of tragedians, pantomimes, and pirates. Yet a note adds, that this laft epithet of Procopius • vaulas awπodules, is too nobly translated by pirates; naval thieves is the proper word.' Why was it not then ufed?It is faid, that Cofrhoes formed a temporary bridge' over the Euphrates,' and defined the space of three days for the entire paffage of his numerous hoft.There is often a Latin and often a French idiom, obfervable in the language of Mr. Gibbon, This is a Latin one; the English is, fixed.And the River Phadefcends with fuch oblique vehemence, that, in a fhort space, it is traverfed by one hundred and twenty bridges'.' fis The FIFTH, or forty-third chapter contains the hiftory, of lofing and recovering Italy to the eaftern empire; and an account of the comets, the earthquakes, and the plagues in the Eaft. We are thus tranfported on the wings of this Hippogryffin hiftory, to a sphere that lies beyond the orb of its prefent defign, and to one that we have feen torn down from its place. We have already feen the Vandals, tearing down the western empire from its station in the hiftory. Yet we were carried, in the firft chapter of this volume, to the ruins of it; and obliged to attend the conflict of a fecond fort of Vandals with the first, one ftriving to maintain, and the other to acquire, the privilege of trampling upon those ruins. We were " p. 213. 2 p. 246. 3 p. 250. then then called upon to go with the Romans of Constantinople, and war with them for those very ruins. And we are now dragged into Italy a third time, to fee it again loft to the barbarians, and again recovered to the eastern empire. We thus find the western giving us and our hiftorian, almost as much trouble after its death, as it did in its life-time. -The times have been, That, when the brains were out, the man would die, All this indeed, as a part of the eastern hiftory, might have been told in a full history of the eastern empire. But it ought not to have been told, in a history only of its decline and fall. And it peculiarly ought not, when reafon required and the author had promised, that we should have only the most important circumftances, of its' very decline and fall.' But the author is continually on the strain, in exerting a minuteness of diligence, and in exercising an obscure laboriousness, to fwell the history beyond its natural fize. He has not that happy power of genius within him, to grafp the important,' points of the hiftory, to seize peculiarly the most important,' to detatch them from the rubbish of littleness and infignificance, and to make them the constituent parts of his hiftory. He faw that this was his duty; but he could not act up to it. He drew the outline of his work with a critical hand; but he went beyond it on every side, in the excursiveness of his licentious pencil. And his plan only ferves at prefent, to unite with found criticism in condemning him; to point out the dropfical fpirit of writing, by which he has dilated the fubftance of two volumes into fix; and to brand that accumulation of adventitious matter, with which his hiftory is fo heavily loaded, that it is breaking down under its own bulk. In one page we have these words, Nicopolis, the trophy of Auguftus';' because he obtained a victory near it, and built it in honour of the victory. In the fame page we have a general's want of youth and ' experience.'--In another the extreme lands of Italy' are faid to have been, the term of their deftructive progrefs. And let us add, what this chapter forces us to feel, that the history frequently reads like a riddle, from the obfcurity of it, The SIXTH or forty-fourth chapter is an account, no lefs than eighty-five pages in length, of the Roman jurifprudence; traced through the regal, the confular, and the imperial times, to the days of Juftinian; and containing a particular detail of the provifions made by it, for the various objects of law. The chapter is long and tirefome, from the ample nature of the fubject, and from the neceffary drynefs of the dif quifition. Yet it has much learning, much good fenfe, and more parade of both. But nothing can fubdue the native barrennefs, of fuch a field as this. 'p 296 2 p. 309. And, And, if any thing could, what has a difquifition on all the laws of all the Romans, to do with a hiftory of the decline and fall of the empire? Even if it had the legal knowledge of Trebonius, Papinian, and Ulpian united together; if it had alfo the philofophy, of all the formers of polity and remarkers upon man, that these modern times have produced; and if both were set off with the energy of a Tacitus, and the brilliancy of a Burke; we fhould only point at the whole as a set of more fplendid abfurdities, and cry out with disdain, Beauties they are, but beauties out of place. A treatise on the domeftic life of the Romans; a differtation on the buttons, the ftrings, and the latchets of their military drefs; on any thing more trifling (historically confidered,) among the many trifles of antiquarianifm; would have been almost as proper for the history, as fuch a difquifition upon their laws. That Juftinian fhould have the honour attributed to him, of compiling the code, the inftitutes, and the pandects; is very reasonable. But it is very unreasonable, that a long and laboured differtation on the laws of all the periods of the Roman history, with an enumeration of its particular provifions, should be given as a part of the history; and the effence of the ftatute-book ferved up, as an hiftorical dish. In the fulleft history of the empire, fuch literary cookery as this would be very abfurd. It is ftill more abfurd, in a history only of the decline and fall of the empire. And it is most of all abfurd, when we had been fo exprefsly affured, that we should have only the circumftances of its decline and fall.' We are told to appreciate the labours' of Juftinian'. The author is fond of the word in this harsh application of it; we have seen him using it before; and we shall fee him again. After noticing Cato the cenfor and his fon, as men fkilled in the law; he remarks, that the kindred appellation of • Mutius Scævola was illuftrated by three fages of the law. How obfcure! He means, that this family had the honour of producing three good lawyers. In the fame page he mentions a century of volumes.'-In a farther we have, the expofition of children',' for the expofing of them; the tame 'animals, whofe nature is tractable to the arts of ' education*;' the agreement of fale, for a certain price, imputes,' instead of reckons, from that mo'ment the chances of gain or lofs to the account ⚫ of the purchaser';' the pain or the difgrace of a word or blow cannot eafily be appreciated by a pe'cuniary equivalent;' the extirpation of a more ' valuable tree',' where the comparative is used for the pofitive degree, very abfurdly in a list of legal punishments; and a prudent legiflator appreciates • the guilt and punishment. с We have noticed before the propenfity of Mr. Gibbon to obfcenity. It was then, however, covered mostly under a veil of Greek. But, in p. 375, his obscenity throws off every cover, and comes |