?Another great book which I bought in those days was Gibbon?s "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (Bohn?s edition in seven volumes). Relative to my means, the price was rather stiff, but by getting one volume at a time, as I could afford to pay for it, this difficulty was surmounted. ? Vividly do I remember bringing the final volume home. With youthful glee I read till a late hour. I slept little that night; the book haunted my dreams. I awoke about four on the bright summer Sunday morning and went into the fields to read till breakfast-time. The stately, majestic march of Gibbon?s periods had some attraction for me even then; but the "Decline and Fall", it must be admitted, was hard reading for an unlettered collier lad. Yet I plodded on until I had finished the book which, besides its direct teachings, brought me many indirect advantages.?