1._] Nor did he confine himself to reading: he felt that no one is sure of knowing a language who limits his study of it to the perusal of authors.

He practised diligently Latin prose composition, and this in the simplest and most effectual way.

"I translated an epistle of Cicero into French, and after throwing it aside till the words and phrases were obliterated from my memory, I retranslated my French into such Latin as I could find, and then compared each sentence of my imperfect version with the ease, the grace, the propriety of the Roman orator." The only odd thing in connection with this excellent method is that Gibbon in his Memoirs seems to think it was a novel discovery of his own, and would recommend it to the imitation of students, whereas it is as old as the days of Ascham at least.

There is no indication that he ever in the least degree attempted Latin verse, and it is improbable that he should have done so, reading alone in Lausanne, under the slight supervision of such a teacher as Pavillard.
The lack of this elegant frivolity will be less thought of now than it would some years ago.

But we may admit that it would have been interesting to have a copy of hexameters or elegiacs by the historian of Rome.