Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794; Historians -- Great Britain -- Biography
we traversed the heaths of Brabant, and reached, on April 26, our
Dutch garrison of Bois le Duc. In our passage through Nancy, my eye
was gratified by the aspect of a regular and beautiful city, the
work of Stanislaus, who, after the storms of Polish royalty, reposed
in the love and gratitude of his new subjects of Lorraine. In our
halt at Maestricht I visited Mr. de Beaufort, a learned critic, who
was known to me by his specious arguments against the five first
centuries of the Roman History. After dropping my regimental
companions, I stepped aside to visit Rotterdam and the Hague. I
wished to have observed a country, the monument of freedom and
industry; but my days were numbered, and a longer delay would have
been ungraceful. I hastened to embark at the Brill, landed the next
day at Harwich, and proceeded to London, where my father awaited my
arrival. The whole term of my first absence from England was four
years ten months and fifteen days.
In the prayers of the church our personal concerns are judiciously
reduced to the threefold distinction of mind, body, and estate. The
sentiments of the mind excite and exercise our social sympathy. The
review of my moral and literary character is the most interesting to
myself and to the public; and I may expatiate, without reproach, on
my private studies; since they have produced the public writings,
which can alone entitle me to the esteem and friendship of my
readers. The experience of the world inculcates a discreet reserve
on the subject of our person and estate, and we soon learn that a
free disclosure of our riches or poverty would provoke the malice of
envy, or encourage the insolence of contempt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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