Autobiography

said, is confirmed by a passage in Gibbon’s works. “A sincere and simple narrative of my life’s circumstances—he says—may perhaps grant me many a cheerful hour, but it will perhaps not unjustly expose me to the suspicion of vanity. However, the experience of past and present times shows that the public is always uncommonly eager to get to know those men closely who have left behind a monument of their spirit. The most insignificant reports about such men are collected with care and read with zeal, and students in all subjects are accustomed to using a way of life for doctrine and instruction that so closely approaches their own. To all appearances, my name will in time be added to the thousand articles of the Bibliographia Britannica The Biographia Britannica was a massive multi-volume biographical dictionary of notable British figures; Gibbon anticipates his own inclusion among the historical greats.: and so it remains certain that no one else is as capable as I of recording the series of my thoughts and actions. Even the reputation of my great predecessors and masters, such as a Thuanus Jacques Auguste de Thou (1553–1617), a French historian and statesman known for his monumental history of his own times and his personal memoirs., and