Everything is in its place, and disposed in such apparently natural sequence that the uninitiated are apt to think the matter could not have been managed otherwise.

It is a case, if there ever was one, of consummate art concealing every trace, not only of art, but even of effort.

Of course the grasp and penetrating insight which are implied here, were part of Gibbon's great endowment, which only Nature could give.

But it was fortunate that his genius was educated in the best school for bringing out its innate quality.
It would be difficult to explain why, except on that principle of decimation by which Macaulay accounted for the outcry against Lord Byron, Gibbon's solitary and innocent love passage has been made the theme of a good deal of malicious comment.

The parties most interested, and who, we may presume, knew the circumstances better than any one else, seem to have been quite satisfied with each other's conduct.