yerfant with such subjects, and thinks them well deferving of a free, liberal, and accurate difcuffion.

In regard to the Differtations, few of our Readers, we apprehend, will agree with Mr. Taylor, in what he fays of the Millennium, &c. though they will be pleafed to see what fo abie a Writer advances in fupport of his opinions.

ART. XV. Conclufion of the Account of Mr. Gibbon's Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Ν

IN confequence delayed concluding our

account of Mr. Gibbon's Hiftory, we are enabled to communicate to our Readers a piece of intelligence, which, we have every reason to believe, will be as acceptable to them as it is agreeable to us. It is contained in the Preface to the laft edition of the Hiftory.

An Author (fays Mr. Gibbon) eafily perfuades himfelf that the public opinion is ftill favourable to his labours; and I have now embraced the ferious refolution of proceeding to the last period of my original defign, and of the Roman Empire, the taking of Conftan inople by the Turks, in the year 1453. The most patient Reader, who computes that three ponderous volumes have been already employed on the events of four centuries, may, perhaps, be alarmed at the long prospect of nine hundred years. But it is not my intention to expatiate with the fame minuteness on the whole series of the Byzantine history. At our entrance into this period, the reign of Juftinian, and the conquells of the Mahometans, will deferve and detain our attention, and the last age of Conftantinople (the Crufades and the Turks) is connected with the revolutions of modern Europe. From the feventh to the eleventh century, the obscure interval will be fupplied by a concife narrative of fuch facts, as may ftill appear either interefting or important.'

Every candid Reader, who is acquainted with Mr. Gib bon's merit as an Hiftorian, and a competent judge of his abilities, will, we are perfuaded, join his fincere wishes to ours, that nothing may happen to prevent his carrying his defign into execution.

We now proceed to the 32d Chapter of his Hiftory, which contains an account of the reign of Arcadius; the adminiftration and disgrace of Eutropius; the revolt of Gainas; the Perfian war; the divifion of Armenia, &c. together with an impartial and judicious view of the character and conduct of Chryfoftom, Pulcheria, and the Empress Eudocia.

In the 330, 34th, 35th, and 36th Chapters, we have an account of the death of Honorius; the adminiftration of Placidia; the conquest of Africa by the Vandals; the character, conquefts, and court of Attila, King of the Huns; the death of Theodofius the younger; the elevation of Marcian to the empire of the Eaft; the invafion of Gaul by Attila; the fack of Rome by Genferic, King of the Vandals; the total extinction

of

of the Western empire, and the reign of Odoacer, the firft Barbarian King of Italy. It is impoffible to read these chapters with the attention they deferve, without entertaining a very high opinion of the induftry, accuracy, and difcernment of the Hiftorian, who has formed fo agreeable and interefting a narrative from fuch scanty and imperfect materials. The character which Mr. Gibbon gives of the Marquis Scipio Maffei may, with great juftice, be applied to himself-viz. That he is equally capable of enlarged views and minute difquifitions.

The indiffoluble connection of civil and ecclefiaftical affairs, he fays, has compelled and encouraged him to relate the progrefs, the perfecutions, the establishment, the divisions, the final triumph, and the gradual corruption of Chriftianity; and he has purposely delayed the confideration of two religious events, interesting in the ftudy of human nature, and important in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; 1. The institution of the monaftic life; and, 2. The converfion of the Northern Barbarians. These important events are the fubject of the 37th Chapter, which is introduced in the following manner :

Profperity and peace introduced the diftinction of the vulgar and the Afcetic Chriftians. The loofe and imperfect practice of religion fatisfied the confcience of the multitude. The prince or magistrate, the foldier or merchant, reconciled their fervent zeal, and implicit faith, with the exercise of their profeffion, the pursuit of their inte reft, and the indulgence of their paffions: but the Afcetics, who obeyed and abufed the rigid precepts of the gospel, were infpired by the favage enthufiafm, which reprefents man as a criminal, and God as a tyrant. They feriously renounced the bufinefs, and the pleafures, of the age; abjured the ufe of wine, of flesh, and of marriage; chaftifed their body, mortified their affections, and embraced a life of mifery, as the price of eternal happiness. In the reign of Conftantine, the Afcetics fled from a profane and degenerate world, to perpetual folitude, or religious fociety. Like the firft Chriftians of Jerufalem, they refigned the ufe, or the property, of their temporal poffeffions; eftablished regular communities of the fame fex, and a fimilar difpofition; and affumed the names of Hermits, Monks, and Anachorets, expreffive of their lonely retreat in a natural or artificial defert. They foon acquired the refpect of the world, which they defpifed; and the loudest applaufe was bestowed on this DIVINE PHILOSOPHY, which furpaffed, without the aid of science or reason, the laborious virtues of the Grecian schools. The monks might indeed contend with the Stoics, in the contempt of fortune, of pain, and of death: the Pythagorean filence and fubmiffion were revived in their fervile difcipline; and they difdained, as firmly as the Cynics themselves, all the forms and decencies of civil fociety. But the vo taries of this Divine Philofophy afpired to imitate a purer and more perfect model. They trod in the footsteps of the prophets, who had retired to the defert; and they restored the devout and contemplative life, which had been inftituted by the Effenians, in Paieftine and Egypt. The philofophic eye of Pliny had furveyed with aftoarth

ment

ment a folitary people, who dwelt among the palm-trees near the Dead Sea; who fubfifted without money, who were propagated without women; and who derived from the difguft and repentance of mankind, a perpetual supply of voluntary afsociates.'

Mr. Gibbon concludes this very curious and interefting chapter with what follows:

As foon as the Barbarians withdrew their powerful fupport, the unpopular herefy of Arius funk into contempt and oblivion. But the Greeks ftill retained their fubtle and loquacious difpofition: the eftablishment of an obfcure doctrine fuggefted new questions, and new difputes; and it was always in the power of an ambitious prelate, or a fanatic monk, to violate the peace of the church, and, perhaps, of the empire. The hiftorian of the empire may overlook thofe difputes which were confined to the obfcurity of fchools and fynods. The Manichæans, who laboured to reconcile the religions of Chrift and of Zoroafter, had fecretly introduced themselves into the provinces: but these foreign fectaries were involved in the common difgrace of the Gnoftics, and the Imperial laws were executed by the public hatred. The rational opinions of the Pelagians were propagated from Britain to Rome, Africa, and Paleftine, and filently expired in a fuperftitious age. But the Eaft was distracted by the Neftorian and Eutychian controverfies; which attempted to explain the mystery of the incarnation, and hastened the ruin of Chriftianity in her native land. These controverfies were first agitated under the reign of the younger Theodofius: but their important confequences. extend far beyond the limits of the prefent volume. The metaphyfical chain of argument, the contests of ecclefiaftical ambition, and their political influence on the decline of the Byzantine empire, may afford an interesting and instructive series of history, from the general councils of Ephefus and Chalcedon, to the conquest of the Eaft by the fucceffors of Mahomet.'

The 38th Chapter contains the history of the reign and converfion of Clovis, the eftablishment of the French monarchy in Gaul, the state of the Romans, and the conqueft of Britain by the Saxons. Mr. Gibbon concludes his third volume with fome general Obfervations on the fall of the Roman empire in the Weft:

The rife of a city, fays he, which fwelled into an empire, may de-. serve, as a fingular prodigy, the reflection of a philofophic mind. But. the decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate. greatness. Profperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of deftruction multiplied with the extent of conqueft; and as foon as time or accident had removed the artiâcial fupports, the ftupendous, fabric yielded to the preffure of its own weight. The flory of its rain is fimple and obvious; and instead of enquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had fubfifled. fo long. The victorious legions, who, in diftant wars, acquired the vices of ftrangers and mercenaries, first oppreffed the freedom of the republic, and afterwards violated the majesty of the Purple. The emperors, anxious for their perfonal fatety and the public peace, were reduced to the base expedient of corrupting the discipline which ren

dered

dered them alike formidable to their sovereign and to the enemy; the vigour of the military government was relaxed, and finally diffolved, by the partial institutions of Conftantine; and the Roman world was overwhelmed by a deluge of Barbarians.

The decay of Rome has been frequently afcribed to the translation of the feat of empire; but this history has already fhewn, that the powers of government were divided, rather than removed. The throne of Conftantinople was erected in the Eaft; while the Weft was ftill poffeffed by a series of emperors who held their refidence in Italy, and claimed their equal inheritance of the legions and provinces. This dangerous novelty impaired the ftrength, and fomented the vices, of a double reign: the inftruments of an oppreffive and arbitrary fyftem were multiplied; and a vain emulation of luxury, not of merit, was introduced and fupported between the degenerate fucceffors of Theodofius. Extreme diftrefs, which unites the virtue of a free people, embitters the factions of a declining monarchy. The hoftile favourites of Arcadius and Honorius betrayed the republic to its common enemies; and the Byzantine court beheld with indifference, perhaps with pleafure, the difgrace of Rome, the misfortunes of Italy, and the lofs of the Wek. Under the fucceeding reigns, the alliance of the two empires was restored; but the aid of the Oriental Romans was tardy, doubtful, and ineffectual; and the national fchifm of the Greeks and Latins was enlarged by the perpetual difference of language and manners, of intereft, and even of religion. Yet the falutary event approved in fome meafure the judgment of Conftantine. During a long period of decay, his impregnable city repelled the victorious armies of Barbarians, protected the wealth of Aña, and commanded, both in peace and war, the important freights which connect the Euxine and Mediterranean feas. The foundation of Conftantinople more effentially contributed to the prefervation of the Eaft, than to the ruin of the Weft.

As the happiness of a future life is the great object of religion, we may hear without furprife or scandal, that the introduction, or at leaft the abufe, of Chriftianity, had fome influence on the decline and fall of the Roman empire. The clergy fuccefsfully preached the doctrines of patience and pufillanimity; the active virtues of fociety were difcouraged; and the last remains of military spirit were buried in the cloyfter: a large portion of public and private wealth was confecrated to the fpecious demands of charity and devotion; and the foldiers pay was lavished on the useless multitudes of both fexes, who could only plead the merits of abftinence and chastity. Faith, zeal, curiofity, and the more earthly paffions of malice and ambition, kindled the flame of theological discord; the church, and even the state, were distracted by religious factions, whofe conflicts were fometimes bloody, and always implacable; the attention of the emperors was diverted from camps to fynods; the Roman world was oppreffed by a new fpecies of tyranny; and the perfecuted fects became the fecret enemies of their country. Yet party-fpirit, however pernicious or abfurd, is a principle of union as well as of diffention. The bishops, from eighteen hundred pulpits, inculcated the duty of paflive obedience to a lawful and orthodox fovereign; their frequent affemblies, and perpetual correfpondence, maintained the communion of distant

churches;

churches; and the benevolent temper of the gospel was ftrengthened though confined, by the fpiritual alliance of the Catholics. The facred indolence of the monks was devoutly embraced by a fervile and effeminate age; but if fuperftition had not afforded a decent retreat, the fame vices would have tempted the unworthy Romans to defert, from bafer motives, the ftandard of the republic. Religious precepts are easily obeyed, which indulge and fanctify the natural inclinations of their votaries; but the pure and genuine influence of Chriftianity may be traced in its beneficial, though imperfect, effects on the Barbarian profelytes of the North. If the decline of the Roman empire was haftened by the converfion of Conftantine, his victorious religion broke the violence of the fall, and mollified the ferocious temper of the conquerors.

This awful revolution may be usefully applied to the inftruction of the prefent age. It is the duty of a patriot to prefer and promote the exclufive interest and glory of his native country: but a philofo. pher may be permitted to enlarge his views, and to confider Europe as one great republic, whofe various inhabitants have attained almoft the fame level of politenefs and cultivation. The balance of power will continue to fluctuate, and the profperity of our own, or the neighbouring kingdoms, may be alternately exalted or depressed; but thefe partial events cannot effentially injure our general state of happiness, the fyftem of arts, and laws, and manners, which fo advantageously distinguish, above the rest of mankind, the Europeans and their colonies. The favage nations of the globe are the common enemies of civilized fociety; and we may enquire with anxious curiolity, whether Europe is ftill threatened with a repetition of those calamities, which formerly oppreffed the arms and inftitutions of Rome. Perhaps the fame reflections will illuftrate the fall of that mighty empire, and explain the probable caufes of our actual fecurity.'

The remaining obfervations, wherewith our Hiftorian closes his third volume, breathe the fame liberal fpirit, and fhew evidently, to every Reader of tafte and judgment, that there are few Writers who are capable of taking fo enlarged and comprehenfive a view of a fubject as Mr. Gibbon. We cannot take our leave, without returning the Mafter of the Feaft our fincere and hearty thanks for the very elegant and agreeable manner in which he has entertained us, and fhall only fay to him, at parting, MACTE INGENIO, AC VIRTUTE ESTO.

1. LA

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

FRANCE.

A Theorie des Loix Criminelles: i. c. The Theory of Penal Laws in criminal Cafes. By M. BRISSOT DE WARVILLE. 2 Vols. 8vo. Paris. 1781.This Author merits attention, as his views feem upright and humane, and as the fubject he treats is of great confequence to all civilized nations; but we