Gibbon forwards a joke

When his own wit failed him, Gibbon was content to pass on a bon mot from friends, all properly footnoted. Here's one I discovered in this afternoon's session with The Decline and Fall. It is in refernece to a believer who was beheaded for his faith.

Note 100: ... The Catholic martyr had carried his head in his hands a considerable way (Baronius, A.D. 526, No 17, 18); yet, on a similar tale, a lady of my acquaintance once observed, "La distance n'y fait rien; il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute."

[Roughly, "The distance was nothing, it was the first step that was difficult."]