CHAPTER IV.
THE ITALIAN JOURNEY.
Gibbon reached Paris on the 28th January, 1763; thirty-six days, as he tells us, after the disbanding of the militia.

He remained a little over three months in the French capital, which on the whole pleased him so well that he thinks that if he had been independent and rich, he might have been tempted to make it his permanent residence.
On the other hand he seems to have been little if at all aware of the extraordinary character of the society of which he became a spectator and for a time a member.

He does not seem to have been conscious that he was witnessing one of the most singular social phases which have yet been presented in the history of man.

And no blame attaches to him for this.

No one of his contemporaries saw deeper in this direction than he did.