OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE BY EDWARD GIBBON EDITED IN SEVEN VOLUMES WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, APPENDICES, AND INDEX BY J. B. BURY, M.A. HON. LITT.D. OF DURHAM; HON. LL. D. OF EDINBURGH CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ST. PETERSBURGH IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN VOL. I. METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON Sixth Edition EDWARD GIBBON GIBBON was born at Putney on 27th Aprii, 1737. His father, also Edward Gibbon, was a country gentleman, who owned estates in Hampshire, and was for a time Tory M.P. for Petersfield. The boy was brought up by his mother's sister, Catherine Porten, to whom he "owed [he wrote in later years] a taste for books, which is still the pleasure and glory of my life". His health in childhood was delicate and his education suffered frequent interruptions. But he revelled in books of recondite learning with a rarely matched precocity. Early in 1749 he entered Westminster School, which he quitted at the end of the following year for private tuition in the country. On 3rd April, 1752, he joined Magdalen College, Oxford, as a fellow-commoner, and there he spent fourteen months, which he afterwards declared to be "the" most unprofitable and idle months of my whole life". He neglected most of the ordinary subjects of study but read omnivorously in history and theology. A boyish freak led him at the age of sixteen to turn Roman Catholic (8th June, 1753). His father, horrified by his conversion, promptly banished him to Switzerland. The lad was sent to board with M. Pavillard, a Calvinist minister, at Lausanne. The "banishment," which lasted five years, proved a most "fortunate" episode. French became a second language to Gibbon, and his zest for history, literature and philosophy increased. He made a first attempt in literature by composing a French essay on literary study which was afterwards published (1761). At Lausanne, he quickly renewed outward allegiance to the Protestant faith, but his mind at the same time developed a vein of scepticism which thenceforth grew with his years. His foreign sojourn brought him the 53 |