Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Edward Gibbon

  • Edward Gibbon’s decline and fall

    The author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was fifty-two years old when “after the completion of a toilsome and successful work” he set about writing his autobiography. “Truth, naked and unblushing” was to be his exposition, the style simple, though the long habit of correct writing might have produced an “appearance…

  • The man of one book

    George DuneaChicago, Illinois, United States As the publishing industry is going through a technological revolution and enhanced digital books come loaded with videos, songs, animated shorts, pop-up graphics, and interactive features, two issues long resonating with scholars and educators seem irrelevant but actually are not. Should one read widely or concentrate on a few authors?…

  • Edward Gibbon

    “Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.” “The warm desires, the long expectations of youth, are founded on the ignorance of themselves and of the world. They are gradually damped by disappointment and possessions; and after the…

  • Gout changes the fate of nations

    In the battle of the Nicopolis, Bajazet defeated a confederate army of a hundred thousand Christians, who had proudly boasted that if the sky should fall they could uphold it on their lances. The far greater part was slain or driven into the Danube. . . . In the pride of victory Bajazet threatened that…