ed.
He referred to the reigns of Nerva and Trajan in suggested contrast to
that of Domitian as "times when men were blessed with the rare privilege
of thinking with freedom, and uttering what they thought."[76] It fell
to both Tacitus and Gibbon to speak of the testament of Augustus which,
after his death, was read in the Senate: and Tacitus wrote, Augustus
"added a recommendation to keep the empire within fixed limits," on
which he thus commented, "but whether from apprehension for its safety,
or jealousy of future rivals, is uncertain."[77] Gibbon thus criticised
this comment: "Why must rational advice be imputed to a base or foolish
motive? To what cause, error, malevolence, or flattery, shall I ascribe
the unworthy alternative? Was the historian dazzled by Trajan's
conquests?"[78]

The intellectual training of the greatest modern historian is a matter
of great interest. "From my early youth," wrote Gibbon in his
Autobiography, "I aspired to the character of an historian."[79] He had
"an early and invincible love of reading" which he said he "would not
exchange for the treasures of India" and which led him to a "vague and
multifarious" perusal of books. Before he reached the age of fifteen he
was matriculated at Magdalen College, giving this account of his
preparation. "I arrived at Oxford," he said, "with a stock of erudition
that might have puzzled a Doctor and a degree of ignorance of which a
schoolboy would have been ashamed."[80] He did not adapt himself to the
life or the method of Oxford, and from them apparently derived no
benefit. "I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College," he wrote; "they
proved the fourteen months the most idle and unprofitable of my whole
life."[81] He became a Roman Catholic. It was quite characteristic of
this bookish man that his conversion was effected, not by the emotional
influence of some proselytizer, but by the reading of books. English
translations of two famous works of Bossuet fell into his hands. "I
read," he said, "I applauded, I believed ... and I surely fell by a
noble hand." Before a priest in London, on June 8, 1753, he privately
"abjured the errors of heresy" and was admitted into the "pale of the
church." But at that time this was a serious business for both priest
and proselyte. For the rule laid down by Blackstone was this, "Where a
person is reconciled to the see of Rome, or procures others to be
reconciled, the offence amounts to High-Treason." This severe rule