The events of his life are interesting; but his character is ambiguous; his actions are obscure; his writings are English, and his fame is confined to the narrow limits of our language and our island.

_I must embrace a safer and more extensive theme._" Here we see the first gropings after a theme of cosmopolitan interest.
He has arrived at two negative conclusions: that it must not be English, and must not be narrow.

What it is to be, does not yet appear, for he has still a series of subjects to go through, to be taken up and discarded.

The history of the liberty of the Swiss, which at a later period he partially achieved, was one scheme; the history of Florence under the Medici was another.

He speaks with enthusiasm of both projects, adding that he will most probably fix upon the latter; but he never did anything of the kind.
These were the topics which occupied Gibbon's mind during his service in the militia, escaping when he could from the uproar and vulgarity of the camp and the guardroom to the sanctuary of the historic muse, to worship in secret.