Autobiography of Edward Gibbon : as originally edited by Lord Sheffield / with an introduction by J.B. Bury.
- Edward Gibbon
- Date:
- [1935]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Autobiography of Edward Gibbon : as originally edited by Lord Sheffield / with an introduction by J.B. Bury. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![seriously as his magnum opus ; he never lost himself in his labour ; he was not one of those who think of nothing but the advancement of knowledge and work till they fall. He had his own ideal of the life of a literary man, and he had models. At the age of fifty-four he calculated on grounds of statistical pro¬ bability that he might hope to enjoy for about fifteen years the ‘ autumnal felicity ’ which had been the lot of ‘ Voltaire, Hume, and many other men of letters He hoped to bequeath to the admiration of posterity not only a great book, but a vision of the fortunate life of an eminent writer. This self-consciousness moves high above the range of vulgar vanity. Of his intellectual powers and his achievements as a writer, he had a just and not excessive opinion. His work had placed him at once in the same rank with Hume and Robertson, whose fame was established when he had begun to write. ‘ I will frankly own,’ he wrote, ‘ that my pride is elated as often as I find myself ranked in the triumvirate of British Historians of the present age, and though I feel myself the Lepidus, I contemplate with pleasure the superiority of my colleagues.’ He never shows a trace of jealousy in his appreciation of the intellectual merits of others. In his intercourse with his fellow creatures, indeed, Gibbon was exceedingly vain, sensitive, and ready to take offence. Austere moralists will perhaps discover an index of deplorable vanity in his scrupulous attention to the adornment of his person. In a letter to his friend Holroyd (Lord Sheffield) he describes himself as ‘ writing at Boodle’s [Club] in a fine velvet coat with ruffles of My Lady’s choosing ’. His attire on one occasion was criticized by an observer as ‘ a little overcharged perhaps, if his person be con¬ sidered ’. He was always anxious to make a good impression ; he was worldly and suave, inclined to be all things to all men. In almost every point he was the antithesis of his great contemporary, Dr. Samuel Johnson, and the idolizers of that rugged, uncompromising, ruthlessly sincere thoroughly un-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31360154_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
