Superior women do not seem to take to him kindly, even when there is no impediment on religious grounds.

Madame du Deffand, writing to Walpole, says, "I whisper it to you, but I am not pleased with Mr.
Gibbon's work.

It is declamatory, oratorical....

I lay it aside without regret, and it requires an effort to take it up again." Another of Walpole's correspondents, the Countess of Ossory, seems to have made similar strictures.

If we admit that women are less capable than masculine scholars of doing justice to the strong side of Gibbon, we may also acknowledge that they are better fitted than men to appreciate and to be shocked by his defective side, which is a prevailing want of moral elevation and nobility of sentiment.