Porteus discusses Edward Gibbons’ The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London, 1776-1789), noting that it would have deserved great praise if last two chapters were omitted or ‘rendered more comfortable to Truth’ with regards their representation of the progress of Christianity. He states that the chapters are ‘unfair & indecent & will do great harm’ because Gibbons ‘has adopted the grave Irony of Hume & Voltaire on such subjects and is not inferior to his masters’.