More from Gibbon

For those of you who may have wondered if Dr Pangloss in Candide could be real, here is Gibbon at the end of vol 3, p 516 while he ruminates on the awful revolution of Rome's fall:

'We may therefore acquiesce in the pleasing conclusion, that every age of the world has increased, and still increases, the real wealth, the happiness, the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of the human race.'

A very American sentiment. But notice how subtly Gibbon undermines his very words so that it becomes slightly acidic.

Here is something that as an historian and a writer I should have pasted above my desk, right next to the "GET IT DONE!" sign:

In these, and in a thousand examples, the shades of distinction are often minute; and I can feel, where I cannot explain, the motives of my choice.

He wrote this in the intro to vol 4, trying to explain something of the complexity of his craft.