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Extracts From The Memoirs Of The Life And Writings Of Edward Gibbon, Esq.
this solemn business , if you do not resist the spirit of innovation in the first attempt , if you admit the smallest and most specious change in your parliamentary system , you are lost . You will be driven from one step to another ; from principles , just in theory , to consequences most pernicious in practice ; and your first concessions will be productive of every subsequent mischief , for which you will be answerable to your country and to posterity . Do not suffer yourselves to be
lulled into a false security ; remember the proud fabric of the French monarchy . Not four years ago it stood founded , as it mi ght seem , on the rock of time , force , and opinion , supported by the triple aristocracy of the church , the nobility , and the parliaments . They are crumbled into dust ; they are vanished from the earth . If this tremendous warning has no effect on the men of property in England ; if it does not
open eveiy eye , and raise every arm , you will deserve your fate . If I am too precipitate , enli ghten ; if I am too desponding , encourage me . " - In the year 1797 , Mr . Gibbon had some idea of writing a work , which we can only lament he did not realize . We shall give it in his own words , from a letter to Lord Sheffield .
" And now approach , and let me drop into your most private ear a literary secret . Of the Memoirs little has been-done , and with that little 1 am not satisfied . They must be postpone'd till a mature season ; and I much doubt whether the book and the Author can ever see the light at the same time . But 1 have long revolved in my mind another
scheme of biographical writing : the Lives , or rather the Characters , of the most eminent Persons in Arts and Arms , in Church and State , who have flourished in Britain from the reign of Henry the Eighth to the present age . This work , extensive as it may be , would be an amusement , rather than a toil : the materials are accessible in our own language , and , for the most part , ready to my hands : but the subject , which would afford rich "
a display of human nature and domestic history , would powerfully address itself to the feelings of every Englishman . The taste or fashion of the times seems to delight in picturesque decorations ; and this series of British portraits mi ght aptly be accompanied by the respective heads , taken from ori ginals , and engraved by the best masters . Alderman Boydelland his son-in-lawMr '
, , . George Nicol , bookseller in Pall-mall , are the great undertakers in this line . On my arrival in England , I shall be free to consider , whether it may suit me to proceed in a mere literary work without any other decorations than those which it may derivefrom the pen of the Author . It is a serious truth , that I am no longer ambitious of fame or money ; that my habits of industry are much impairedand that I
; have reduced my studies , to be the loose amusement of my morning hours , the repetition of which will insensibl y lead me to the last term of existence . And for this very reason I shall not be sorry to bind myself by a liberal engagement , from which ' I may not with honour recede . " fro BE CONTINUED . !
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Extracts From The Memoirs Of The Life And Writings Of Edward Gibbon, Esq.
this solemn business , if you do not resist the spirit of innovation in the first attempt , if you admit the smallest and most specious change in your parliamentary system , you are lost . You will be driven from one step to another ; from principles , just in theory , to consequences most pernicious in practice ; and your first concessions will be productive of every subsequent mischief , for which you will be answerable to your country and to posterity . Do not suffer yourselves to be
lulled into a false security ; remember the proud fabric of the French monarchy . Not four years ago it stood founded , as it mi ght seem , on the rock of time , force , and opinion , supported by the triple aristocracy of the church , the nobility , and the parliaments . They are crumbled into dust ; they are vanished from the earth . If this tremendous warning has no effect on the men of property in England ; if it does not
open eveiy eye , and raise every arm , you will deserve your fate . If I am too precipitate , enli ghten ; if I am too desponding , encourage me . " - In the year 1797 , Mr . Gibbon had some idea of writing a work , which we can only lament he did not realize . We shall give it in his own words , from a letter to Lord Sheffield .
" And now approach , and let me drop into your most private ear a literary secret . Of the Memoirs little has been-done , and with that little 1 am not satisfied . They must be postpone'd till a mature season ; and I much doubt whether the book and the Author can ever see the light at the same time . But 1 have long revolved in my mind another
scheme of biographical writing : the Lives , or rather the Characters , of the most eminent Persons in Arts and Arms , in Church and State , who have flourished in Britain from the reign of Henry the Eighth to the present age . This work , extensive as it may be , would be an amusement , rather than a toil : the materials are accessible in our own language , and , for the most part , ready to my hands : but the subject , which would afford rich "
a display of human nature and domestic history , would powerfully address itself to the feelings of every Englishman . The taste or fashion of the times seems to delight in picturesque decorations ; and this series of British portraits mi ght aptly be accompanied by the respective heads , taken from ori ginals , and engraved by the best masters . Alderman Boydelland his son-in-lawMr '
, , . George Nicol , bookseller in Pall-mall , are the great undertakers in this line . On my arrival in England , I shall be free to consider , whether it may suit me to proceed in a mere literary work without any other decorations than those which it may derivefrom the pen of the Author . It is a serious truth , that I am no longer ambitious of fame or money ; that my habits of industry are much impairedand that I
; have reduced my studies , to be the loose amusement of my morning hours , the repetition of which will insensibl y lead me to the last term of existence . And for this very reason I shall not be sorry to bind myself by a liberal engagement , from which ' I may not with honour recede . " fro BE CONTINUED . !