If one reads the U.S. Declaration of Independence, published in 1776 (the same year as Volume 1 of D&F), it's written in the same Latinate periodic style. That'

If one reads the U.S. Declaration of Independence, published in 1776 (the same year as Volume 1 of D&F), it's written in the same Latinate periodic style. That's just how they wrote in the 18th century. Dinging Gibbon for failing to stand outside his historical period is not really fair. Or try the Federalist Papers, or anything written by the U.S. founding fathers. Same style. Even better, try Fielding's "Tom Jones." Prose as masterly as Gibbon's, but you'll laugh yourself silly at the ribald and bawdy humor, not equaled again until the 20th century. Gotta love the English Enlightenment.