304 GIBBON. 



and his income being no longer adequate to a comfort- 

 able residence in London, he resolved to pass the rest of 

 his life at Lausanne. 



After the publication of his second and third volumes, 

 which bring down the History to the fall of the Western 

 Empire at the beginning of the sixth century, he hesitated 

 for some months whether to continue the work or terminate 

 it at that period. This interval was passed in classical 

 studies, particularly of the Greek poets and historians, but 

 with excursions into the writings of the Socratic school. But 



Medio de fonte leporum 

 Surgit amari aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat. 



He found "in the luxury of freedom the wish for the 

 daily toil, the active pursuit which gave value to every 

 work and an object to every inquiry;" and the same 

 want of a regular occupation that had originally given 

 rise to the work determined him to continue it. Before 

 he left England he had nearly finished the fourth volume. 

 He had also been urged by the importunate zeal of Dr. 

 Priestley to enter into a controversy with him on the 

 subject of his two chapters. That indiscreet and angry 

 polemic sent him a copy of his work on the 'Corruptions 

 of Christianity/ civilly intimating that it was intended 

 not as a gift but as a challenge. Gibbon declined the 

 invitation in a sneering letter, questioning whether he or 

 his correspondent best deserved the name of unbeliever. 

 Priestley replied, that Gibbon's honour as well as his 

 principles called for a defence, inasmuch as he had 

 covertly and not with honest openness assailed Chris- 

 tianity. Gibbon's rejoinder declined all further corres- 

 pondence "with such an adversary/' Priestley then 

 stated that their correspondence not being confidential, 



