The original idea had been confined to the decline and fall of the city of Rome.

Before he began to write, this had been expanded to the fall of the empire of the West.

The first volume, which we saw him publish in the last chapter, was only an instalment, limited to the accession of Constantine, through a doubt as to how his labours would be received.

The two following volumes, published in 1781, completed his primitive plan.

Then he paused exactly a year before he resolved to carry on his work to its true end, the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453.