One may say that generalised and synthetic views are
conspicuous by their absence in Gibbon.
But what of that? These reflections, even if they be well founded,
hardly dim the majesty of the _Decline and Fall_. The book is such a
marvel of knowledge at once wide and minute, that even now, after
numbers of labourers have gone over the same ground, with only special
objects in view, small segments of the great circle which Gibbon fills
alone, his word is still one of the weightiest that can be quoted.
Modern research has unquestionably opened out points of view to which
he did not attain. But when it comes to close investigation of any
particular question, we rarely fail to find that he has seen it,
dropped some pregnant hint about it, more valuable than the
dissertations of other men. As Mr. Freeman says, "Whatever else is
read, Gibbon must be read too."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LAST TEN YEARS OF HIS LIFE IN LAUSANNE.
After the preliminary troubles which met him on his arrival at
Lausanne, Gibbon had four years of unbroken calm and steady work, of
which there is nothing to record beyond the fact that they were filled
with peaceful industry.
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