551 
G I B 
exclude that temporary one, of being in the militia. 
Though I go through it with fpirit and application, it 
is both unfit for and unworthy of me.” 
From his military engagements Mr. Gibbon was fet 
free by the general peace of 1762; and the firfi: ufe he 
made of his liberty was to pay a vifit to Paris, in the 
beginning of 1763. After palTing fome months with the 
gay and the learned in that capital, he vifited LauAume, 
where alraoft a year was employed in cultivating fociety, 
and in laying in materials for a profitable journey into 
Italy. This took place in 1765 ; and he thus in glow¬ 
ing language defcribed his fenfations on entering Rome: 
“After a fleeplefs night, I trod,with a lofty ftep, the ruins 
of the forum; each memorable fpot where Romulus flood, 
or Tully fpoke, orC^farfell, was at once prefent to my 
eye ; and feveral days of intoxication were loft or enjoyed 
before I could defcend to a cool and minute inveftiga- 
tion.” It was, he informs us, on the 15th of Odtober, 
17S4, as he fat mufing amidft the ruins of the capitol, 
tukik the bare-footed friars were finding vefpers in the temple of 
Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of this 
city firil ftarted into his mind. To treat fome great hif- 
torical fubjedl had long been his favourite defign, and 
he had fludluated amid a variety which prefented them- 
felves. Of thefe, perhaps, the moft promifing was the 
hiftory of the republic of Florence under the houfe of 
Medicis; but we cannot lament that he finally fixed 
upon a more extenfive theme. He firft, however, adtu- 
ally proceeded Ibine way in another interefting delign, 
and compofed in the French language the firft book of a 
Hiftory of the Swifs Liberty ; but tliis, probably on ac¬ 
count of its ftyle, was condemned by a literary fociety 
of foreigners in London, to whom it was read, and he 
committed it to the flames. In 1767, he aflifted his 
friend Deyverdun in compiling a critical work, entitled 
Memoires Liiteraircs de la Grande Bretagne, of which a fecond 
volume was publiflied in the enfuing year; but its fuc- 
cefs was not great. Hitherto he had fhewn a lingular, 
and in him injudicious, preference of the French lan¬ 
guage in writing; but in 1770 he tried his powers in his 
native tongue by a pamphlet of Critical Obfervations 
on the fixth Book of the .®neid, intended as a refutation 
of Dr. Warburton’s extraordinary hypothefis concerning 
the meaning of the fabled defeent of ^neas. This piece 
was printed anonymoufly, and did not captivate the pub¬ 
lic attention ; yet it has been pronounced by able judges 
a very ingenious and elegant work of criticifm, not un¬ 
worthy of the author’s fubfequent fame. He him.felf has 
confelied that his perfonal attack upon the celebrated 
veteran whofe opinion he oppofed, was too fevere, though 
provoked by the alTuming arrogance wliich always cha- 
rafterifed that writer. 
In 1770 Mr. Gibbon’s father died, and left him pof- 
felfor of an eftate much involved. He feems fcarcely 
ever to have extricated himfelf from perplexities arifing 
from this caufe; yet he has obferved, that upon the 
whole his circumftances were well fuited to the great 
talk he undertook as an author; and that either poorer 
or richer he fliould probably never have accomplifhed 
it. Leifure and books were on the one hand necelTary ; 
on the other, the ftimulus of a handfome increafe of 
property. The circle of his acquaintance in London was 
large ; but he compenfated the hours devoted to them 
by early rifing and clofe application. His ftudies were, 
however, more I'erioufly interrupted by a feat in parlia¬ 
ment, which he obtained for the borough of Lifkeard in 
1774, through the favour of his kinfman Mr. (afterwards 
lord) Eliot. Of his prowefs in the houfe of commons 
he thus fpeaks : “I took my feat at the beginning of 
the memorable conteft between Great Britain and Ame¬ 
rica, and fupported, with many a fincere and filent vote, 
the rights, though not perhaps the intereft, of the mo¬ 
ther country. After a fleeting illufive hope, prudence 
condemned me to acquielce in the humble llation of a 
mu. The great fpeakers filled me with defpair, the 
B O N. 
bad ones with terror. I was not armed by nature and 
education with the intrepid energy of mind and voice, 
Vmcentum Jlrepitus, et natum rebus agendis. 
Timidity was fortified by pride, and even the fuccefs. 
of my pen difeouraged the trial of my voice. But I 
aflifted at the debates of a free afl'embiy ; I liftened to 
the attack and defence of eloquence and reafon ; I had 
a naar profpeCt of the charafters, views, and palflons, 0/ 
the firft men of the age. Tlie caufe of government was 
ably vindicated by lord North, a ftatelinan of fpotlefs 
integrity, a confummate mafter of debate, who could 
wield with equal dexterity the arras of reafon and of ri¬ 
dicule. Fie was feated on the treafury bench between 
his attorney and folicitor general, the two pillars ol the 
law and ftate, magis pares quam Jimiles\ and the minifter 
might indulge in a fliort flumber, while he was upholden 
on either hand by the majeftic fenfe of Thurlow, and 
the Ikilful eloquence of Wedderburne. From the ad» 
verfe fide of the houfe an ardent and powerful oppofition 
was fupported, by the lively declamation of Barre, the 
legal acutenefs ot Dunning, the profufe and philofophic^ 
fancy ot Burke, and the argumentative vehemence ot 
Fox. By fuch men every operation of peace and war, 
every principle of juftice or policy, every queftion ot 
authority and freedom, was attacked and defended ; and 
the f.ubject of the momentous conteft was the union or 
leparation of Great Britain and America. The eight 
fellions that 1 fat in parliament were a fchool ot civil 
prudence, the firft and moft effential virtue ot an 
hiftorian.” 
In the beginning of 1776, the firft volume, quarto, of 
his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was given 
to the public. His expedlations of its fuccefs were very 
moderate, and it is not to be wondered at that he was 
much elated with the fuccefs it really met with, which 
he thus deferibes : “ The firft impreflion was exhaufted 
in a few days; a fecond and a third edition was fcarcely 
adequate to the demand ; and the bookfeller’s property 
was twice invaded by the pirates of Dublin. My book 
was on every table, and almoft on every toilette.” Ot 
all the applaufe he received, none feemed to flatter him 
fo much as that of the two celebrated hiftorians Hume 
and Robertfon, who, inftead of viewing his riling tame 
with jealoufy, promoted it with liberal commendation. 
But, in the midft of this triumph, his two chapters con¬ 
cerning the growth and progrefs of Chriftianity railed a 
ftorm againft him, which he feems not to have torel'ecn, 
and, when it fell, to have regarded with fome alarni.^ 
A number of antagonifts arofe, of different degrees ot 
hoftility and acrimony ; fome, enlifted in the defence of 
a church which was to reward their zeal; fome, tltc 
voluntary champions of a revered faith. As he pro- 
fefled to have touched upon this fubjedt only as an hifto¬ 
rian, he declined entering upon it as a controverfialift; 
and the only reply he made was to Mr. Davis, who had 
in very unmeatured terms attacked “not the faith, but 
the fidelity, of the hiftorian.”- His Vindication againft 
this opponent was greatly admired, as a model of keen 
and polifhed retort ; and it was generally admitted that 
he fuccefsfully repelled the principal charges, and re¬ 
turned them upon his foe. VV’ith refpedt to tiie general 
fpirit and defign of the two chapters, we HkiII only ob- 
lerve, that the fuggeftion of lecondary caufes, by which 
the fpread of Chriftianity was peculiarly favoured, had 
been already adopted by fome undoubted believers in 
its divine origin : and that, although tliere can be no 
doubt tliat Gibbon was a real enemy to revelation under 
the malk of a believer, yet, while penal laws lublift 
againft an open declaration of opinion, however requilite 
this might appear, the practice of a prudential dilguife 
cannot lo mucit be wondered at. 
A fecond vifit to Paris loon followed the publication 
of his firft volume, and he appeared in no hafte to relume 
his hillorical talk. After it was begun again, a Ihort 
I inierruptioa 
