which had prompted so many gentlemen to take arms in defence of the oppressed pilgrims in Palestine, incited others to declare themselves the patrons and avengers of injured innocence at home. When the final reduction of the Holy Land, under the dominion of infidels, put an end to these foreign expeditions, the latter was the only employment left for the activity and courage of adventurers. To check the insolence of overgrown oppressors; to rescue the helpless from captivity; to protect or to avenge women, orphans, and ecclesiastics, who could not bear arms in their own defence; to redress wrongs and remove grievances; were deemed acts of the highest prowess and merit. Valour, humanity, courtesy, justice, honour, were the characteristic qualities of chivalry. To these were added religion, which mingled itself with every passion and institution during the middle ages, and by infusing a large proportion of enthusiastic zeal, gave them such force as carried them to romantic excess. Men were trained to knighthood by a long previous discipline; they were admitted into the order by solemnities no less devout than pompous; every person of noble birth courted that honour; it was deemed a distinction superior to royalty; and monarchs were proud to receive it from the hands of private gentlemen. This singular institution, in which valour, gallantry, and religion, were so strangely blended, was wonderfully adapted to the taste and genius of martial nobles; and its effects were soon visible in their manners. War was carried on with less ferocity when humanity came to be deemed the ornament of knighthood no less than courage. More gentle and polished manners were introduced when courtesy was recommended as the most amiable of knightly virtues. Violence and oppression decreased when it was reckoned meritorious to check and to punish them. A scrupulous adherence to truth, with the most religious attention to fulfil every engagement, became the distinguishing characteristic of a gentleman, because chivalry was regarded as the school of honour, and inculcated the most delicate sensibility with respect to those points. The admiration of these qualities, together with the high distinctions and prerogatives conferred on knighthood in every part of Europe, inspired persons of noble birth on some occasions with a species of military fanaticism, and led them to extravagant enterprises. But they deeply imprinted on their minds the principles of generosity and honour. These were strengthened by everything that can affect the senses or touch the heart. The wild exploits of those romantic knights who sallied forth in quest of adventures are well known, and have been treated with proper ridicule. The political and permanent effects of the spirit of chivalry have been less observed. Perhaps the humanity which accompanies all the operations of war, the refinements of gallantry, and the point of honour-the three chief circumstances which distinguish modern from ancient manners-may be ascribed in a great measure to this institution, which has appeared whimsical to superficial observers, but by its effects has proved of great benefit to mankind. The sentiments which chivalry inspired had a wonderful influence on manners and conduct during the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. They were so deeply rooted, that they continued to operate after the vigour and reputation of the institution itself began to decline. was founded in opposition of interest, heightened by personal emulation, and exasperated, not only by mutual injuries, but by reciprocal insults. At the same time, whatever advantage one seemed to possess towards gaining the ascendant, was wonderfully balanced by some favourable circumstance peculiar to the other. The emperor's dominions were of greater extent; the French king's lay more compact. Francis governed his kingdom with absolute power; that of Charles was limited, but he supplied the want of authority by address. The troops of the former were more impetuous and enterprising; those of the latter better disciplined, and more patient of fatigue. The talents and abilities of the two monarchs were as different as the advantages which they possessed, and contributed no less to prolong the contest between them. Francis took his resolutions suddenly, prosecuted them at first with warmth, and pushed them into execution with a most adventurous courage; but being destitute of the perseverance necessary to surmount difficulties, he often abandoned his designs, or relaxed the vigour of pursuit from impatience, and sometimes from levity. Charles deliberated long, and determined with coolness; but having once fixed his plan, he adhered to it with inflexible obstinacy, and neither danger nor discouragement could turn him aside from the execution of it. The success of their enterprises was suitable to the diversity of their characters, and was uniformly influenced by it. Francis, by his impetuous activity, often disconcerted the emperor's best-laid schemes; Charles, by a more calm but steady prosecution of his designs, checked the rapidity of his rival's career, and baffled or repulsed his most vigorous efforts. The former, at the opening of a war or of a campaign, broke in upon the enemy with the violence of a torrent, and carried all before him; the latter, waiting until he saw the force of his rival beginning to abate, recovered in the end not only all that he had lost, but made new acquisitions. Few of the French monarch's attempts towards conquest, whatever promising aspect they might wear at first, were conducted to a happy issue; many of the emperor's enterprises, even after they appeared desperate and impracticable, terminated in the most prosperous manner. In 1763 Goldsmith published a History of England, in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son, in two small volumes. The deceptive title had the desired attraction; the letters were variously attributed to Lords Chesterfield, Orrery, and Lyttelton, and in purity and grace of style surpassed the writings of any of the reputed authors. The success of this compilation afterwards led Goldsmith to compile a more extended history of England, and abridgments of Grecian and Roman history. Even in this subordinate walk, to which nothing but necessity compelled him, Goldsmith was unrivalled. Lord Lyttelton afterwards came forward himself as a historian, though of but a limited period. His History of the Reign of Henry II., on which he had bestowed years of study, is a valuable repertory of facts, but a dry and uninteresting composition. The first three volumes were published in 1764, and the conclusion in 1771. Of a similar character are the Historical Memoirs and Lives-Queen Elizabeth, Raleigh, Henry Prince of Wales, &c.— written by DR THOMAS BIRCH, of the Royal Society. These works drew attention to the materials that existed for a history of domestic manners, always more interesting than state diplomacy or wars; and DR ROBERT HENRY (1718-1790) [Characters of Francis I. and the Emperor Charles V.] During twenty-eight years, an avowed rivalship subsisted between Francis I. and the Emperor Charles V., which involved not only their own dominions, but the greatest part of Europe, in wars which were prosecuted *For at least part of our history, a mass of facts relating to with more violent animosity, and drawn out to a greater events and individuals had been accumulated in the Political length, than had been known in any former period. State of Great Britain, a monthly publication from 1711 to Many circumstances contributed to this. Their animosity | 1740, or in sixty volumes; and in the Historical Register, entered upon a History of Great Britain, in which particular attention was to be given to this department. The first volume was published in 1771, and four others at intervals between that time and 1785. This work realised to its author the large sum of £3300, and was rewarded with a pension from the crown of £100 per annum. Henry's work does not come further down than the reign of Henry VIII. In our own days, the plan of a history with copious information as to manners, arts, and improvements, has been admirably realised in the Pictorial History of England, published by Mr Charles Knight. Of Dr Henry, we may add that he was a native of St Ninians, in Stirlingshire, and one of the ministers of Edinburgh. DR GILBERT STUART (1742-1786), a native of Edinburgh, wrote various historical works, a History of Scotland, a Dissertation on the British Constitution, a History of the Reformation, &c. His style is florid and high sounding, not wanting in elegance, but disfigured by affectation, and still more by the violent prejudices of its vindictive and unprincipled author. Histories of Ireland, evincing antiquarian research, were published, the first in 1763-7 by DR WARNER, and another in 1773 by DR LELAND, the translator of our best English version of Demosthenes. A review of Celtic and Roman antiquities was in 1771-5 presented by JOHN WHITTAKER, grafted upon his History of Manchester; and the same author afterwards wrote a violent and prejudiced Vindication of Mary Queen of Scots. The Biographical History of England by GRANGER, and ORME'S History of the British Transactions in Hindostan, which appeared at this time, are also valuable works. In 1775, MACPHERSON, translator of Ossian, published a History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover, accompanied by original papers. The object of Macpherson was to support the Tory party, and to detract from the purity and patriotism of those who had planned and effected the Revolution of 1688. The secret history brought to light by his original papers-though Macpherson is charged with having tampered with them and falsified history-disclosed a degree of selfishness and intrigue for which the public were not prepared. In this task, the historian-if Macpherson be entitled to the venerable namehad the use of Carte's collections, for which he paid £200, and he received no less than £3000 for the copyright of his work. The Annals of Scotland, from Malcolm III. to Robert I., were published in 1776 by Sir David Dalrymple, LORD HAILES. In 1779 the same author produced a continuation to the accession of the House of Stuart. These works died in 1792. In 1776 ROBERT WATSON, professor of rhetoric, and afterwards principal of one of the colleges of St Andrews, wrote a History of Philip II. of Spain as a continuation to Robertson, and left unfinished a History of Philip III., which was completed by Dr William Thomson, and published in 1783. In 1779, the two first volumes of a History of Modern Europe, by DR WILLIAM RUSSELL (17411793), were published with distinguished success, and three others were added in 1784, bringing down the history to the year 1763. Continuations to this valuable compendium have been made by Dr Coote and others, and it continues to be a standard work. Russell was a native of Selkirkshire, and fought his way to learning and distinction in the midst of considerable difficulties. The vast number of historical works published about this time shews how eagerly this noble branch of study was cultivated, both by authors and the public. No department of literary labour seems then to have been so lucrative, or so sure of leading to distinction. But our greatest name yet remains behind. EDWARD GIBBON. The historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was by birth, education, and manners, distinctively an English gentleman. He was born at Putney, in Surrey, April 27, 1737. His father Edward Gibbon. were invaluable at the time, and have since formed an excellent quarry for the historian. Lord Hailes was born in Edinburgh in 1726, the son of Sir James Dalrymple of Hailes, Bart. He distinguished himself at the Scottish bar, and was appointed one of the judges of the Court of Session in 1766. He was the author of various legal and antiquarian treatises: of the Remains of Christian Antiquity, containing translations from the fathers, &c.; and of was of an ancient family settled at Beriton, near an inquiry into the secondary causes assigned Petersfield, Hampshire. Of delicate health, young by Gibbon the historian for the rapid growth of Christianity. Lord Hailes was a man of great erudition, an able lawyer, and upright judge. He 1714-1738. The former miscellany was begun by ABEL BOYER (1666-1729), a French refugee, with a German appetite for work. Besides his Political State, Boyer compiled histories of Queen Anne and William III., and was author of a French and English dictionary, long popular. He EDWARD GIBBON was privately educated, and at and unprofitably, as he himself states: and, study- world. Its success was almost unprecedented for a ing the works of Bossuet and Parsons the Jesuit, grave historical work: 'the first impression was he became a convert to the Roman Catholic religion. exhausted in a few days; a second and third edition He went to London, and at the feet of a priest, on was scarcely adequate to the demand; and the bookthe 8th of June 1753, he 'solemnly, though privately, seller's property was twice invaded by the pirates abjured the errors of heresy.' His father, in order of Dublin: the book was on every table, and almost to reclaim him, placed him for some years at on every toilet.' His brother-historians, RobertLausanne, in Switzerland, under the charge of M. son and Hume, generously greeted him with warm Pavilliard, a Calvinist clergyman, whose judicious applause. Whether I consider the dignity of your conduct prevailed upon his pupil to return to the style,' says Hume, 'the depth of your matter, or the bosom of the Protestant church. On Christmas-day extensiveness of your learning, I must regard the 1754, he received the sacrament in the Protestant work as equally the object of esteem.' There was church at Lausanne. 'It was here,' says the his- another bond of sympathy between the English and torian, that I suspended my religious inquiries, the Scottish historian: Gibbon had insidiously, acquiescing with implicit belief in the tenets though too unequivocally, evinced his adoption of and mysteries which are adopted by the general infidel principles. The various modes of worship consent of Catholics and Protestants.' At Lausanne, which prevailed in the Roman world were all,' he a regular and severe system of study perfected remarks, 'considered by the people as equally true, Gibbon in the Latin and French languages, and by the philosopher as equally false, and by the in a general knowledge of literature. In 1758 magistrate as equally useful.' Some feeling of he returned to England, and three years afterwards this kind constituted the whole of Gibbon's appeared as an author in a slight French treatise, religious belief: the philosophers of France had an Essay on the Study of Literature. He accepted triumphed over the lessons of the Calvinist minister the commission of captain in the Hampshire militia; of Lausanne, and the historian seems never to have and though his studies were interrupted, the returned to the faith and the humility of the discipline and evolutions of a modern battle,' he Christian. In the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters remarks, gave him a clearer notion of the phalanx of his work he gave an account of the growth and and the legion, and the captain of the Hampshire progress of Christianity, which he accounted for grenadiers was not useless to the historian of the solely by secondary causes, without reference to its Roman Empire.' On the peace of 1762, Gibbon was divine origin. A number of answers were written released from his military duties, and paid a visit to to these memorable chapters, the only one of which France and Italy. He had long been meditating that has kept possession of the public is the reply some historical work, and whilst at Rome, October by Dr Watson, bishop of Llandaff, entitled An 15, 1764, his choice was determined by an incident Apology for Christianity. Gibbon's method of attackof a striking and romantic nature. 'As I sat ing our faith has been well described by Lord musing,' he says, 'amidst the ruins of the Capitol, Byron, as while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.' Many years, however, elapsed before he realised his intentions. On returning to England in 1765, he seems to have been fashionable and idle; his father died in 1770, and he then began to form the plan of an independent life. The estate left him by his father was much involved in debt, and he determined on quitting the country and residing permanently in London. He then undertook the composition of the first volume of his history. At the outset,' he remarks, all was dark and doubtful: even the title of the work, the true era of the decline and fall of the empire, the limits of the introduction, the division of the chapters, and the order of the narrative; and I was often tempted to cast away the labour of seven years. The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise. Many experiments were made before I could hit the middle tone between a dull tone and a rhetorical declamation three times did I compose the first chapter, and twice the second and third, before I was tolerably satisfied with their effect. In the remainder of the way, I advanced with a more equal and easy pace.' In 1774 he was returned for the borough of Liskeard, and sat in parliament eight sessions during the memorable contest between Great Britain and America. Prudence, he says, condemned him to acquiesce in the humble station of a mute; the great speakers filled him with despair, the bad ones with terror. Gibbon, however, supported by his vote the administration of Lord North, and was by this nobleman appointed one of the lords commissioners of trade and plantations. In 1776 the first quarto volume of his history was given to the Sapping a solemn creed with solemn sneer, The lord of irony, that master spell. He nowhere openly avows his disbelief. By tacitly sinking the early and astonishing spread of Christianity during the time of the Apostles, and dwelling with exaggerated colouring and minuteness on the errors and corruption by which it afterwards became debased, the historian in effect conveys an impression that its divine origin is but a poetical fable, like the golden age of the poets, or the mystic absurdities of Mohammedanism. The Christian faith was a bold and successful innovation, and Gibbon hated all innovations. In his after-life, he was in favour of retaining even the Inquisition, with its tortures and its tyranny, because it was an ancient institution! Besides the 'solemn sneer' of Gibbon," there is another cardinal defect in his account of the progress of the Christian faith, which has been thus ably pointed out by the Rev. H. H. Milman : Christianity alone receives no embellishment from the magic of Gibbon's language; his imagination is dead to its moral dignity; it is kept down by a general tone of jealous disparagement, or neutralised by a painfully elaborate exposition of its darker and degenerate periods. There are occasions, indeed, when its pure and exalted humanity, when its manifestly beneficial influence can compel even him, as it were, to fairness, and kindle his unguarded eloquence to its usual fervour; but in general he soon relapses into a frigid apathy; affects an ostentatiously severe impartiality; notes all the faults of Christians in every age with bitter and almost malignant sarcasm; reluctantly, and with exception and reservation, admits their claim to admiration. This inextricable bias appears even to influence his manner of composition. While all the other assailants of the Roman empire, whether warlike or religious, the Goth, the Hun, the Arab, the Tatar, Alaric and Attila, Mohammed, and Zingis, and Tamerlane, are each introduced upon the scene almost with dramatic animation-their progress related in a full, complete, and unbroken narrative-the triumph of Christianity alone takes the form of a cold and critical disquisition. The successes of barbarous energy and brute force call forth all the consummate skill of composition, while the moral triumphs of Christian benevolence, the tranquil heroism of endurance, the blameless purity, the contempt of guilty fame, and of honours destructive to the human race, which, had they assumed the proud name of philosophy, would have been blazoned in his brightest words, because they own religion as their principle, sink into narrow asceticism. The glories of Christianity, in short, touch on no chord in the heart of the writer; his imagination remains unkindled; his words, though they maintain their stately and measured march, have become cool, argumentative, and inanimate.' The second and third volumes of the history did not appear till 1781. After their publication, finding it necessary to retrench his expenditure, and being disappointed of a lucrative place which he had hoped for from ministerial patronage, he resolved to retire to Lausanne, where he was offered a residence by a friend of his youth, M. Deyverdun. Residence of Gibbon at Lausanne. Here he lived very happily for about four years, devoting his mornings to composition, and his evenings to the enlightened and polished society which had gathered in that situation. The history was completed at the time and in the circumstances which he has thus stated: 'It was on the day, or rather night, of the 27th of June 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent. I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future date of my history, the life of the historian must be short and precarious.'* The historian adds two facts which have seldom occurred in the composition of six or even five quartos; his first rough manuscript, without an intermediate copy, was sent to the press, and not a sheet was seen by any person but the author and the printer. His lofty style, like that of Johnson, was, in fact, the image of his mind.' Gibbon went to London to superintend the publication of his last three volumes, and afterwards returned to Lausanne, where he resided till 1793. The French Revolution had imbittered and divided the society of Lausanne; some of his friends were dead, and he anxiously wished himself again in England. At this time, the lady of his most intimate friend, Lord Sheffield, died, and he hastened to administer consolation: he arrived at Lord Sheffield's house in London in June 1793. The health of the historian had, however, been indifferent for some time, owing to a long-settled complaint; and, exhausted by surgical operations, he died without pain, and apparently without any sense of his danger, on the 16th of January 1794. In most of the essential qualifications of a historian, Gibbon was equal to either Hume or Robertson. In some, he was superior. He had greater depth and variety of learning, and a more perfect command of his intellectual treasures. It was not merely with the main stream of Roman history that he was familiar. All its accessories and tributaries-the art of war, philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, geography-down to its minutest point-every shade of manners, opinions, and public character, in Roman and contemporaneous history, he had studied with laborious diligence and complete success. Hume was elaborate, but it was only with respect to style. Errors in fact and theory were perpetuated through every edition, while the author was purifying his periods and weeding out Scotticisms. The labour of Gibbon was directed to higher objects-to the accumulation of facts, and the collation of ancient authors. His style, once fixed, remained unaltered. In erudition, and comprehensiveness of intellect, Gibbon may therefore be pronounced the first of English historians. The vast range of his subject, and the tone of dignity which he preserves throughout the whole of his capacious circuit, also give him a superiority over his illustrious rivals. In concentrating his information, and presenting it in a clear and lucid order, he is no less remarkable, while his vivid imagination, quickening and adorning his varied knowledge, is fully equal to his other powers. he describes, and paints local scenery, national costume or manners, with all the force and animation of a native or eye-witness. These solid and bright acquirements of the historian were not, however, without their drawbacks. His mind was more material or sensual than philosophical-more fond of splendour and display than of the beauty of virtue or the grandeur of moral heroism. His taste was vitiated and impure, so that his style He identifies himself with whatever *The garden and summer-house where he composed are neglected, and the last, utterly decayed, but they still shew it as his " cabinet," and seem perfectly aware of his memory.'Byron's Letters. is not only deficient in chaste simplicity, but is disfigured by offensive pruriency and occasional grossness. His lofty ornate diction fatigues by its uniform pomp and dignity, notwithstanding the graces and splendour of his animated narrative. Deficient in depth of moral feeling and elevation of sentiment, Gibbon seldom touches the heart or inspires true enthusiasm. The reader admires his glittering sentences, his tournaments, and battlepieces, his polished irony and masterly sketches of character; he marvels at his inexhaustible learning, and is fascinated by his pictures of military conquest and Asiatic luxury, but he still feels that, as in the state of ancient Rome itself, the seeds of ruin are developed amidst flattering appearances: 'the florid bloom but ill conceals the fatal malady which preys upon the vitals.'* The want of one great harmonising spirit of humanity and genuine philosophy to give unity to the splendid mass, becomes painfully visible on a calm review of the entire work. After one attentive study of Gibbon, when the mind has become saturated with his style and manner, we seldom recur to his pages excepting for some particular fact or description. Such is the importance of simplicity and purity in a voluminous narrative, that this great historian is seldom read but as a study, while Hume and Robertson are always perused as a pleasure. which judges the past as it would judge the present; which does not permit itself to be blinded by the clouds which time gathers around the dead, and which prevent us from seeing that under the toga as under the modern dress, in the senate as in our councils, men were what they still are, and that events took place eighteen centuries ago as they take place in our days. I then felt that his book, in spite of its faults, will always be a noble work; and that we may correct his errors, and combat his prejudices, without ceasing to admit that few men have combined, if we are not to say in so high a degree, at least in a manner so complete and so well regulated, the necessary qualifications for a writer of history.' mental [Opinion of the Ancient Philosophers on the Immortality of the Soul.] The writings of Cicero represent in the most lively colours the ignorance, the errors, and the uncertainty of the ancient philosophers with regard to the immortality of the soul. When they are desirous of arming their disciples against the fear of death, they inculcate as an obvious though melancholy position, that the fatal stroke of our dissolution releases us from the calamities of life; and that those can no longer suffer who no longer exist. Yet there were a few sages of Greece and Rome who The work of Gibbon has been translated into had conceived a more exalted, and in some respects a French, with notes by M. Guizot, the distinguished juster idea of human nature; though, it must be conphilosopher and statesman. The remarks of Guizot, fessed, that in the sublime inquiry, their reason had with those of Wenck, a German commentator, and often been guided by their imagination, and that their numerous original illustrations and corrections, are imagination had been prompted by their vanity. When embodied in a fine edition by Mr Milman, in twelve they viewed with complacency the extent of their own volumes, published by Mr Murray, London, in 1838. ties of memory, of fancy, and of judgment, in the most powers; when they exercised the various faculM. Guizot has thus recorded his own impressions profound speculations, or the most important labours; on reading Gibbon's history: After a first rapid and when they reflected on the desire of fame, which perusal, which allowed me to feel nothing but the transported them into future ages, far beyond the interest of a narrative, always animated, and, not-bounds of death and of the grave; they were unwilling withstanding its extent and the variety of objects to confound themselves with the beasts of the field, or which it makes to pass before the view, always to suppose that a being, for whose dignity they enterperspicuous, I entered upon a minute examination of the details of which it was composed, and the opinion which I then formed was, I confess, singularly severe. I discovered in certain chapters errors which appeared to me sufficiently important and numerous to make me believe that they had been written with extreme negligence; in others, I was struck with a certain tinge of partiality and prejudice, which imparted to the exposition of the facts that want of truth and justice which the English express by their happy term, misrepresentation. Some imperfect quotations, some passages omitted unintentionally or designedly, have cast a suspicion on the honesty of the author; and his violation of the first law of historyincreased to my eyes by the prolonged attention with which I occupied myself with every phrase, every note, every reflection-caused me to form on the whole work a judgment far too rigorous. After having finished my labours, I allowed some time to elapse before I reviewed the whole. A second attentive and regular perusal of the entire work, of the notes of the author, and of those which I had thought it right to subjoin, shewed me how much I had exaggerated the importance of the reproaches which Gibbon really deserved: I was struck with the same errors, the same partiality on certain subjects; but I had been far from doing adequate justice to the immensity of his researches, the variety of his knowledge, and, above all, to that truly philosophical discrimination (justesse d'esprit) Hall on the Causes of the Present Discontents. tained the most sincere admiration, could be limited to a spot of earth, and to a few years of duration. With this favourable prepossession, they summoned to their aid the science, or rather the language of metaphysics. They soon discovered that as none of the properties of matter will apply to the operations of the mind, the human soul must consequently be a substance distinct from the body-pure, simple, and spiritual, incapable of dissolution, and susceptible of a much higher degree of virtue and happiness after the release from its corporeal prison. From these specious and noble principles, the philosophers who trod in the footsteps of Plato deduced a very unjustifiable conclusion, since they asserted not only the future immortality, but the past eternity of the human soul, which they were too apt to consider as a portion of the infinite and self-existing spirit which pervades and sustains the universe. A doctrine thus removed beyond the senses and the experience of mankind might serve to amuse the leisure of a philosophic mind; or, in the silence of solitude, it might sometimes impart a ray of comfort to desponding virtue; but the faint impression which had been received in the school was soon obliterated by the commerce and business of active life. We are sufficiently acquainted with the eminent persons who flourished in the age of Cicero, and of the first Cæsars, with their actions, their characters, and their motives, to be assured that their conduct in this life was never regulated by any serious conviction of the rewards or punishments of a future state. At the bar and in the senate of Rome the * This passage of Gibbon is finely illustrated in Hall's Funeral Sermon for Dr Ryland: 'If the mere conception of the reunion of good men in a |