"Their secret gloom, the imagined residence of an invisible power, by presenting no distinct object of fear or worship, impressed the mind with a still deeper sense of religious horror;<u> </u>and the priests, rude and illiterate as they were, had been taught by experience the use of every artifice that could preserve and fortify impressions so well suited to their own interest."
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Published in six volumes: vol. I in 1776; vols. II and III, 1781; vols. IV, V, and VI, 1788-1789. At least 36 entries in ESTC (1776, 1781, 1782, 1783, 1784, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1797).<br>
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See <u>The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By Edward Gibbon, Esq; Volume the First.</u> (London: Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1776). &lt;<a href="http://estc.bl.uk/T78356">Link to ESTC</a>&gt;<br>
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Searching in  Edward Gibbon, <u>The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, </u>ed. J.B. Bury with an Introduction by W.E.H. Lecky (New York: Fred de Fau and Co., 1906), in 12 vols.