for a future Work, cease about twenty years before Mr. Gibbon's death; and confequently, that we have the leaft detailed account of the most interesting part of his Life. His Correfpondence during that period will, in great measure, fupply the deficiency. It will be feparated from the Memoirs and placed in an Appendix, that those who are not difpofed to be pleased with the repetitions, familiarities, and trivial circumstances of epiftolary writing, may not be embarrassed by it. By many, the Letters will be found a very interefting part of the present Publication. They will prove, how pleasant, friendly, and amiable Mr. Gibbon was in private life; and if, in publishing Letters fo flattering to myself, I incur the imputation of vanity, I fhall meet the charge with a frank confeffion, that I am indeed highly vain of having enjoyed, for sò many years, the esteem, the confidence, and the affection of a man, whofe focial qualities endeared him to the most accomplished fociety, and whofe talents, great as they were, must be acknowledged to have been fully equalled by the fincerity of his friendship.

Whatever cenfure may be pointed against the Editor, the Public will fet a due value on the Letters for their intrinfic merit. I muft, indeed, be blinded, either by vanity or affection, if they do not difplay the heart and mind of their Author, in

51

fuch a manner as juftly to increase the number of his admirers.

I have not been folicitous to garble or expunge paffages which, to fome, may appear trifling. Such paffages will often, in the opinion of the obferving Reader, mark the character of the Writer, and the omiffion of them would materially take from the ease and familiarity of authentic letters.

Few men, I believe, have ever fo fully unveiled their own character, by a minute narrative of their fentiments and purfuits, as Mr. Gibbon will here be found to have done; not with study and labor --not with an affected frankness-but with a genuine confeffion of his little foibles and peculiarities, and a good-humored and natural difplay of his own conduct and opinions.

Mr. Gibbon began a Journal, a work diftin&t from the sketches already mentioned, in the early part of his Life, with the following declaration :

I propofe from this day, August 24th 1761, to keep an exact Journal of my actions and ftudies, both to affift my memory, and to accustom me to fet a due value on my time. I fhall begin by fetting down fome few events of my past life, the dates of which I can remember."

This industrious project he pursued occasionally in French, under various titles, and with the minute

nefs, fidelity, and liberality of a mind refolved to watch over and improve itself.

The Journal is continued under different titles ' and is fometimes very concife, and fometimes finguÍarly detailed. One part of it is entitled My Journal," another Ephemerides, or Journal of my Actions, Studies, and Opinions." The other parts are entitled, Ephémérides, ou Journal de

ma Vie, de mes Etudes, & de mes Sentimens." In this Journal, among the moft trivial circumftances, are mixed very interesting observations and differtations on a Satire of Juvenal, a Paffage of Homer, or of Longinus, or of any other author whofe works he happened to read in the courfe of the day; and he often paffes from a Remark on the most common event, to a critical Difquifition of confiderable lear-ning, or an Inquiry into fome abftruse point of Philofophy.

It certainly was not his intention that this private and motley Diary fhould be presented to the Public; nor have I thought myfelf at liberty to prefent it, in the shape in which he left it. But by reducing it to an account of his literary occupations, it formed fo fingular and so interesting a portrait of an indefatigable Student, that I perfuade myself it will be regarded as a valuable acquifition by the Literary World, and as an acceffion of fame to the memory of my Friend.

With the Extracts from Mr. Gibbon's Journal will be printed, his Differtations entitled Extraits raifonnés de mes Lectures: " and Recueil de mes Obfervations, & Pièces détachées fur différens Sujets." A few other paffages from other parts of the Journals, introduced in Notes, will make a curious addition to the Memoirs.

His First Publication, Effai fur l'Etude de la Littérature," with corrections and additions from an interleaved copy which my Friend gave to me feveral years ago, is reprinted as part of thefe volumes.

Three more of his fmaller Publications are also reprinted. 1. His mafterly Criticifm on the Sixth Book of Virgil, in answer to Bishop Warburton. 2. His own Vindication of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of his Hiftory, in answer to Mr. Davis and others. And 3. His Réponse à l'Exposé de la Cour de "France,”—an occafional composition, which ob- . tained the highest applaufe in Foreign Courts, and of which he spoke to me with fome pleasure, obferving that it had been tranflated even into the Turkish language *.

Of these various writings the Author has spoken himself, in defcribing his own Life. I have yet to

At Petersburgh and Vienna it was currently obferved by the Corps Diplomatique, that the English Ministry had published a Memorial written not only with great ability, but also in French, fo corre&, that they must have employed a Frenchman.

A

notice fome articles not mentioned in his Memoirs, and which will be found in this Publication. 1. juvenile sketch, entitled, Outlines of the Hiftory of the World." 2. A Differtation, which he had fhown to a few friends, on that curious fubject, < L'Homme au Mafque de Fer." 3. A more confiderable work, The Antiquities of the House of " Brunswick;" a hiftorical difcourse, compofed about the year 1790. In this Work he intended to appropriate separate books, 1. To the Italian descent; 2. To the Germanic reign: and, 3. To the British Succeffion of the House of Brunswick. The Manufcript clofes in completing the Italian branch of his fubject.

Among the moft fplendid paffages of that unfinished work may be enumerated, the characters of Leibnitz and Muratori: A sketch of Albert-Azo the Second, a prince who retained his faculties and reputation beyond the age of one hundred years: An account of Padua and its univerfity, and remarks on the epic glory of Ferrara,

The laft Paper of thefe Volumes has the mournful attraction of being a sketch interrupted by death, and affords an honorable proof that my Friend's ardor for the promotion of hiftorical knowledge attended him to the last. It is entitled merely, « An Address;” and expreffes a wifh that our Latin memorials of the middle ages, the « Sciptores Rerum Anglicarum,'