often as I find myself ranked in the triumvirate of British Historians of the present age, and though I feel myself the Lepidus, I contemplate with pleasure the superiority of my colleagues. Will you be so good as to assure Dr A. Smith of my regard and attachment. I consider myself as writing to both, and will not fix him for a separate answer. My direction is, A Monsieur Monsieur Gibbon a Lausanne en Suisse. I shall often plume myself on the friendship of Dr Robertson, but must I tell foreigners, that while the meaner heroes fight, Achilles has retired from the war? I am, my Dear Sir, most affectionately yours, E. GIBBON. Dear Sir, Mr Gibbon to Dr Robertson. Lord Sheffield's, Downing-Street, An error in your direction (to Wimpole Street, where I never had a house) delayed some time the delivery of your very obliging letter, but that delay is not sufficient to excuse me for not taking an earlier notice of it. Perhaps the number of minute but indispensable cares that seem to multiply before the hour of publication, may prove a better apology, especially with a friend who has himself passed through the same labours to the same consummation. The important day is now fixed to the eighth of May, and it was chosen by Cadell, as it coincides with the end of the fifty-first year of the Author's age. That honest and liberal bookseller has invited me to celebrate the double festival, by a dinner at his house. Some of our common friends will be present, but we shall all lament your absence, and that of Dr Adam Smith (whose health and welfare will always be most interesting to me); and it gives me real concern that the time of your visits to the metropolis has not agreed with my transient residence in my native country. I am grateful for the opportunity with which you furnish me of again perusing your works in their most improved state; and I have desired Cadell to dispatch, for the use of my two Edinburgh friends, two copies of the last three volumes of my History. Whatever may be the inconstancy of taste or fashion, a rational lover of fame may be satisfied if he deserves and obtains your approbation. The praise which has ever been the most flattering to my ear is, to find my name associated with the names of Robertson and Hume; and provided I can maintain my place in the triumvirate, I am indifferent at what distance I am ranked below my companions and masters. With regard to my present work, I am inclined to believe, that it surpasses in variety and entertainment at least the second and third volumes. A long and eventful period is compressed into a smaller space, and the new barbarians, who now assault and subvert the Roman Empire, enjoy the advantage of speaking their own language, and relating their own exploits. After the publication of these last volumes, which extend to the siege of Constantinople, and comprise the ruins of Ancient Rome, I shall retire (in about two months) to Lausanne, and my friends will be pleased to hear that I enjoy in that retreat, as much repose and even happiness, as is consistent, perhaps, with the human condition. At proper intervals, I hope to repeat my visits to England, but no change of circumstance or situation will probably tempt me to desert my Swiss residence, which unites almost every advantage that riches can give, or fancy desire. With regard to my future literary plans, I can add nothing to what you will soon read in my Preface. But an hour's conversation with you, would allow me to explain some visionary designs which sometimes float in my mind; and, if I should ever form any serious resolution of labours, I would previously, though by the imperfect mode of a letter, consult you on the propriety and merit of any new undertakings. I am, with great regard, Dear Sir, most faithfully yours, E. GIBBON. NOTE (G), P. 257. As Dr Robertson received particular satisfaction from the approbation of the gentleman whose geographical researches suggested the first idea of this disquisition, I flatter myself that no apology is necessary for the liberty I take in quoting a short extract from one of his letters. From Major Rennell to Dr Robertson. London, 2d July 1791. After reading your book twice, I may with truth say, that I was never more instructed or amused than by the perusal of it; for although a great part of its subject had long been revolving in my mind, yet I had not been able to concentrate the matter in the manner you have done, or to make the different parts bear on each other. The subject of the Appendix was what interested the public great ly; and was only to be acquired (if at all) by the study or perusal of a great number of different tracts; a task not to be accomplished by ordinary readers. It gives me unfeigned pleasure to have been the instrument of suggesting such a task to you; and I shall reflect with pleasure, during my life, that I shall travel down to posterity with you; you, in your place, in the great road of History; whilst I keep the sidepath of Geography. Since I understood the subject, I have ever thought, that the best historian is the best geographer; and if historians would direct a proper person, skilled in the principles of geography, to embody (as I may say) their ideas for them, the historian would find himself better served, than by relying on those who may be properly styled map-makers. For after all, whence does the geographer derive his materials but from the labours of the historian ! NOTE (H), P. 271. Since these remarks on Dr Robertson's style were written, I have met with some critical reflections on the same subject by Mr Burke, too honourable for Dr Robertson to be suppressed in this publication, although, in some particulars, they do not coincide with the opinion I have presumed to state *. * It is proper for me to mention, that I have no authority for the authenticity of the following passage but that of a London newspaper, in which it appeared some years ago. I do not find, however, that it has been ever called in question. A << There is a style," (says Mr Burke, in a letter, addressed to Mr Murphy on his Translation of Tacitus,)" which daily gains ground amongst us, which I should be sorry to see further advanced by "a writer of your just reputation. The tendency of the mode to "which I allude is, to establish two very different idioms amongst us, and to introduce a marked distinction between the English "that is written and the English that is spoken. This practice, "if grown a little more general, would confirm this distemper, “such I must think it, in our language, and perhaps render it in"curable. "From this feigned manner of falsetto, as I think the musicians'call "something of the same sort in singing, no one modern Historian, "Robertson only excepted, is perfectly free. It is assumed, I know, "to give dignity and variety to the style. But whatever success the "attempt may sometimes have, it is always obtained at the expence "of purity, and of the graces that are natural and appropriate to our language. It is true, that when the exigence calls for auxi"liaries of all sorts, and common language becomes unequal to "the demands of extraordinary thoughts, something ought to be "conceded to the necessities which make ambition virtue.' But "the allowances to necessities ought not to grow into a practice. "Those portents and prodigies ought not to grow too common. If 46 you have, here and there, (much more rarely, however, than "others of great and not unmerited fame,) fallen into an error, "which is not that of the dull or careless, you have an Author who "is himself guilty, in his own tongue, of the same fault, in a very high degree. No author thinks more deeply, or paints more strongly; but he seldom or ever expresses himself naturally. It |