Des que la victoire se fut declaree en faveur des Suisses, ils s'assemblerent sur le champ de bataille, s'embrasserent e versant des larmes d'allegresse, et remercierent Dieu de la grace qu'il venait de leur faire, et qui ne leur avait coute que quatorze de leurs compagnons." His familiar letters and a number of essays, chiefly written in youth, form the remainder of the miscellaneous works.

Of the letters, some have been quoted in this volume, and the reader can form his own judgment of them.

Of the small essays we may say that they augment, if it is possible, one's notion of Gibbon's laborious diligence and thoroughness in the field of historic research, and confirm his title to the character of an intrepid student.
The lives of scholars are proverbially dull, and that of Gibbon is hardly an exception to the rule.

In the case of historians, the protracted silent labour of preparation, followed by the conscientious exposition of knowledge acquired, into which the intrusion of the writer's personality rarely appears to advantage, combine to give prominence to the work achieved, and to throw into the background the author who achieves it.

If indeed the historian, forsaking his high function and austere reserve, succumbs to the temptations that beset his path, and turns history into political pamphlet, poetic rhapsody, moral epigram, or garish melodrama, he may become conspicuous to a fault at the expense of his work.