ed in a
quarto form, no doubt for the convenience of the purchasers of the
original quarto edition.

Of the posthumous works, the Memoirs are by far the most important
portion. Unfortunately, they were left in a most unfinished state, and
what we now read is nothing else than a mosaic put together by Lord
Sheffield from _six_ different sketches. Next to the Memoirs are the
journals and diaries of his studies. As a picture of Gibbon's method,
zeal, and thoroughness in the pursuit of knowledge, they are of the
highest interest. But they refer to an early period of his studies,
long previous to the concentration of his mind on his great work, and
one would like to know whether they present the best selection that
might have been made from these records. It is interesting to follow
Gibbon in his perusal of Homer and Juvenal at five-and-twenty. But one
would much like to be admitted to his study when he was a far riper
scholar, and preparing for or writing the _Decline and Fall_. Lord
Sheffield positively prohibited, by a clause in his will, any further
publication of the Gibbon papers, and although Dean Milman was
permitted to see them, it was with the express understanding that none
of their contents should be divulged. After the Memoirs and the
journals, the most interesting portion of the miscellaneous works are
_The Antiquities of the House of Brunswick_, which in their present
form are merely the preparatory sketch of a large work. It is too
imperfect to allow us to judge of what Gibbon even designed to make of
it. But it contains some masterly pages, and the style in many places
seems more nervous and supple than that of the _Decline and Fall._

For instance, this account of Albert Azo the Second:--

"Like one of his Tuscan ancestors Azo the Second was
distinguished among the princes of Italy by the epithet of
the _Rich_. The particulars of his rentroll cannot now be
ascertained. An occasional though authentic deed of
investiture enumerates eighty-three fiefs or manors which he
held of the empire in Lombardy and Tuscany, from the
Marquisate of Este to the county of Luni; but to these
possessions must be added the lands which he enjoyed as the
vassal of the Church, the ancient patrimony of Otbert (the
terra Obertenga) in the counties of Arezzo, Pisa, and Lucca,
and the marriage portion of his first wife, which, according
to the various readings of the manu