In discussing Barbarism and Christianity I have actually been discussing the Fall of Rome.
Edward GibbonMajorian presents the welcome discovery of a great and heroic character, such as sometimes arise, in a degenerate age, to vindicate the honor of the human species.
Edward GibbonThe patient and active virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits and discipline of a pastoral life.
Edward GibbonThe single combats of the heroes of history or fable amuse our fancy and engage our affections: the skillful evolutions of war may inform the mind, and improve a necessary, though pernicious, science. But in the uniform and odious pictures of a general assault, all is blood, and horror, and confusion . . .
Edward Gibbon