The subsidiary
rays of medals and inscriptions of geography and chronology,
were thrown on their proper objects, and I applied the
collections of Tillemont to fix and arrange within my reach
the loose and scattered atoms of historical information.
Through the darkness of the middle ages I explored my way in
the _Annals and Antiquities of Italy_ of the learned
Muratori, and diligently compared them with the parallel or
transverse lines of Sigonius and Maffei, Baronius and Pagi,
till I almost grasped the ruins of Rome in the fourteenth
century, without suspecting that this final chapter must be
attained by the labour of six quartos and twenty years."
When the time for composition arrived, he showed a fastidiousness
which was full of good augury. "Three times did I compose the first
chapter, and twice the second and third, before I was tolerably
satisfied with their effect." His hand grew firmer as he advanced. But
the two final chapters interposed a long delay, and needed "three
successive revisals to reduce them from a volume to their present
size.
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