that this final chapter must be attained by the labor of fix quartos and twenty years. Among the books which I purchased, the Theodofian Code, with the commentary of James Godefroy, must be gratefully remembered. I used it (and much I used it) as a work of history, rather than of jurifprudence: but in every light it may be confidered as a full and capacious repofitory of the political ftate of the empire in the fourth and fifth centuries. As I belived, and as I ftill believe, that the propagation of the Gospel, and the triumph of the church, are infeparably connected with the decline of the Roman monarchy, I weighed the caufes and effects of the revolution, and contrafted the narratives and apologies of the Chriftians themselves, with the glances of candor or enmity which the Pagans have cast on the rifing fects. The Jewish and Heathen teftimonies, as they are collected and illustrated by Dr. Lardner, directed, without fuperfeding, my fearch of the originals; and in an ample differtation on the miraculous darknefs of the paffion, I privately drew my conclufions from the filence of an unbelieving age. I have affembled the preparatory ftudies, directly or indirectly relative to my history; but, in ftrict equity, they must be spread beyond this period of my life, over the two fummers (1771 and 1772) that elapsed between my father's death and my fettlement in London. 2. In a free converfation with books and men, it would be endless to enumerate the names and characters of all who are introduced to our acquaint but in this general acquaintance we may felect the degrees of friendship and esteem. According to the wife maxim, Multum legere potius quam multa. I reviewed, again and again, the immortal works of the French and English, the Latin and Italian claffics. My Greek studies (though lefs affiduous than 1 defigned) maintained and extended my knowledge of that incomparable idiom. Homer and Xenophon were still my favorite authors; and I had almoft prepared for the prefs an Effay on the Cyropædia, which in my own judgment, is not unhappily labored. After a certain age, the new publications of merit are the fole food of the many; and the most auftere student will be often tempted to break the line, for the fake of indulging his own curiosity, and of providing the topics of fashionable currency. A more refpectable motive may be affigned for the third perufal of Blackstone's Commentaries, and a copious and critical abftract of that English work was my first serious production in my native language. 3. My literary leifure mas much lefs complete and independent than it might appear to the eye of a ftranger. In the hurry of London I was deftitue of books; in the folitude of Hampshire I was not master of my time. My quiet was gradually disturbed by our domestic anxiety, and I fhould be afhamed of my unfeeling philosophy, had I found much time or taste for study in the laft fatal summer (1770) of father's decay and diffolution. my The difembodying of the militia at the close of the war (1763) had restored the major (a new Cincinnatus) to a life of agriculture. His labors were useful his pleasures innocent, his wishes moderate; and my father feemed to enjoy the state of happiness 1 1 which is celebrated by poets and philofophers, as the most agreeable to nature, and the least acceffible to fortune. Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis 50 HOR. Epod. ii. But the laft indefpenfable condition, the freedom from debt, was wanting to my father's felicity; and the vanities of his youth were feverely punished by the folicitude and fórrow of his declining age. The first mortgage, on my teturn from Lausanne, (1758) had afforded him a partial and tranfient relief. The annual demand of intereft and allowance was a heavy deduction from his income; the militia was a fource of expenfe, the farm in his hands was not a profit. able adventure, he was loaded with the cofts and damages of an obfolete law-fuit; and each year mul. tiplied the number, and exhausted the patience, of his creditors. Under these painful circumstances, I confented to an additional mortage, to the fale of Putney, and to every facrifice that could alleviate his diftrefs. But he was no longer capable of a ra tional effort, and his reluctant delays poftponed not the evils themselves, but the remedies of those evils (remedia malorum potius quam mala differebat). The pangs of shame, tenderness, and felf-reproach, inceffantly preyed on his vitals, his conftitution was broken; he loft his ftrength and his fight; the rapid pro grefs of a dropfy admonished him of his end, and he funk into the grave on the 10th November 1770, in the fixty-fourth year of his age. A family-tradition infinuates that Mr. William Law had drawn his pupil in the light and inconftant character of Flatus, who is ever confident, and ever difappointed in the chase of happiness. But these conftitutional failings were happily compenfated by the virtues of the head and heart, by the warmest fentiments of honor and humanity. His graceful perfon, polite addrefs, gentle manners, and unaffected cheerfulness, recommended him to the favor of every company; and in the change of times and opinions, his liberal spirit had long fince delivered him from the zeal and prejudice of a Tory education. I fubmitted to the order of Nature; and my grief was foothed by the confcious fatisfaction that I had discharged all the duties of filial piety. As foon as I had paid the laft folemn duties to my father, and obtained, from time and reafon, a tolerable composure of mind, I began to form the plan of an independent life, most adapted to my circumftances and inclination. Yet fo intricate was the net, my efforts were fo awkward and feeble, that nearly two years (November 1770-October 1772) were fuffered to elapfe before I could difentangle myself from the management of the farm, and transfer my refidence from Beriton to a house in London. During this interval I continued to divide my year between town and the country; but my new fituation was brightened by hope; my ftay in London was prolonged into the fummer; and the uniformity of the fummer was occafionally broken by vifits and excurfions at a distance from home. The gratification of my defires (they were not immoderate) has been feldom disappointed by the want of money or credit; my pride was never infulted by the vifit of an importunate tradesman; and my tranfient anxiety for the paft or future has been difpelled by the ftudious or focial occupation of the prefent hour. My confcience does not accufe me of any act of extravagance or injuftice, and the remnant of my estate affords an ample and honorable provifion for my declining age. I fhall not expatiate on my economical affairs, which cannot be inftructive or amusing to the reader It is a rule of prudence, as well as of politeness, to reserve such confidence for the ear of a private friend, without expofing our fituation to the envy or pity of ftrangers; for envy is productive of hatred, and pity borders too nearly on contempt. Yet I may believe, and even affert, that in circumftances more indigent or more wealthy, I should never have accomplished the task, or acquired the fame, of a historian; that my spirit would have been broken by poverty and contempt, and that my induftry might have been relaxed in the labor and luxury of a superfluous fortune. I had now attained the first of earthly bleffings, independence: I was the abfolute mafter of my hours and actions: nor was I deceived in the hope that the establishment of my library in town would allow me to divide the day between study and fociety. Each year the circle of my acquaintance, the number of my dead and living companions, was enlarged. To a lover of books, the shops and fales of London prefent irresistible temptations; and the manufacture of my history required a various |