GIBBON. 331 



at least two, perhaps of nearer four millions, (ch. II.) 

 It is, however, rather strange, that one so accustomed to 

 weigh historical evidence, so little apt to be seduced by 

 mere authority, and so prone to set the probabilities of 

 any narrative against the weight of its author, should 

 always have shut his eyes to the gross improbability of 

 the commonly received history of Rome in the earlier 

 ages, and should have followed blindfold the guidance of 

 what any Latin writer, from national vanity, or preju- 

 dice, or superstition, happened to relate. We may re- 

 member having seen him pluming himself on defending 

 the authenticity of those poetical fictions as pure history 

 in his juvenile work. The same implicit faith in their 

 authenticity followed him to the end of his career, 

 although Beaufort's excellent work had long claimed the 

 regard, and indeed obtained the assent of inquiring 

 minds; and the subsequently promulgated doctrines of 

 Niebuhr and Wachsmiith had been very fully anticipated 

 before any part of the ' Decline and Fair was written. 



The greatest charge against Gibbon's historical cha- 

 racter remains : he wrote under the influence of a deeply 

 rooted prejudice, and a prejudice upon the most impor- 

 tant of all subjects the religion of his age and nation. 

 I speak not of the too famous description in which the 

 progress of Christianity is ascribed to second causes, that 

 no doubt operated most powerfully to its general accep- 

 tance and dissemination. The most orthodox believer 

 might subscribe to his theory, nay, might have taken the 

 self-same view of the subject. There is great truth, too, 

 in his remarks upon the exaggerated accounts of early 

 persecution, and some foundation for the circumstances 

 urged in extenuation of the conduct held by heathen 



