[The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon]@TWC D-Link book
The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

INTRODUCTION
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Perhaps something of importance may have thus escaped, and his expressions may not quite contain the whole substance of the passage from which they are taken.

His limits, at times, compel him to sketch; where that is the case, it is not fair to expect the full details of the finished picture.

At times he can only deal with important results; and in his account of a war, it sometimes requires great attention to discover that the events which seem to be comprehended in a single campaign, occupy several years.

But this admirable skill in selecting and giving prominence to the points which are of real weight and importance--this distribution of light and shade--though perhaps it may occasionally betray him into vague and imperfect statements, is one of the highest excellencies of Gibbon's historic manner.

It is the more striking, when we pass from the works of his chief authorities, where, after laboring through long, minute, and wearisome descriptions of the accessary and subordinate circumstances, a single unmarked and undistinguished sentence, which we may overlook from the inattention of fatigue, contains the great moral and political result.
Gibbon's method of arrangement, though on the whole most favorable to the clear comprehension of the events, leads likewise to apparent inaccuracy.


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