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LIBRARY Connecticut Agricultural College Vol. ^^.3 06-G 'lass No. X^l loo 97^.^X Oc^ /^ ^g^Q , . 2\ 3 T1S3 OODfllbflB 7 EDITOR'S PREFACE. The splendid fiftieth chapter of Gibbon's History of the * Decline and fall of the Ro- man Empire,' withthe learnedandjudicious notes of Dean Milman and Dr. William Smith, may be regarded as at once a bril- liantand accurate Life of the Arabian pro- phet. The narrative of Gibbon favorably exhibits his characteristic qualities of com- prehensiveness, breadth of vision, and sus- tained eloquence. The notes of Dean Mil- man correct any ecclesiastical errors, and make all necessary additions from the point ofview of Church history. In the notes of Dr. William Smith we have the last results of Oriental scholarship in regardto Mahom- et's (or Mohammed's) Life. Most of Gib- bon's notes, which contain little more than references to his authorities, which would encumber the page and add nothing of in- terest to the reader, have been omitted, IV Editor''s Preface, Those that are retained are referred to by letters. ThenotesofMilmanandDr.Smith are respectively designated by their initials, and referred to by figures. Following our general plan, we here give a summary of Gibbon's life. GriBBON, Edward, was born at Putney, in the county ofSurrey, on the 27thof April, 1737. He has given us in his *Autobiog- raphy,' copious particulars concerning his life and writings. From his own account we learn that in childhood his health was very delicate, and that his early education was principally conducted by his aunt, Mrs. Porten. At theage of nine he was sent to aboarding-school atKingston-upon-Thames, where he remained for two years, but made little progress, in consequence of the frequent interruption of his studies by illness. The same cause prevented his attention to <tudy at Westminster school, whither he was sent in 1749, and "his riper age was left to acquire the beauties oftheLatinand the rudimentsofthe Greektongue." After Editor'^s Preface, residing for a short time with the Rev. Philip Francis, the translator ofHorace, he was removed in 1762 to Oxford, where he was matriculated as a gentleman commoner of Magdalen College in his fifteenth year. Though his frequent absence from school had prevented him from obtaining much knowledge of Latin and Greek, his love of reading had led him to peruse many his- torical and geographical works; and he ar- rived at Oxford, according to his own account, " with a stock oferuditionthatmight have puzzled a doctor, and a degree ofigno- ranceofwhich a school-boywouldhavebeen ashamed." His imperfect education was not improved during his residence at Ox- ford his tutors he describes as easy men, ; who preferred receiving the fees to attend- ing to the instruction of their pupils; and after leading a somewhat dissipated life for fourteen months, he was compelled to leave Oxford in consequence of having em- braced the Roman Catholic faith. His conversion was effected by the perusal of ri Editor^s Preface, Pr. Middleton's 'Free Inquiry into the Mi- raculous Powers possessed by the Church in the Early Ages,' inwhich he attempts to show that all the leading doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church are supported by the miracles of the early fathers, and that therefore the doctrines of the Church ot Rome must be true, or the miracles false. Gibbon's early education had taught him to revere theauthority'of thesefathers hewas ; induced to readsomeworks, especially 'Bos- suet's Variations,' in favor of the Roman faith; and in 1763, he, " solemnly, though privately, abjured the errors of heresy." With the object of reclaiming him to Prot- estanism, his father sent him to Lausanne in Switzerland,to reside with M. Pavillard, a Calvinist minister. The arguments of Pavillard and his own studies had the effect whichhisfatherdesired; inthefollowingyear keprofessed his beliefin the doctrines ofthe Protestant Church, and accordingto hisown gtatement,"suspendedhisreligiousinquiries, acquiescing with implicitbeliefin the tenets