sm of the Antonines as
without exception the happiest period in the history of mankind, and in
the unmixed horror with which he looked upon the French Revolution that
broke up the old landmarks of Europe, For three years he held an office
in the Board of Trade, which added considerably to his income without
adding greatly to his labors, and he supported steadily the American
policy of Lord North and the Coalition ministry of North and Fox; but
the loss of his office and the retirement of North soon drove him from
Parliament, and he shortly after took up his residence at Lausanne.

But before this time a considerable part of his great work had been
accomplished. The first quarto volume of the 'Decline and Fall' appeared
in February 1776. As is usually the case with historical works, it
occupied a much longer period than its successors, and was the fruit of
about ten years of labor. It passed rapidly through three editions,
received the enthusiastic eulogy of Hume and Robertson, and was no doubt
greatly assisted in its circulation by the storm of controversy that
arose about his Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters. In April 1781 two more
volumes appeared, and the three concluding volumes were published
together on the 8th of May, 1788, being the fifty-first birthday of the
author.

A work of such magnitude, dealing with so vast a variety of subjects,
was certain to exhibit some flaws. The controversy at first turned
mainly upon its religious tendency. The complete skepticism of the
author, his aversion to the ecclesiastical type which dominated in the
period of which he wrote, and his unalterable conviction that
Christianity, by diverting the strength and enthusiasm of the Empire
from civic into ascetic and ecclesiastical channels, was a main cause of
the downfall of the Empire and of the triumph of barbarism, gave him a
bias which it was impossible to overlook. On no other subject is his
irony more bitter or his contempt so manifestly displayed. Few good
critics will deny that the growth of the ascetic spirit had a large part
in corroding and enfeebling the civic virtues of the Empire; but the
part which it played was that of intensifying a disease that had already
begun, and Gibbon, while exaggerating the amount of the evil, has very
imperfectly described the great services rendered even by a monastic
Church in laying the basis of another civilization and in mitigating the
calamities of the barbarian invasion. The causes