His account of the latter's death (November 10, 1770) is feelingly written, and shows the affectionate side of his own nature to advantage.

He acknowledges his father's failings, his weakness and inconstancy, but insists that they were compensated by the virtues of the head and heart, and the warmest sentiments of honour and humanity.

"His graceful person, polite address, gentle manners, and unaffected cheerfulness recommended him to the favour of every company." And Gibbon recalls with emotion "the pangs of shame, tenderness, and self-reproach" which preyed on his father's mind at the prospect, no doubt, of leaving an embarrassed estate and precarious fortune to his son and widow.

He had no taste for study in the fatal summer of 1770, and declares that he would have been ashamed if he had.

"I submitted to the order of nature," he says, in words which recall his resignation on losing his mistress--"I submitted to the order of nature, and my grief was soothed by the conscious satisfaction that I had discharged all the duties of filial piety." We see Gibbon very fairly in this remark.