ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION,
IT will be remembered that the Memoirs were com. posed and formed from six different sketches, and from notes and memoranda on loose unconnected papers and cards, all in Mr Gibbon's handwriting. This new edition of his posthumous works has furnished me with the opportunity of interweaving several additional extracts from the same sources; illustrating and enlarging the Memoirs, where they were most scanty, by notes principally selected from his Journal.
To the letters printed in the former edition a considerable number, both from himself and many other distinguished persons, are introduced in the present publication.*
In regard to these letters, see preceding remarks of
the Editors of the Autobiography.