The Germans have many excellent historic writers, we--'tis true we have Gibbon.

You have been reading Gibbon--what do you think of him ?" "I think him a very wonderful writer." "He is a wonderful writer--one _sui generis_--uniting the perspicuity of the English--for we are perspicuous--with the cool dispassionate reasoning of the Germans.

Gibbon sought after the truth, found it, and made it clear." "Then you think Gibbon a truthful writer ?" "Why, yes; who shall convict Gibbon of falsehood?
Many people have endeavoured to convict Gibbon of falsehood; they have followed him in his researches, and have never found him once tripping.

Oh, he's a wonderful writer! his power of condensation is admirable; the lore of the whole world is to be found in his pages.

Sometimes in a single note he has given us the result of the study of years; or, to speak metaphorically, 'he has ransacked a thousand Gulistans, and has condensed all his fragrant booty into a single drop of otto.'" "But was not Gibbon an enemy to the Christian faith ?" "Why, no; he was rather an enemy to priestcraft, so am I; and when I say the philosophy of the Bible is in many respects unsound, I always wish to make an exception in favour of that part of it which contains the life and sayings of Jesus of Bethlehem, to which I must always concede my unqualified admiration--of Jesus, mind you; for with his followers and their dogmas I have nothing to do.