GIBBON. 305 



he might possibly print it. Gibbon replied, that he 

 alone had the right to authorize such a proceeding, and 

 that he withheld his consent. Priestley, on the ground 

 that the subject of their letters was public, asserted his 

 right to print them; which he did soon after Gibbon's 

 decease. The opinion of the world has long since been 

 pronounced very unanimously, that though Gibbon's 

 sneers were chargeable with impertinence, yet Priestley's 

 whole proceeding was entirely without justification, and 

 his reason for publishing the correspondence utterly 

 absurd. 



In the autumn of 1783 Gibbon repaired to Lausanne, 

 where his friend Deyverdim had settled, and took up 

 his abode with him, the house belonging to the one, and 

 the other defraying the expense of the establishment. 

 A year elapsed before the change, the want of his books, 

 and the renewal of his long interrupted acquaintance 

 with his Lausanne friends allowed him to resume his 

 habits of regular work. Some considerable time was also 

 spent in determining whether when distributing his matter 

 on so various and often confused a subject he should 

 follow the chronological order of events, or "groupe the 

 picture by nations," and he wisely preferred the latter 

 course. He then began to work diligently, and finished 

 the fifth volume in less than two years, the sixth, and 

 last, in thirteen months. He must be himself allowed to 

 describe the conclusion of his arduous labours. 



" It was," he says, " on the day, or rather the night of 

 the 27th of June, 1787, between the hours of eleven and 

 twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a 

 summer house in my garden. After laying down my 

 pen I took several walks in a berceau, or covered walk of 



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