Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794)

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J. Murray, 1896

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Page 246 - I regret to say there is," was the reply — " I know the value of my line of conduct ; I have, indeed, made a great sacrifice ; I have done my duty though I have lost my friend ; there is something in the detested French constitution that envenoms every thing it touches...
Page 237 - I beg leave to subscribe my assent to Mr. Burke's creed on the revolution of France. I admire his eloquence, I approve his politics, I adore his chivalry, and I can almost excuse his reverence for church establishments.
Page 236 - Necker, and could have wished to have shown him, as a warning, to any aspiring youth possessed with the demon of ambition. With all the means of private happiness in his power, he is the most miserable of human beings : the past, the present, and the future are equally odious to him. When I suggested some domestic amusements of books, building, &c., he answered, with a deep tone of despair, " Dans 1'etat ou je suis, je ne puis sentir que le coup de vent qui m'a abattu.
Page 29 - that young gentleman is, I have no doubt, extremely ingenious and agreeable, but I must acknowledge that his style of conversation is not exactly what I am accustomed to, so you must positively excuse me.
Page 378 - ... not wish to aggravate your grief; but, in the sincerity of friendship, I cannot hold a different language. I know the impotence of reason, and I much fear that the strength of your character will serve to make a sharper and more lasting impression. The only consolation in these melancholy trials to which human life is exposed, the only one at least in which I have any confidence, is the presence of a real friend ; and of that, as far as it depends on myself, you shall not be destitute.
Page 291 - How happy could I be with either, Were t'other dear Charmer away!
Page 180 - I have eat and drank, and conversed, and sat up all night, with Fox in England ; but it never has happened, perhaps it never can happen again, that I should enjoy him as I did that day, alone, from ten in the morning till ten at night.
Page 180 - Our conversation never flagged a moment; and he seemed thoroughly pleased with the place and with his company. We had little politics; though he gave me, in a few words, such a character of Pitt, as one great man should give of another his rival: much of books, from my own, on which he flattered me very pleasantly, to Homer and the Arabian Nights...
Page 25 - A certain late Secretary of Ireland reckons the House of Commons thus: Minister one hundred and forty, Reynard ninety, Boreas one hundred and twenty, the rest unknown, or uncertain. The last of the three, by self or agents, talks too much of absence, neutrality, moderation. I still think he will discard the game.
Page 221 - I feel, and shall continue to feel, that domestic solitude, however it may be alleviated by the world, by study, and even by friendship, is a comfortless state, which will grow more painful is I descend in the vale of years.

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