GIBBON. 299 



three first chapters are beyond all comparison the most 

 chastely composed of the whole seventy-one. 



After three years bestowed upon this work, the 

 appearance of which was somewhat delayed by his being 

 in 1774 returned to Parliament for his cousin Mr. 

 Elliott's borough of Liskeard, the first volume, in quarto, 

 was published in the month of February, 1776. Its 

 success was complete. The praise of Mr. Strahan, which 

 Lord Sheffield greatly values, is not indeed of the most 

 enlightened cast. He extols the diction as " the most 

 correct, most elegant, and most expressive he ever read." 

 But the opinion of the two great historians of the age 

 was more judicious, and it was very favourable. Dr. 

 Robertson, while he objected to some passages as too 

 laboured, and to others as too quaint, praised the 

 general flow of the language, and the peculiar happiness 

 of many expressions; and having read the work with a 

 constant reference to the original authorities, he com- 

 mends his accuracy, as he does his great industry. He 

 likewise bestows praise on the narrative as perspicuous 

 and interesting; and he terms the style generally 

 elegant and forcible. Of the two last chapters, the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth, he merely says he has not yet 

 read them, but from what he has heard, expects they will 

 give great offence and injure the success of the book. 

 Mr. Hume still more lavishly extols the work; and of 

 the style he commends the dignity, without taking the 

 exceptions which his own very superior taste must have 

 suggested. Of the two last chapters, he says that the 

 author has extricated himself as well as he could 

 by observing a very prudent temperament; he warns 

 him, however, of the clamour which was sure to arise 



