But the triumph of the Whig government checked the preferment of
Blue-mantle; and he was even suspended from his office, till his
tongue could learn to pronounce the oath of abjuration. His life
was prolonged to the age of ninety: and, in the expectation of the
inevitable though uncertain hour, he wishes to preserve the
blessings of health, competence, and virtue. In the year 1682 he
published in London his Introductio ad Latinam Blasoniam, an
original attempt, which Camden had desiderated, to define, in a
Roman idiom, the terms and attributes of a Gothic institution. It
is not two years since I acquired, in a foreign land, some domestic
intelligence of my own family; and this intelligence was conveyed to
Switzerland from the heart of Germany. I had formed an acquaintance
with Mr. Langer, a lively and ingenious scholar, while he resided at
Lausanne as preceptor to the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick. On his
return to his proper station of Librarian to the Ducal Library of
Wolfenbuttel, he accidentally found among some literary rubbish a
small old English volume of heraldry, inscribed with the name of
John Gibbon. From the title only Mr. Langer judged that it might be
an acceptable present to his friend--and he judged rightly. His
manner is quaint and affected; his order is confused: but he
displays some wit, more reading, and still more enthusiasm: and if
an enthusiast be often absurd, he is never languid. An English text
is perpetually interspersed with Latin sentences in prose and verse;
but in his own poetry he claims an exemption from the laws of
prosody. Amidst a profusion of genealogical knowledge, my kinsman
could not be forgetful of his own name; and to him I am indebted for
almost the whole of my information concerning the Gibbon family.
From this small work the author expected immortal fame.

Such are the hopes of authors! In the failure of those hopes John