The point which deserves notice in this account of his studies is their wide sweep, so superior and bracing, as compared with that narrow restriction to the "authors of the best period," patronised by teachers who imperfectly comprehend their own business.

Gibbon proceeded on the common-sense principle, that if you want to obtain a real grasp of the literature, history, and genius of a people, you must master that literature with more or less completeness from end to end, and that to select arbitrarily the authors of a short period on the grounds that they are models of style, is nothing short of foolish.

It was the principle on which Joseph Scaliger studied Greek, and indeed occurs spontaneously to a vigorous mind eager for real knowledge.[4] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 4: Vix delibatis conjugationibus Graecis, Homerum cum interpretatione arreptum uno et viginti diebus totum didici.

Reliquos vero poetas Graecos omnes intra quatuor menses devoravi.

Neque ullum oratorem aut historicum prius attigi quam poetas omnes tenerem .-- _Scaligeri Epistolae, Lib.1.Epis.