300 GIBBON. 



upon them, and gives a very dismal prediction of the 

 downfall of philosophy, and decrease of taste, which the 

 prevalence of superstition in England was likely to bring 

 about. He also expresses his astonishment that a clas- 

 sical work should have appeared in a country so given 

 up to " barbarous and absurd faction, and so totally 

 neglecting all polite letters." The reception of his own 

 history in all likelihood was present to his memory when 

 he took these gloomy views. He urges Gibbon to con- 

 tinue the work, which he says the learned men of Edin- 

 burgh are most anxious to see completed, and mournfully 

 observes, that he speaks without any personal interest, as 

 he cannot expect to see the fulfilment of these wishes. 

 In fact he died a few months after the date of the letter,. 

 (March, 1776.)* 



* My learned, able and reverend friend, Mr. Milman, (to whose 

 admirable edition alone I refer in this work,) departing from his 

 wonted and very signal candour, adds a note to the Principal's letter 

 intimating that " his prudential civility is not quite honest," in refer- 

 ence to the passage regarded by Mr. M. as a suppressed opinion, on 

 the celebrated chapters. My knowledge of Dr. Robertson's strict 

 and most scrupulous veracity, makes it quite clear to me that the 

 fact was as he stated it, and that to avoid controversy, (a thing he ex- 

 ceedingly disliked on all occasions, but especially on matters so inter- 

 esting to his feelings as the truths of Christianity,) he had purposely 

 written his letter before he perused those portions of the volume. 

 Surely he might be excused for not expressing his dissent from or dis- 

 approval of the chapters, when it was notorious to all mankind that 

 he had himself discussed the same subject, but with the views of a 

 sincere believer, in the famous Sermon so often referred to by M. 

 Guizot, in his Notes, as containing an anticipated refutation of Gib- 

 bon, notes inserted by Mr. Milman himself in his edition of the 

 History. It might as well be supposed that Mr. Hume differed with 

 Gibbon, because he does not express any concurrence or any ap- 

 proval, except of the prudence of the manner, as that Dr. Robertson 



