I am reading the Augustan History, and Aulus Gellius.
Aulus is a favourite of mine.

I think him one of the best writers of his class.
I read in the evenings a great deal of English, French, and Italian; and a little Spanish.

I have picked up Portuguese enough to read Camoens with care; and I want no more.

I have adopted an opinion about the Italian historians quite different from that which I formerly held, and which, I believe, is generally considered as orthodox.

I place Fra Paolo decidedly at the head of them, and next to him Davila, whom I take to be the best modern military historian except Colonel Napier.