That he succumbed to the unwholesome atmosphere cannot surprise us.

He does not conceal, perhaps he rather exaggerates, in his Memoirs, the depth of his fall.

As Bunyan in a state of grace accused himself of dreadful sins which in all likelihood he never committed, so it is probable that Gibbon, in his old age, when study and learning were the only passions he knew, reflected with too much severity on the boyish freaks of his university life.

Moreover there appears to have been nothing coarse or unworthy in his dissipation; he was simply idle.

He justly lays much of the blame on the authorities.