290 GIBBON. 



phical, are heaped oil each other without method or 

 connexion, and, if we except some introductory pages, 

 all the remaining chapters might indifferently be reversed 

 or transposed." ('Life/ chap, v.) Though his candour 

 be deserving of our approbation, and though we must 

 also agree in his observation that "the imitation of 

 Montesquieu has been fatal," there is little chance of any 

 one subscribing to the complacency with which he regards 

 his obstinate defence of the early history of Rome. As- 

 suredly nothing can be less creditable to his sagacity; 

 nor can one so difficult on severe subjects of belief be 

 excused for so easily swallowing down the poetical fictions 

 of the earlier Roman annals. 



The folly of choosing to write in a foreign language 

 he hardly excuses by saying, that it was partly with a 

 view of furthering the plan of his father to obtain some 

 diplomatic appointment, but chiefly from the vanity of 

 being a singular instance in this kind. The success, 

 however, of the publication abroad was aided by this 

 circumstance, but it was not sufficiently great to justify 

 the author; while at home the work could not be said 

 to have any success at all. It was little read beyond 

 the circle of the writer's few friends, and it was very 

 speedily forgotten. 



A short time before this publication, June, 1759, he 

 had joined the Hampshire militia as captain, his father 

 having the rank of major. During two years and a half, 

 that is, till the end of the war, he was thus condemned, 

 he says, "to a wandering life of military servitude/' 

 He complains of the loss of precious time thus occa- 

 sioned, and the souring of the temper by ruder intercourse 

 without any adequate compensation for either evil, beyond 



