GIBBON. 323 



the text, and which contain no small portion of a critical 

 abstract, serving for a catalogue raisonne, of the works 

 referred to in the page. Though many of these notes 

 are somewhat flippant, and some are far from decent, 

 they form, perhaps, the most striking, certainly the most 

 entertaining part of the work. 



It must, lastly, be allowed, that the narrative is as 

 lucid as the confused nature of the subject will admit; 

 and that, whatever defects may be ascribed to it, there is 

 nothing tiring or monotonous, nothing to prevent the 

 reader's attention from being kept ever awake. When 

 the nature of the subject is considered, perhaps there 

 may some doubt arise, if the chaster style of Livy, of 

 Robertson, or even of Hume, could have rendered this 

 story as attractive as Gibbon's manner, singularly free 

 from all approach to monotony, though often deviating 

 widely from simplicity and nature. 



These are, truly, excellences of a high, some of them 

 excellences of the highest, order, and all possessed by 

 Gibbon in an ample measure patient industry, general 

 fidelity, sagacious discrimination, jealous vigilance in 

 detecting error and falsehood, various, profound, and 

 accurate learning, all combined to produce a history, 

 which with eminent clearness unravels a perplexed and 

 obscure subject but one of extreme importance, and 

 which gives in a connected view the transition from 

 former ages to our own, uniting, as has been happily 

 observed,"" by a kind of bridge the story of the ancient 

 and the modern world. It would be difficult for more of 

 the virtues of a great historian to unite in the same person. 



* Miliuan's Preface. 



Y 2 



