The Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Esq; With Memoirs of His Life and Writings - Softcover

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1837. Excerpt: ... SOME PASSAGES IN THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CHAPTERS OF THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Perhaps it may be necessary to inform the public, that not long since an Examination of the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was published by Mr. Davis. He styles himself a Bachelor of Arts, and a Member of Baliol College in the university of Oxford. His titlepage is a declaration of war; and in the prosecution of his religious crusade, he assumes a privilege of disregarding the ordinary laws which are respected in the most hostile transactions between civilised men or civilised nations. Some of the harshest epithets in the English language are repeatedly applied to the historian, a part of whose work Mr. Davis has chosen for the object of his criticism. To this author Mr. Davis imputes the crime of betraying the confidence and seducing the faith of those readers, who may heedlessly stray in the flowery paths of his diction, without perceiving the poisonous snake that lurks concealed in the grass--Latet unguis in herba. The Examiner has assumed the province of reminding them of " the unfair proceedings of such an insidious friend, who offers the deadly draught in a golden cup, that they may be less sensible of the danger.* In order to which Mr. Davis has selected several of the more notorious instances of his misrepresentations and errors; reducing them to their respective heads, and subjoining a long list of almost incredible inaccuracies: and such striking proofs of servile plagiarism, as the world will be surprised to meet with in an author who puts in so bold a claim to originality and extensive reading Mr. Davis prosecutes this attack through an octavo volume of not less than two hundred and eighty-four page...