THE AUTO-BIOGRAPHY OF EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ., PUBLIC LIBRARY, ILLUSTRATED FROM HIS LETTERS, WIT CASIONAL BY JOHN, LORD SHEFFIELD. COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME. NEW-YORK: TURNER & HAYDEN. PIERCY AND REED, PRINTERS, 9 SPRUCE STREET. 1846. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS THE melancholy duty of examining the papers of my deceased friend devolved upon me at a time when I was depressed by severe afflictions. In that state of mind, I hesitated to undertake the task of selecting and preparing his manuscripts for the press. The warmth of my early and long attachment to Mr. Gibbon made me conscious of a partiality, which it was not proper to indulge, especially in revising many of his juvenile and unfinished compositions. I had to guard, not only against a sentiment like my own, which I found extensively diffused, but also against the eagerness occasioned by a very general curiosity to see in print every literary relic, however imperfect, of so distinguished a writer. Being aware how disgracefully authors of eminence have been often treated, by an indiscreet posthumous publication of fragments and careless effusions; when I had selected those papers which to myself appeared the |