which still continues to flourish, under the title of the
Literary Club. (Hawkins's Life of Johnson, p.415. Boswell's Tour to
the Hebrides, p 97.) The names of Dr. Johnson, Mr. Burke, Mr. Topham
Beauclerc, Mr. Garrick, Dr. Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Colman,
Sir William Jones, Dr. Percy, Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Adam Smith, Mr.
Steevens, Mr. Dunning, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Warton, and his brother Mr.
Thomas Warton, Dr. Burney, &c., form a large and luminous constellation
of British stars.] It would most assuredly be in my power to amuse the
reader with a gallery of portraits and a collection of anecdotes. But
I have always condemned the practice of transforming a private memorial
into a vehicle of satire or praise. By my own choice I passed in town
the greatest part of the year; but whenever I was desirous of
breathing the air of the country, I possessed an hospitable retreat
at Sheffield-place in Sussex, in the family of my valuable friend Mr.
Holroyd, whose character, under the name of Lord Sheffield, has since
been more conspicuous to the public.

No sooner was I settled in my house and library, than I undertook the
composition of the first volume of my History. At the outset all was
dark and doubtful; even the title of the work, the true aera of the
Decline and Fall of the Empire, the limits of the introduction, the
division of the chapters, and the order of the narrative; and I was
often tempted to cast away the labour of seven years. The style of an
author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of
language is the fruit of exercise. Many experiments were made before
I could hit the middle tone between a dull chronicle and a rhetorical
declamation: three times did I compose the first chapter, and twice the
second and third, before I was tolerably satisfied with their effect. In
the remainder of the way I advanced with a more equal and easy pace;
but the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters have been reduced by three
successive revisals, from a large volume to their present size; and they
might still be compressed, without any loss of facts or sentiments. An
opposite fault may be imputed to the concise and superficial narrative
of the first reigns from Commodus to Alexander; a fault of which I have
never heard, except from Mr. Hume in his last journey to London. Such an
oracle might have been consulted and obeyed with rational devotion; but
I was soon disgusted with the modest practice of re