hool of civil prudence, the first and most
essential virtue of an historian.

The first volume of my history, which had been somewhat delayed by the
novelty and tumult of a first session, was now ready for the press.
During the awful interval of awaited publication, I was neither elated
by the ambition of fame nor depressed by the apprehension of contempt.
My diligence and accuracy were attested by my own conscience. I likewise
flattered myself that an age of light and liberty would receive without
scandal an inquiry into the human causes of progress of Christianity.

I am at a loss how to describe the success of the work without betraying
the vanity of the writer. The first impression was exhausted in a few
days; a second and third edition were scarcely adequate to the demand.
My book was on every table; nor was the general voice disturbed by the
barking of any profane critic. Let me frankly own that I was startled at
the first discharge of ecclesiastical ordnance; but I soon discovered
that this empty noise was mischievous only in intention, and every
feeling of indignation has long since subsided.

Nearly two years elapsed between the publication of my first and the
commencement of my second volume. The second and third volumes of the
"Decline and Fall" insensibly rose in sale and reputation to a level
with the first volume. So flexible is the title of my history that the
final era might be fixed at my own choice, and I long hesitated whether
I should be content with the three volumes, the "Fall of the Western
Empire." The tumult of London and attendance at parliament were now
grown irksome, and when I had finished the fourth volume, excepting the
last chapter, I sought a retreat on the banks of the Leman Lake.

_VI.--A Quiet Consummation_

My transmigration from London to Lausanne could not be effected without
interrupting the course of my historical labours, and a full twelvemonth
was lost before I could resume the thread of regular and daily industry.
In the fifth and sixth volumes the revolutions of the empire and the
world are most rapid, various, and instructive. It was not till after
many designs and many trials that I preferred the method of grouping my
picture by nations; and the seeming neglect of chronological order is
surely compensated by the superior merits of interest and perspicacity.
I was now straining for the goal, and in the last winter many evenings
were borrowed from the social pleasures