One word perhaps ought to be said respecting Mr. Gibbon’s treatment of Christianity.  His wit is indeed by no means uniformly happy; as where for instance, he tells us, that the name of Le Boeuf is remarkably apposite to the character of that antiquarian; or where, speaking of the indefatigable diligence of Tillemont, he informs us, that “the patient and sure-footed mule of the Alps may be trusted in the most slippery paths.”  But allowing every thing for the happiness of his irony, and setting aside our private sentiments respecting the justice of its application, we cannot help thinking it absolutely incompatible, with the laws of history.  For our own part, we honestly confess, that we have met with more than one passage, that has puzzled us whether it ought to be understood in jest or earnest.  The irony of a single word he must be a churl who would condemn; but the continuance of this figure in serious composition, throws truth and falsehood, right and wrong into inextricable perplexity.

ARTICLE II.

THE HISTORY OF AMERICA.  BY WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D.D.&C.  VOLS.  III, IV. 4TO.

The expectation of almost all ranks has been as much excited by the present performance, as perhaps by almost any publication in the records of literature.  The press has scarcely been able to keep pace with the eagerness of the public, and the third edition is already announced, before we have been able to gratify our readers with an account of this interesting work.  For a great historian to adventure an established name upon so recent and arduous a subject, is an instance that has scarcely occurred.  Reports were sometime ago industriously propagated that Dr. Robertson had turned his attention to a very different subject, and even when it was generally known that the present work was upon the eve of publication, it was still questioned by many, whether a writer, so celebrated for prudence, had not declined the more recent part of the North American history.  The motives of his conduct upon this head as they are stated in the preface, we shall here lay before our readers.

“But neither the history of Portuguese America, nor the early history of our own settlements, have constituted the most arduous part of the present publication.  The revolution, which, unfortunately for this country, hath recently taken place in the British colonies, hath excited the most general attention, at the same time that it hath rendered the gratification of public curiosity a matter of as much delicacy as necessity.  Could this event have been foreseen by me, I should perhaps have been more cautious of entering into engagements with the public.  To embark upon a subject, respecting which the sentiments of my countrymen have been so much divided, and the hand of time hath not yet collected the verdicts of mankind; while the persons, to whose lot it hath fallen to act the principal parts upon