Excerpt from The Memoirs of the Life of Edward Gibbon: With Various Observations and Excursions<br><br>There was no need to exaggerate the importance of the publication of these different sketches. If we did not learn for the first time that the autobiography was the work of two hands, we were at all events admitted into the very workshop, as it were, of one of our great writers. There was, moreover, opened to us for the first time many a striking passage that had been suppressed by Lord Sheffield. The new work, with all its authenticity and all its additions, can never supplant, however, the compila tion which has been the delight of many generations of readers. Every student of English literature will have it on his shelves; in every library that is worthy of the name it will have a place; but it is the autobiography as it has been known to the world for more than a hundred years that we shall read by the fireside.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.