93 



GIBBON, EDWARD. 



GIBBON, EDWARD. 



94 



eight years afterwards, once more embarked in the same concern, and 

 in two years were again compelled to retire from an enterprise so 

 ruinous when not understood. He now pursued his profession as a 

 leader, and also gave lessons in singing. In 1781 he went to Naples, 

 where he became a guest of Sir W. Hamilton, the English minister, 

 and a very superior performer on the violin. In 1789 he returned to 

 England, but was coldly received, and failed in establishing a burletta- 

 opcra at the little theatre in the Haymarket. In 1793 he took his 

 burletta troupe to St. Petersburg, then to Moscow, but was as unsuc- 

 cessful in Russia as in London. After experiencing many disappoint- 

 ments the result of bad judgment, singular imprudence, defeated 

 cuuning, and habits not over scrupulous he died at St. Petersburg, 

 in a state of great poverty, in 1796. Giardini possessed much imagi- 

 nation and a fine taste. He composed partly three Italian operas, and 

 one entirely. His English oratorio, 'Ruth,' continued to be performed 

 many years; and his songs, 'Let not Age,' "Tis not Wealth' (in 

 'Love in a Village '), with a few others, are still admired by the lovers 

 of pure melody ; besides which, he published many quintets, quartets, 

 trios, &c., for violins, and also six harpsichord sonatas; but his instru- 

 mental music is now forgotten, and the probability is that, being 

 deficient in depth and vigour, it will never be revived. 



GIBBON, EDWARD, was born at Putney, in the county of Surrey, 

 on the 27th of April 1737. He has given us in his ' Autobiography,' 

 which was published after his death by Lord Sheffield, copious par- 

 ticulars concerning his life and writings. From his own account we 

 learn that in childhood his health was very delicate, and that his early 

 education was principally conducted by his aunt, Mrs. Porten. At the 

 age of nine he was sent to a boarding-school at Kiug-tou-upou- 

 Thames, where he remained for two years, but made little progress, 

 in cousequence of the frequent interruption of his studies by illness. 

 The same cause prevented his attention to study at Westminster 

 school, whither he was sent in 1749, and "his riper age was left to acquire 

 the beauties of the Latin and the rudiments of the Greek tongue." 

 After residing for a short time with the Rev. Philip Francis, the trans- 

 lator of Horace, he was removed in 1752 to Oxford, where he was 

 matriculated as a gentleman commoner of Magdalen College in his 

 fifteenth year. Though his frequent absence from school had prevented 

 him from obtaining much knowledge of Latin and Greek, bis love of 

 reading had led him to peru-e many historical and geographical 

 works; and he arrived at Oxford, according to his own account, 

 "with a stock of erudition that might have puzzled a doctor, and a 

 degree of ignorance of which a school-boy would have been ashamed.'' 

 Hiri imperfect education was not improved duiing his residence at 

 Oxford ; his tutors he describes as easy men, who preferred receiving 

 the fee* to attending to the instruction of their pupils; and after 

 leading a somewhat dissipated life for fourteen mouths, he was 

 compelled to leave Oxford in consequence of having embraced the 

 Komaii Catholic faith. His convention wa* effected by the perusal of 

 :.l. ili-ton's 'Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers possessed 

 by the Church in the K -i iy Ages," in which he attempts to show that 

 all tii-- leiuliug doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church are supported 

 by the miracles of the early fathers, and that therefore the doctrines 

 of the Church of Rome must be true, or the miracles false. Gibbon's 

 early education had taught him to revere the authority of these fathers ; 

 he was induced to read some works in favour of the Roman Catholic 

 faith; and in 1753, he, "solemnly, though privately, abjured the 

 errors of heresy." With the object of reclaiming him to Protestantism, 

 hii father sent him to Lausanne in Switzerland, to reside with M. 

 Pavillard, a Calvinist minister. The arguments of I'uvilhird and 

 his own studies had the effect which his father desired; in the follow 

 ing year he professed hia belief in the doctrines of the ProUstant 

 Church, and, according to his own statement, " suspended his religious 

 inquiries, acquiescing with implicit belief in the tenets and mysteries 

 which are adopted by the general consent of Catholics and I'roteatants." 

 mained iu Switzerland for five year*, during which time he paid 

 great attention to study, and assiduously endeavoured to remedy the 

 defect* of bis early education. 



During his residence at Lausanne, he had become perfectly ac 

 quainted with the French language, in which he composed his 

 first work, entitled ' Kasai sur 1 Etude de la Litterature,' which was 

 publUhed in 1761. " It was received with more favour on the Con- 

 tinent than in England, where it was little read and speedily 

 forgotten." His studies after his return to England were much 

 interrupted by attention to hia duties in the Hampshire militia, in 

 which ha was appointed captain ; and the knowledge of military 

 tactics, which be acquired in this service, was not, to use his own 

 words, " uselew to the historian of ihe Roman Empire." During his 

 visit to Rome in 1764, "a* he sat musing amidst the ruins of the 

 Capitol, while the bare-footed friars wero singing vespers in the 

 temple of Jupiter, the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city 

 first started to his mind." Many years however elapsed before he 

 began the composition of the ' Decline and Fall.' On his return to 

 England, he commenced a work on the Revolutions of Florence and 

 Switzerland; and in conjunction with a Swiss friend of the name ol 

 Deyverdun, published in 1767 and 1768 two volumes of a work 

 entitled ' M'-moirei I .itti'-r.ures de la Grande Brutague.' His next 

 work, whii-li appeared in 1770, was a 'Reply to Bishop Warburton's 

 interpretation of the Sixth Book of the yEneid.' In 1774 he WHS 



returned to parliament by the interest of Lord Eliot for the borough 

 of Liskeard ; and for eight sessions he steadily supported by his vote 

 though he never spoke, the ministry of Lord North, for which he was 

 rewarded by being made one of the commissioners of trade and plan- 

 tations, with a salary of SOOl. a. year. In the next parliament he sat 

 for the borough of Lymingtou, but resigned hia seat on the dissolu- 

 tion of Lord North's ministry, when he lost ' his convenient salary, 

 after having enjoyed it about three years." During the time in which 

 he was a member of parliament, he published, ill the French 

 language, at the request of the ministry, a pamphlet entitled 'Me"uioire 

 Fustificatif,' in reply to the French manifesto and in vindication of 

 ,he justice of the British arms. In 1776 the first volume of the 

 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire * appeared in 4to, and was 

 received by the public iu the most favourable manner : " the first 

 oppression was exhausted in a few days ; a second and third edition 

 were scarcely adequate to the demand." The second and third 

 volumes, which terminated the history of the fall of the Western 

 Empire, were published in 1781. 



In 1783 he left England, and retired to Lausanne, to reside per- 

 manently with his friend M. Deyverdun. From this time to 1787 he 

 was engaged in the composition of the last three volumes of his great 

 work, which appeared in 1788. He spent some time that year in 

 England to superintend the publication, and again returned to 

 Lausanne, where he remained till 1793, when the death of Lady 

 Sheffield recalled him to his native country to console his friend. He 

 died in London on the 16th of January 1794. 



The ' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire * comprises the history 

 of the world for nearly thirteen centuries, from the reign of the 

 Antouines to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks; for the 

 author does not confine himself to the history of the princes that 

 reigned at Rome and Constantinople, but gives an account of all the 

 various nations of the east and west which at any period influenced 

 the destinies of the Roman empire. In the prosecution of this design 

 it was impossible for the historian to neglect the history of the 

 Christian Church, which he properly considered as " a very essential 

 part of the history of the Roman empire." Gibbon accordingly, iu 

 the course of his work, entered fully into the history of the Churcli, 

 and iu the first volume devoted two chapters to an account of the 

 early progress and extension of Christianity. In relating the causes 

 that occasioned the spread of Christianity, he was understood to have 

 sought to undermine the divine authority of the system ; and nume- 

 rous works were published in opposition to his opinions, to none of 

 which did lie make any reply "till Mr. Davis presumed to attack not 

 the faith, but the fidelity of- the historian ; " when he published his 

 1 Vindication of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of his History.' 

 Gibbon's Sketch of Ecclesiastical History is perhaps the best work on, 

 the subject in our language; but he writes rather as an advocate than 

 as an historian, aud though he teldom if ever wilfully perverts facts, 

 yet ho seizes every opportunity of casting ridicule upon the faith 

 which he disbelieved. 



The principal fault of Gibbon's history is owing to the extent and 

 variety of the subject-matter. He included in his plan the history of 

 so many nations that no single individual could do justice to every 

 particular. The reading of Gibbon was very' extensive, but yet not 

 sufficiently extensive to give an accurate history of the world for 

 thirteen centuries. His knowledge of Oriental history is often vague 

 and unsatisfactory, and his acquaintance with the Byzantine historians 

 is said by those who have studied the subject to be superficial. But, 

 with all his defects, the ' Decline and Fall ' was a great accession to 

 literature; Niebuhr indeed pronounced it "a work never to be 

 excelled." It connects ancient and modern history, and contains 

 information on many subjects which historians generally neglect aud 

 sometimes unsuccessfully attempt. Thus, in the 44th chapter, he 

 gives an historical account of the Roman law, which is perhaps one of 

 the best introductions to its study that we possess, and was consi- 

 dered by a celebrated foreign lawyer, Professor Hugo, to be worthy 

 of a translation. Hugo published it at Gottingen, in 1789, under the 

 title of ' Gibbon's tiistorische Uebersicht des Romischcu Rechts.' 

 The 'Decline and Fall' lias been translated into almost all the 

 European languages. The last edition of the French translation 

 contains notes on the history of Christianity, by M. Guizot ; and in a 

 biography of Gibbon, by the same writer, in the ' Biographic Univer- 

 se-lie,' he has expressed his opinion of the chief merits and defects 

 of the ' Decline and Fall.' 



The 'Decline and Fall' was also published in 12 vols. Svo, London, 

 and has since been frequently reprinted. In the most convenient 

 edition of the ' Decline and Fall,' that edited by Dr. William Smith, 

 8 vols. 8vo, 1854-55, are embodied the more important notes of 

 Guizot, the equally valuable ones of Wenck, the German translator, 

 with those by Dean Milrnan intended to correct the ecclesiastical 

 bias of the historian, and a judicious selection from the comments 

 of other authorities, while the references are throughout verified. 

 Hia 'Miscellaneous Works, with memoirs of his life and writings 

 composed by himself,' were published by Lord Sheffield iu 2 vols. 4to, 

 17UC; to which a third voluma was added in 1815. The 'Miscel- 

 laneous Works ' were reprinted in the same year iu 5 vols. Svo. This 

 collection contains a ivpublication of some of the works which have 

 been already mentioned; and in addition to these, a large 'Collection 



