N° LXXI. Mr. WHITAKER to EDWARD GIBBON, Esq. DEAR SIR, I THANK you for your franks. And I thank you still more for your friendly return to my last. You received my application to you about the business in parliament, with your usual kindness. I wrote to others of my friends in the House at the same time. And I carried the great point which I aimed up. You also received my animadversions upon your History with candour. I was particularly pointed, I believe, in what I said concerning the religious part of it. I wrote from my feelings at the time; and was perhaps the less inclined to suppress those feelings from friendliness, because I had two favours to beg of you. I hope, I shall ever be attached, with every power of my judgment and my affection, to that glorious system of truth, which is the vital principle of happiness to my soul in time and in eternity. And in this I act not from any "restraints of profession." I should despise myself, if I did. I act from the fullest conviction of a mind, that has been a good deal exercised in inquiries into truth, and that has shewn (I fancy) a strong spirit of rational scepticism in rejecting and refuting a variety of opinions, which have passed current for ages in our national history. With regard to what I said concerning your British accounts, I meant not to blame you, either for not saying all that you knew concerning our island, or for not bringing in the intimations of L 3 Richard Richard on Ossian. I blamed you only for not noticing some particulars, that made a necessary part of your narration, and are mentioned by the best authorities. And I remember particularly, that in your description of the Empire about the time of Severus, and in your short intimations concerning the state of the towns within it, you specify only London and York as remarkable towns in Britain, though Tacitus and Dio give us such an account of Camulodunum, and though Chester appears from an inscription and a coin to have been then a colony. And in the description of those two which you mention you take no notice, I think, of the sweet and pleasant situation of London, so strikingly marked by Tacitus, and of the Temple of Bellona, and of the Palatium or Domus Palatina, in York, so expressly specified by Spartian. You omit also the fine baths of Britain, so plainly pointed out in the Thermæ of Ptolemy, and the Aqua Solis of Antoninus's Itinerary, and so celebrated by Solinus. You equally omit the latter's Temple of Apollo and Minerva, at the same colony of Bath. And you also omit the colony of Gloucester, though demonstrated to be one by an inscription; and the colony of Caer Gwent, in Monmouthshire, though particularized by Antoninus's Itinerary, and exhibiting such remains in Giraldus Cambrensis.* These were some of the remarks that forced themselves * Mr. Whitaker's eagerness to display his erudition as a British Antiquarian, seems to have occasioned a forgetfulness that Mr, Gibbon did not affect that character; that as the historian of Rome his subject could not be supposed to embrace the details of British antiquities. S. upon upon my mind, as I read your work. Others also arose of a different nature and inferior importance, as that the native language of Gaul and Britain was driven by the Romans to the hills and mountains; that the Druids borrowed money upon bonds' payable in the other world, &c. The former is undoubtedly a mistake in the island, and I believe, is equally so on the continent. And the latter, I apprehend, has only the frivolous authority of Cluverius or some such writer for its ground-work. From these and other particulars it was, that I received the impression which I ventured to declare in my last. And I am ready to acknowledge my mistake, if I am wrong. These however, if never so true, are but trifles light as air in my estimation, when they are compared with what I think the great blot of your work. You have there exhibited Deism in a new shape, and in one that is more likely to affect the uninstructed million, than the reasoning form which she has usually worn. You seem to me like another Tacitus, revived with all his animosity against Christianity, his strong philosophical spirit of sentiment, and more than his superiority to the `absurdities of heathenism. And you will have the dishonour (pardon me, Sir) of being ranked by the folly of scepticism, that is working so powerfully at present, among the most distinguished deists of the age. I have long suspected the tendency of your opinions. I once took the liberty of hinting my suspicions. But I did not think the poison had spread so universally through your frame. And I can only deplore the misfortune, and a very great one I consider it, to the highest and dearest interests of man among all your readers.* These must be very numerous. I see you are getting a second edition already. I give you joy of it. And I remain, with an equal mixture of regret and regard, Your obliged Friend and Servant, N° LXXII. J. WHITAKER. Rev. Dr. JOSEPH WARTON to Mr. GIBBON. DEAR SIR, Winchester, March 11th, 1776. I CANNOT forbear expressing my thanks to you, for the very great pleasure and instruction I have met with in your excellent work. I protest to you I know of no history in our language written with equal purity, precision, and elegancy of style. I presume you have heard that offence is taken at some passages that are thought unfavourable to the truth of Christianity. I hope you will proceed to finish your plan, and gratify the eager wishes of the public to see the whole of your work. May I ever hope for the honour of seeing you at this place? It would give me the most real pleasure. I am, dear Sir, With the truest regard, your much obliged and very faithful humble Servant, Jos. WARTON. * If the letters of Mr. Whitaker had been perused previously to the publication of the former edition, this manly and spirited declaration in favour of the principles of the Established Church, and against the perversion of those opinions which constitute the greatest comfort and consolation of the Christian world, would not have been then withheld from the public. S. N° N° LXXIII. DAVID GARRICK, Esq. to Mr. GIBBON. DEAR SIR, Adelphi, March 9th, 1776. WHENEVER I am truly pleased I must communicate my joy: Lord Camden called upon me this morning, and, before Cumberland, declared that he never read a more admirable performance than Mr. Gibbon's History, &c. He was in transport, and so was I-the author is the only man to write history of the age-such depth-such perspicuity --such language, force, variety, and what not.! I am so delighted with him, continues he, that I must write to thank him-I should be happy to know him. My Lord, I have that honour, and will contrive, if possible, to bring you together. Said I too much? My coach is at the door-my wife bawling for me, and every thing impatientso hey for Hampton till Monday, and in the mean time, as I am always, most truly, Your most obedient and obliged, I have not a moment to read over this scrawl. N° LXXIV." The Hon. HORACE WALPOLE to EDWARD MR. WALPOLE cannot express how much he is obliged to Mr. Gibbon for the valuable present he has received; nor how great a comfort it is to him, in his present situation, in which he little ex pected |