LX. LITERA TURE AND ART. CII AP. of another candidate. Even previous to the decision, Gibbon was intent upon a different scheme, and was casting a wistful look towards the shores of the Leman Lake, his early and beloved abode. His official disappointment fixed his wavering thoughts, and he relinquished London and Par liamentary attendance for Lausanne and the prosecution of his History. Of that great work three volumes were already published: the first in 1775, the second and third together in 1781. The public had done him ready justice. They admired the extent and accuracy of his reading, the stately march of his sentences, the lucid order of his nar rative. With equal reason they resented his insi dious attacks, and, worse still, his bitter sneers, on the faith which they professed. As Gibbon's first three volumes were written in London, so were his three last at Lausanne. He has in his own Memoirs faithfully recorded the times, both of the earliest germ and of the final completion, of his immortal work. It was, he says, at Rome, on the 15th of October, 1764, as he sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, and while the barefooted friars were singing Vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to his mind. It was on the night of the 27th of June, 1787, that he wrote the last lines of the last page in the summer house of his garden at Lausanne. With all its faults, and chief among them its malevolence (for it deserves no milder name) to LX. TURE AND Christianity, the Decline and Fall is probably the CHAP. greatest historical performance in the English language. It has been translated into every other LITERAprincipal European tongue; and even such men as M. Guizot have not disdained to be among its commentators. In no age or country perhaps has any historian drawn from so great a number and variety of sources, or combined in a more eminent degree erudition with genius. Next in order of merit among ours may be placed Hume's History of England. So delightful is the style, so graceful and easy the narrative, so large the amount of information condensed in a brief space, that it ever has maintained-and we may venture to predict ever will maintain-its ground. In vain have later critics and gainsayers pointed out, not unsuccessfully, the manifold errors it contains; errors in part arising from haste or inaccurate knowledge, but in part, not without suspicion of wilful purpose and design. As an instance of the former may be mentioned that Hume personifies the Papal authority in the twelfth century by the Triple Crown, and speaks of the Pontiff at that period as launching his thunders from the Vatican; the fact being, that at the time in question the Papal Crown was not yet Triple, nor the Vatican the Papal abode.* The latter is of course a far graver charge. One strong * See the Quarterly Review, No. cxlvi. pp. 560 and 579. The able article from which I am quoting bears the title, "Hume " and his Influence upon History," and is commonly ascribed to Sir Francis Palgrave. CHAP. example of it may be found in the enumeration of LX. the works produced by King Alfred, or under his LITERA direction; from which list Hume has omitted. every one of the numerous translations, and other works which bear in any degree upon Revealed Religion. TURE AND ART. Such errors, but especially those of the former class, have caused some over-zealous antiquaries to deny altogether the great merit of Hume and his compeers. When, in 1836, the House of Commons appointed a Committee of inquiry into the Record Commission, one Member, Mr. Pusey, asked one witness, Sir Harris Nicolas: "Are you "of opinion that we have at present no accurate "and complete history of this country?" To which Sir Harris answered: "I am of opinion that we have no History of England deserving of the name."* Yet with all respect to the memory of that learned and laborious explorer of antiquity, we may affirm, that did his principles prevail, were our early annals written mainly by the aid of Rolls and Deeds, or rather of that portion of them, which with great difficulty not long since was rescued from the rats t; the result would scarce, to any 66 66 *Minutes of Evidence, Q. 3966. † In the same Minutes of Evidence (Q. 4590.) see the statement of Mr. Henry Cole as to the condition at that time of one of the Record depositories :- "Six or seven perfect skeletons "of rats were found embedded (in the Rolls); bones of these "vermin were generally distributed throughout the mass, and a dog was employed in hunting the live ones!" Et divina Opici rodebant carmina mures! LX. TURE AND ART. eyes, seem satisfactory. We may fear that this pub- CHAP. lication would ill reward the zeal and diligence which prompted it; and, like all the former pub- LITERAlications of the Record Commissioners, remain unread, a burden seldom lessening on the shelves of the weary publisher. The pages ill employed on such materials would bear no more resemblance to the pages of a Livy or Sismondi, than does a quarry to a palace, or a skeleton to a man. With such a 'publication," the public in reality would have no The public would still prefer, and be right in preferring, the form and spirit of History to its dry bones. 66 concern. It is true indeed that there are other deficiencies in Hume besides that of parchment deeds. Books of high historical importance did not come forth until after his narrative was written. They came forth, it may be said, partly on account of his narrative,-on account of that increasing zeal for historical inquiry which followed in its trainThus Domesday Book, the great landmark of the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman times, is now familiar to every student of that period. In the days of Hume it was, if not unknown, yet for every practical purpose inaccessible. It was kept in the Chapter House at Westminster, under the guard of lock and key, and the edifice itself was seldom to be entered. Should any obstinate inquirer nevertheless persist in his desire to consult the treasure, he was liable to a penalty (for so it may be termed) of 13s. 4d. for each inspection. To give another LX. ᎪᎡᎢ . CHAP. instance from a period six centuries later, there is certainly no memorial that throws more light on LITERA- the Court and government of Charles the Second TURE AND than Pepys's Diary. But when Hume wrote, that Diary was still a sealed book; secured, it might seem, even more strongly than by bolts and bars, through its own especial and as yet undiscovered cypher. Deficiencies of this kind, though of course no blame to the historian, are no doubt a blemish to the history. In that respect, the writers since the days of Hume enjoy a great advantage over him. Why then, in spite of that great advantage on their side, does Hume still maintain the foremost place? In part, but in part only, from the excellences of his style. Those excellences are the more remarkable since that style was formed upon a principle or maxim open to much question. For in one passage of his history, Hume has incidentally observed: "That mixture of French "which is at present to be found in the English "tongue, composes the greatest and best part of "our language." Few, if any critics, I apprehend, would now deny that the preference is due far rather to the Saxon roots. "He," says a great writer of our own day, second to none in the mastery of English composition; "he, who uses a “Latin or a French phrase where a pure old English word does as well, ought to be hung, *Chapter iv. William the Conqueror. |