a
third. The second and third volumes, which ended the history of the
Western empire, were published in 1781, and seven years later the three
volumes devoted to the Eastern empire saw the light. The last sentence
of the work, written in the summer-house at Lausanne, is, "It was among
the ruins of the Capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which
has amused and exercised near twenty years of my life, and which,
however inadequate to my own wishes, I finally deliver to the curiosity
and candor of the public."

This is a brief account of one of the greatest historical works, if
indeed it is not the greatest, ever written. Let us imagine an
assemblage of English, German, and American historical scholars called
upon to answer the question, Who is the greatest modern historian? No
doubt can exist that Gibbon would have a large majority of the voices;
and I think a like meeting of French and Italian scholars would indorse
the verdict. "Gibbon's work will never be excelled," declared
Niebuhr.[49] "That great master of us all," said Freeman, "whose
immortal tale none of us can hope to displace."[50] Bury, the latest
editor of Gibbon, who has acutely criticised and carefully weighed "The
Decline and Fall," concludes "that Gibbon is behind date in many
details. But in the main things he is still our master, above and beyond
date."[51] His work wins plaudits from those who believe that history
in its highest form should be literature and from those who hold that it
should be nothing more than a scientific narrative. The disciples of
Macaulay and Carlyle, of Stubbs and Gardiner, would be found voting in
unison in my imaginary Congress. Gibbon, writes Bury, is "the historian
and the man of letters," thus ranking with Thucydides and Tacitus. These
three are put in the highest class, exemplifying that "brilliance of
style and accuracy of statement are perfectly compatible in an
historian."[52] Accepting this authoritative classification it is well
worth while to point out the salient differences between the ancient
historians and the modern. From Thucydides we have twenty-four years of
contemporary history of his own country. If the whole of the Annals and
History of Tacitus had come down to us, we should have had eighty-three
years; as it is, we actually have forty-one of nearly contemporary
history of the Roman Empire. Gibbon's tale covers 1240 years. He went
far beyond his own country for his subject, and the date of his