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This variety of objects will suspend, for some time, the course of the narrative; but the interruption will be censured only by those readers who are insensible to the importance of laws and manners, while they peruse, with eager curiosity, the transient intrigues of a court, or the accidental event of a battle.

— Edward Gibbon The History of the Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (1776)

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Source: Chapter 17.
Work: The History of the Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, 1776
Source quality: Source identified Names the work or year, but without an exact location.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edward Gibbon (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.