His clever

but nevertheless feels twinges of conscience. ness, though sometimes suggestive of Hood, is purely American in its powers and its limitations.

William Allen Butler (born 1825), a practicing lawyer in New York, published in 1857 a social satire called Nothing to Wear, some of whose phrases have been adopted as part of the common stock of description, to be used without being accounted for. In 1871, in Harper's Magazine, appeared General Average, a spirited comment on business morality.

In this chapter we have considered

1. Richard Henry Dana.-2. William Cullen Bryant. — 3. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. -4. John Greenleaf Whittier. 5. Oliver Wendell Holmes. 6. James Russell Lowell.-7. Alice and Phoebe Cary.—8. Paul Hamilton Hayne. - 9. 9. Richard Watson Gilder. 10. Edith Matilda Thomas. 11. Walter Whitman. 12. John Godfrey Saxe.-13. William Allen Butler.

CHAPTER VII.

THE AMERICAN HISTORIANS.

Political and Historical Literature. The political element in American life has had representation in the work of nearly every writer of the century. An interesting proof of the intellectual stimulus to be found in the development of a homogeneous commonwealth comes through the lives of our eminent historians.

Sons of Massachusetts have won the highest distinction in this field. The History of New England (1858) was written by John G. Palfrey (1796-1881), a Bostonian, a professor at Harvard, the editor of the North American Review (1835–1843), a leader of the Free-Soil party, and, as one of his friends has expressed it, "an example of the accomplished Christian lawyer."

Richard Hildreth (1807-1865) made his way through varied literary activities to the authorship of a successful History of the United States (1849-1856) brought down to the year 1820. Having graduated from Harvard at nineteen, he studied law, worked as an editorial writer, published newspaper articles on the annexation of Texas, wrote a History of Banks (1840), an anti-slavery novel, a Theory of Morals (1844), and a Theory of Politics (1853). He was remarkable not only for his versatility, but for his power of long-continued mental application.

In the modern sense of the word, historical writing implies thorough research among original authorities, exhaustive survey of a great subject, and judicial analysis of its important elements.

The senior among American historians of this order was William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859). His career was made brilliant by indomitable courage and unwavering purpose. During his junior year at Harvard, an accident put out one of his eyes and seriously injured the other. Thenceforth he was obliged to make the activity of his life conform to the requirements of his infirmity. Fortunately, the ease of his circumstances and the devoted affection of his family softened his trial. Obliged to relinquish his cherished hope of following the law, he determined to be an historian. The vast and varied studies involved thereby were successfully pursued by the aid of secretaries. In 1837, after more than ten years of untiring labor, he published the History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Its reception was enthusiastic, and it was at once translated into Spanish, Italian, and German. The Conquest of Mexico (1843), The Conquest of Peru (1847), and Philip the Second (1855-1858), left incomplete at the time of his death, fully sustained the author's prestige. Prescott also published (1849) a volume of Critical and Historical Miscellanies, showing the same attractive qualities which made his histories popular.

Prescott's blindness placed great obstacles between him and his goal, but the fascination of his picturesque themes kept him ever buoyant and spirited in style. In fact, he has been criticised, with some justice, for over-abundance of vivid descriptive detail, sometimes tending towards rhetorical excess. The mental effort which his blindness obliged him to make, conduced directly to the charm of his pages. He was accustomed, after laborious work with readers and notebooks, to prepare entire chapters in his mind, and write them consecutively, by the aid of his writing-frame. They remained substantially without alteration. Hence resulted, in all prob

ability, some of his redundance of matter; but the fault is offset by a singularly clear and readable style. Prescott's was not the mind of the historical philosopher; neither his insight into character nor his analysis of great issues was profound. But for honesty and straightforwardness of statement, for clear, brilliant, vivid narration, his eminence in his chosen field must long remain unchallenged.

George Bancroft (1800-1891) was one of the first American students who came so fully under the influence of German scholars as to imitate their devotion to thorough research. Graduated from Harvard in 1817, he continued his studies at Göttingen, Berlin, and Heidelberg. He was taught in history, science, and philosophy, in ancient and modern languages, by eminent European scholars. After making the tour of Europe, he returned to his native country, to become absorbed in a vast historical scheme. For fifty years his History of the United States (1834–1884) received his best and most enthusiastic labors. His political interest was keen, and as a leading member of the Democratic party he took an active part in public affairs.

Bancroft became Collector of the Port of Boston (18381841); as Secretary of the Navy (1845-1846) founded the Naval Academy at Annapolis; and was from time to time the diplomatic representative of his country in England, Prussia, the North German Confederation, and Germany. He won reputation as statesman and diplomat, and as the editor of important works. But his History was ever foremost in his mind. He filled the intervals of public cares with assiduous labor among public and private collections of documents, in Europe and America. The preeminent merit which is accorded to it has justified such painstaking. Without parade of erudition, it is accurate to the minutest detail. Its twelve volumes represent the condensation of entire libraries. Ban

croft's philosophical intelligence has worked out his comprehensive plan with just regard for historical perspective.

His pages have not the fascination nor the grace which belong to Prescott and Motley. The History is brilliant only in intellectual conception; its style, though clear, is often dry and laborious. While its delineations of great men and historic scenes are noble and complete, the power of the whole can be realized only by trained and mature readers. Their verdict places it among the world's great histories.

In its latest revision, Bancroft's work presents "a narrative and critical account" of our colonial and revolutionary periods. Three volumes deal with colonial history, seven present the five epochs of the revolutionary period; and the last two volumes describe the growth of the American Constitution.

John Lothrop Motley (1814-1877) was graduated at Harvard in 1831, studied in Göttingen and Berlin, and was admitted to the bar in 1836. Literature tempted him aside from professional paths. He wrote two unsuccessful novels, Morton's Hope and Merry Mount; but the praise given to some historical studies contributed to the North American Review gave a new bent to his interest, and in 1846 he had entered upon the task of writing a history of Holland. He became dissatisfied with the materials at his command in America, and in 1851 sailed for Europe with his family. The Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856) was the first result of five toilsome years among the archives of Berlin, Dresden, and The Hague. It was received with enthusiasm in Europe as well as in America; was translated into Dutch, German, French, and Russian. Next appeared The History of the United Netherlands (1861-1868) and the Life of John of Barneveld (1874). The completion of Motley's plan, frustrated by his untimely death, would have involved a study of the Thirty