Passing a short time at the University of Oxford, he stands
in a small minority of those who can find no good in their _Alma Mater_.
"To the University of Oxford," he says, "I acknowledge no obligation, and
she will as cheerfully renounce me for a son as I am willing to disclaim
her for a mother. I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College. They proved
to be fourteen of the most idle and unprofitable months of my whole life."
This singular experience may be contrasted with that of hundreds, but may
be most fittingly illustrated by stating that of Dr. Lowth, a venerable
contemporary of the historian. He speaks enthusiastically of the place
where the student is able "to breathe the same atmosphere that had been
breathed by Hooker and Chillingworth and Locke; to revel in its grand and
well-ordered libraries; to form part of that academic society where
emulation without envy, ambition without jealousy, contention without
animosity, incited industry and awakened genius."
Gibbon, while still in his boyhood, had read with avidity ancient and
modern history, and had written a juvenile paper on _The Age of
Sesostris_, which was, at least, suggested by Voltaire's _Siecle de Louis
XIV_.
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