Note 10 — Volume VI

Gassendi was one of the first after the revival of letters who treated the literature of philosophy in a lively way. His writings of this kind, though too laudatory and somewhat diffuse, have great merit. They abound in those anecdotal details, natural yet not obvious reflexions, and vivacious turns of thought which made Gibbon style him, with some extravagance certainly, though it was true enough up to Gassendi’s time: ‘Le meilleur philosophe des litterateurs et le meilleur litterateur des philosophes’ (Encycl. Britt., ‘Gassendi,’ vol. X.). Ritter (Geschichte der Philosophie, X. 544), speaking of Gassendi’s encyclopaedic knowledge, says, ‘Nicht ohne Grund hat Bayle von ihm gesagt, er sei unter den Philologen der grösste Philosoph, unter den Philosophen der grösste Philolog gewesen,’ which looks like the prototype of Gibbon’s remark.