myself, if, by fo doing, I fhould inspire a taste for them in others. I fhould entertain too good an opinion of myself, if I did not fee the imperfections of this Effay; and should have too bad a one if I did not hope,, at an age lefs premature, and with a more extenfive knowledge, to be able to correct them. It may poffibly be faid, these reflections are juft, but hackneyed and trite, or that they are new, but paradoxical. Where is the author who loves the critics? The former imputation, however, will displease me leaft; the advantage of the art being more dear to me than the reputation of the artist.

SIR,

now,

Mr. GIBBON to Mr. LANGER.

ROLLE, 12th October 1790.

I SHOULD have acknowledged fooner your kindness in procuring for me the Origines Guelfice, if I had not been told by our obliging bookfeller Mr. Pott, that you were on a journey, while I myfelf was confined with the longest and most severe fit of the gout that I ever experienced. But we are both of us, reftored to our ordinary ftate, I can walk, and you no longer travel poft. I suppose by this time you are thoroughly established, and deeply immured in your immenfe library. Your curiofity, perhaps your friendship, will defire to know what have been my amusements, labors, and projects, during the two years that have elapfed fince the laft publication of my great work. To indifcreet questions on this fubject, with which I am often teafed, I answer vaguely or peevishly; but from you I would keep nothing concealed; and to imitate the franknefs in which you fo much delight, will freely confefs, that I more readily truft you with my fecret, because I greatly need your affiftance. After returning from England, the first months were spent in the enjoyment of my liberty and my library; and you will not be furprifed that I fhould have renewed my familiar acquaintance with the Greek authors and vowed to confecrate to them daily a portion of my leifure. I pafs over in filence the fad hours employed in the care of my friend, and in lamentation for his lofs. When the agitation of my mind abated, I endeavoured to find out for myfelf fome occupation more interesting and more invigorating than mere reading can afford. But the remembrance of a fervitude of twenty years frightened me from again engaging in a long undertaking, which I might

probably never finish. It would be better, I thought to felect from the hiftorical monuments of all ages, and all nations, fuch fubjects' as might be treated feparately, both agreeably to their own nature, as. well as to my tafte. When thefe little works, which might be entitled Hiftorical Excurfions, amounted to a volume, I would offer it to the Public; and the prefent might be repeated, until either the Public or myself were tired; for as each volume would be complete in itself, no continuation would be requifite; and instead of being obliged to follow, like the stagecoach, the high road, I would expatiate at large in the field of hiftory, ftopping to admire every beautiful profpect that opened to my view. One inconvenience, indeed, attends this defign. An important fubject grows and expands with the labor bestowed on it. I might thus be carried beyond my prefcribed bounds; but I fhould be carried gently, without forefight and withouth constraint.

This fufpicion was juftified in my firft excurfion, the fubject of which will explain the reafon why I was fo earnest to procure the Origines Guelfice. In my History, I had given an account of two illuftrious marriages; the firft, of the son of Azo, Marquis of Efte, with the daughter of Robert Guifcard; and the second, of a Princefs of Brunfwick with the Greek Emperor. The firft view of the antiquity and grandeur of the Houfe of Brunfwick excited my curiofity, and made me think that the two nations, whom I efteem the most, might be entertained by the history of a family, which fprung from the one, and reigns over the other. But my researches fhowed me not only the beauty, but the extent and difficulty of my fubject. Muratori and Leibnitz have fuffi ciently explained the origin of the Marquiffes of Liguria, and perhaps of Tufcany: I am well acquainted with the hiftory and monuments of Italy, during

during the middle ages; and I am not diffatisfied with what I have already written concerning that branch of the family of Efte, which continued to refide in its hereditary poffeffions. I am not unac quainted with the ancient Guelphs, nor incapable of giving an account of the power and downfal of their heirs, the Dukes of Bavaria and Saxony. The fucceffion of the House of Brunswick to the Crown of Great Britain will doubtlefs form the most interefting part of my narrative; but the authors on this fubject are in English; and it would be unpardonable in a Briton not to have ftudied the modern hiftory and prefent conftitution of his country. But there is an interval of four hundred and fifty years between the first Duke of Brunfwick and the firft Elector of that family; and the defign of my work compels me to follow in obfcurity a rough and narrow path; where, by the divifion and fubdivifion of fo many branches and fo many territories, I fhall be involved in the mazes of a genealogical labyrinth. The events, which are deftitute of connexion as well as of fplendor, are confined to a fingle province of Germany; and I must have reached near the end of the period, before my fubject will be enlivened by the reformation of religion, the war of thirty years, and the new power acquired by the Electorate. As it is my purpose rather to sketch memoirs than to write hiftory, my narrative must proceed with rapidity; and contain rather refults than facts rather reflections than details; but you are aware how much particular knowledge is requifite for this general defcription, the author of which ought to be far more learned than his work. Unfortunately, this author refides at the distance of two hundred leagues from Saxony; he knows not the language, and has never made the hiftory of Germany his particular ftudy. Thus remote from the fources of information, he can think of only one channel by which they may be made to VOL. VII.

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flow into his library; which is, by finding in the country itself an accurate correfpondent, an enlightened guide, in one word, an oracle, whom he may confult in every difficulty. Your learning and character, as well as your abilities and fituation, fingularly qualify you for gratifying my wifhes; and fhould you point out to me a fubftitute equally well qualified with yourfelf, yet I could not have equal confidence in the affiftance of a perfon unknown to me. I would teaze you with queftions, and new questions would often be suggested by your answers; I would request you to ranfack your vaft library, and to fupply me with books, extracts, tranflations, and information of every kind, conducive to my undertaking. But I know not how far you are inclined to facrifice your leifure and your favorite ftudies to a laborious correfpondence, which promises neither fame nor pleasure. I flatter myself, you would do fomething to oblige me; you would do more for the honor of the Family with which you are connected by your employment. But what title have I to fuppofe that any work of mine can contribute to its honor? I expect, Sir, your anfwer; and request that it may be speedy and frank. Should you condefcend to affist my labors, I will immediately send you fome interrogatories. Your refufal, on the other hand, will make me lay afide the defign, or at leaft oblige me to give it a new form. I venture, at the fame time, to entreat that the fubject of this letter may remain a profound fecret. An indifcreet word would be repeated by a hundred mouths; and I should have the uneafinefs of feeing in the foreign journals, and foon afterwards in the English newspapers, an account, and that, perhaps, an unfaithful one, of my literary projects, the fecret of which I intrust to you alone.