282 GIBBON. 



College, 2nd April, 1752, a few weeks before he had 

 completed his fifteenth year. 



Hitherto it may truly be said, that, partly from his 

 feeble health, partly from the neglect of his instructors, he 

 had been taught little, and left to acquire information 

 either by his own efforts or the conversation of his excel- 

 lent aunt. Fortunately she was a well-read person, of 

 sound judgment, and correct taste ; and she delighted to 

 direct, and to form his mind by pointing out the best 

 books, and helping him to understand them. His read- 

 ing, however, was necessarily desultory, and in the classics 

 he made but an inconsiderable progress, although he had 

 acquired a competent knowledge of the Latin tongue. 

 But the bent of his inclination had already disclosed 

 itself. While he read other books, he devoured histories. 

 The ' Universal History' was then in the course of publica- 

 tion, and he eagerly pored over the volumes as they suc- 

 cessively appeared. In the summer of 1751, he accom- 

 panied his father on a visit to Mr. Hoare, in Wiltshire, 

 and finding in the library the continuation of Echard's 

 * Roman History/ he was deeply immersed in it when 

 summoned to dinner. Returning to Bath, he obtained 

 that portion of HowelTs 'History of the World/ containing 

 the Byzantine period; and he soon had traversed the 

 whole field of oriental story nay, more, he had studied 

 the geography connected with that history, and had 

 examined the different chronological systems which bore 

 upon the subject; those of Scaliger, and Petavius, of 

 Mar sham, and Newton; which of course he could only 

 know at second-hand; and he arrived at Oxford before 

 the age of fifteen complete, with a stock of erudition, 

 which, he says, might have puzzled a Doctor, and a degree 



