The Project Gutenberg eBook, Gibbon, by James Cotter Morison

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Title: Gibbon

Author: James Cotter Morison

Release Date: July 17, 2006 [eBook #18851]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GIBBON***

E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Sankar Viswanathan, and
the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net/)

English Men of Letters

Edited by John Morley

GIBBON

by

JAMES COTTER MORISON, M.A.
Lincoln College, Oxford

London:
MacMillan and Co.
1878.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

GIBBON'S EARLY LIFE UP TO THE TIME OF HIS LEAVING OXFORD

CHAPTER II.

AT LAUSANNE

CHAPTER III.

IN THE MILITIA

CHAPTER IV.

THE ITALIAN JOURNEY

CHAPTER V.

LITERARY SCHEMES.--THE HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND.--DISSERTATION ON THE
SIXTH AENEID.--FATHER'S DEATH.--SETTLEMENT IN LONDON

CHAPTER VI.

LIFE IN LONDON.--PARLIAMENT.--THE BOARD OF TRADE.--THE DECLINE AND
FALL.--MIGRATION TO LAUSANNE

CHAPTER VII.

THE FIRST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LAST TEN TEARS OF HIS LIFE AT LAUSANNE

CHAPTER IX.

THE LAST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAPTER X.

LAST ILLNESS.--DEATH.--CONCLUSION

GIBBON

CHAPTER I.

GIBBON'S EARLY LIFE UP TO THE TIME OF HIS LEAVING OXFORD.

Edward Gibbon[1] was born at Putney, near London, on 27th April in
the year 1737. After the reformation of the calendar his birthday
became the 8th of May. He was the eldest of a family of seven
children; but his five brothers and only sister all died in early
infancy, and he could remember in after life his sister alone, whom he
also regretted.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Gibbon's Memoirs and Letters are of such easy access that
I have not deemed it necessary to encumber these pages with references
to them. Any one who wishes to control my statements will have no
difficulty in doing so with the Miscellaneous Works, edited by Lord
Sheffield, in his hand. Whenever I advance anything that seems to
require corroboration, I have been careful to give my authority.]

He is at some pains in