Gibbon on the French

Cleaning my office, throwing out notes, drafts, scribbled messages to myself. Here is one, from chapter xxxviii of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in which Gibbon uses the Roman author Agathias to illustrate the society of the early Franks.

[Agathias] celebrates their politeness and urbanity, their regular government, and orthodox religion; and boldly asserts, that these Barbarians could be distinguished only by their dress and language from the subjects of Rome. Perhaps the Franks already displayed the social dispositions and lively graces, which in every age have disguised their vices, and sometimes concealed their intrinsic merit.