[ 319 7] 
CHARACTERS. 
Partieulars of the earlitr years of Mr. 
Gibbon’s Life, and of the course of 
studies which laid the foundation of 
his subsequent celebrity. From me- 
moirs of himself in Lord Sheffield’ s 
edition of bis posthumous works. 
I_was born at Putney, in the 
county of Surrey, on the 27th of 
April, O. S. in the year one thou- 
sand seven hundred. and thirty- 
seven ; the first child of the mar. 
riage of Edward Gibbon, esq. and 
of fadith Porten. My lot might 
have been that of a slave, a savage, 
or a peasant; nor can I reflect with- 
out pleasure on the bounty of na. 
ture, which cast my birth in a free 
and civilized country, in an age of 
science and philosophy, in a family 
of honourable rank, and decently 
endowed with the gifts of fortune. 
From my birth I have enjoyed the 
right of primogeniture ; but I was 
succeeded by five brothers and one 
sister, all of whom were snatched 
away in their infancy. My five bro- 
thers, whose names may be found 
in the parish register of Putney, I 
shall not pretend to lament; but 
from my childhood to the present 
hour I have deeply and sincerely 
regretted my sister, whose life was 
somewhat prolonged, whom I re- 
member to have scen an amiable 
infant. The relation of a brother 
and a sister, especially if they do 
not marry, appears to me of a very 
singular nature. [t is a familia¥ 
and tender friendship with a female, 
much about our own age; an af- 
fection perhaps softened by the se« 
cret influence of sex, but pure from 
any mixture of sensual desire, the 
sole species of platonic love that 
can be indulged with truth, ané 
without danger. 
The death of a new born child 
before that of its parents may seem 
an unnatural, but it is strictly a 
probable event: since of any giver 
number the greater part are extins 
guished before their ninth year, 
before they possess the faculties of 
the mind or body. Without ac 
cusing the profuse waste or imper- 
fe& workmanship of ature, E 
shall only observe, that this unfa- 
vourable chance was multiplied 
against my infant existence. So 
feeble was my constitution, so pre- 
caricus my life, that, in the baptism 
of each of my brothers, my father’s 
prudence successively repeated my 
christian name of Edward, that, in 
cage of the departure of the eldest 
son, this patronymic appellation 
might be still perpetuated in the 
family. 
——Uno avulso non deficit alter, 
To preserve and: to rear so frail a 
being, the most tetider assiduity was 
scarcely sufficient; and my mo. 
ther’s attention. was somewhat di... 
verted 
