose family was long + after united with that of Azo by the marriage of their + children. These nuptials were celebrated on the banks of the + Mincius, which the fancy of Virgil has decorated with a more + beautiful picture. The princes and people of Italy were + invited to the feasts, which continued three months; the + fertile meadows, which are intersected by the slow and + winding course of the river, were covered with innumerable + tents, and the bridegroom displayed and diversified the + scenes of his proud and tasteless magnificence. All the + utensils of the service were of silver, and his horses were + shod with plates of the same metal, loosely nailed and + carelessly dropped, to indicate his contempt of riches. An + image of plenty and profusion was expressed in the banquet; + the most delicious wines were drawn in buckets from the + well; and the spices of the East were ground in water-mills + like common flour. The dramatic and musical arts were in the + rudest state; but the Marquis had summoned the most popular + singers, harpers, and buffoons to exercise their talents in + this splendid theatre. After this festival I might remark a + singular gift of this same Boniface to the Emperor Henry + III., a chariot and oxen of solid silver, which were + designed only as a vehicle for a hogshead of vinegar. If + such an example should seem above the imitation of Azo + himself, the Marquis of Este was at least superior in wealth + and dignity to the vassals of his compeer. One of these + vassals, the Viscount of Mantua, presented the German + monarch with one hundred falcons and one hundred bay horses, + a grateful contribution to the pleasures of a royal + sportsman. In that age the proud distinction between the + nobles and princes of Italy was guarded with jealous + ceremony. The Viscount of Mantua had never been seated at + the table of his immediate lord; he yielded to the + invitation of the Emperor; and a stag's skin filled with + pieces of gold was graciously accepted by the Marquis of + Tuscany as the fine of his presumption. + + "The temporal felicity of Azo was crowned by the long + possession of honour and riches; he died in the year 1097, + aged upwards of an hundred years; and the term of his mortal + existence was almost commensurate with the lapse of the + eleventh century. The character as well as the situation of + the Marquis of Este rendered him an actor in the revolutions + of that memorable period; but time has cast a veil over the + virtues and vices of the man, and I must be content to mark + some of the eras, the milestones of his which measure the + extent and intervals of the vacant way. Albert Azo the + Second was no more than seventeen when he first drew the + sword of rebellion and patriotism, when he was involved with + his grandfather, his father, and his three uncles in a + common proscription. In the vigour of his manhood, about his + fiftieth year, the Ligurian Marquis governed the cities of + Milan and Genoa as the minister of Imperial authority. He + was upwards of seventy when he passed the Alps to vindicate + the inheritance of Maine for the children of his second + marriage. He became the friend and servant of Gregory VII., + and in one of his epistles that ambitious pontiff recommends + the Marquis Azo, as the most faithful and best beloved of + the Italian princes, as the proper channel through which a + king of Hungary might convey his petitions to the apostolic + throne. In the mighty contest between the crown and the + mitre, the Marquis Azo and the Countess Matilda led the + powers of Italy. And when the standard of St. Peter was + displayed, neither the age of the one nor the sex of the + other could detain them from the field. With these two + affectionate clients the Pope maintained his station in the + fortress of Canossa, while the Emperor, barefoot on the + frozen ground, fasted and prayed three days at the foot of + the rock; they were witnesses to the abject ceremony of the + penance and pardon of Henry IV.; and in the triumph of the + Church a patriot might foresee the deliverance of Italy from + the German yoke. At the time of this event the Marquis of + Este was above fourscore; but in the twenty following years + he was still alive and active amidst the revolutions of + peace and war. The last act which he subscribed is dated + above a century after his birth; and in that the venerable + chief possesses the command of his faculties, his family, + and his fortune. In this rare prerogative the longevity of + Albert Azo the Second stands alone. Nor can I remember in + the _authentic_ annals of mortality a single example of a + king or prince, of a statesman or general, of a philosopher + or poet, whose life has been extended beyond the period of a + hundred years.... Three approximations which will not + hastily be matched have distinguished the present century, + Aurungzebe, Cardinal Fleury, and Fontenelle. Had a fortnight + more been given to the philosopher, he might have celebrated + his secular festival; but the lives and labours of the Mogul + king and the French minister were terminated before they had + accomplished their ninetieth year." + +Then follow several striking and graceful pages on Lucrezia Borgia and +Renee of France, Duchess of Ferrara. The following description of the +University of Padua and the literary tastes of the house of Este is +all that we can give here:-- + + "An university had been founded at Padua by the house of + Este, and the scholastic rust was polished away by the + revival of the literature of Greece and Rome. The studies of + Ferrara were directed by skilful and eloquent professors, + either natives or foreigners. The ducal library was filled + with a valuable collection of manuscripts and printed books, + and as soon as twelve new plays of Plautus had been found in + Germany, the Marquis Lionel of Este was impatient to obtain + a fair and faithful copy of that ancient poet. Nor were + these elegant pleasures confined to the learned world. Under + the reign of Hercules I. a wooden theatre at a moderate + cost of a thousand crowns was constructed in the largest + court of the palace, the scenery represented some houses, a + seaport and a ship, and the _Menechmi_ of Plautus, which had + been translated into Italian by the Duke himself, was acted + before a numerous and polite audience. In the same language + and with the same success the _Amphytrion_ of Plautus and + the _Eunuchus_ of Terence were successively exhibited. And + these classic models, which formed the taste of the + spectators, excited the emulation of the poets of the age. + For the use of the court and theatre of Ferrara, Ariosto + composed his comedies, which were often played with + applause, which are still read with pleasure. And such was + the enthusiasm of the new arts that one of the sons of + Alphonso the First did not disdain to speak a prologue on + the stage. In the legitimate forms of dramatic composition + the Italians have not excelled; but it was in the court of + Ferrara that they invented and refined the _pastoral + comedy_, a romantic Arcadia which violates the truth of + manners and the simplicity of nature, but which commands our + indulgence by the elaborate luxury of eloquence and wit. The + _Aminta_ of Tasso was written for the amusement and acted in + the presence of Alphonso the Second, and his sister Leonora + might apply to herself the language of a passion which + disordered the reason without clouding the genius of her + poetical lover. Of the numerous imitations, the _Pastor + Fido_ of Guarini, which alone can vie with the fame and + merit of the original, is the work of the Duke's secretary + of state. It was exhibited in a private house in Ferrara.... + The father of the Tuscan muses, the sublime but unequal + Dante, had pronounced that Ferrara was never honoured with + the name of a poet; he would have been astonished to behold + the chorus of bards, of melodious swans (their own + allusion), which now peopled the banks of the Po. In the + court of Duke Borso and his successor, Boyardo Count + Scandiano, was respected as a noble, a soldier, and a + scholar: his vigorous fancy first celebrated the loves and + exploits of the paladin Orlando; and his fame has been + preserved and eclipsed by the brighter glories and + continuation of his work. Ferrara may boast that on classic + ground Ariosto and Tasso lived and sung; that the lines of + the _Orlando Furioso_, the _Gierusalemme Liberata_ were + inscribed in everlasting characters under the eye of the + First and Second Alphonso. In a period of near three + thousand years, five great epic poets have arisen in the + world, and it is a singular prerogative that two of the five + should be claimed as their own by a short age and a petty + state." + +It perhaps will be admitted that if the style of these passages is +less elaborate than that of the _Decline and Fall_, the deficiency, if +it is one, is compensated by greater ease and lightness of touch. + +It may be interesting to give a specimen of Gibbon's French style. His +command of that language was not inferior to his command of his native +idiom. One might even be inclined to say that his French prose is +controlled by a purer taste than his English prose. The following +excerpt, describing the Battle of Morgarten, will enable the reader to +judge. It is taken from his early unfinished work on the History of +the Swiss Republic, to which reference has already been made (p. +59):-- + + "Leopold etait parti de Zug vers le milieu de la nuit. Il se + flattait d'occuper sans resistance le defile de Morgarten + qui ne percait qu'avec difficulte entre le lac Aegre et le + pied d'une montagne escarpee. Il marchait a la tete de sa + gendarmerie. Une colonne profonde d'infanterie le suivait de + pres, et les uns et les autres se promettaient une victoire + facile si les paysans osaient se presenter a leur rencontre. + Ils etaient a peine entres dans un chemin rude et etroit, et + qui ne permettait qu'a trois ou quatre de marcher de front, + qu'ils se sentirent accables d'une grele de pierres et de + traits. Rodolphe de Reding, landamman de Schwitz et general + des Confederes, n'avait oublie aucun des avantages que lui + offrit la situation des lieux. Il avait fait couper des + rochers enormes, qui en s'ebranlant des qu'on retirait les + faibles appuis qui les retenaient encore, se detachaient du + sommet de la montaigne et se precipitaient avec un bruit + affreux sur les bataillons serres des Autrichiens. Deja les + chevaux s'effrayaient, les rangs se confondaient, et le + desordre egarait le courage et le rendait inutile, lorsque + les Suisses descendirent de la montagne en poussant de + grands cris. Accoutumes a poursuivre le chamois sur les + bords glissants des precipices, ils couraient d'un pas + assure au milieu des neiges. Ils etaient armes de grosses et + pesantes hallebardes, auxquelles le fer le mieux trempe ne + resistait point. Les soldats de Leopold chancelants et + decourages cederent bientot aux efforts desesperes d'une + troupe qui combattait pour tout ce qu'il y a de plus cher + aux hommes. L'Abbe d'Einsidlen, premier auteur de cette + guerre malheureuse, et le comte Henri de Montfort, donnerent + les premiers l'example de la fuite. Le desordre devint + general, le carnage fut affreux, et les Suisses se livraient + au plaisir de la vengeance. A neuf heures du matin la + bataille etait gagnee.... Un grand nombre d'Autrichiens se + precipitant les uns sur les autres, chercherent vainement + dans le lac un asyle contre la fureur de leurs ennemis. Ils + y perirent presque tous. Quinze cents hommes resterent sur + le champ de bataille. Ils etaient pour la plupart de la + gendarmerie, qu'une valeur malheureuse et une armure pesante + arretaient dans un lieu ou l'un et l'autre leur etaient + inutiles. Longtemps apres l'on s'apercevait dans toutes les + provinces voisines que l'elite de la noblesse avait peri + dans cette fatale journee. L'infanterie beaucoup moins + engagee dans le defile, vit en tremblant la defaite des + chevaliers qui passaient pour invincibles, et dont les + escadrons effrayes se renversaient sur elle. Elle s'arreta, + voulut se retirer, et dans l'instant cette retraite devint + une fuite honteuse. Sa perte fut assez peu considerable, + mais les historiens de la nation ont conserve la memoire de + cinquante braves Zuriquois dont on trouva les rangs couches + morts sur la place. Leopold lui-meme fut entraine par la + foule qui le portait du cote de Zug. On le vit entrer dans + sa ville de Winterthur. La frayeur, la honte et + l'indignation etaient encore peintes sur son front. Des que + la victoire se fut declaree en faveur des Suisses, ils + s'assemblerent sur le champ de bataille, s'embrasserent e + versant des larmes d'allegresse, et remercierent Dieu de la + grace qu'il venait de leur faire, et qui ne leur avait coute + que quatorze de leurs compagnons." + +His familiar letters and a number of essays, chiefly written in youth, +form the remainder of the miscellaneous works. Of the letters, some +have been quoted in this volume, and the reader can form his own +judgment of them. Of the small essays we may say that they augment, if +it is possible, one's notion of Gibbon's laborious diligence and +thoroughness in the field of historic research, and confirm his title +to the character of an intrepid student. + +The lives of scholars are proverbially dull, and that of Gibbon is +hardly an exception to the rule. In the case of historians, the +protracted silent labour of preparation, followed by the conscientious +exposition of knowledge acquired, into which the intrusion of the +writer's personality rarely appears to advantage, combine to give +prominence to the work achieved, and to throw into the background the +author who achieves it. If indeed the historian, forsaking his high +function and austere reserve, succumbs to the temptations that beset +his path, and turns history into political pamphlet, poetic rhapsody, +moral epigram, or garish melodrama, he may become conspicuous to a +fault at the expense of his work. Gibbon avoided these seductions. If +the _Decline and Fall_ has no superior in historical literature, it is +not solely in consequence of Gibbon's profound learning, wide survey, +and masterly grasp of his subject. With wise discretion, he +subordinated himself to his task. The life of Gibbon is the less +interesting, but his work remains monumental and supreme. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. + +EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY. + + +_These Short Books are addressed to the general public with a view +both to stirring and satisfying an interest in literature and its +great topics in the minds of those who have to run as they read. An +immense class is growing up, and must every year increase, whose +education will have made them alive to the importance of the masters +of our literature, and capable of intelligent curiosity as to their +performances. The Series is intended to give the means of nourishing +this curiosity, to an extent that shall be copious enough to be +profitable for knowledge and life, and yet be brief enough to serve +those whose leisure is scanty_. + +_The following are arranged for_:-- + +_SPENSER_ _The Dean of St. Paul's._ + +_HUME_ _Professor Huxley._ _In the Press._ + +_BUNYAN_ _James Anthony Froude._ + +_JOHNSON_ _Leslie Stephen._ [_Ready._ + +_GOLDSMITH_ _William Black._ [_In the Press._ + +_MILTON_ _Mark Pattison._ + +_WORDSWORTH_ _Goldwin Smith._ + +_SWIFT_ _John Morley._ + +_BURNS_ _Principal Shairp._ + +_SCOTT_ _Richard H. Hutton._ [_Ready._ + +_SHELLEY_ _J. A. Symonds._ [_Ready._ + +_GIBBON_ _J. C. Morison._ [_Ready._ + +_BYRON_ _Professor Nichol._ + +_DEFOE_ _W. Minto._ + +_GRAY_ _John Morley._ + +[_OTHERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED_] + + + * * * * * + + +OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. + + "The new series opens well with Mr. Leslie Stephen's sketch + of Dr. Johnson. It could hardly have been done better; and + it will convey to the readers for whom it is intended a + juster estimate of Johnson than either of the two essays of + Lord Macaulay."--_Pall Mall Gazette_. + + "We have come across few writers who have had a clearer + insight into Johnson's character, or who have brought to the + study of it a better knowledge of the time in which Johnson + lived and the men whom he knew."--_Saturday Review_. + + "It must be admitted that Mr. Stephen has succeeded + admirably in his task. No writer could be more competent to + supply what is wanted in Boswell, a comprehensive sketch of + his hero's position in the literature of the eighteenth + century, and he has also shown great judgment and dexterity + in his illustration of Johnson's personal oddities and his + power as a talker.... All the traits of the personality + which Boswell has immortalized are to be found here, as well + as luminous sketches of the literature of the period, and a + solid judgment of the work that Johnson did in the + world."--_Examiner_. + + "We could not wish for a more suggestive introduction to + Scott and his poems and novels."--_Examiner_. + + "The tone of the volume is excellent + throughout."--_Athenaeum_ Review of "Scott." + + "As a clear, thoughtful, and attractive record of the life + and works of the greatest among the world's historians, it + deserves the highest praise."--_Examiner_ Review of + "Gibbon." + + + + +MACMILLAN'S GLOBE LIBRARY. + + +_Beautifully printed on toned paper and bound in cloth extra, gilt +edges, price 4s. 6d. each; in cloth plain, 3s. 6d. Also kept in a +variety of calf and morocco bindings, at moderate prices_. + + _The_ SATURDAY REVIEW _says: "The Globe Editions are + admirable for their scholarly editing, their typographical + excellence, their compendious form, and their cheapness." + The_ BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW _says: "In compendiousness, + elegance, and scholarliness the Globe Editions of Messrs. + Macmillan surpass any popular series of our classics + hitherto given to the public. As near an approach to + miniature perfection as has ever been made_." + +Shakespeare's Complete Works. Edited by W. G. CLARK, M.A., and W. +ALDIS WRIGHT, M.A., Editors of the "Cambridge Shakespeare." With +Glossary, pp. 1075. + + _The_ ATHENAEUM _says this edition is "a marvel of beauty, + cheapness, and compactness.... For the busy man, above all + for the working student, this is the best of all existing + Shakespeares._" + +Spenser's Complete Works. Edited from the Original Editions and +Manuscripts, by R. MORRIS, with a Memoir by J. W. HALES, M.A. With +Glossary. pp. lv., 736. + + "_Worthy--and higher praise it needs not--of the beautiful + 'Globe Series_'"--DAILY NEWS. + +Sir Walter Scott's Poetical Works. Edited, with a Biographical and +Critical Memoir, by FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE, and Copious Notes. pp. +xliii., 559. + + "_We can almost sympathise with a middle-aged grumbler, who, + after reading Mr. Palgrave's Memoir and Introduction, should + exclaim, 'Why was there not such an edition of Scott when I + was a schoolboy_?'"--GUARDIAN. + +Complete Works of Robert Burns. Edited from the best Printed and +Manuscript authorities, with Glossarial Index, Notes, and a +Biographical Memoir by ALEXANDER SMITH, pp. lxii., 636. + + "_Admirable in all respects_."--SPECTATOR. + +Robinson Crusoe. Edited after the Original Editions, with a +Biographical Introduction by HENRY KINGSLEY. pp. xxxi., 607. + + "_A most excellent and in every way desirable + edition_."--COURT CIRCULAR. + +Goldsmith's Miscellaneous Works. Edited with Biographical +Introduction, by Professor MASSON. pp. lx., 695. + + "_Such an admirable compendium of the facts of Goldsmith's + life, and so careful and minute a delineation of the mixed + traits of his peculiar character as to be a very model of a + literary biography in little_."--SCOTSMAN. + +Pope's Poetical Works. Edited, with Notes, and Introductory Memoir by +A. W. WARD, M.A., Professor of History in Owens College Manchester, +pp. lii., 508. + + _The_ LITERARY CHURCHMAN _remarks: "The Editor's own notes + and introductory memoir are excellent, the memoir alone + would be cheap and well worth buying at the price of the + whole volume_." + +Dryden's Poetical Works. Edited, with a Memoir, Revised Text, and +Notes, by W.D. CHRISTIE, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, pp. +lxxxvii., 662. + + "_An admirable edition, the result of great research and of + a careful revision of the text_."--PALL MALL GAZETTE. + +Cowper's Poetical Works. Edited, with Notes and Biographical +Introduction, by WILLIAM BENHAM, Vicar of Margate, pp. lxxiii., 536. + + "_Mr. Benham's edition of Cowper is one of permanent + value_."--SATURDAY REVIEW. + +Morte d'Arthur.--SIR THOMAS MALORY'S BOOK OF KING ARTHUR AND OF HIS +NOBLE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. The original Edition of CAXTON, +revised for Modern Use. With an Introduction by Sir EDWARD STRACHEY, +Bart. pp. xxxvii., 509. + + "_It is with perfect confidence that we recommend this + edition of the old romance to every class of + readers_."--PALL MALL GAZETTE. + +The Works of Virgil. Rendered into English Prose, with Introductions, +Notes, Running Analysis, and an Index. 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