Johnson hewed passages through the Alps, while Gibbon levelled walks through parks and gardens.
Mauled as I had been by Johnson, Gibbon poured balm upon my bruises by condescending once or twice in the course of the evening to talk with me.

The great historian was light and playful, suiting his matter to the capacity of the boy: but it was done _more suo_--still his mannerism prevailed, still he tapped his snuff-box, still he smirked and smiled, and rounded his periods with the same air of good-breeding, as if he were conversing with men.

His mouth, mellifluous as Plato's, was a round hole nearly in the centre of his visage." (Quoted in Croker's _Boswell_.) FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 9: Not the assembly-room of that name, but a gaming-club where the play was high.

I find no evidence that Gibbon ever yielded to the prevalent passion for gambling.] Now and then he even joins in a masquerade, "the finest thing ever seen," which costs two thousand guineas.

But the chief charm of it to him seems to have been the pleasure that it gave to his Aunt Porten.
These little vanities are however quite superficial, and are never allowed to interfere with work.
Now indeed he was no loiterer.