The impression of the fourth volume had consumed three months. Our common interest required that we should move with a quicker pace; and Mr. Strahan fulfilled his engagement, which few printers could sustain, of delivering every week three thousand copies of nine sheets. The day of publication was, however, delayed, that it might coincide with the fifty-first anniversary of my own birth-day; the double festival was celebrated by a cheerful literary dinner at Mr. Cadell's house; and I seemed to blush while they read an elegant compliment from Mr. Hayley, whose poetical talents had more than once been employed in the praise

of

* OCCASIONAL STANZAS, by Mr. HAYLEY, read after the dinner at Mr. CADELL'S, May 8, 1788; being the day of the publication of the three last volumes of Mr. GIBBON's History, and his birth-day.

GENII of ENGLAND, and of ROME!
In mutual triumph here assume

The honors each may claim!

This social scene with smiles survey!
And consecrate the festive day

To Friendship and to Fame!

Enough, by Desolation's tide,
With anguish, and indignant pride,
Has ROME bewail'd her fate;
And mourn'd that Time, in Havoc's hour,
Defaced each monument of power

To speak her truly great :

O'er maim'd POLYBIUS, just and sage,
O'er Lavy's mutilated page,

How deep was her regret!

Touch'd by this Queen, in ruin grand,

See! Glory, by an English hand,

Now pays a mighty debt:

I!

of his friend. Before Mr. Hayley inscribed with my name his epistles on history, I was not acquainted with that amiable man and elegant poet. He afterwards thanked me in verse for my second and third volumes;* and in the summer of 1781,

Lo! sacred to the ROMAN Name,

And rais'd, like ROME's immortal Fame,
By Genius and by Toil,

The splendid Work is crown'd to-day,
On which Oblivion ne'er shall prey,
Not Envy make her spoil!
ENGLAND, exult! and view not now
With jealous glance each nation's brow,
Where History's palm has spread!

In every path of liberal art,

Thy Sons to prime distinction start,
And no superior dread.

Science for Thee a NEWTON raised;
For thy renown a SHAKESPEARE blazed,
Lord of the drama's sphere!

In different fields to equal praise
See History now thy GIBBON raise
To shine without a peer!

Eager to honor living worth,
And bless to-day the double birth,

That proudest joy may claim,

Let artless Truth this homage pay,
And consecrate the festive day

To Friendship and to Fame!

* SONNET to EDWARD GIBBON, Esq.
On the Publication of his Second and Third Volumes, 1781.

With proud delight th' imperial founder gazed

On the new beauty of his second Rome,
When on his eager eye rich temples blaz'd,
And his fair city rose in youthful bloom:

$ 3

the

A pride

the Roman Eagle* (a proud title) accepted the invitation of the English Sparrow, who chirped in

A pride more noble may thy heart assume,
O GIBBON! gazing on thy growing work,
In which, constructed for a happier doom,
No hasty marks of vain ambition lurk :
Thou may'st deride both Time's destructive sway,
And baser Envy's beauty-mangling dirk;
Thy gorgeous fabric, plann'd with wise delay,

Shall baffle foes more savage than the Turk ;
As ages multiply, its fame shall rise,

And earth must perish ere its splendor dies.

the

A CARD of INVITATION to Mr. GIBBON at Brighthelmstone, 1781.

An English sparrow, pert and free,
Who chirps beneath his native tree,
Hearing the Roman eagle's near,
And feeling more respect than fear,
Thus, with united love and awe,
Invites him to his shed of straw.

Tho' he is but a twittering sparrow,
The field he hops in rather narrow,
When nobler plumes attract his view
He ever pays them homage due,
He looks with reverential wonder,
On him whose talons bear the thunder;
Nor could the Jackdaws e'er inveigle
His voice to vilify the eagle,

Tho' issuing from the holy towers,

In which they build their warmest bowers,
Their sovereign's haunt they slyly search,
In hopes to catch him on his perch,
(For Pindar says, beside his God
The thunder-bearing bird will nod,)
Then, peeping round his still retreat,
They pick from underneath his feet

Some

the groves of Eartham, near Chichester. As most of the former purchasers were naturally desirous of completing their sets, the sale of the quarto edition was quick and easy; and an octavo size was printed to satisfy at a cheaper rate the public demand. The conclusion of my work was generally read, and variously judged. The style has been exposed to much academical criticism; a religious clamour was revived, and the reproach of indecency has been loudly echoed by the rigid censors of morals. I never could understand the clamour that has been raised against the indecency of my three last volumes. 1. An equal degree of freedom in the former part, especially in the first volume, had passed without reproach. 2. I am justified in painting the manners of the times; the vices of Theodora form an essential feature in the reign and character of Justinian; and the most naked tale in my history is told by the Rev. Mr. Joseph Warton, an instructor of youth. (Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, p. 322-324.) 3. My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in

Some molted feather he lets fall,

And swear he cannot fly at all.

Lord of the sky! whose pounce cap tear

These croakers, that infest the air,

Trust him! the sparrow loves to sing

The praise of thy imperial wing!

He thinks thou'lt deem him, on his word,
An honest, though familiar bird;

And hopes thou soon wilt condescend
To look upon thy little friend;
That he may boast around his grove
A visit from the bird of Jove.

own.

the obscurity of a learned language. Le Latin dans ses mots brave l'honnêteté, says the correct Boileau, in a country and idiom more scrupulous than our Yet, upon the whole, the History of the Decline and Fall seems to have struck root, both at home and abroad, and may, perhaps, a hundred years hence still continue to be abused. I am less flattered by Mr. Porson's high encomium on the style and spirit of my history, than I am satisfied with his honourable testimony to my attention, diligence, and accuracy; those humble virtues, which religious zeal had most audaciously denied. The sweetness of his praise is tempered by a reasonable mixture of acid.* As the book may not be common in England, I shall transcribe my own character from the Bibliotheca Historica of Meuselius,† a learned and laborious German. "Summis ævi nostri historicis Gibbonus sine dubio adnumerandus est. Inter Capitolii ruinas stans primum hujus operis scribendi consilium cepit. Florentissimos vitæ annos colligendo et laborando eidem impendit. Enatum inde monumentum ære perennius, licet passim appareant sinistrè dicta, minus perfecta, veritati non satis consentanea. Videmus quidem ubique fere studium scrutandi veritatemque scribendi maximum: tamen sine Tillemontio duce ubi scilicet hujus historia finitur sæpius noster titubat atque hallucinatur. Quod vel maxime fit, ubi de rebus Ecclesiasticis vel de juris prudentiâ Romanâ (tom. iv.) tradit, et in aliis locis. Attamen

See his preface, page 28. 32. + Vol. iv. part 1. page 342. 344.