diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:11:52 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:11:52 -0700 |
| commit | ca5bf370776b9b3549e9abb457eaafc453382d58 (patch) | |
| tree | e86e7177198395642d0b444b19c64e4d8a3b6184 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39084-8.txt | 6320 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39084-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 137309 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39084-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 348771 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39084-h/39084-h.htm | 6261 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39084-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 50742 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39084-h/images/cover_lg.jpg | bin | 0 -> 152733 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39084.txt | 6320 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39084.zip | bin | 0 -> 137197 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
11 files changed, 18917 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39084-8.txt b/39084-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa0c6e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/39084-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6320 @@ +Project Gutenberg's William Hickling Prescott, by Harry Thurston Peck + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: William Hickling Prescott + +Author: Harry Thurston Peck + +Release Date: March 9, 2012 [EBook #39084] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + +_ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS_ + +_PRESCOTT_ + +[Illustration: image of the book's cover] + + + + +_ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS_ + +WILLIAM HICKLING +PRESCOTT + +BY +HARRY THURSTON PECK + +New York +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY +LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. + +1905 + +_All rights reserved_ + +COPYRIGHT, 1905, +BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1905. + +Norwood Press +J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. +Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + + +To +WILLIAM ARCHIBALD DUNNING +_AMICITIĈ CAUSA_ + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE + + +For the purely biographical portion of this book an especial +acknowledgment of obligation is due to the valuable collection of +Prescott's letters and memoranda made by his friend George Ticknor, and +published in 1864 as part of Ticknor's _Life of W. H. Prescott_. All +other available sources, however, have been explored, and are +specifically mentioned either in the text or in the footnotes. + +H. T. P. + +COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, +March 1, 1905. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + + PAGE + +THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIANS 1 + +CHAPTER II + +EARLY YEARS 13 + +CHAPTER III + +THE CHOICE OF A CAREER 39 + +CHAPTER IV + +SUCCESS 54 + +CHAPTER V + +IN MID CAREER 72 + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LAST TEN YEARS 99 + +CHAPTER VII + +"FERDINAND AND ISABELLA"--PRESCOTT'S STYLE 121 + +CHAPTER VIII + +"THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO" AS LITERATURE AND AS +HISTORY 133 + +CHAPTER IX + +"THE CONQUEST OF PERU"--"PHILIP II." 160 + +CHAPTER X + +PRESCOTT'S RANK AS AN HISTORIAN 173 + +INDEX 181 + + + + +_PRESCOTT_ + + + + +WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIANS + + +Throughout the first few decades of the nineteenth century, the United +States, though forming a political entity, were in everything but name +divided into three separate nations, each one of which was quite unlike +the other two. This difference sprang partly from the character of the +population in each, partly from divergent tendencies in American +colonial development, and partly from conditions which were the result +of both these causes. The culture-history, therefore, of each of the +three sections exhibits, naturally enough, a distinct and definite phase +of intellectual activity, which is reflected very clearly in the records +of American literature. + +In the Southern States, just as in the Southern colonies out of which +they grew, the population was homogeneous and of English stock. Almost +the sole occupation of the people was agriculture, while the tone of +society was markedly aristocratic, as was to be expected from a +community dominated by great landowners who were also the masters of +many slaves. These landowners, living on their estates rather than in +towns and cities, caring nothing for commerce or for manufactures, +separated from one another by great distances, and cherishing the +intensely conservative traditions of that England which saw the last of +the reigning Stuarts, were inevitably destined to intellectual +stagnation. The management of their plantations, the pleasures of the +chase, and the exercise of a splendid though half-barbaric hospitality, +satisfied the ideals which they had inherited from their Tory ancestors. +Horses and hounds, a full-blooded conviviality, and the exercise of a +semi-feudal power, occupied their minds and sufficiently diverted them. +Such an atmosphere was distinctly unfavourable to the development of a +love of letters and of learning. The Southern gentleman regarded the +general diffusion of education as a menace to his class; while for +himself he thought it more or less unnecessary. He gained a practical +knowledge of affairs by virtue of his position. As for culture, he had +upon the shelves of his library, where also were displayed his weapons +and the trophies of the chase, a few hundred volumes of the standard +essayists, poets, and dramatists of a century before. If he seldom read +them and never added to them, they at least implied a recognition of +polite learning and such a degree of literary taste as befitted a +Virginian or Carolinian gentleman. But, practically, English literature +had for him come to an end with Addison and Steele and Pope and their +contemporaries. The South stood still in the domain of letters and +education. Not that there were lacking men who cherished the ambition to +make for themselves a name in literature. There were many such, among +whom Gayarré, Beverly, and Byrd deserve an honourable remembrance; but +their surroundings were unfavourable, and denied to them that +intelligent appreciation which inspires the man of letters to press on +to fresh achievement. An interesting example is found in the abortive +history of Virginia undertaken by Dr. William Stith, who was President +of William and Mary College, and who possessed not only scholarship but +the gift of literary expression. The work which he began, however, was +left unfinished, because of an utter lack of interest on the part of the +public for whom it had been undertaken. Dr. Stith's own quaint comment +throws a light upon contemporary conditions. He had laboured diligently +in collecting documents which represented original sources of +information; yet, when he came to publish the first and only volume of +his history, he omitted many of them, giving as his reason:-- + + "I perceive, to my no small Surprise and Mortification, that some + of my Countrymen (and those too, Persons of high Fortune and + Distinction) seemed to be much alarmed, and to grudge, that a + complete History of their own Country would run to more than one + Volume, and cost them above half a Pistole. I was, therefore, + obliged to restrain my Hand, ... for fear of enhancing the Price, + to the immense Charge and irreparable Damage of such generous and + publick-spirited Gentlemen."[1] + +The Southern universities were meagrely attended; and though the sons of +wealthy planters might sometimes be sent to Oxford or, more usually, to +Princeton or to Yale, the discipline thus acquired made no general +impression upon the class to which they belonged. In fact, the +intellectual energy of the South found its only continuous and powerful +expression in the field of politics. To government and statesmanship +its leading minds gave much attention, for only thus could they retain +in national affairs the supremacy which they arrogated to themselves and +which was necessary to preserve their peculiar institution. Hence, there +were to be found among the leaders of the Southern people a few +political philosophers like Jefferson, a larger number of political +casuists like Calhoun, and a swarm of political rhetoricians like +Patrick Henry, Hayne, Legaré, and Yancey. But beyond the limits of +political life the South was intellectually sterile. So narrowing and so +hostile to liberal culture were its social conditions that even to this +day it has not produced a single man of letters who can be truthfully +described as eminent, unless the name of Edgar Allan Poe be cited as an +exception whose very brilliance serves only to prove and emphasise the +rule. + +In the Middle States, on the other hand, a very different condition of +things existed. Here the population was never homogeneous. The English +Royalists and the Dutch in New York, the English Quakers and the Germans +in Pennsylvania and the Swedes in Delaware, made inevitable, from the +very first, a cosmopolitanism that favoured variety of interests, with a +resulting breadth of view and liberality of thought. Manufactures +flourished and foreign commerce was extensively pursued, insuring +diversity of occupation. The two chief cities of the nation were here, +and not far distant from each other. Wealth was not unevenly +distributed, and though the patroon system had created in New York a +landed gentry, this class was small, and its influence was only one of +many. Comfort was general, religious freedom was unchallenged, +education was widely and generally diffused. The large urban population +created an atmosphere of urbanity. Even in colonial times, New York and +Philadelphia were the least provincial of American towns. They attracted +to themselves, not only the most interesting people from the other +sections, but also many a European wanderer, who found there most of the +essential graces of life, with little or none of that combined austerity +and rawness which elsewhere either disgusted or amused him. We need not +wonder, then, if it was in the Middle States that American literature +really found its birth, or if the forms which it there assumed were +those which are touched by wit and grace and imagination. Franklin, +frozen and repelled by what he thought the bigotry of Boston, sought +very early in his life the more congenial atmosphere of Philadelphia, +where he found a public for his copious writings, which, if not +precisely literature, were, at any rate, examples of strong, idiomatic +English, conveying the shrewd philosophy of an original mind. Charles +Brockden Brown first blazed the way in American fiction with six novels, +amid whose turgid sentences and strange imaginings one may here and +there detect a touch of genuine power and a striving after form. +Washington Irving, with his genial humour and well-bred ease, was the +very embodiment of the spirit of New York. Even Professor Barrett +Wendell, whose critical bias is wholly in favour of New England, +declares that Irving was the first of American men of letters, as he was +certainly the first American writer to win a hearing outside of his own +country. And to these we may add still others,--Freneau, from whom both +Scott and Campbell borrowed; Cooper, with his stirring sea-tales and +stories of Indian adventure; and Bryant, whose early verses were thought +to be too good to have been written by an American. And there were also +Drake and Halleck and Woodworth and Paine, some of whose poetry still +continues to be read and quoted. The mention of them serves as a +reminder that American literature in the nineteenth century, like +English literature in the fourteenth, found its origin where wealth, +prosperity, and a degree of social elegance made possible an +appreciation of belles-lettres. + +Far different was it in New England. There, as in the South, the +population was homogeneous and English. But it was a Puritan population, +of which the environment and the conditions of its life retarded, and at +the same time deeply influenced, the evolution of its literature. One +perceives a striking parallel between the early history of the people of +New England and that of the people of ancient Rome. Each was forced to +wrest a living from a rugged soil. Each dwelt in constant danger from +formidable enemies. The Roman was ready at every moment to draw his +sword for battle with Faliscans, Samnites, or Etruscans. The New +Englander carried his musket with him even to the house of prayer, +fearing the attack of Pequots or Narragansetts. The exploits of such +half-mythical Roman heroes as Camillus and Cincinnatus find their +analogue in the achievements credited to Miles Standish and the doughty +Captain Church. Early Rome knew little of the older and more polished +civilisation of Greece. New England was separated by vast distances from +the richer life of Europe. In Rome, as in New England, religion was +linked closely with all the forms of government; and it was a religion +which appealed more strongly to men's sense of duty and to their fears, +than to their softer feelings. The Roman gods needed as much +propitiation as did the God of Jonathan Edwards. When a great calamity +befell the Roman people, they saw in it the wrath of their divinities +precisely as the true New Englander was taught to view it as a +"providence." In both commonwealths, education of an elementary sort was +deemed essential; but it was long before it reached the level of +illumination. + +Like influences yield like results. The Roman character, as moulded in +the Republic's early years, was one of sternness and efficiency. It +lacked gayety, warmth, and flexibility. And the New England character +resembled it in all of these respects. The historic worthies of Old Rome +would have been very much at ease in early Massachusetts. Cato the +Censor could have hobnobbed with old Josiah Quincy, for they were +temperamentally as like as two peas. It is only the Romans of the Empire +who would have felt out of place in a New England environment. Horace +might conceivably have found a smiling _angulus terrarum_ somewhere on +the lower Hudson, but he would have pined away beside the Nashua; while +to Ovid, Beacon Street would have seemed as ghastly as the frozen slopes +of Tomi. And when we compare the native period of Roman literature with +the early years of New England's literary history, the parallel becomes +more striking still. In New England, as in Rome, beneath all the forms +of a self-governing and republican State, there existed a genuine +aristocracy whose prestige was based on public service of some sort; +and in New England, as in Rome, public service had in it a theocratic +element. In civil life, the most honourable occupation for a free +citizen was to share in this public service. Hence, the disciplines +which had a direct relation to government were the only civic +disciplines to be held in high consideration. Such an attitude +profoundly affected the earliest attempts at literature. The two +literary or semi-literary pursuits which have a close relation to +statesmanship are oratory and history--oratory, which is the statesman's +instrument, and history, which is in part the record of his +achievements. Therefore, at Rome, a line of native orators arose before +a native poet won a hearing, and therefore, too, the annalists and +chroniclers precede the dramatists. + +In New England it was much the same. Almost from the founding of the +Massachusetts Bay Colony, there were men among the colonists who wrote +down with diffusive dulness the records of whatever they had seen and +suffered. Governor William Bradford composed a history of New England; +and Thomas Prince, minister of the Old South Church, compiled another +work of like title, described by its author as told "in the Form of +Annals." Hutchinson prepared a history of Massachusetts Bay; and many +others had collected local traditions, which seemed to them of great +moment, and had preserved them in books, or else in manuscripts which +were long afterwards to be published by zealous antiquarians. Cotton +Mather's curious _Magnalia_, printed in 1700, was intended by its author +to be history, though strictly speaking it is theological and is clogged +with inappropriate learning,--Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The parallel +between early Rome and early Massachusetts breaks down, however, when we +consider the natural temperament of the two peoples as distinct from +that which external circumstances cultivated in them. Underneath the +sternness and severity which were the fruits of Puritanism, there +existed in the New England character a touch of spirituality, of +idealism, and of imagination such as were always foreign to the Romans. +Under the repression of a grim theocracy, New England idealism still +found its necessary outlet in more than one strange form. We can trace +it in the hot religious eloquence of Edwards even better than in the +imitative poetry of Mrs. Bradstreet. It is to be found even in such +strange panics as that which shrieked for the slaying of the Salem +"witches." Time alone was needed to bring tolerance and intellectual +freedom, and with them a freer choice of literary themes and moods. The +New England temper remained, and still remains, a serious one; yet +ultimately it was to find expression in forms no longer harsh and rigid, +but modelled upon the finer lines of truth and beauty. + +The development was a gradual one. The New England spirit still exacted +sober subjects of its writers. And so the first evolution of New England +literature took place along the path of historical composition. The +subjects were still local or, at the most, national; but there was a +steady drift away from the annalistic method to one which partook of +conscious art. In the writings of Jared Sparks there is seen imperfectly +the scientific spirit, entirely self-developed and self-trained. His +laborious collections of historical material, and his dry but accurate +biographies, mark a distinct advance beyond his predecessors. Here, at +least, are historical scholarship and, in the main, a conscientious +scrupulosity in documentation. It is true that Sparks was charged, and +not quite unjustly, with garbling some of the material which he +preserved; yet, on the whole, one sees in him the founder of a school of +American historians. What he wrote was history, if it was not +literature. George Bancroft, his contemporary, wrote history, and was +believed for a time to have written it in literary form. To-day his six +huge volumes, which occupied him fifty years in writing, and which bring +the reader only to the inauguration of Washington, make but slight +appeal to a cultivated taste. The work is at once too ponderous and too +rhetorical. Still, in its way, it marks another step. + +Up to this time, however, American historians were writing only for a +restricted public. They had not won a hearing beyond the country whose +early history they told. Their themes possessed as yet no interest for +foreign nations, where the feeble American Republic was little known and +little noticed. The republican experiment was still a doubtful one, and +there was nothing in the somewhat paltry incidents of its early years to +rivet the attention of the other hemisphere. "America" was a convenient +term to denote an indefinite expanse of territory somewhere beyond seas. +A London bishop could write to a clergyman in New York and ask him for +details about the work of a missionary in Newfoundland without +suspecting the request to be absurd. The British War Office could +believe the river Bronx a mighty stream, the crossing of which was full +of strategic possibilities. As for the American people, they interested +Europe about as much as did the Boers in the days of the early treks. +Even so acute an observer as Talleyrand, after visiting the United +States, carried away with him only a general impression of rusticity and +bad manners. When Napoleon asked him what he thought of the Americans, +he summed up his opinion with a shrug: _Sire, ce sont des fiers cochons +et des cochons fiers_. Tocqueville alone seems to have viewed the +nascent nation with the eye of prescience. For the rest, petty +skirmishes with Indians, a few farmers defending a rustic bridge, and a +somewhat discordant gathering of planters, country lawyers, and +drab-clad tradesmen held few suggestions of the picturesque and, to most +minds, little that was significant to the student of politics and +institutional history. + +There were, however, other themes, American in a larger sense, which +contained within themselves all the elements of the romantic, while they +closely linked the ambitions of old Europe with the fortunes and the +future of the New World. The narration of these might well appeal to +that interest which the more sober annals of England in America wholly +failed to rouse. There was the story of New France, which had for its +background a setting of savage nature, while in the foreground was +fought out the struggle between Englishmen and Frenchmen, at grips in a +feud perpetuated through the centuries. There was the story of Spanish +conquest in the south,--a true romance of chivalry, which had not yet +been told in all its richness of detail. To choose a subject of this +sort, and to develop it in a fitting way, was to write at once for the +Old World and the New. The task demanded scholarship, and presented +formidable difficulties. The chief sources of information were to be +found in foreign lands. To secure them needed wealth. To compare and +analyse and sift them demanded critical judgment of a high order. And +something more was needed,--a capacity for artistic presentation. When +both these gifts were found united in a single mind, historical writing +in New England had passed beyond the confines of its early crudeness and +had reached the stage where it claimed rank as lasting literature. +Rightly viewed, the name of William Hickling Prescott is something more +than a mere landmark in the field of historical composition. It +signalises the beginning of a richer growth in New England letters,--the +coming of a time when the barriers of a Puritan scholasticism were +broken down. Prescott is not merely the continuator of Sparks. He is the +precursor of Hawthorne and Parkman and Lowell. He takes high rank among +American historians; but he is enrolled as well in a still more +illustrious group by virtue of his literary fame. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +EARLY YEARS + + +To the native-born New Englander the name of Prescott has, for more than +a century, possessed associations that give to it the stamp of genuine +distinction. Those who have borne it have belonged of right to the true +patriciate of their Commonwealth. The Prescotts were from the first a +fighting race, and their men were also men of mind; and, according to +the times in which they lived, they displayed one or the other +characteristic in a very marked degree. The pioneer among them on +American soil was John Prescott, a burly Puritan soldier who had fought +under Cromwell, and who loved danger for its own sake. He came from +Lancashire to Massachusetts about twenty years after the landing of the +_Mayflower_, and at once pushed off into the unbroken wilderness to mark +out a large plantation for himself in what is now the town of Lancaster. +A half-verified tradition describes him as having brought with him a +coat of mail and a steel helmet, glittering in which he often terrified +marauding Indians who ventured near his lands. His son and grandson and +his three great-grandsons all served as officers in the military forces +of Massachusetts; and among the last was Colonel William Prescott, who +commanded the American troops at Bunker Hill. Later, he served under the +eye of Washington, who personally commended him after the battle of +Long Island; and he took part in the defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga--a +success which brought the arms of France to the support of the American +cause. + +In times of peace as well, the Prescotts were men of light and leading. +Their names are found upon the rolls of the Massachusetts General Court, +of the Governor's Council in colonial days, of the Continental Congress, +and of the State judiciary. One of them, Oliver Prescott, a brother of +the Revolutionary warrior, who had been bred as a physician, made some +elaborate researches on the subject of that curious drug, ergot, and +embodied his results in a paper of such value as to attract the notice +of the profession in Europe. It was translated into French and German, +and was included in the _Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales_--an +unusual compliment for an American of those days to receive. Most +eminent of all the Prescotts in civil life, however, before the +historian won his fame, was William Prescott,--the family names were +continually repeated,--whose career was remarkable for its distinction, +and whose character is significant because of its influence upon his +illustrious son. William Prescott was born in 1762, and, after a most +careful training, entered Harvard, from which he was graduated in 1783. +Admitted to the bar, he won high rank in his profession, twice receiving +and twice declining an appointment to the Supreme Court of the State. +His widely recognised ability brought him wealth, so that he lived in +liberal fashion, in a home whose generous appointments and cultivated +ease created an atmosphere that was rare indeed in those early days, +when narrow means and a crude provincialism combined to make New +England life unlovely. Prescott was not only an able lawyer, the worthy +compeer of Dexter, Otis, and Webster--he was a scholar by instinct, +widely read, thoughtful, and liberal-minded in the best sense of the +word. His intellectual conflicts with such professional antagonists as +have just been named gave him mental flexibility and a delightful +sanity; and though in temperament he was naturally of a serious turn, he +had both pungency and humour at his command. No more ideal father could +be imagined for a brilliant son; for he was affectionate, generous, and +sympathetic, with a knowledge of the world, and a happy absence of +Puritan austerity. He had, moreover, the very great good fortune to love +and marry a woman dowered with every quality that can fill a house with +sunshine. This was Catherine Hickling, the daughter of a prosperous +Boston merchant, afterward American consul in the Azores. As a girl, and +indeed all through her long and happy life, she was the very spirit of +healthful, normal womanhood,--full of an irrepressible and infectious +gayety, a miracle of buoyant life, charming in manner, unselfish, +helpful, and showing in her every act and thought the promptings of a +beautiful and spotless soul. + +It was of this admirably mated pair that William Hickling Prescott, +their second son, was born, at Salem, on the 4th of May, 1796. The elder +Prescott had not yet acquired the ample fortune which he afterward +possessed; yet even then his home was that of a man of easy +circumstances,--one of those big, comfortable, New England houses, +picturesquely situated amid historic surroundings.[2] Here young +Prescott spent the first twelve years of his life under his mother's +affectionate care, and here began his education, first at a sort of dame +school, kept by a kindly maiden lady, Miss Mehitable Higginson, and +then, from about the age of seven, under the more formal instruction of +an excellent teacher, Mr. Jacob Newman Knapp, quaintly known as "Master +Knapp." It was here that he began to reveal certain definite and very +significant traits of character. The record of them is interesting, for +it shows that, but for the accident which subsequently altered the whole +tenor of his life, he might have grown up into a far from admirable man, +even had he escaped moral shipwreck. Many of his natural traits, indeed, +were of the kind that need restraint to make them safe to their +possessor, and in these early years restraint was largely lacking in the +life of the young Prescott, who, it may frankly be admitted, was badly +spoiled. His father, preoccupied in his legal duties, left him in great +part to his mother's care, and his mother, who adored him for his +cleverness and good looks, could not bear to check him in the smallest +of his caprices. He was, indeed, peculiarly her own, since from her he +had inherited so much. By virtue of his natural gifts, he was, no doubt, +a most attractive boy. Handsome, like his father, he had his mother's +vivacity and high spirits almost in excess. Quick of mind, imaginative, +full of eager curiosity, and with a tenacious memory, it is no wonder +that her pride in him was great, and that her mothering heart went out +to him in unconscious recognition of a kindred temperament. But his +school companions, and even his elders, often found these ebullient +spirits of his by no means so delightful. The easy-going indulgence +which he met at home, and very likely also the recognised position of +his father in that small community, combined to make young Prescott +wilful and self-confident and something of an _enfant terrible_. He was +allowed to say precisely what he thought, and he did invariably say it +on all occasions and to persons of every age. In fact, he acquired a +somewhat unenviable reputation for rudeness, while his high spirits +prompted him to contrive all sorts of practical jokes--a form of humour +which seldom tends to make one popular. Moreover, though well-grown for +his age, he had a distaste for physical exertion, and took little or no +part in active outdoor games. Naturally, therefore, he was not +particularly liked by his school companions, while, on the other hand, +he attained no special rank in the schoolroom. Although he was quick at +learning, he contented himself with satisfying the minimum of what was +required--a trait that remained very characteristic of him for a long +time. Of course, there is no particular significance in the general +statement that a boy of twelve was rude, mischievous, physically +indolent, and averse to study. Yet in Prescott's case these qualities +were somewhat later developed at a critical period of his life, and +might have spoiled a naturally fine character had they not been +ultimately checked and controlled by the memorable accident which befell +him a few years afterward. + +In 1803, the elder Prescott suffered from a hemorrhage from the lungs +which compelled him for a time to give up many of his professional +activities. Five years after this he removed his home to Boston, where +the practice of his profession would be less burdensome, and where, as +it turned out, his income was very largely increased. The change was +fortunate both for him and for his son; since, in a larger community, +the boy came to be less impressed with his own importance, and also fell +under an influence far more stimulating than could ever have been +exerted by a village schoolmaster. The rector of Trinity Church in +Boston, the Rev. Dr. John S. Gardiner, was a gentleman of exceptional +cultivation. As a young man he had been well trained in England under +the learned Dr. Samuel Parr, a Latinist of the Ciceronian school. He +was, besides, a man possessing many genial and very human qualities, so +that all who knew him felt his personal fascination to a rare degree. He +had at one time been the master of a classical school in Boston and had +met with much success; but his clerical duties had obliged him to give +up this occupation. Thereafter, he taught only a small number of boys, +the sons of intimate friends in whom he took a special and personal +interest. His methods with them were not at all those of a typical +schoolmaster. He received his little classes in the library of his home, +and taught them, in a most informal fashion, English, Greek, and Latin. +He resembled, indeed, one of those ripe scholars of the Renaissance who +taught for the pure love of imparting knowledge. Much of his instruction +was conveyed orally rather than through the medium of text-books; and +his easy talk, flowing from a full mind, gave interest and richness to +his favourite subjects. Such teaching as this is always rare, and it was +peculiarly so in that age of formalism. To the privilege of Dr. +Gardiner's instruction, young Prescott was admitted, and from it he +derived not only a correct feeling for English style, but a genuine +love of classical study, which remained with him throughout his life. It +may be said here that he never at any time felt an interest in +mathematics or the natural sciences. His cast of mind was naturally +humanistic; and now, through the influence of an accomplished teacher, +he came to know the meaning and the beauty of the classical tradition. + +Under Gardiner, Prescott's indifference to study disappeared, and he +applied himself so well that he was rapidly advanced from elementary +reading to the study of authors so difficult as Ĉschylus. His +biographer, Mr. Ticknor, who was his fellow-pupil at this time, has left +us some interesting notes upon the subject of Prescott's literary +preferences. It appears that he enjoyed Sophocles, while Horace +"interested and excited him beyond his years." The pessimism of Juvenal +he disliked, and the crabbed verse of Persius he utterly refused to +read. Under private teachers he studied French, Italian, and Spanish,--a +rather unusual thing for boys at that time,--and he reluctantly acquired +what he regarded as the irreducible minimum of mathematics. It was +decided that he should be fitted to enter the Sophomore Class in +Harvard, and to this end he devoted his mental energies. Like most boys, +he worked hardest upon those studies which related to his college +examination, viewing others as more or less superfluous. He did, +however, a good deal of miscellaneous reading, opportunities for which +he found in the Boston Athenĉum. This institution had been opened but a +short time before, and its own collection of books, which to-day numbers +more than two hundred thousand, was rather meagre; but in it had been +deposited some ten thousand volumes, constituting the private library +of John Quincy Adams, who was then holding the post of American Minister +to Russia. At a time when book-shops were few, and when books were +imported from England with much difficulty and expense, these ten +thousand volumes seemed an enormous treasure-house of good reading. +Prescott browsed through the books after the fashion of a clever boy, +picking out what took his fancy and neglecting everything that seemed at +all uninteresting. Yet this omnivorous reading stimulated his love of +letters and gave to him a larger range of vision than at that time he +could probably have acquired in any other way. It is interesting to note +the fact that his preference was for old romances--the more extravagant +the better--and for tales of wild and lawless adventure. An especial +favourite with him was the romance of _Amadis de Gaule_, which he found +in Southey's somewhat pedestrian translation, and which appealed +intensely to Prescott's imagination and his love of the fantastic. + +His other occupations were decidedly significant. His most intimate +friend at this time was William Gardiner, his preceptor's son; and the +two boys were absolutely at one in their tastes and amusements. Both of +them were full of mischief, and both were irrepressibly boisterous, +playing all sorts of tricks at evening in the streets, firing off +pistols, and in general causing a good deal of annoyance to the sober +citizens of Boston. In this they were like any other healthy boys,--full +of animal spirits and looking for "fun" without any especial sense of +responsibility. Something else, however, is recorded of them which seems +to have a real importance, as revealing in Prescott, at least, some of +those mental characteristics which in his after life were to find +expression in his serious work. + +The period was one when the thoughts of all men were turned to the +Napoleonic wars. The French and English were at grips in Spain for the +possession of the Peninsula. Wellington had landed in Portugal and, +marching into Spain, had flung down the gage of battle, which was taken +up by Soult, Masséna, and Victor, in the absence of their mighty chief. +The American newspapers were filled with long, though belated, accounts +of the brilliant fighting at Ciudad Rodrigo, Almeida, and Badajoz; and +these narratives fired the imagination of Prescott, whose eagerness his +companion found infectious, so that the two began to play at battles; +not after the usual fashion of boys, but in a manner recalling the +_Kriegspiel_ of the military schools of modern Germany. Pieces of paper +were carefully cut into shapes which would serve to designate the +difference between cavalry, infantry, and artillery; and with these bits +of paper the disposition and manoeuvring of armies were indicated, so +as to make clear, in a rough way, the tactics of the opposing +commanders. Not alone were the Napoleonic battles thus depicted, but +also the great contests of which the boys had read or heard at +school,--Thermopylĉ, Marathon, Leuctra, Cannĉ, and Pharsalus. Some +pieces of old armour, unearthed among the rubbish of the Athenĉum, +enabled the boys to mimic in their play the combats of Amadis and the +knights with whom he fought. + +Side by side with these amusements there was another which curiously +supplemented it. As Prescott and his friend went through the streets on +their way to school, they made a practice of inventing impromptu +stories, which they told each other in alternation. If the story was +unfinished when they arrived at school, it would be resumed on their way +home and continued until it reached its end. It was here that Prescott's +miscellaneous reading stood him in good stead. His mind was full of the +romances and histories that he had read; and his quick invention and +lively imagination enabled him to piece together the romantic bits which +he remembered, and to give them some sort of consistency and form. +Ticknor attaches little importance either to Prescott's interest in the +details of warfare or to this fondness of his for improvised narration. +Yet it is difficult not to see in both of them a definite bias; and we +may fairly hold that the boy's taste for battles, coupled with his love +of picturesque description, foreshadowed, even in these early years, the +qualities which were to bring him lasting fame. + +All these boyish amusements, however, came to an end when, in August, +1811, Prescott presented himself as a candidate for admission to +Harvard. Harvard was then under the presidency of the Rev. Dr. John +Thornton Kirkland, who had been installed in office the year before +Prescott entered college. President Kirkland was the first of Harvard's +really eminent presidents.[3] Under his rule there definitely began that +slow but steady evolution, which was, in the end, to transform the small +provincial college into a great and splendid university. Kirkland was an +earlier Eliot, and some of his views seemed as radical to his +colleagues as did those of Eliot in 1869. Lowell has said of him, +somewhat unjustly: "He was a man of genius, but of genius that evaded +utilisation." It is fairer to suppose that, if he did not accomplish all +that he desired and attempted, this was because the time was not yet +ripe for radical innovations. He did secure large benefactions to the +University, the creation of new professorships on endowed foundations, +and the establishment of three professional schools. President Kirkland, +in reality, stood between the old order and the new, with his face set +toward the future, but retaining still some of the best traditions of +the small college of the past. It is told of him that he knew every +student by name, and took a very genuine interest in all of them, +helping them in many quiet, tactful ways, so that more than one +distinguished man in later life declared that, but for the thoughtful +and unsolicited kindness of Dr. Kirkland, he would have been forced to +abandon his college life in debt and in despair. Kirkland was a man of +striking personal presence, and could assume a bearing of such +impressive dignity as to verge on the majestic, as when he officially +received Lafayette in front of University Hall and presented the +assembled students to the nation's guest. The faculty over which he +presided contained at that time no teacher of enduring reputation,[4] so +that whatever personal influence was exerted upon Prescott by his +instructors must have come chiefly from such intercourse as he had with +Dr. Kirkland. + +It is of interest to note just how much of an ordeal an entrance +examination at Harvard was at the time when Prescott came up as a +candidate for admission. The subjects were very few in number, and would +appear far from formidable to a modern Freshman. Dalzel's _Collectanea +Groea Minora_, the Greek Testament, Vergil, Sallust, and several +selected orations of Cicero represented, with the Greek and Latin +grammars, the classical requirements which constituted, indeed, almost +the entire test, since the only other subjects were arithmetic, "so for +as the rule of three," and a general knowledge of geography. The +curriculum of the College, while Prescott was a member of it, was meagre +enough when compared with what is offered at the present time. The +classical languages occupied most of the students' attention. Sallust, +Livy, Horace, and one of Cicero's rhetorical treatises made up the +principal work in Latin. Xenophon's _Anabasis_, Homer, and some +desultory selections from other authors were supposed to give a +sufficient knowledge of Greek literature. The Freshmen completed the +study of arithmetic, and the Sophomores did something in algebra and +geometry. Other subjects of study were rhetoric, declamation, a modicum +of history, and also logic, metaphysics, and ethics. The ecclesiastical +hold upon the College was seen in the inclusion of a lecture course on +"some topic of positive or controversial divinity," in an examination on +Doddridge's Lectures, in the reading of the Greek Testament, and in a +two years' course in Hebrew for Sophomores and Freshmen. Indeed, Hebrew +was regarded as so important that a "Hebrew part" was included in every +commencement programme until 1817--three years after Prescott's +graduation. In place of this language, however, while Prescott was in +college, students might substitute a course in French given by a tutor; +for as yet no regular chair of modern languages had been founded in the +University. The natural sciences received practically no attention, +although, in 1805, a chair of natural history had been endowed by +subscription. An old graduate of Harvard has recorded the fact that +chemistry in those days was regarded very much as we now look upon +alchemy; and that, on its practical side, it was held to be simply an +adjunct to the apothecary's profession. A few years later, and the +Harvard faculty contained such eminent men as Josiah Quincy, Judge +Joseph Story, Benjamin Peirce, the mathematician, George Ticknor, and +Edward Everett, and the opportunities for serious study were broadened +out immensely. But while Prescott was an undergraduate, the curriculum +had less variety and range than that of any well-equipped high school of +the present day. + +A letter written by Prescott on August 23d, the day after he had passed +through the ordeal of examination, is particularly interesting. It +gives, in the first place, a notion of the quaint simplicity which then +characterised the academic procedure of the oldest of American +universities; and it also brings us into rather intimate touch with +Prescott himself as a youth of fifteen. At that time a great deal of the +eighteenth-century formality survived in the intercourse between fathers +and their sons; and especially in the letters which passed between them +was there usually to be found a degree of stiffness and restraint both +in feeling and expression. Yet this letter of Prescott's might have +been written yesterday by an American youth of the present time, so easy +and assured is it, and indeed, for the most part, so mature. It might +have been written also to one of his own age, and there is something +deliciously naïve in its revelation of Prescott's approbativeness. The +boy evidently thought very well of himself, and was not at all averse to +fishing for a casual compliment from others. The letter is given in full +by Ticknor, but what is here quoted contains all that is important:-- + + + "BOSTON, August 23rd. + + "DEAR FATHER:--I now write you a few lines to inform you of my + fate. Yesterday at eight o'clock I was ordered to the President's + and there, together with a Carolinian, Middleton, was examined for + Sophomore. When we were first ushered into their presence, they + looked like so many judges of the Inquisition. We were ordered down + into the parlour, almost frightened out of our wits, to be examined + by each separately; but we soon found them quite a pleasant sort of + chaps. The President sent us down a good dish of pears, and treated + us very much like gentlemen. It was not ended in the morning; but + we returned in the afternoon when Professor Ware [the Hollis + Professor of Divinity] examined us in Grotius' _De Veritate_. We + found him very good-natured; for I happened to ask him a question + in theology, which made him laugh so that he was obliged to cover + his face with his hand. At half past three our fate was decided and + we were declared 'Sophomores of Harvard University.' + + "As you would like to know how I appeared, I will give you the + conversation _verbatim_ with Mr. Frisbie when I went to see him + after the examination. I asked him,'Did I appear well in my + examination?' Answer. 'Yes.' Question. 'Did I appear _very_ well, + sir?' Answer. 'Why are you so particular, young man? Yes, you did + yourself a great deal of credit.' I feel today twenty pounds + lighter than I did yesterday.... Love to mother, whose affectionate + son I remain, + + "WM. HICKLING PRESCOTT." + + + +Prescott entered upon his college life in the autumn of this same year +(1811). We find that many of those traits which he had exhibited in his +early school days were now accentuated rather sharply. He was fond of +such studies as appealed to his instinctive tastes. English literature +and the literatures of Greece and Rome he studied willingly because he +liked them and not because he was ambitious to gain high rank in the +University. To this he was more or less indifferent, and, therefore, +gave as little attention as possible to such subjects as mathematics, +logic, the natural sciences, philosophy, and metaphysics, without which, +of course, he could not hope to win university honours. Nevertheless, he +disliked to be rated below the average of his companions, and, +therefore, he was careful not to fall beneath a certain rather moderate +standard of excellence. He seems, indeed, to have adopted the Horatian +_aurea mediocritas_ as his motto; and the easy-going, self-indulgent +philosophy of Horace he made for the time his own. In fact, the ideal +which he set before himself was the life of a gentleman in the +traditional English meaning of that word; and it was a gentleman's +education and nothing more which he desired to attain. To be socially +agreeable, courteous, and imbued with a liberal culture, seemed to him a +sufficient end for his ambition. His father was wealthy and generous. He +was himself extremely fond of the good things of life. He made friends +readily, and had a very large share of personal attractiveness. Under +the circumstances, it is not to be wondered at if his college life was +marked by a pleasant, well-bred hedonism rather than by the austerity of +the true New England temperament. The Prescotts as a family had some +time before slipped away from the clutch of Puritanism and had accepted +the mild and elastic creed of Channing, which, in its tolerant view of +life, had more than a passing likeness to Episcopalianism. Prescott was +still running over with youthful spirits, his position was an assured +one, his means were ample, and his love of pleasure very much in +evidence. We cannot wonder, then, if we find that in the early part of +his university career he slipped into a sort of life which was probably +less commendable than his cautious biographers are willing to admit. Mr. +Ticknor's very guarded intimations seem to imply in Prescott a +considerable laxity of conduct; and it is not unfair to read between the +lines of what he has written and there find unwilling but undeniable +testimony. Thus Ticknor remarks that Prescott "was always able to stop +short of what he deemed flagrant excesses and to keep within the limits, +though rather loose ones, which he had prescribed to himself. His +standard for the character of a gentleman varied, no doubt, at this +period, and sometimes was not so high on the score of morals as it +should have been." Prescott is also described as never having passed the +world's line of honour, but as having been willing to run exceedingly +close to it. "He pardoned himself too easily for his manifold neglect +and breaches of the compacts he had made with his conscience; but there +was repentance at the bottom of all." It is rather grudgingly admitted +also that "the early part of his college career, when for the first time +he left the too gentle restraints of his father's house, ... was the +most dangerous period of his life. Upon portions of it he afterwards +looked back with regret." There is a good deal of significance, +moreover, in some sentences which Prescott himself wrote, long +afterwards, of the temptations which assail a youth during those years +when he has attained to the independence of a man but while he is still +swayed by the irresponsibility of a boy. There seems to be in these +sentences a touch of personal reminiscence and regret:-- + + "The University, that little world of itself ... bounding the + visible horizon of the student like the walls of a monastery, still + leaves within him scope enough for all the sympathies and the + passions of manhood.... He meets with the same obstacles to success + as in the world, the same temptations to idleness, the same gilded + seductions, but without the same power of resistance. For in this + morning of life his passions are strongest; his animal nature is + more sensible to enjoyment; his reasoning faculties less vigorous + and mature. Happy the youth who in this stage of his existence is + so strong in his principles that he can pass through the ordeal + without faltering or failing, on whom the contact of bad + companionship has left no stain for future tears to wash away." + +Just how much is meant by this reluctant testimony can only be +conjectured. It is not unfair, however, to assume that, for a time, +Prescott's diversions were such as even a lenient moralist would think +it necessary to condemn. The fondness for wine, which remained with him +throughout his life, makes it likely that convival excess was one of his +undergraduate follies; while the flutter of a petticoat may at times +have stirred his senses. No doubt many a young man in his college days +has plunged far deeper into dissipation than ever Prescott did and has +emerged unscathed to lead a useful life. Yet in Prescott's case there +existed a peculiar danger. His future did not call upon him to face the +stern realities of a life of toil. He was assured of a fortune ample for +his needs, and therefore his easy-going, pleasure-loving disposition, +his boundless popularity, his handsome face, his exuberant spirits, and +his very moderate ambition might easily have combined to lead him down +the primrose path where intellect is enervated and moral fibre +irremediably sapped. + +One dwells upon this period of indolence and folly the more willingly, +because, after all, it reveals to us in Prescott those pardonable human +failings which only serve to make his character more comprehensible. +Prescott's eulogists have so studiously ignored his weaknesses as to +leave us with no clear-cut impression of the actual man. They have +unwisely smoothed away so much and have extenuated so much in their +halting and ambiguous phrases, as to create a picture of which the +outlines are far too faint. Apparently, they wish to draw the likeness +of a perfect being, and to that extent they have made the subject of +their encomiums appear unreal. One cannot understand how truly lovable +the actual Prescott was, without reconstructing him in such a way as to +let his faults appear beside his virtues. Moreover, an understanding of +the perils which at first beset him is needed in order to make clear the +profound importance of an incident which sharply called a halt to his +excesses and, by curbing his wilful nature, set his finer qualities in +the ascendant. It is only by remembering how far he might have fallen, +that we can view as a blessing in disguise the blow which Fate was soon +to deal him. + +In the second (Junior) year of his college life, he was dining one day +with the other undergraduates in the Commons Hall. During these meals, +so long as any college officers were present, decorum usually reigned; +but when the dons had left the room, the students frequently wound up by +what, in modern student phrase, would be described as "rough-house." +There were singing and shouting and frequently some boisterous +scuffling, such as is natural among a lot of healthy young barbarians. +On this particular occasion, as Prescott was leaving the hall, he heard +a sudden outbreak and looked around to learn its cause. Missiles were +flying about; and, just as he turned his head, a large hard crust of +bread struck him squarely in the open eye. The shock was great, +resembling a concussion of the brain, and Prescott fell unconscious. He +was taken to his father's house, where, on recovering consciousness, he +evinced extreme prostration, with nausea, a fluttering pulse, and all +the evidences of physical collapse. So weak was he that he could not +even sit upright in his bed. For several weeks unbroken rest was +ordered, so that nature, aided by a vigorous constitution, might repair +the injury which his system had sustained. When he returned to +Cambridge, the sight of the injured eye (the left one) was gone forever. +Oddly enough, in view of the severity of the blow, the organ was not +disfigured, and only through powerful lenses could even the slightest +difference be detected between it and the unhurt eye. Dr. James Jackson, +who attended Prescott at this time, described the case as one of +paralysis of the retina, for which no remedy was possible. This +accident, with the consequences which it entailed, was to have a +profound effect not only upon the whole of Prescott's subsequent +career, but upon his character as well. His affliction, indeed, is +inseparably associated with his work, and it must again and again be +referred to, both because it was continually in his thoughts and because +it makes the record of his literary achievement the more remarkable. +Incidentally, it afforded a revelation of one of Prescott's noblest +traits,--his magnanimity. He was well aware of the identity of the +person to whom he owed this physical calamity. Yet, knowing as he did +that the whole thing was in reality an accident, he let it be supposed +that he had no knowledge of the person and that the mishap had come +about in such a way that the responsibility for it could not be fixed. +As a matter of fact, the thing had been done unintentionally; yet this +cannot excuse its perpetrator for never expressing to Prescott his +regret and sympathy. Years afterwards, Prescott spoke of this man to +Ticknor in the kindest and most friendly fashion, and once he was able +to confer on him a signal favour, which he did most readily and with +sincere cordiality. + +Prescott returned to the University in a mood of seriousness, which +showed forth the qualities inherited from his father. Hitherto he had +been essentially his mother's son, with all her gayety and mirthfulness +and joy of life. Henceforth he was to exhibit more and more the strength +of will and power of application which had made his father so honoured +and so influential. Not that he let his grave misfortune cloud his +spirits. He had still the use of his uninjured eye, and he had recovered +from his temporary physical prostration; but he now went about his work +in a different spirit, and was resolved to win at least an honourable +rank for scholarship. In the classics and in English he studied hard, +and he overcame to some extent his aversion to philosophy and logic. +Mathematics, however, still remained the bane of his academic existence. +For a time he used to memorise word for word all the mathematical +demonstrations as he found them in the text-books, without the slightest +comprehension of what they meant; and his remarkable memory enabled him +to reproduce them in the class room, so that the professor of +mathematics imagined him to be a promising disciple. This fact does not +greatly redound to the acumen of the professor nor to the credit of his +class-room methods, and what followed gives a curious notion of the +easy-going system which then prevailed. Prescott found the continual +exertion of his memory a good deal of a bore. To his candid nature it +also savoured of deception. He, therefore, very frankly explained to the +professor the secret of his mathematical facility. He said that, if +required, he would continue to memorise the work, but that he knew it to +be for him nothing but a waste of time, and he asked, with much +_naïveté_, that he might be allowed to use his leisure to better +advantage. This most ingenuous request must have amused the gentleman of +whom it was made; but it proved to be effectual. Prescott was required +to attend all the mathematical exercises conscientiously, but from that +day he was never called upon to recite. For the rest, his diligence in +those studies which he really liked won him the respect of the faculty +at large. At graduation he received as a commencement honour the +assignment of a Latin poem, which he duly declaimed to a crowded +audience in the old "meeting-house" at Cambridge, in August, 1814. This +poem was in Latin elegiacs, and was an apostrophe to Hope (_Ad Spem_), +of which, unfortunately, no copy has been preserved. At the same time, +Prescott was admitted to membership in the Phi Beta Kappa, from which a +single blackball was sufficient to exclude a candidate. His father +celebrated these double honours by giving an elaborate dinner, in a +pavilion, to more than five hundred of the family's acquaintances. + +Prescott had now to make his choice of a profession; for to a New +Englander of those days every man, however wealthy, was expected to have +a definite occupation. Very naturally he decided upon the law, and began +the study of it in his father's office, though it was evident enough +from the first that to his taste the tomes of Blackstone made no very +strong appeal. He loved rather to go back to his classical reading and +to enlarge his knowledge of modern literature. Indeed, his legal studies +were treated rather cavalierly, and it is certain that had he ever been +admitted to the bar, he would have found no pleasure in the routine of a +lawyer's practice. Fate once more intervened, though, as before, in an +unpleasant guise. In January, 1815, a painful inflammation appeared in +his right eye--the one that had not been injured. This inflammation +increased so rapidly as to leave Prescott for the time completely blind. +Nor was the disorder merely local. A fever set in with a high pulse and +a general disturbance of the system. Prescott's suffering was intense +for several days; and at the end of a week, when the local inflammation +had passed away, the retina of the right eye was found to be so +seriously affected as to threaten a permanent loss of sight. At the +same time, symptoms of acute rheumatism appeared in the knee-joints and +in the neck. For several months the patient's condition was pitiable. +Again and again there was a recurrence of the inflammation in the eye, +alternating with the rheumatic symptoms, so that for sixteen weeks +Prescott was unable to leave his room, which had to be darkened almost +into blackness. Medical skill availed very little, and no doubt the +copious blood-letting which was demanded by the practice of that time +served only to deplete the patient's strength. Through all these weary +months, however, Prescott bore his sufferings with indomitable courage, +and to those friends of his who groped their way through the darkness to +his bedside he was always cheerful, animated, and even gay, talking very +little of his personal affliction and showing a hearty interest in the +concerns of others. When autumn came it was decided that he should take +a sea voyage, partly to invigorate his constitution and partly to enable +him to consult the most eminent specialists of France and England. First +of all, however, he planned to visit his grandfather, Mr. Thomas +Hickling, who, as has been already mentioned, was American consul at the +island of St. Michael's in the Azores, where it was thought the mildness +of the climate might prove beneficial. + +Prescott set out, on September 26th of the same year (1815), in one of +the small sailing vessels which plied between Boston and the West +African islands. The voyage occupied twenty-two days, during which time +Prescott had a recurrence both of his rheumatic pains and of the +inflammatory condition of his eye. His discomfort was enhanced by the +wretchedness of his accommodations--a gloomy little cabin into which +water continually trickled from the deck, and in which the somewhat +fastidious youth was forced to live upon nauseous messes of rye pudding +sprinkled with coarse salt. Cockroaches and other vermin swarmed about +him; and it must have been with keen pleasure that he exchanged this +floating prison for the charming villa in the Azores, where his +grandfather had made his home in the midst of groves and gardens, +blooming with a semi-tropical vegetation. Mr. Hickling, during his long +residence at St. Michael's, had married a Portuguese lady for his second +wife, and his family received Prescott with unstinted cordiality. The +change from the bleak shores of New England to the laurels and myrtles +and roses of the Azores delighted Prescott, and so appealed to his sense +of beauty that he wrote home long and enthusiastic letters. But his +unstinted enjoyment of this Hesperian paradise lasted for little more +than two short weeks. He had landed on the 18th of October, and by +November 1st he had gone back to his old imprisonment in darkness, +living on a meagre diet and smarting under the blisters which were used +as a counter-irritant to the rheumatic inflammation. As usual, however, +his cheerfulness was unabated. He passed his time in singing, in +chatting with his friends, and in walking hundreds of miles around his +darkened room. He remained in this seclusion from November to February, +when his health once more improved; and two months later, on the 8th of +April, 1816, he took passage from St. Michael's for London. The sea +voyage and its attendant discomforts had their usual effect, and during +twenty-two out of the twenty-four days, to which his weary journey was +prolonged, he was confined to his cabin. + +On reaching London his case was very carefully diagnosed by three of the +most eminent English specialists, Dr. Farre, Sir William Adams, and Mr. +(afterward Sir) Astley Cooper. Their verdict was not encouraging, for +they decided that no local treatment of his eyes could be of any +particular advantage, and that the condition of the right eye would +always depend very largely upon the general condition of his system. +They prescribed for him, however, and he followed out their regimen with +conscientious scrupulosity. After a three months' stay in London, he +crossed the Channel and took up his abode in Paris. In England, owing to +his affliction, he had been able to do and see but little, because he +was forbidden to leave his room after nightfall, and of course he could +not visit the theatre or meet the many interesting persons to whom Mr. +John Quincy Adams, then American Minister to England, offered to present +him. Something he saw of the art collections of London, and he was +especially impressed by the Elgin Marbles and Raphael's cartoons. There +was a touch of pathos in the wistful way in which he paused in the +booksellers' shops and longingly turned over rare editions of the +classics which it was forbidden him to read. "When I look into a Greek +or Latin book," he wrote to his father, "I experience much the same +sensation as does one who looks on the face of a dead friend, and the +tears not infrequently steal into my eyes." In Paris he remained two +months, and passed the following winter in Italy, making a somewhat +extended tour, and visiting the most famous of the Italian cities in +company with an old schoolmate. Thence he returned to Paris, where once +more he had a grievous attack of his malady; and at last, in May of +1817, he again reached London, embarking not long after for the United +States. Before leaving England on this second visit, he had explored +Oxford and Cambridge, which interested him extremely, but which he was +glad to leave in order to be once more at home. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE CHOICE OF A CAREER + + +Prescott's return to his home brought him face to face with the +perplexing question of his future. During his two years of absence this +question must often have been forced upon his mind, especially during +those weary weeks when the darkness of his sick-room and the lack of any +mental diversion threw him in upon himself and left him often with his +own thoughts for company. Even to his optimistic temperament the future +may well have seemed a gloomy one. Half-blind and always dreading the +return of a painful malady, what was it possible for him to do in the +world whose stir and movement and boundless opportunity had so much +attracted him? Must he spend his years as a recluse, shut out from any +real share in the active duties of life? Little as he was wont to dwell +upon his own anxieties, he could not remain wholly silent concerning a +subject so vital to his happiness. In a letter to his father, written +from St. Michael's not long before he set out for London, he broached +very briefly a subject that must have been very often in his thoughts. + + "The most unpleasant of my reflections suggested by this late + inflammation are those arising from the probable necessity of + abandoning a profession congenial with my taste and recommended by + such favourable opportunities, and adopting one for which I am ill + qualified and have but little inclination. It is some consolation + that this latter alternative, should my eyes permit, will afford me + more leisure for the pursuit of my favourite studies. But on this + subject I shall consult my physician and will write you his + opinion." + +Apparently at this time he still cherished the hope of entering upon +some sort of a professional career, even though the practice of the law +were closed to him. But after the discouraging verdict of the London +specialists had been made known, he took a more despondent view. He +wrote:-- + + "As to the future, it is too evident I shall never be able to + pursue a profession. God knows how poorly I am qualified and how + little inclined to be a merchant. Indeed, I am sadly puzzled to + think how I shall succeed even in this without eyes." + +It was in this uncertain state of mind that he returned home in the late +summer of 1817. The warmth of the welcome which he received renewed his +buoyant spirits, even though he soon found himself again prostrated by a +recurrence of his now familiar trouble. His father had leased a +delightful house in the country for his occupancy; but the shade-trees +that surrounded it created a dampness which was unfavourable to a +rheumatic subject, and so Prescott soon returned to Boston. Here he +spent the winter in retirement, yet not in idleness. His love of books +and of good literature became the more intense in proportion as physical +activity was impossible; and he managed to get through a good many +books, thanks to the kindness of his sister and of his former school +companion, William Gardiner, both of whom devoted a part of each day to +reading aloud to Prescott,--Gardiner the classics, and Miss Prescott +the standard English authors in history, poetry, and belles-lettres in +general. These readings often occupied many consecutive hours, extending +at times far into the night; and they relieved Prescott's seclusion of +much of its irksomeness, while they stored his mind with interesting +topics of thought. It was, in reality, the continuation of a system of +vicarious reading which he had begun two years before in St. Michael's, +where he had managed, by the aid of another's eyes, to enjoy the +romances of Scott, which were then beginning to appear, and to renew his +acquaintance with Shakespeare, Homer, and the Greek and Roman +historians. + +From reading literature, it was a short step to attempting its +production. Pledging his sister to secrecy, Prescott composed and +dictated to her an essay which was sent anonymously to the _North +American Review_, then a literary fledgling of two years, but already +making its way to a position of authority. This little _ballon d'essai_ +met the fate of many such, for the manuscript was returned within a +fortnight. Prescott's only comment was, "There! I was a fool to send +it!" Yet the instinct to write was strong within him, and before very +long was again to urge him with compelling force to test his gift. But +meanwhile, finding that his life of quiet and seclusion did very little +for his eyes, he made up his mind that he might just as well go out into +the world more freely and mingle with the friends whose society he +missed so much. After a little cautious experimenting, which apparently +did no harm, he resumed the old life from which, for three years, he had +been self-banished. The effect upon him mentally was admirable, and he +was now safe from any possible danger of becoming morbidly +introspective from the narrowness of his environment. He went about +freely all through the year 1818, indulging in social pleasures with the +keenest zest. His bent for literature, however, asserted itself in the +foundation of a little society or club, whose members gathered +informally, from time to time, for the reading of papers and for genial +yet frank criticism of one another's productions. This club never +numbered more than twenty-four persons, but they were all cultivated +men, appreciative and yet discriminating, and the list of them contains +some names, such as those of Franklin Dexter, Theophilus Parsons, John +Ware, and Jared Sparks, which, like Prescott's own, belong to the record +of American letters. For their own amusement, they subsequently brought +out a little periodical called _The Club-Room_, of which four numbers in +all were published,[5] and to which Prescott, who acted as its editor, +made three contributions, one of them a sort of humorous editorial +article, very local in its interest, another a sentimental tale called +"The Vale of Allerid," and the third a ghost story called "Calais." They +were like thousands of such trifles which are written every year by +amateurs, and they exhibit no literary qualities which raise them above +the level of the commonplace. The sole importance of _The Club-Room's_ +brief existence lies in the fact that it possibly did something to lure +Prescott along the path that led to serious literary productiveness. + +One very important result of his return to social life was found in his +marriage, in 1820, to Miss Susan Amory, the daughter of Mr. Thomas C. +Amory, a leading merchant of Boston.[6] The bride was a very charming +girl, to whom her young husband was passionately devoted, and who filled +his life with a radiant happiness which delighted all who knew and loved +him. His naturally buoyant spirits rose to exuberance after his +engagement. He forgot his affliction. He let his reading go by the +board. He was, in fact, too happy for anything but happiness, and this +delight even inspired him to make a pun that is worth recording. +Prescott was an inveterate punster, and his puns were almost invariably +bad; but when his bachelor friends reproached him for his desertion of +them, he laughed and answered them with the Vergilian line,-- + + "_Omnia vincit amor et nos cedamus Amori_"-- + +a play upon words which Thackeray independently chanced upon many years +later in writing _Pendennis_, and _à propos_ of a very different Miss +Amory. It is of interest to recall the description given by Mr. Ticknor +of Prescott as he appeared at the time of his marriage (May 4, 1820) +and, indeed, very much as he remained down to the hour of his death. + + "My friend was one of the finest looking men I have ever seen; or, + if this should be deemed in some respects a strong expression, I + shall be fully justified ... in saying that he was one of the most + attractive. He was tall, well formed, manly in his bearing but + gentle, with light brown hair that was hardly changed or + diminished by years, with a clear complexion and a ruddy flash on + his cheek that kept for him to the last an appearance of + comparative youth, but above all with a smile that was the most + absolutely contagious I ever looked on.... Even in the last months + of his life when he was in some other respects not a little + changed, he appeared at least ten years younger than he really was. + And as for the gracious sunny smile that seemed to grow sweeter as + he grew older, it was not entirely obliterated even by the touch of + death." + +After Prescott had been married for about a year, the old question of a +life pursuit recurred and was considered by him seriously. Without any +very definite aim, yet with a half-unconscious intuition, he resolved to +store his mind with abundant reading, so that he might, at least in some +way, be fitted for the career of a man of letters. Hitherto, in the +desultory fashion of his boyhood, he had dipped into many authors, yet +he really knew nothing thoroughly and well. In the classics he was +perhaps best equipped; but of English literature his knowledge was +superficial because he had read only here and there, and rather for the +pleasure of the moment than for intellectual discipline. He had a slight +smattering of French, sufficient for the purposes of a traveller, but +nothing more. Of Italian, Spanish, and German he was wholly ignorant, +and with the literatures of these three languages he had never made even +the slightest acquaintance. Conning over in a reflective mood the sum +total of his acquisitions and defects, he came to the conclusion that he +would undertake what he called in a memorandum "a course of studies," +including "the principles of grammar and correct writing" and the +history of the North American Continent. He also resolved to devote one +hour a day to the Latin classics. Some six months after this, his +purpose had expanded, and he made a second resolution, which he recorded +in the following words:-- + + "I am now twenty-six years of age, nearly. By the time I am thirty, + God willing, I propose with what stock I have already on hand to be + a very well read English scholar; to be acquainted with the + classical and useful authors, prose and poetry, in Latin, French, + and Italian, and especially in history--I do not mean a critical or + profound acquaintance. The two following years I may hope to learn + German, and to have read the classical German writers; and the + translations, if my eye continues weak, of the Greek." + +To this memorandum he adds the comment that such a course of study would +be sufficient "for general discipline"--a remark which proves that he +had not as yet any definite plan in undertaking his self-ordered task. +For several years he devoted himself with great industry to the course +which he had marked out. He went back to the pages of Blair's Rhetoric +and to Lindley Murray's Grammar, and he read consecutively, making notes +as he read, the older masters of English prose style from Roger Ascham, +Sidney, Bacon, and Raleigh down to the authors of the eighteenth +century, and even later. In Latin he reviewed Tacitus, Livy, and Cicero. +His reading seems to have been directed less to the subject-matter than +to the understanding and appreciation of style as a revelation of the +writer's essential characteristics. It was, in fact, a study of +psychology quite as much as a study of literature. Passing on to French, +he found the literature of that language comparatively unsympathetic, +and he contrasted it unfavourably with the English. He derived some +pleasure from the prose of Montaigne and Bossuet, and from Corneille and +Molière; but, on the whole, French poetry always seemed to him too rigid +in its formal classicism to be enjoyable. Side by side with his French +reading, he made the acquaintance of the early English ballad-poetry and +the old romances, and, in 1823, he took up Italian, which appealed to +him intensely, so that he read an extraordinary amount and made the most +voluminous notes upon every author that interested him, besides writing +long criticisms and argumentative letters to his friend Ticknor, full of +praises of Petrarch and Dante, and defending warmly the real existence +of Laura and the genuineness of Dante's passion for Beatrice. For Dante, +indeed, Prescott conceived a most enthusiastic admiration, which found +expression in many a letter to his friend. + +The immediate result of his Italian studies was the preparation of some +articles which were published in the _North American Review_--the first +on Italian narrative poetry (October, 1824). This was the beginning of a +series; since, nearly every year thereafter, some paper from his pen +appeared in that publication. One article on Italian poetry and romance +was originally offered to the English _Quarterly Review_ through Jared +Sparks, and was accepted by the editor; but Prescott, growing impatient +over the delay in its appearance, recalled the manuscript and gave it to +the _North American_. These essays of Prescott were not rated very +highly by their author, and we can accept his own estimate as, on the +whole, a just one. They are written in an urbane and agreeable manner, +but are wholly lacking in originality, insight, and vigour; while their +bits of learning strike the more modern reader as old fashioned, even if +not pedantic. This literary work, however, slight as may be its +intrinsic merit, was at least an apprenticeship in letters, and gave to +Prescott a useful training in the technique of composition. + +In 1824, something of great moment happened in the course of Prescott's +search for a life career. He had, in accordance with the resolution +already mentioned, taken up the study of German; but he found it not +only difficult but, to him, uninteresting. After several months he +became discouraged; and though he read on, he did so, as he himself has +recorded, with no method and with very little diligence or spirit. Just +at this time Mr. George Ticknor, who had been delivering a course of +lectures in Harvard on the subject of Spanish literature, read over some +of these lectures to Prescott, merely to amuse him and to divert his +mind. The immediate result was that Prescott resolved to give up his +German studies and to substitute a course in Spanish. On the first day +of December, 1824, he employed a teacher of that language, and commenced +a course of study which was to prove wonderfully fruitful, and which +ended only with his life. He seems to have begun the reading of Spanish +from the very moment that he took up the study of its grammar, and there +is an odd significance in a remark which he wrote down only a few days +after: "I snatch a fraction of the morning from the interesting treatise +of M. Jossé on the Spanish language and from the _Conquista de Mexico_, +which, notwithstanding the time I have been upon it, I am far from +having conquered." The deadening effects of German upon his mind seem +to have endured for a while, since at Christmas time he was still +pursuing his studies with a certain listlessness; and he wrote to +Bancroft, the historian, a letter which contained one remark that is +very curious when we read it in the light of his subsequent career:-- + + "I am battling with the Spaniards this winter, but I have not the + heart for it as I had for the Italians. _I doubt whether there are + many valuable things that the key of knowledge will unlock in that + language._" + +Another month, however, found him filled with the joy of one who has at +last laid his hand upon that for which he has long been groping. He +expressed this feeling very vividly in a letter quoted by Mr. Ticknor:-- + + "Did you never, in learning a language, after groping about in the + dark for a long while, suddenly seem to turn an angle where the + light breaks upon you all at once? The knack seems to have come to + me within the last fortnight in the same manner as the art of + swimming comes to those who have been splashing about for months in + the water in vain." + +Spanish literature exercised upon his mind a peculiar charm, and he +boldly dashed into the writing of Spanish even from the first. Ticknor's +well-stored library supplied him with an abundance of books, and his own +comments upon the Castilian authors in whom he revelled were now written +not in English but in Spanish--naturally the Spanish of a beginner, yet +with a feeling for idiom which greatly surprised Ticknor. Even in after +years, Prescott never acquired a faultless Spanish diction; but he wrote +with clearness and fluency, so that his Spanish was very individual, +and, in this respect, not unlike the Latin of Politian or of Milton. + +Up to this time Prescott had been cultivating his mind and storing it +with knowledge without having formed any clear conception of what he was +to do with his intellectual accumulations. At first, when he formed a +plan of systematic study, his object had been only the modest one of +"general discipline," as he expressed it. As he went on, however, he +seems to have had an instinctive feeling that even without intention he +was moving toward a definite goal. Just what this was he did not know, +but none the less he was not without faith that it would ultimately be +revealed to him. Looking back over all the memoranda that he has left +behind, it is easy now to see that his drift had always been toward +historical investigation. His boyish tastes, already described, declared +his interest in the lives of men of action. His maturer preferences +pointed in the same direction. It has heretofore been noted that, in +1821, when he marked out for himself his first formal plan of study, he +included "the compendious history of North America" as one of the +subjects. While reading French he had dwelt especially upon the +chroniclers and historians from Froissart down. In Spanish he had been +greatly attracted by Mariana's _Historia de España_, which is still one +of the Castilian classics; and this work had led him to the perusal of +Mably's acute and philosophical _Étude de l'Histoire_. He himself long +afterward explained that still earlier than this he had been strongly +attracted to historical writing, especially after reading Gibbon's +_Autobiography_, which he came upon in 1820. Even then, he tells us, he +had proposed to himself to become an historian "in the best sense of the +term." About 1822 he jotted down the following in his private notes:-- + + "History has always been a favourite study with me and I have long + looked forward to it as a subject on which I was one day to + exercise my pen. It is not rash, in the dearth of well-written + American history, to entertain the hope of throwing light upon this + matter. This is my hope." + +Nevertheless, although his bent was so evidently for historical +composition, he had as yet received no impulse toward any especial +department of that field. In October, 1825, we find him making this +confession of his perplexity: "I have been so hesitating and reflecting +upon what I shall do, that I have in fact done nothing." And five days +later, he set down the following: "I have passed the last fortnight in +examination of a suitable subject for historical composition." In his +case there was no need for haste. He realised that historical research +demands maturity of mind. "I think," he said, "thirty-five years of age +full soon enough to put pen to paper." And again: "I care not how long a +time I take for it, provided I am diligent in all that time." + +It is clear from one of the passages just quoted, that his first thought +was to choose a distinctively American theme. This, however, he put +aside without any very serious consideration, although he had looked +into the material at hand and had commented upon its richness. His love +of Italian literature and of Italy drew him strongly to an Italian +theme, and for a while he thought of preparing a careful study of that +great movement which transformed the republic of ancient Rome into an +empire. Again, still with Italy in mind, he debated with himself the +preparation of a work on Italian literature,--a work (to use his own +words) "which, without giving a chronological and minute analysis of +authors, should exhibit in masses the most important periods, +revolutions, and characters in the history of Italian letters." Further +reflection, however, led him to reject this, partly because it would +involve so extensive and critical a knowledge of all periods of Italian +literature, and also because the subject was not new, having in a way +been lately treated by Sismondi. Prescott makes another and very +characteristic remark, which shows him to have been then as always the +man of letters as well as the historian, with a keen eye to what is +interesting. "Literary history," he says, "is not so amusing as civil." + +The choice of a Spanish subject had occurred to him in a casual way soon +after he had taken up the study of the Spanish language. In a letter +already quoted as having been written in December of 1825, he balances +such a theme with his project for a Roman one:-- + + "I have been hesitating between two topics for historical + investigation--Spanish history from the invasion of the Arabs to + the consolidation of the monarchy under Charles V., or a history of + the revolution of ancient Rome which converted the republic into an + empire.... I shall probably select the first as less difficult of + execution than the second." + +He also planned a collection of biographical sketches and criticisms, +but presently rejected that, as he did, a year later, the Roman subject; +and after having done so, the mists began to clear away and a great +purpose to take shape before his mental vision. On January 8, 1826, he +wrote a long memorandum which represents the focussing of his hitherto +vague mental strivings. + + "Cannot I contrive to embrace the _gist_ of the Spanish subject + without involving myself in the unwieldy barbarous records of a + thousand years? What new and interesting topic may be admitted--not + forced--into the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella? Can I not + indulge in a retrospective picture of the constitutions of Castile + and Aragon--of the Moorish dynasties and the causes of their decay + and dissolution? Then I have the Inquisition with its bloody + persecutions; the conquest of Granada, a brilliant passage; the + exploits of the Great Captain in Italy; ... the discovery of a new + world, my own country.... A biography will make me responsible for + a limited space only; will require much less reading; will offer + the deeper interest which always attaches to minute developments of + character, and the continuous, closely connected narratives. The + subject brings me to a point whence [modern] English history has + started, is untried ground, and in my opinion a rich one. The age + of Ferdinand is most important.... It is in every respect an + interesting and momentous period of history; the materials + authentic, ample. I will chew upon this matter and decide this + week." + +Long afterward (in 1847) Prescott pencilled upon this memorandum the +words: "This was the first germ of my conception of _Ferdinand and +Isabella_." On January 19th, after some further wavering, he wrote down +definitely: "I subscribe to the _History of the Reign of Ferdinand and +Isabella_." Opposite this note he made, in 1847, the brief but emphatic +comment,--"A fortunate choice." + +From this decision he never retreated, though at times he debated with +himself the wisdom of his choice. His apparent vacillation was due to a +return of the inflammation in his eye. For a little while this caused +him to shrink back from the difficulties of his Spanish subject, +involving as it did an immense amount of reading; and there came into +his head the project of writing an historical survey of English +literature. But on the whole he held fast to his original resolution, +and soon entered upon that elaborate preparation which was to give to +American literature a masterpiece. In his final selection of a theme we +can, indeed, discern the blending of several currents of reflection and +the combination of several of his earlier purposes. Though his book was +to treat of two Spanish sovereigns, it nevertheless related to a reign +whose greatest lustre was conferred upon it by an Italian and by the +discovery of the Western World. Thus Prescott's early predilection for +American history his love for Italy, and his new-born interest in Spain +were all united to stimulate him in the task upon which he had now +definitely entered. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SUCCESS + + +Dr. Johnson, in his rather unsympathetic life of Milton, declares that +it is impossible for a blind man to write history. Already, before +Prescott began historical composition, this dictum had been refuted by +the brilliant French historian, Augustin Thierry, whose scholarly study +of the Merovingian period was composed after he had wholly lost his +sight.[7] Moreover, Prescott was not wholly blind, for at times he could +make a cautious use of the right eye. Nevertheless, the task to which he +had set himself was sufficiently formidable to deter a less persistent +spirit. In the first place, all the original sources of information were +on the other side of the Atlantic. Nowhere in the United States was +there a public library such as even some of our smaller cities now +possess. Prescott himself, moreover, had at this time done comparatively +little special reading in the subject of which he proposed to write; and +the skilled assistance which he might easily have secured in Europe was +not to be had in the United States. Finally, though he was not blind in +the ordinary sense, he could not risk a total loss of sight by putting +upon his remaining eye the strain of continuous and fatiguing use. + +In spite of all these obstacles and discouragements, however, he began +his undertaking with a touch of that stoicism which, as Thomas Hughes +has somewhere said, makes the Anglo-Saxon find his keenest pleasure in +enduring and overcoming. Prescott had planned to devote a year to +preliminary studies before putting pen to paper. The work which he then +had in mind was intended by him to be largely one of compilation from +the works of foreign writers, to be of moderate size, with few +pretensions to originality, and to claim attention chiefly because the +subject was still a new one to English readers. He felt that he would be +accomplishing a great deal if he should read and thoroughly digest the +principal French, Spanish, and Italian historians--Mariana, Llorente, +Varillas, Fléchier, and Sismondi--and give a well-balanced account of +Ferdinand and Isabella's reign based upon what these and a few other +scholarly authorities had written. But the zeal of the investigator soon +had him in its grip. Scarcely had the packages of books which he had +ordered from Madrid begun to reach his library than his project +broadened out immensely into a work of true creative scholarship. His +year of reading now appeared to him absurdly insufficient. It had, +indeed, already been badly broken into by one of his inflammatory +attacks; and his progress was hampered by the inadequate assistance +which he received. A reader, employed by him to read aloud the Spanish +books, performed the duty valiantly but without understanding a single +word of Spanish, very much as Milton's daughters read Greek and Hebrew +to their father. Thinking of his new and more ambitious conception of +his purpose and of the hindrances which beset him, Prescott wrote: +"Travelling at this lame gait, I may yet hope in five or six years to +reach the goal." As a matter of fact, it was three years and a half +before he wrote the opening sentence of his book. It was ten years +before he finished the last foot-note of the final chapter. It was +nearly twelve years before the book was given to the public. + +Some account of his manner of working may be of interest, and it is +convenient to describe it here once for all. In the second year, after +he had begun his preliminary studies, he secured the services of a Mr. +James English, a young Harvard graduate, who had some knowledge of the +modern languages. This gentleman devoted himself to Prescott's +interests, and henceforth a definite routine of study and composition +was established and was continued with other secretaries throughout +Prescott's life. Mr. English has left some interesting notes of his +experiences, which admit us to the library of the large house on Bedford +Street, where the two men worked so diligently together. It was a +spacious room in the back of the house, lined on two sides with books +which reached the ceiling. Against a third side was a large green +screen, toward which Prescott faced while seated at his table; while +behind him was an ample window, over which a series of pale blue muslin +shades could be drawn, thus regulating the illumination of the room +according to the state of Prescott's eye and the conditions of the +weather. At a second window sat Mr. English, ready to act either as +reader or as amanuensis when required. + +Allusion has been made from time to time to Prescott's written memoranda +and to his letters, which, indeed, were often very long and very +frequent. It must not be thought that in writing these he had to make +any use of his imperfect sight. The need of this had been obviated by an +invention which he had first heard of in London during his visit there +in 1816. It was a contrivance called "the noctograph," meant for the use +of the blind. A frame like that of a slate was crossed by sixteen +parallel wires fastened into the sides and holding down a sheet of +blackened paper like the carbon paper now used in typewriters and +copying-machines. Under this blackened paper was placed a sheet of plain +white note-paper. A person using the noctograph wrote with a sort of +stylus of ivory, agate, or some other hard substance upon the blackened +paper, which conveyed the impression to the white paper underneath. Of +course, the brass wires guided the writer's hand and kept the point of +the stylus somewhere near the line.[8] + +Of his noctograph Prescott made constant use. For composition he +employed it almost altogether, seldom or never dictating to a scribe. +Obviously, however, the instrument allowed no erasures or corrections to +be made, and the writer must go straight forward with his task; since to +go back and try to alter what had been once set down would make the +whole illegible. Hence arose the necessity of what Irving once described +as "pre-thinking,"--the determination not only of the content but of the +actual form of the sentence before it should be written down. In this +pre-thinking Prescott showed a power of memory and of visualisation +that was really wonderful. To carry in his mind the whole of what had +been read over to him in a session of several hours,--names, dates, +facts, authorities,--and then to shape his narrative, sentence by +sentence, before setting down a word, and, finally, to bear in mind the +whole structure of each succeeding paragraph and the form in which they +had been carefully built up--this was, indeed, an intellectual and +literary achievement of an unusual character. Of course, such a power as +this did not come of itself, but was slowly gained by persistent +practice and unwearied effort. His personal memoranda show this: "Think +closely," he writes, "gradually concentrating the circle of thought." +And again: "Think continuously and closely before taking up my pen. Make +corrections chiefly in my own mind." And still again: "Never take up my +pen until I have travelled over the subject so often that I can write +almost from memory." + +But in 1827, the time had not yet come for composition. He was hearing +books read to him and was taking copious notes. How copious these were, +his different secretaries have told; and besides, great masses of them +have been preserved as testimony to the minute and patient labour of the +man who made and used them. As his reader went on, Prescott would say, +"Mark that!" whenever anything seemed to him especially significant. +These marked passages were later copied out in a large clear hand for +future reference. When the time came, they would be read, studied, +compared, verified, and digested. Sometimes he spent as much as five +days in thus mastering the notes collected for a single chapter. Then at +least another day would be given to reflection and (probably) to +composition, while from five to nine days more might go to the actual +writing out of the text. This power of Prescott's increased with +constant exercise. Later, he was able to carry in his head the whole of +the first and second chapters of his _Conquest of Peru_ (nearly sixty +pages) before committing them to paper, and in preparing his last work, +_Philip II._, he composed and memorised the whole fifth, sixth, and +seventh chapters of Book II., amounting to seventy-two printed pages. + +Prescott had elaborated a system of his own for the regulation of his +daily life while he was working. This system was based upon the closest +observation, extending over years, of the physical effect upon him of +everything he did. The result was a regimen which represented his +customary mode of living. Rising early in the morning, he took outdoor +exercise, except during storms of exceptional severity. He rode well and +loved a spirited horse, though sometimes he got a fall from letting his +attention stray to his studies instead of keeping it on the temper of +his animal. But, in the coldest weather, on foot or in the saddle, he +covered several miles before breakfast, to which he always came back in +high spirits, having, as he expressed it, "wound himself up for the +day." After a very simple breakfast, he went at once to his library, +where, for an hour or so, he chatted with Mrs. Prescott or had her read +to him the newspapers or some popular book of the day. By ten o'clock, +serious work began with the arrival of his secretary, with whom he +worked diligently until one o'clock, for he seldom sat at his desk for +more than three consecutive hours. A brisk walk of a mile or two gave +him an appetite for dinner, which was served at three o'clock, an hour +which, in the year 1827, was not regarded as remarkable, at least in +Massachusetts. This was a time of relaxation, of chat and gossip and +family fun; and it was then that Prescott treated himself to the amount +of wine which he had decided to allow himself. His fondness for wine has +been already casually mentioned. To him the question of its use was so +important, that once, for two years and nine months, he recorded every +day the exact amount that he had drunk and the effect which it had had +upon his eye and upon his general health. A further indulgence which +followed after dinner was the smoking of a mild cigar while his wife +read or talked to him. Then, another walk or drive, a cup of tea at +five, and finally, two or more industrious hours with his secretary, +after which he came down to the library and enjoyed the society of his +family or of friends who happened in. + +This, it will be seen, was not the life of a recluse or of a Casaubon, +though it was a life regulated by a wise discretion. To adjust himself +to its routine, Prescott had to overcome many of his natural tendencies. +In the first place, he was, as has been already noted, of a somewhat +indolent disposition; and a steady grind, day after day and week after +week, was something which he had never known in school or college. Even +now in his maturity, and with the spurring of a steady purpose to urge +him on, he often faltered. His memoranda show now and then a touch of +self-accusation or regret. + + "I have worked lazily enough, or rather have been too busy to work + at all. Ended the old year very badly." + + "I find it as hard to get under way, as a crazy hulk that has been + boarded up for repairs." + +How thoroughly he conquered this repugnance to hard work is illustrated +by a pathetic incident which happened once when he was engaged upon a +bit of writing that interested him, but when he was prevented by +rheumatic pains from sitting upright. Prescott then placed his +noctograph upon the floor and lay down flat beside it, writing in this +attitude for many hours on nine consecutive days rather than give in. + +He tried some curious devices to penalise himself for laziness. He used +to persuade his friends to make bets with him that he would not complete +certain portions of writing within a given time. This sort of thing was +a good deal of a make-believe, for Prescott cared nothing about money +and had plenty of it at his disposal; and when his friends lost, he +never permitted them to pay. He did a like thing on a larger scale and +in a somewhat different way by giving a bond to his secretary, Mr. +English, binding himself to pay a thousand dollars if within one year +from September, 1828, Prescott should not have written two hundred and +fifty pages of _Ferdinand and Isabella_. This number of pages was +specified, because Prescott dreaded his own instability of purpose, and +felt that if he should once get so far as two hundred and fifty pages, +he would be certain to go on and finish the entire history. Other wagers +or bonds with Mr. English were made by Prescott from time to time, all +with the purpose of counteracting his own disposition to _far niente_. + +His settled mode of life also compelled him in some measure to give up +the delights of general social intercourse and the convivial pleasures +of which he was naturally fond. There were, indeed, times when he did +let his work go and enjoyed a return to a freer life, as when in the +country at Pepperell he romped and rollicked like a boy; or when in +Boston, he was present at some of the jolly little suppers given by his +friends and so much liked by him. But on the whole, neither his health +nor the arduous researches which he had undertaken allowed him often to +break the regularity of his way of living. Nothing, indeed, testifies +more strikingly to his naturally buoyant disposition than the fact that +years of unvarying routine were unable to make of Prescott a formalist +or to render him less charming as a social favourite. In his study he +was conspicuously the scholar, the investigator; elsewhere he was the +genial companion, full of fun and jest, telling stories and manifesting +that gift of personal attractiveness which compelled all within its +range to feel wholly and completely at their ease. No writer was ever +less given to literary posing. It is, indeed, an extraordinary fact that +although Prescott was occupied for ten whole years in preparing his +_Ferdinand and Isabella_, during all that time not more than three +persons outside of his own family knew that he was writing a book. His +friends supposed that his hours of seclusion were occupied in general +reading and study. Only when a formal announcement of the history was +made in the _North American Review_ in 1837, did even his familiar +associates begin to think of him as an author. + +The death of Prescott's little daughter, Catherine, in February, 1829, +did much to drive him to hard work as a relief from sorrow. She was his +first-born child, and when she died, she was a few months over four +years of age,--a winsome little creature, upon whom her father had +lavished an unstinted affection. She alone had the privilege of +interrupting him during his hours of work. Often she used to climb up to +his study and put an end to the most profound researches, greatly, it is +recorded, to the delight of his secretary, who thus got a little moment +of relief from the deciphering of almost undecipherable scrawls. Her +death was sudden, and the shock of it was therefore all the greater. +Years afterward, Prescott, in writing to a friend who had suffered a +like bereavement, disclosed the depths of his own anguish: "I can never +suffer again as I then did. It was my first heavy sorrow, and I suppose +we cannot twice feel so bitterly." His labour now took on the character +of a solace, and perhaps it was at this time that he formed the opinion +which he set down long after: "I am convinced that intellectual +occupation--steady, regular, literary occupation--is the true vocation +for me, indispensable to my happiness." + +And so his preparation for _Ferdinand and Isabella_ went on apace. +Prescott no longer thought it enough to master the historians who had +already written of this reign. He went back of them to the very +_Quellen_, having learned that the true historical investigator can +afford to slight no possible source of information,--that nothing, good, +bad, or indifferent, can safely be neglected. The packets which now +reached him from Spain and France grew bulkier and their contents more +diversified. Not merely modern tomes, not merely printed books were +there, but parchments in quaint and crabbed script, to be laboriously +deciphered by his secretary, with masses of black-letter and copies of +ancient archives, from which some precious fact or chance corroboration +might be drawn by inquisitive industry. The sifting out of all this +rubbish-heap went on with infinite patience, until at last his notes and +memoranda contained the substance of all that was essential. + +Prescott had given a bond to Mr. English pledging himself to complete by +September, 1829, two hundred and fifty printed pages of the book. Yet it +was actually not until this month had ended that the first line was +written. On October 6, 1829, after three months devoted to reviewing his +notes for the opening chapter, he took his noctograph and scrawled the +initial sentence. A whole month was consumed in finishing the chapter, +and two months more in writing out the second and the third. From this +time a sense of elation filled him, now that all his patient labour was +taking concrete form, and there was no more question of putting his task +aside. His progress might be, as he called it, "tortoise-like," but he +had felt the joy of creation; and the work went on, always with a firmer +grasp, a surer sense of form, and the clearer light which comes to an +artist as his first vague impressions begin under his hand to take on +actuality. There were times when, from illness, he had almost to cease +from writing; there were other times when he turned aside from his +special studies to accomplish some casual piece of literary work. But +these interruptions, while they delayed the accomplishment of his +purpose, did not break the current of his interest. + +The casual pieces of writing, to which allusion has just been made, were +oftenest contributions to the _North American Review_. One of them, +however, was somewhat more ambitious than a magazine article. It was a +life of Charles Brockden Brown, which Prescott undertook at the request +of Jared Sparks, who was editing a series of American biographies. This +was in 1834, and the book was written in two weeks at Nahant. It +certainly did nothing for Prescott's reputation. What is true of this is +true of everything that he wrote outside of his histories. In his +essays, and especially in his literary criticisms, he seemed devoid of +penetration and of a grasp upon the verities. His style, too, in all +such work was formal and inert. He often showed the extent of his +reading, but never an intimate feeling for character. He could not get +down to the very core of his subject and weigh and judge with the +freedom of an independent critic. His life of Brown will be found fully +to bear out this view. In it Prescott chooses to condone the worst of +Brown's defects, and he gives no intimation of the man's real power. +Prescott himself felt that he had been too eulogistic, whereas his +greatest fault was that the eulogy was misapplied. Sparks mildly +criticised the book for its excess of generalities and its lack of +concrete facts. + +How thoroughly Prescott prepared himself for the writing of his book +reviews may be seen in the fact that, having been asked for a notice of +Condé's _History of the Arabs in Spain_, he spent from three to four +months in preliminary reading, and then occupied nearly three months +more in writing out the article. In this particular case, however, he +felt that the paper represented too much labour to be sent to the _North +American_, and therefore it was set aside and ultimately made into a +chapter of his _Ferdinand and Isabella_. + +It was on the 25th of June, 1836, that his history was finished, and he +at once began to consider the question of its publication. Three years +before, he had had the text set up in type so far as it was then +completed; and as the work went on, this private printing continued +until, soon after he had reached the end, four copies of the book were +in his hands. These printed copies had been prepared for several +reasons. First of all, the sight of his labour thus taking concrete form +was a continual stimulus to him. He was still, so far as the public was +concerned, a young author, and he felt all of the young author's joy in +contemplating the printed pages of his first real book. In the second +place, he wished to make a number of final alterations and corrections; +and every writer of experience is aware that the last subtle touches can +be given to a book only when it is actually in type, for only then can +he see the workmanship as it really is, with its very soul exposed to +view, seen as the public will see it, divested of the partial nebulosity +which obscures the vision while it still remains in manuscript. Finally, +Prescott wished to have a printed copy for submission to the English +publishers. It was his earnest hope to have the book appear +simultaneously in England and America, since on the other side of the +Atlantic, rather than in the United States, were to be found the most +competent judges of its worth. + +But the search for an English publisher was at first unsuccessful. +Murray rejected it without even looking at it. The Longmans had it +carefully examined, but decided against accepting it. Prescott was hurt +by this rejection, the more so as he thought (quite incorrectly, as he +afterward discovered) that it was Southey who had advised the Longmans +not to publish it. The fact was that both of the firms just mentioned +had refused it because their lists were then too full to justify them in +undertaking a three-volume history. Prescott, for a time, experienced +some hesitation in bringing it out at all. He had written on the day of +its completion: "I should feel not only no desire, but a reluctance to +publish, and should probably keep it by me for emendations and +additions, were it not for the belief that the ground would be more or +less occupied in the meantime by abler writers." The allusion here is to +a history of the Spanish Arabs announced by Southey. But what really +spurred Prescott on to give his book to the world was a quiet remark of +his father's, in which there was something of a challenge and a taunt. +"The man," said he, "who writes a book which he is afraid to publish is +a coward." "Coward" was a name which no true Prescott could endure; and +so, after some months of negotiation and reflection, an arrangement was +made to have the history appear with the imprint of a newly founded +publishing house, the American Stationers' Company of Boston, with which +Prescott signed a contract in April, 1837. By the terms of this contract +Prescott was to furnish the plates and also the engravings for the book, +of which the company was to print 1250 copies and to have five years in +which to sell them--surely a very modest bargain. But Prescott cared +little for financial profits, nor was he wholly sanguine of the book's +success. On the day after signing the contract, he wrote: "I must +confess I feel some disquietude at the prospect of coming in full bodily +presence before the public." And somewhat earlier he had written with a +curious though genuine humility:-- + + "What do I expect from it, now it is done? And may it not be all in + vain and labour lost, after all? My expectations are not such, if I + know myself, as to expose me to any serious disappointment. I do + not flatter myself with the idea that I have achieved anything very + profound, or, on the other hand, that will be very popular. I know + myself too well to suppose the former for a moment. I know the + public too well, and the subject I have chosen, to expect the + latter. But I have made a book illustrating an unexplored and + important period, from authentic materials, obtained with much + difficulty, and probably in the possession of no one library, + public or private, in Europe. As a plain, veracious record of + facts, the work, therefore, till some one else shall be found to + make a better one, will fill up a gap in literature which, I should + hope, would give it a permanent value,--a value founded on its + utility, though bringing no great fame or gain to its author. + + "Come to the worst, and suppose the thing a dead failure, and the + book born only to be damned. Still, it will not be all in vain, + since it has encouraged me in forming systematic habits of + intellectual occupation, and proved to me that my greatest + happiness is to be the result of such. It is no little matter to be + possessed of this conviction from experience." + +But Prescott had received encouragement in his moods of doubt from Jared +Sparks, at that time one of the most scientific American students of +history. Sparks had read the book in one of the first printed copies, +and had written to Prescott, in February, 1837: "The book will be +successful--bought, read, and praised." And so finally, on Christmas Day +of 1837,--though dated 1838 upon the title-page,--the _History of the +Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella_ was first offered for sale. It was in +three volumes of about four hundred pages each, and was dedicated to his +father. + +Only five hundred copies of the book had been printed as a first +edition, and of these only a small number had been bound in readiness +for the day of publication. The demand for the book took both author and +publishers by surprise. This demand came, first of all, and naturally +enough, from Prescott's personal friends. One of these, a gentleman of +convivial habits, and by no means given to reading, rose early on +Christmas morning and waited outside of the bookshop in order to secure +the first copy sold. Literary Boston, which was also fashionable Boston, +adopted the book as its favourite New Year's present. The bookbinders +could not work fast enough to supply the demand, and in a few months the +whole of the 1250 copies, which it had been supposed would last for at +least five years, had been sold. Other parts of the country followed +Boston's lead. The book was praised by the newspapers and, after a +little interval, by the more serious reviews,--the _North American_, the +_Examiner_, and the _Democratic Review_, the last of which published an +elaborate appreciation by George Bancroft. + +Meanwhile, Prescott had succeeded in finding a London publisher; for in +May, Mr. Richard Bentley accepted the book, and it soon after appeared +in England. To the English criticisms Prescott naturally looked forward +with interest and something like anxiety. American approval he might +well ascribe to national bias if not to personal friendship. Therefore, +the uniformly favourable reviews in his own country could not be +accepted by him as definitely fixing the value of what he had +accomplished. In a letter to Ticknor, after recounting his first +success, he said:-- + + "'Poor fellow!'--I hear you exclaim by this time,--'his wits are + actually turned by this flurry in his native village,--the Yankee + Athens.' Not a whit, I assure you. Am I not writing to two dear + friends, to whom I can talk as freely and foolishly as to one of my + own household, and who, I am sure, will not misunderstand me? The + effect of all this--which a boy at Dr. Gardiner's school, I + remember, called _fungum popularitatem_--has been rather to depress + me, and S---- was saying yesterday, that she had never known me so + out of spirits as since the book has come out." + +What he wanted most was to read a thoroughly impartial estimate written +by some foreign scholar of distinction. He had not long to wait. In the +_Athenoeum_ there soon appeared a very eulogistic notice, written by +Dr. Dunham, an industrious student of Spanish and Portuguese history. +Then followed an admirably critical paper in the _Edinburgh Review_ by +Don Pascual de Gayangos, a distinguished Spanish writer living in +England. Highly important among the English criticisms was that which +was published in the _Quarterly Review_ of June, 1839, from the pen of +Richard Ford, a very accurate and critical Spanish scholar. Mr. Ford +approached the book with something of the _morgue_ of a true British +pundit when dealing with the work of an unknown American;[9] but, none +the less, his criticism, in spite of his reluctance to praise, gave +Prescott genuine pleasure. Ford found fault with some of the details of +_Ferdinand and Isabella_, yet he was obliged to admit both the sound +scholarship and literary merit of the book. On the Continent appeared +the most elaborate review of all in a series of five articles written +for the _Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève_, by the Comte Adolphe de +Circourt. The Comte was a friend of Lamartine (who called him _la +mappemonde vivante des connaissances humaines_) and also of Tocqueville +and Cavour. Few of his contemporaries possessed so minute a knowledge of +the subject which Prescott treated, and of the original sources of +information; and the favourably philosophical tone of the whole review +was a great compliment to an author hitherto unknown in Europe. Still +later, sincere and almost unqualified praise was given by Guizot in +France, and by Lockhart, Southey, Hallam, and Milman, in England. +Indeed, as Mr. Ticknor says, although these personages had never before +heard of Prescott, their spirit was almost as kindly as if it had been +due to personal friendship. The long years of discouragement, of +endurance, and of patient, arduous toil had at last borne abundant +fruit; and from the time of the appearance of _Ferdinand and Isabella_, +Prescott won and held an international reputation, and tasted to the +full the sweets of a deserved success. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +IN MID CAREER + + +After the publication of _Ferdinand and Isabella_, its author rested on +his oars, treating himself to social relaxation and enjoying thoroughly +the praise which came to him from every quarter. Of course he had no +intention of remaining idle long, but a new subject did not at once +present itself so clearly to him as to make his choice of it inevitable. +For about eighteen months, therefore, he took his ease. His +correspondence, however, shows that he was always thinking of a second +venture in the field of historical composition. His old bent for +literary history led him to consider the writing of a life of Molière--a +book that should be agreeable and popular rather than profound. Yet +Spain still kept its hold on his imagination, and even before his +_Ferdinand and Isabella_ had won its sure success, he had written in a +letter to Ticknor the following paragraph:-- + + "My heart is set on a Spanish subject, could I compass the + materials: viz. the conquest of Mexico and the anterior + civilisation of the Mexicans--a beautiful prose epic, for which + rich virgin materials teem in Simancas and Madrid, and probably in + Mexico. I would give a couple of thousand dollars that they lay in + a certain attic in Bedford Street." + +This purpose lingered in his mind all through his holidays, which were, +indeed, not wholly given up to idleness, for he listened to a good deal +of general reading at this time, most of it by no means of a superficial +character. Ever since his little daughter's death, Prescott had felt a +peculiar interest in the subject of the immortality of the soul, and had +read all of the most serious treatises to be found upon that subject. He +had also gone carefully through the Gospels, weighing them with all the +acumen which he had brought to bear upon his Castilian chronicles. This +investigation, which he had begun with reference to the single question +of immortality, broadened out into an examination of the whole +evidential basis of orthodox Christianity. In this study he was aided by +his father, who brought to it the keen, impartial judgment of an able +lawyer. Of the conclusions at which he ultimately arrived, he was not +wont to talk except on rare occasions, and his cast of mind was always +reverential. He did, however, reject the doctrines of his Puritan +ancestors. He held fast to the authenticity of the Gospels, but he found +in these no evidence to support the tenets of Calvinism. + +Now, in his leisure time, he read over various works of a theological +character, and came to the general conclusion that "the study of +polemics or Biblical critics will tend neither to settle principles nor +clear up doubts, but rather to confuse the former and multiply the +latter." Prescott's whole religious creed was, in fact, summed up by +himself in these words: "To do well and act justly, to fear and to love +God, and to love our neighbour as ourselves--in these is the essence of +religion. For what we can believe, we are not responsible, supposing we +examine candidly and patiently. For what we do, we shall indeed be +accountable. The doctrines of the Saviour unfold the whole code of +morals by which our conduct should be regulated. Who, then, whatever +difficulties he may meet with in particular incidents and opinions +recorded in the Gospels, can hesitate to receive the great religious and +moral truths inculcated by the Saviour as the words of inspiration? I +cannot, certainly. On these, then, I will rest." + +In April, 1838, Prescott took the first step toward beginning a study of +the Mexican conquest. He wrote to Madrid in order to discover what +materials were available for his proposed researches. At the same time +he began collecting such books relating to Mexico as could be obtained +in London. Securing personal letters to scholars and officials in Mexico +itself, he wrote to them to enlist their interest in his new +undertaking. By the end of the year it became evident that the wealth of +material bearing upon the Conquest was very great, and a knowledge of +this fact roused in Prescott all the enthusiasm of an historical +investigator who has scented a new and promising trail. Only one thing +now stood in the way. This was an intimation to the effect that +Washington Irving had already planned a similar piece of work. This bit +of news was imparted to Prescott by Mr. J. G. Cogswell, who was then in +charge of the Astor Library in New York, and who was an intimate friend +of both Prescott and Irving. Mr. Cogswell told Prescott that Irving was +intending to write a history of the conquest of Mexico, as a sort of +sequel, or rather pendant, to his life of Columbus. Of course, under the +circumstances, Prescott felt that, in courtesy to one who was then the +most distinguished American man of letters, he could not proceed with +his undertaking so long as Mr. Irving was in the field. He therefore +wrote a long letter to Irving, detailing what he had already done toward +acquiring material, and to say that Mr. Cogswell had intimated that +Irving was willing to relinquish the subject in his favour. + + "I have learned from Mr. Cogswell that you had originally proposed + to treat the same subject, and that you requested him to say to me + that you should relinquish it in my favour. I cannot sufficiently + express to you my sense of your courtesy, which I can very well + appreciate, as I know the mortification it would have caused me if, + contrary to my expectations, I had found you on the ground.... I + fear the public will not feel so much pleased as myself by this + liberal conduct on your part, and I am not sure that I should have + a right in their eyes to avail myself of it. But I trust you will + think differently when I accept your proffered courtesy in the same + cordial spirit in which it was given." + +To this letter Irving made a long and courteous reply, not only assuring +Prescott that the subject would be willingly abandoned to him, but +offering to send him any books that might be useful and to render any +service in his power. The episode affords a beautiful instance of +literary and scholarly amenities. The sacrifice which Irving made in +giving up his theme was as fine as the manner of it was graceful. +Prescott never knew how much it meant to Irving, who had already not +only made some study of the subject, but had sketched out the +ground-plan of the first volume, and had been actually at work upon the +task of composition for a period of three months. But there was +something more in it than this. Writing to his nephew, Pierre Irving, +who was afterward his biographer, he disclosed his real feeling with +much frankness. + + "I doubt whether Mr. Prescott was aware of the extent of the + sacrifice I made. This was a favourite subject which had delighted + my imagination ever since I was a boy. I had brought home books + from Spain to aid me in it, and looked upon it as the pendant to my + Columbus. When I gave it up to him I, in a manner, gave him up my + bread; for I depended upon the profits of it to recruit my waning + finances. I had no other subject at hand to supply its place. I was + dismounted from my _cheval de bataille_ and have never been + completely mounted since. Had I accomplished that work my whole + pecuniary situation would have been altered."[10] + +There was no longer any obstacle in Prescott's way, and he set to work +with an interest which grew as the richness of the material revealed +itself. There came to him from Madrid, books, manuscripts, copies of +official documents, and all the _apparatus criticus_ which even the most +exacting scholar could require. The distinguished historian, Navarrete, +placed his entire collection of manuscripts relating to Mexico and Peru +at the disposal of his American _confrère_. The Spanish Academy let him +have copies of the collections made by Muñoz and by Vargas y Ponce--a +matter of some five thousand pages. Prescott's friend, Señor Calderon, +who at this time was Spanish Minister to Mexico, aided him in gathering +materials relating to the early Aztec civilisation. Don Pascual de +Gayangos, who had written the favourable notice in the _Edinburgh +Review_, delved among the documents in the British Museum on behalf of +Prescott, and caused copies to be made of whatever seemed to bear upon +the Mexican conquest. A year or two later, he even sent to Prescott the +whole of his own collection of manuscripts. In Spain very valuable +assistance was given by Mr. A. H. Everett, at that time American +Minister to the Spanish court, and by his first Secretary of Legation, +the South Carolinian who had taken his entrance examination to Harvard +in Prescott's company, and who throughout his college life had been a +close and valued friend. A special agent, Dr. Lembke,[11] was also +employed, and he gave a good part of his time to rummaging among the +archives and libraries. Prescott's authorship of _Ferdinand and +Isabella_, however, was the real touchstone which opened all doors to +him, and enlisted in his service enthusiastic purveyors of material in +every quarter. In Spain especially, the prestige of his name was very +great; and more than one traveller from Boston received distinguished +courtesies in that country as being the _conciudadano_ of the American +historian. Mr. Edward Everett Hale, whose acquaintance with Prescott was +very slight, relates an experience which is quite illustrative:-- + + "I had gone there [to Madrid] to make some studies and collect some + books for the history of the Pacific, which, with a prophetic + instinct, I have always wanted to write. Different friends gave me + letters of introduction, and among others the gentlemen of the + Spanish Embassy here were very kind to me. They gave me four such + letters, and when I was in Madrid and when I was in Seville it + seemed as though every door flew open for me and every facility was + offered me. It was not until I was at home again that I came to + know the secret of these most diligent civilities. I still had one + of my Embassy letters which I had never presented. I read it for + the first time, to learn that I was the coadjutor and friend of the + great historian Prescott through all his life, that I was his + assistant through all his historical work, and, indeed, for these + reasons, no American was more worthy of the consideration of the + gentlemen in charge of the Spanish archives. It was certainly by no + fault of mine that an exaggeration so stupendous had found its way + to the Spanish Legation. Somebody had said, what was true, that + Prescott was always good to me, and that our friendship began when + he engaged me as his reader. And, what with translating this simple + story, what with people's listening rather carelessly and + remembering rather carelessly, by the time my letters were drafted + I had become a sort of 'double' of Mr. Prescott himself. I hope + that I shall never hear that I disgraced him."[12] + +Actual work upon the _Conquest_ began early in 1839, though not at first +with a degree of progress which was satisfactory to the investigator. By +May, however, he had warmed to his work. He went back to his old +rigorous regime, giving up again all social pleasures outside of his own +house, and spending in his library at least five hours each day. His +period of rest had done him good, and his eyesight was now better than +at any time since it first became impaired. After three months of +preliminary reading he was able to sketch out the plan of the entire +work, and on October 14, 1839, he began the actual task of composition. +He found the introduction extremely difficult to write, for it dealt +with the pre-historic period of Mexico, obscured as it was by the mist +of myth and by the contradictory assertions of conflicting authorities. +"The whole of that part of the story," wrote Prescott, "is in twilight, +and I fear I shall at least make only moonshine of it. I must hope that +it will be good moonshine. It will go hard with me, however, but that I +can fish something new out of my ocean of manuscripts." He had hoped to +dispose of his introduction in a hundred pages, and to finish it in six +months at the most. It actually extended to two hundred and fifty pages, +and the writing of it took nearly eighteen months. One interruption +occurred which he had not anticipated. The success of _Ferdinand and +Isabella_ had tempted an unscrupulous publisher to undertake an +abridgment of that book. To protect his own interests Prescott decided +to make an abridgment of his own, and thus to forestall the pirate. This +work disheartened and depressed him, but he finished it with great +celerity, only to find that the rival abridgment had been given up. A +brief stay upon the sea-coast put him once more into working condition, +and from that time he went on steadily with the _Conquest_, which he +completed on August 2, 1843, not quite four years from the time when he +began the actual composition. His weariness was lightened by the +confidence which he felt in his own success. He knew that he had +produced a masterpiece. + +Naturally, he now had no trouble in securing a publisher and in making +very advantageous terms for the production of the book. It was brought +out by the Harpers of New York, though, as before, Prescott himself +owned the plates. His contract allowed the Harpers to publish five +thousand copies for which they paid the author $7500, with the right of +publishing more copies if required within the period of one year and on +the same general terms. An English edition was simultaneously brought +out by Bentley in London, who purchased the foreign copyright for £650. +Three Spanish translations appeared soon after, one in Madrid in 1847 +and two in Mexico in 1844. A French translation was published in Paris, +by Didot in 1846, and a German translation, in Leipzig, by Brockhaus in +1845. A French reprint in English appeared in Paris soon after Bentley +placed the London edition upon the market. + +No historical work written by an American has ever been received with so +much enthusiasm alike in America and in Europe. Within a month, four +thousand copies were disposed of by the Harpers, and at the end of four +months the original edition of five thousand had been sold. The +reviewers were unanimous in its praise, and an avalanche of +congratulatory letters descended upon Prescott from admirers, known and +unknown, all over the civilised world. _Ferdinand and Isabella_ had +brought him reputation; the _Conquest of Mexico_ made him famous. +Honours came to him unsought. He was elected a member of the French +Institute[13] and of the Royal Society of Berlin. He had already +accepted membership in the Royal Spanish Academy of History at Madrid +and in the Royal Academy of Sciences in Naples. Harvard conferred upon +him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Perhaps nothing pleased him more, +however, than a personal letter from Humboldt, for whom Prescott had +long entertained a feeling of deep admiration. This eminent scholar, at +that time the President of the Royal Society of Berlin, in which body +Niebuhr, Von Raumer, and Ranke had been enrolled, wrote in French a +letter of which the following sentences form a part:-- + + "My satisfaction has been very great in studying line by line your + excellent work. One judges with severity, with perhaps a bias + towards injustice, when he has had a vivid impression of the + places, and when the study of ancient history with which I have + been occupied from preference has been pursued on the very soil + itself where a part of these great events took place. My severity, + sir, has been disarmed by the reading of your _Conquest of Mexico_. + You paint with success because you have _seen_ with the eyes of the + spirit and of the inner sense. It is a pleasure to me, a citizen of + Mexico, to have lived long enough to read you and to speak to you + of my appreciation of the kind expressions with which you have done + honour to my name.... Were I not wholly occupied with my _Cosmos_, + which I have had the imprudence to print, I should have wished to + translate your work into the language of my own country." + +While gathering the materials for the _Conquest of Mexico_, Prescott had +felt his way toward still another subject which his Mexican researches +naturally suggested. This was the conquest of Peru. Much of his Mexican +reading had borne directly upon this other theme, so that the labour of +preparation was greatly lightened. Moreover, by this time, he had +acquired both an accurate knowledge of sources and also great facility +in composition. Hence the only serious work which was necessary for him +to undertake as a preliminary to composition was the study of Peruvian +antiquities. This occupied him eight months, and proved to be far more +troublesome to him and much less satisfactory than the like +investigation which he had made with reference to the Aztecs. However, +after the work had been commenced it proceeded rapidly,--so rapidly, in +fact, as to cause him a feeling of half-comical dismay. He began to +write on the 12th of August, 1844, and completed his task on November 7, +1846. During its progress he made a note that he had written two +chapters, amounting in all to fifty-one printed pages, in four days, +adding the comment, "I never did up so much yarn in the same time. At +this rate Peru will not hold out six months. Can I finish it in a year? +Alas for the reader!" No doubt he might have finished it in a year had +certain interruptions not occurred. The first of these was the death of +his father, which took place on December 8th, not long after he had +begun the book. His brother Edward had died shortly before, and this +double affliction affected very deeply so sensitive a nature as +Prescott's. To his father, indeed, he owed more than he could ever +express. The two had been true comrades, and had treated one another +with an affectionate familiarity which, between father and son, was as +rare in those days as it was beautiful. Judge Prescott's generosity had +made it possible for the younger man to break through all the barriers +of physical infirmity, and not only to win fame but also the happiness +which comes from a creative activity. They understood each other very +well, and in many points they were much alike both in their friendliness +and in their habits of reserve. One little circumstance illustrates this +likeness rather curiously. Fond as both of them were of their fellows, +and cordial as they both were to all their friends, each wished at times +to be alone, and these times were when they walked or rode. Therefore, +each morning when the two men mounted their horses or when they set out +for a walk, they always parted company when they reached the road, one +turning to the right and the other to the left by a tacit understanding, +and neither ever thought of accompanying the other. Sometimes a friend +not knowing of this trait would join one of them to share the ride or +walk. Whenever such a thing as this took place, that particular route +would be abandoned the next day and another and a lonelier one selected. + +A further interruption came from the purchase of a house on Beacon +Street and the necessity of arranging to leave the old mansion on +Bedford Street. The new house was a fine one, overlooking the Mall and +the Common; and the new library, which was planned especially for +Prescott's needs, was much more commodious than the old one. But the +confusion and feeling of unsettlement attendant on the change distracted +Prescott more than it would have done a man less habituated to a +self-imposed routine. "A month of pandemonium," he wrote; "an +unfurnished house coming to order; a library without books; books +without time to open them." It took Prescott quite a while to resume his +methodical habits. His old-time indolence settled down upon him, and it +was some time before his literary momentum had been recovered. Moreover, +he presumed upon the fairly satisfactory condition of his eye and used +it to excess. The result was that his optic nerve was badly over-taxed, +"probably by manuscript digging," as he said. The strain was one from +which his eye never fully recovered; and from this time until the +completion of the _Peru_, he could use it in reading for only a few +minutes every day, sometimes perhaps for ten or fifteen, but never for +more than thirty. As this is the last time that we shall mention this +subject, it may be said that for all purposes of literary work Prescott +was soon afterward reduced to the position of one who was actually +blind. What had before been a merely stationary dimness of vision became +a slowly progressive decay of sight, or, to express it in medical +language, amblyopia had passed into amaurosis. He followed rigorously +his oculist's injunctions, but in the end he had to face the facts +unflinchingly; and a little later he recorded his determination to give +up all use of the eye for the future in his studies, and to be contented +with preserving it for the ordinary purposes of life. The necessity +disheartened him. "It takes the strength out of me," he said. +Nevertheless, neither this nor the fact that his general health was most +unsatisfactory, caused him to abandon work. He could not bring himself +to use what he called "the coward's word, 'impossible.'" And so, after a +little time, he went on as before, studying "by ear-work," and turning +off upon his noctograph from ten to fifteen pages every day. He +continued also his outdoor exercise, and, in fact, one of the +best-written chapters of the _Conquest of Peru_--the last one--was +composed while galloping through the woods at Pepperell. On November 7, +1846, the _Conquest of Peru_ was finished. Like the preceding history, +it was published by the Harper Brothers, who agreed to pay the author +one dollar per copy and to bring out a first edition of seventy-five +hundred copies. This, Mr. Ticknor says, was a more liberal arrangement +than had ever before been made with an historical writer in the United +States. The English copyright was purchased by Bentley for £800. + +Prescott's main anxiety about the reception which would be given to the +_Conquest of Peru_ was based upon his doubts as to its literary style. +Neither of his other books had been written so rapidly, and he feared +that he might incur the charge of over-fluency or even slovenliness. +Yet, as a matter of fact, the chorus of praise which greeted the two +volumes was as loud and as spontaneous as it had been over his _Mexico_. +Prescott now stood so firmly on his feet as to look at much of this +praise in a somewhat humorous light. The approbation of the _Edinburgh +Review_ no longer seemed to him the _summa laus_, though he valued it +more highly than the praise given him by American periodicals, of which +he wrote very shrewdly: + + "I don't know how it is, but our critics, though not pedantic, have + not the businesslike air, or the air of the man of the world, which + gives manliness and significance to criticism. Their satire, when + they attempt it--which cannot be often laid to their door--has + neither the fine edge of the _Edinburgh_ nor the sledgehammer + stroke of the _Quarterly_. They twaddle out their humour as if they + were afraid of its biting too hard, or else they deliver axioms + with a sort of smart, dapper conceit, like a little parson laying + down the law to his little people.... In England there is a far + greater number of men highly cultivated--whether in public life or + men of leisure--whose intimacy with affairs and with society, as + well as books, affords supplies of a high order for periodical + criticism." + +As for newspaper eulogies, he remarked: "I am certainly the cause of +some wit and much folly in others." His latest work, however, brought +him two new honours which he greatly prized,--an election to the Royal +English Society of Literature, and the other an invitation to membership +in the Royal Society of Antiquaries. The former honour he shared with +only one of his fellow-countrymen, Bancroft; the latter had heretofore +been given to no American. + +Prescott now indulged himself with a long period of "literary loafing," +as he described it, broken in upon only by the preparation of a short +memoir of John Pickering, the antiquarian and scholar, who had been one +of Prescott's most devoted friends. This memoir was undertaken at the +request of the Massachusetts Historical Society. It has no general +interest now, but is worthy of note as having been the only one of +Prescott's works which he dictated to an amanuensis. Prescott had an +aversion to writing in this way, although he had before him the example +of his blind contemporary, Thierry. Like Alphonse Daudet, he seems to +have felt that what is written by hand comes more directly from the +author's inner self, and that it represents most truly the tints and +half-tones of his personality. That this is only a fancy is seen clearly +enough from several striking instances which the history of literature +records. Scott dictated to Lockhart the whole of _The Bride of +Lammermoor_. Thackeray dictated a good part of _The Newcomes_ and all of +_Pendennis_, and even _Henry Esmond_, of which the artificial style +might well have made dictation difficult. Prescott, however, had his own +opinion on the subject, and, with the single exception which has just +been cited, he used his noctograph for composition down to the very end, +dictating only his correspondence to his secretary. + +His days of "literary loafing" allowed him to enjoy the pleasures of +friendship which during his periods of work were necessarily, to some +extent, intermitted. No man ever had more cordially devoted friends than +Prescott. He knew every one who was worth knowing, and every one was +attracted by the spontaneous charm of his manner and his invincible +kindliness. Never was a man more free from petulance or peevishness, +though these defects at times might well have been excused in one whose +health was such as his. He presented the anomaly of a dyspeptic who was +still an optimist and always amiable. Mr. John Foster Kirk, who was one +of his secretaries, wrote of him:-- + + "No annoyance, great or small, the most painful illness or the most + intolerable bore, could disturb his equanimity, or render him in + the least degree sullen, or fretful, or discourteous. He was always + gay, good-humoured, and manly. He carried his kindness of + disposition not only into his public, but into his private, + writings. In the hundreds of letters, many of them of the most + confidential character, treating freely of other authors and of a + great variety of persons, which I wrote at his dictation, not a + single unkind or harsh or sneering expression occurs. He was + totally free from the jealousy and envy so common among authors, + and was always eager in conversation, as in print, to point out the + merits of the great contemporary historians whom many men in his + position would have looked upon as rivals to be dreaded if not + detested." + +Bancroft the historian has added his testimony to the greatness of +Prescott's personal charm. + + "His countenance had something that brought to mind the 'beautiful + disdain' that hovers on that of the Apollo. But while he was + high-spirited, he was tender and gentle and humane. His voice was + like music and one could never hear enough of it. His cheerfulness + reached and animated all about him. He could indulge in playfulness + and could also speak earnestly and profoundly; but he knew not how + to be ungracious or pedantic." + +No wonder then that his friends were legion, comprising men and women of +the most different types. Dry and formal scholars such as Jared Sparks; +men of the world like Lord Carlisle; nice old ladies like Maria +Edgeworth and the octogenarian Miss Berry, Walpole's friend; women of +fashion like Lady Lyell, Lady Mary Labouchère, and the Duchess of +Sutherland; Spanish hidalgos like Calderon de la Barca; smooth +politicians like Caleb Cushing; and intense partisans like Charles +Sumner,--all agreed in their affectionate admiration for Prescott. His +friendship with Sumner was indeed quite notable, since no men could have +been more utterly unlike. Sumner was devoid of the slightest gleam of +humour, and his self-consciousness was extreme; yet Prescott sometimes +poked fun at him with impunity. Thus, writing to Sumner about his Phi +Beta Kappa oration (delivered in 1846), he said:-- + + "Last year you condemned wars _in toto_, making no exception even + for the wars of freedom. This year you condemn the _representation_ + of war, whether by the pencil or the pen. Marathon, Salamis, Bunker + Hill, the retreat from Moscow, Waterloo, great and small, are _all_ + to be blotted from memory equally with my own wild skirmishes of + barbarians and banditti. Lord deliver us! Where will you bring up? + If the stories are not to be painted or written, such records of + them as have been heedlessly made should by the same rule be + destroyed. I laugh; but I fear you will make the judicious grieve. + But fare thee well, dear Sumner. Whether thou deportest thyself + _sana mente_ or _mente insana_, believe me always truly yours." + +But Sumner's arrogance and egoism were always in abeyance where Prescott +was concerned, and even their lack of political sympathy never marred +the warmth of their intercourse. Prescott, in fact, cared very little +about contemporary politics. He had inherited from his fighting +ancestors a sturdy patriotism, but his loyalty was given to the whole +country and not to any faction or party. His cast of mind was +essentially conservative, and down to 1856 he would no doubt have called +himself an old-line Whig. He was always, however, averse to political +discussion which, indeed, led easily to personalities that were +offensive not only to Prescott's taste but to his amiable disposition. +His friend Parsons said of him: "He never sought or originated political +conversation, but he would not decline contributing his share to it; and +the contribution he made was always of good sense, of moderation, and of +forbearance." + +Prescott's detachment with regard to politics was partly due, no doubt, +to the nature of the life he led, which kept him isolated from the +bustle of the world about him; yet it was probably due still more to a +lack of combativeness in his nature. Motley once said of him that he +lacked the capacity for _sĉva indignatio_. This remark was called forth +by Prescott's tolerant view of Philip II. of Spain, who was in Motley's +eyes little better than a monster. One might fairly, however, give it a +wider application, and we must regard it as an undeniable defect in +Prescott that nothing external could strike fire from him. Thus, when +his intimate friend Sumner had been brutally assaulted in the Senate +chamber by the Southern bully, Brooks, Prescott wrote to him: "You have +escaped the crown of martyrdom by a narrow chance, and have got all the +honours, which are almost as dangerous to one's head as a gutta-percha +cane." There is a tameness about this sentence which one would scarcely +notice had Sumner merely received a black eye, but which offends one's +sense of fitness when we recall that Sumner had been beaten into +insensibility, and that he never fully recovered from the attack. Again, +when, in 1854, Boston was all ablaze over the capture of a fugitive +slave, when the city was filled with troops and muskets were levelled at +the populace, Prescott merely remarked to an English correspondent: "It +is a disagreeable business." To be sure, he also said, "It made my blood +boil," but the general tone of the letter shows that his blood must have +boiled at a very low temperature. Nevertheless, he seems to have been +somewhat stirred by the exciting struggle which took place over Kansas +between the Free-Soil forces and the partisans of slavery. Hence, in +1856, he cast his vote for Frémont, the first Republican candidate for +the Presidency. But, as a rule, the politics of the sixteenth century +were his most serious concern, and in the very year in which he voted +for Frémont, he wrote: "I belong to the sixteenth century and am quite +out of place when I sleep elsewhere." It was this feeling which led him +to decline a tempting invitation to write a history of the modern +conquest of Mexico by the American army under General Scott. The offer +came to him in 1847; and both the theme itself and the terms in which +the offer was made might well have attracted one whose face was set less +resolutely toward the historic past. His comment was characteristic. "I +had rather not meddle with heroes who have not been under ground two +centuries at least." It is interesting to note that the subject which +Prescott then rejected has never been adequately treated; and that the +brilliant exploits of Scott in Mexico still await a worthy chronicler. + +It was natural that a writer so popular as Prescott should, in spite of +his methodical life, find his time encroached upon by those who wished +to meet him. He had an instinct for hospitality; and this made it the +more difficult for him to maintain that scholarly seclusion which had +been easy to him in the days of his comparative obscurity. His personal +friends were numerous, and there were many others who sought him out +because of his distinction. Many foreign visitors were entertained by +him, and these he received with genuine pleasure. Their number increased +as the years went by so that once in a single week he entertained, at +Pepperell, Señor Calderon, Stephens the Central American traveller, and +the British General Harlan from Afghanistan. Sir Charles Lyell, Lady +Lyell, Lord Carlisle, and Dickens were also visitors of his. It was as +the guest of Prescott that Thackeray ate his first dinner in +America.[14] Visitors of this sort, of course, he was very glad to see. +Not so much could be said of the strangers who forced themselves upon +him at Nahant, where swarms of summer idlers filled the hotels and +cottages, and with well-meaning but thoughtless interest sought out the +historian in the darkened parlour of his house. "I have lost a clear +month here by company," he wrote in 1840, "company which brings the +worst of all satieties; for the satiety from study brings the +consciousness of improvement. But this dissipation impairs health, +spirit, scholarship. Yet how can I escape it, tied like a bear to a +stake here?" + +Prescott's favourite form of social intercourse was found in little +dinners shared with a few chosen friends. These affairs he called +"cronyings," and in them he took much delight, even though they often +tempted him to an over-indulgence in tobacco and sometimes in wine.[15] +One rule, however, he seldom broke, and that was his resolve never to +linger after ten o'clock at any function, however pleasant. An old +friend of his has left an account of one especially convivial occasion +to which Prescott had invited a number of his friends. The dinner was +given at a restaurant, and the guests were mostly young men and fond of +good living. The affair went off so well that, as the hour of ten +approached, no one thought of leaving. Prescott began to fidget in his +chair and even to drop a hint or two, which passed unnoticed, for the +reason that Prescott's ten o'clock rule was quite unknown to his jovial +guests. At last, to the surprise of every one, he rose and made a little +speech to the company, in which he said that he was sorry to leave them, +but that he must return home. + + "But," he added, "I am sure you will be very soon in no condition + to miss me,--especially as I leave behind that excellent + representative"--pointing to a basket of uncorked bottles which + stood in a corner. "Then you know you are just as much at home in + this house as I am. You can call for what you like. Don't be + alarmed--I mean on _my_ account. I abandon to you, without reserve, + all my best wines, my credit with the house, and my reputation to + boot. Make free with them all, I beg of you--and if you don't go + home till morning, I wish you a merry night of it." + +It is to be hoped that Prescott was not quite accurately reported, and +that he did not speak that little sentence, "Don't be alarmed," which +may have been characteristic of a New Englander, but which certainly +would have induced a different sort of guests to leave the place at +once. If he did say it, however, it was somewhat in keeping with the +tactlessness which he occasionally showed. The habit of frank speech, +which had made him a nuisance as a boy, never quite left him, and he +frequently blurted out things which were of the sort that one would +rather leave unsaid. His wife would often nod and frown at him on these +occasions, and then he would always make the matter worse by asking her, +with the greatest innocence, what the matter was. Mr. Ogden records an +amusing instance of Prescott's _naïveté_ during his last visit to +England. Conversing about Americanisms with an English lady of rank, she +criticised the American use of the word "snarl" in the sense of +disorder. "Why, surely," cried Prescott, "you would say that your +ladyship's hair is in a snarl!" Which, unfortunately, it was--a fact +that by no means soothed the lady's temper at being told so. There was a +certain boyishness about Prescott, however, which usually enabled him to +carry these things off without offence, because they were obviously so +natural and so unpremeditated. His boyishness took other forms which +were more generally pleasing. One evidence of it was his fondness for +such games as blindman's buff and puss-in-the-corner, in which he used +to engage with all the zest of a child, even after he had passed his +fiftieth year, and in which the whole household took part, together with +any distinguished foreigners who might be present. Another youthful +trait was his readiness to burst into song on all occasions, even in the +midst of his work. In fact, just before beginning any animated bit of +descriptive writing he would rouse himself up by shouting out some +ballad that had caught his fancy; so that strangers visiting his house +would often be amused when, from the grave historian's study, there came +forth the sonorous musical appeal, "O give me but my Arab steed!" +Boyish, too, was his racy talk, full of colloquialisms and bits of +Yankee dialect, with which also his personal correspondence was +peppered. Even though his rather prim biographer, Ticknor, has gone over +Prescott's letters with a fine-tooth comb, there still remain enough of +these Doric gems to make us wish that all of them had been retained. It +is interesting to find the author of so many volumes of stately and +ornate narration letting himself go in private life, and dropping into +such easy phrases as "whopper-jawed," "cotton to," "quiddle," "book up," +"crack up," "podder" (a favourite word of his), and "slosh." He retained +all of a young man's delight in his own convivial feats, and we find him +in one of his letters, after describing a rather prolonged and +complicated entertainment, asking gleefully, "Am I not a fast boy?" + +His Yankee phrases were the hall-mark of his Yankee nature. Old England, +with all its beauty of landscape and its exquisite finish, never drove +New England from his head or heart. Thus, on his third visit to England, +he wrote to his wife: "I came through the English garden,--lawns of +emerald green, winding streams, light arched bridges, long lines +stretching between hedges of hawthorn all flowering; rustic cottages, +lordly mansions, and sweeping woods--the whole landscape a miracle of +beauty." And then he adds: "I would have given something to see a ragged +fence, or an old stump, or a bit of rock, or even a stone as big as +one's fist, to show that man's hand had not been combing Nature's head +so vigorously. I felt I was not in my own dear, wild America." Prescott +was a true Yankee also in the carefulness of his attention to matters of +business. He did not value money for its own sake. His father had left +him a handsome competence. He spent freely both for himself and for his +friends; but none the less, he made the most minute notes of all his +publishing ventures and analysed the publishers' returns as carefully as +though he were a professional accountant. This was due in part, no +doubt, to a natural desire to measure the popularity of his books by the +standard of financial success. He certainly had no reason to be +dissatisfied. Up to the time of his death, of the _Ferdinand and +Isabella_ there had been sold in the United States and England nearly +eighteen thousand copies; of the _Conquest of Mexico_, twenty-four +thousand copies; and of the _Conquest of Peru_, seventeen thousand +copies--a total, for the three works, of nearly sixty thousand copies. +When we remember that each of these histories was in several volumes and +was expensively printed and bound, and that the reading public was much +smaller in those days than now, this is a very remarkable showing for +three serious historical works. Since his death, the sales have grown +greater with the increase of general readers and the lapse of the +American copyright Prescott made excellent terms with his publishers, as +has already been recorded, and if a decision of the House of Lords had +been favourable to his copyright in England, his literary gains in that +country would have been still larger.[16] + +His liking for New England country life led him to maintain in addition +to his Boston house, at 55 Beacon Street, two other places of residence. +One was at Nahant, then, as now, a very popular resort in summer. There +he had an unpretentious wooden cottage of two stories, with a broad +veranda about it, occupying an elevated position at the extremity of a +bold promontory which commanded a wide view of the sea. Nahant is famous +for its cool--almost too cool--sea-breeze, which even in August so +tempers the heat of the sun as to make a shaded spot almost +uncomfortably cold. This bracing air Prescott found admirably tonic, and +beneficial both to his eye and to his digestion, which was weak. On the +other hand, the dampness of the breeze affected unfavourably his +tendency to rheumatism, so that he seldom spent more than eight weeks of +the year upon the sea-shore. He found also that the reflection of the +sun from the water was a thing to be avoided. Therefore, he most +thoroughly enjoyed his other country place at Pepperell, where his +grandmother had lived. The plain little house, known as "The Highlands," +and shaded by great trees, seemed to him his truest home. Here, more +than elsewhere, he threw off his cares and gave himself up completely to +his drives and rides and walks and social pleasures. The country round +about was then well wooded, and Prescott delighted to gallop through the +forests and over the rich countryside, every inch of which had been +familiar to him since his boyhood days. He felt something of the +English landowner's pride in remembering that his modest estate had been +in the possession of his family for more than a century and a half--"An +uncommon event," he wrote, "among our locomotive people." Behind the +house was a lovely shaded walk with a distant view of Mount Monadnock; +and here Prescott often strolled while composing portions of his +histories before committing them to paper. Beyond the road stood a +picturesque cluster of oak trees, making a thick grove which he called +"the Fairy Grove," for in it he used to tell his children the stories +about elves and gnomes and fairies which delighted them so much. + +It was the death of his parents that led him in the last years of his +own life to abandon this home which he so dearly loved. The memories +which associated it with them were painful to him after they had gone. +He missed their faces and their happy converse, and so, in 1853, he +purchased a house on Lynn Bay, some five or six miles distant from his +cottage at Nahant. Here the sea-breeze was cool but never damp; while, +unlike Nahant, the place was surrounded by green meadow-land and +pleasant woods. This new house was much more luxurious than the cottages +at Nahant and Pepperell, and he spent at Lynn nearly all his summers +during his last five years. He added to the place, laying out its +grounds and tastefully decorating its interior, having in view not +merely his own comfort but that of his children and grandchildren, who +now began to gather about him. His daughter Elizabeth, who was married +in 1852 to Mr. James Lawrence of Boston, occupied a delightful country +house near by. + +One memorial of Prescott long remained here to recall alike the owner +of the place and the work to which his life had been devoted. This was a +large cherry tree, which afforded the only shade about the house when he +first took possession of it. The state of his eye made it impossible for +him to remain long in the sunshine; and so, in his hours of composition, +he paced around the circle of the shade afforded by this tree, carrying +in his hand a light umbrella, which he raised for a moment when he +passed that portion of the circle on which the sunlight fell. He thus +trod a deep path in the turf; and for years after his death the path +remained still visible,--a touching reminder to those friends of his who +saw it. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LAST TEN YEARS + + +While Prescott was still engaged in his Mexican and Peruvian researches, +and, in fact, even before he had undertaken them, another fascinating +subject had found lodgement in his mind. So far back as 1838, only a few +months after the publication of _Ferdinand and Isabella_, he had said: +"Should I succeed in my present collections, who knows what facilities I +may find for making one relative to Philip the Second's reign--a +fruitful theme if discussed under all its relations, civil and literary +as well as military." And again, in 1839, he reverted to the same +subject in his memoranda. Could he have been sure of obtaining access to +the manuscript and other sources, he might at that time have chosen this +theme in preference to the story of the Mexican conquest. He knew, +however, that nothing could be done unless he were able to make a free +use of the Spanish archives preserved at Simancas. To this ancient town, +at the suggestion of Cardinal Ximenes, the most precious historical +documents relating to Spanish history had been removed, in 1536, by +order of Charles V. The old castle of the Admiral of Castile had been +prepared to receive them, and there they still remained, as they do +to-day, filling some fifty large rooms and contained in some eighty +thousand packages. It has been estimated that fully thirty million +separate documents of various kinds are included in this remarkably rich +collection,--not only state papers of a formal character, but private +letters, secret reports, and the confidential correspondence of Spanish +ambassadors in foreign countries.[17] Such a treasure-house of +historical information scarcely exists elsewhere; and Prescott, +therefore, wrote to his friends in Madrid to learn whether he might hope +for access to this Spanish Vatican. In 1839, however, he made the +following memorandum: "By advices from Madrid this week, I learn that +the archives of Simancas are in so disorderly a state that it is next to +impossible to gather material for the reign of Philip II." His friend, +Arthur Middleton, cited to him the instance of a young scholar who had +been permitted to explore these collections for six months, and who had +found that the documents of a date prior to the year 1700 were "all +thrown together without order or index." Furthermore, Prescott's agent +in Spain, Dr. Lembke, had incurred the displeasure of the government, +which expelled him from the country. Prescott was, therefore, obliged +for the time to put aside the project of a history of Philip II., and he +turned instead to the study of the Mexican conquest. + +Nevertheless, with that quiet pertinacity which was one of his +conspicuous traits, he still kept the theme in mind, and let it be known +to his friends in Paris and London, as well as in Madrid and elsewhere, +that all materials bearing upon the career of Philip II. were much +desired by him. These friends responded very zealously to his wishes. In +Paris, M. Mignet and M. Ternaux-Compans allowed Dr. Lembke to have their +important manuscript collections copied. In London, Prescott's +correspondent and former reviewer, Don Pascual de Gayangos, searched the +documents in the British Museum and a very rich private collection owned +by Sir Thomas Philips. He also visited Brussels, where he found more +valuable material, and later, having been appointed Professor of Arabic +in the University of Madrid (1842), he used his influence on behalf of +Prescott with very great success. Many noble houses in Spain put at his +disposal their family memorials. The National Library and other public +institutions offered whatever they possessed in the way of books and +papers. Two years later, this indefatigable friend spent some weeks at +Simancas, where he unearthed many an interesting _trouvaille_. Even +these sources, however, were not the only ones which contributed to +Prescott's store of documents. Ferdinand Wolf in Vienna, and Humboldt +and Ranke in Berlin, also aided him, and secured additional material, +not only in Austria and Prussia, but in Tuscany. His collection grew +apace; so that, long before he was ready to take up the subject of +Philip II., he possessed over three hundred and seventy volumes bearing +directly upon the reign of that monarch, while his manuscript copies, +which he caused to be richly bound, came to number in the end some +thirty-eight huge folios. These occupied a position of special honour in +his library, and were playfully called by him his Seraglio. + +Thus, in 1847, when about to take up his fourth important work, he was +already richly documented. His health, however, was unsatisfactory. He +had now some ailments that had become chronic,--dyspepsia and a urethral +complication, which often caused him intense suffering. It was not until +July 29, 1849, that he began to write the first chapter of _Philip II._ +at Nahant. He makes the laconic note: "Heavy work, this starting. I have +been out of harness too long.... The business of fixing thought is +incredibly difficult." He continued writing at Pepperell, and at his +home in Boston, until he had regained a good deal of his old facility. +His physical strength, however, was waning, and he could no longer +continue to work with his former regularity and method. He lost flesh, +and was threatened for a while with deafness, the fear of which was +almost too much for even his inveterate cheerfulness. In February, 1850, +he wrote: "Increasing interest in the work is hardly to be expected, +considering it has to depend so much on the ear. As I shall have to +depend more and more on this one of my senses as I grow older, it is to +be hoped that Providence will spare me my hearing. It would be a fearful +thing to doubt it." His depression finally became so great that he +suspended for a time his labours and made a short visit to Washington, +where he was received with abundant hospitality. He was entertained by +President Taylor, by Sir Henry Bulwer, the British Minister, by Webster, +and by many other distinguished persons; but he became more and more +convinced that a complete change was necessary to restore his health and +spirits; and so, on May 22d of the same year, he sailed from New York +for Liverpool, where he arrived on the 3d of June. + +Prescott's stay in England was perhaps the most delightful episode in +his life. His biographer, Mr. Ticknor, speaks of it as "the most +brilliant visit ever made to England by an American citizen not clothed +with the prestige of official station." The assertion is quite true, +since the cordiality which Lowell met with in that country was, in part, +at any rate, due to his diplomatic rank, while General Grant was +essentially a political personage who was, besides, personally commended +to all foreign courts by his successor in office, President Hayes. But +Prescott, with no credentials save his reputation as a man of letters +and his own charming personality, enjoyed a welcome of boundless +cordiality. It was not merely that he was a literary celebrity and was +received everywhere by his brothers of the pen,--he became the fashion +and was unmistakably the lion of the season. From the moment when he +landed at Liverpool he found himself encircled by friends. The +attentions paid to him were never formal or perfunctory. He was admitted +to the homes of the greatest Englishmen, and was there made free of that +delightful hospitality which Englishmen reserve for the chosen few. No +sooner had he reached London than he was showered with cards of +invitation to the greatest houses, and with letters couched in terms of +personal friendship. Sir Charles Lyell, his old acquaintance, welcomed +him to London a few hours after his arrival. The American Minister, Mr. +Abbott Lawrence,[18] begged him to be present at a diplomatic dinner. In +company of the Lyells he was taken at once to an evening party where he +met Lord Palmerston, then Premier, and other members of the Ministry. +Lord Carlisle greeted him in a fashion strangely foreign to English +reserve, for he threw his arms around Prescott, making the historian +blush like a great girl. It would be tedious to recount the unbroken +series of brilliant entertainments at which Prescott was the guest of +honour. His letters written at this time from England are full of +interesting and often amusing bits of description, and they show that +even his exceptional social honours were very far from turning his head. +In fact, he viewed the whole thing as a diverting show, except when the +warmth of the personal welcome touched his heart. Through it all he was +the self-poised American, never losing his native sense of humour. He +made friends with Sir Robert Peel, who, at their first meeting, +addressed him in French, having taken him for the French dramatist M. +Scribe! He chatted often with the Duke of Wellington, and described him +in a comparison which makes one smile because it is so Yankee-like and +Bostonese. + + "In the crowd I saw an old gentleman, very nicely made up, stooping + a good deal, very much decorated with orders, and making his way + easily along, as all, young and old, seemed to treat him with + deference. It was the Duke--the old Iron Duke--and I thought myself + lucky in this opportunity of seeing him.... He paid me some pretty + compliments on which I grew vain at once, and I did my best to + repay him in coin that had no counterfeit in it. He is a striking + figure, reminding me a good deal of Colonel Perkins in his general + air." + +Prescott attended the races at Ascot with the American and Swedish +Ministers, was the guest of Sir Robert Peel, and was presented at +Court--a ceremony which he described to Mrs. Prescott in a very lively +letter. + + "I was at Lawrence's, at one, in my costume: a chapeau with gold + lace, blue coat, and white trousers, begilded with buttons and + metal,--a sword and patent leather boots. I was a figure indeed! + But I had enough to keep me in countenance. I spent an hour + yesterday with Lady M. getting instructions for demeaning myself. + The greatest danger was that I should be tripped up by my own + sword.... The company were at length permitted one by one to pass + into the presence chamber--a room with a throne and gorgeous canopy + at the farther end, before which stood the little Queen of the + mighty Isle and her Consort, surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting. + She was rather simply dressed, but he was in a Field Marshal's + uniform, and covered, I should think, with all the orders of + Europe. He is a good-looking person, but by no means so + good-looking as the portraits of him. The Queen is better-looking + than you might expect. I was presented by our Minister, according + to the directions of the Chamberlain, as the historian of Ferdinand + and Isabella, in due form--and made my profound obeisance to her + Majesty, who made a very dignified curtesy, as she made to some two + hundred others who were presented in like manner. I made the same + low bow to his Princeship to whom I was also presented, and so + bowed myself out of the royal circle, without my sword tripping up + the heels of my nobility.... Lord Carlisle ... said he had come to + the drawing-room to see how I got through the affair, which he + thought I did without any embarrassment. Indeed, to say truth, I + have been more embarrassed a hundred times in my life than I was + here. I don't know why; I suppose because I am getting old." + +Somewhat later, while Prescott was a guest at Castle Howard, where the +Queen was also entertained, he had something more to tell about her. + + "At eight we went to dinner all in full dress, but mourning for the + Duke of Cambridge; I, of course, for President Taylor! All wore + breeches or tight pantaloons. It was a brilliant show, I assure + you--that immense table with its fruits and flowers and lights + glancing over beautiful plate and in that superb gallery. I was as + near the Queen as at our own family table. She has a good appetite + and laughs merrily. She has fine eyes and teeth, but is short. She + was dressed in black silk and lace with the blue scarf of the Order + of the Garter across her bosom. Her only ornaments were of jet. The + Prince, who is certainly a handsome and very well made man, wore + the Garter with its brilliant buckle round his knee, a showy star + on his breast, and the collar of a foreign order round his neck. + + "In the evening we listened to some fine music and the Queen + examined the pictures. Odd enough the etiquette. Lady Carlisle, who + did the honours like a high-bred lady as she is, and the Duchess of + Sutherland, were the only ladies who talked with her Majesty. Lord + Carlisle, her host, was the only gentleman who did so unless she + addressed a person herself. No one can sit a moment when she + chooses to stand. She did me the honour to come and talk with + me--asking me about my coming here, my stay in the Castle, what I + was doing now in the historic way, how Everett was and where he + was--for ten minutes or so; and Prince Albert afterwards a long + while, talking about the houses and ruins in England, and the + churches in Belgium, and the pictures in the room, and I don't know + what. I found myself now and then trenching on the rules by + interrupting, etc.; but I contrived to make it up by a respectful + 'Your Royal Highness,' 'Your Majesty,' etc. I told the Queen of the + pleasure I had in finding myself in a land of friends instead of + foreigners--a sort of stereotype with me--and of my particular good + fortune in being under the roof with her. She is certainly very + much of a lady in her manner, with a sweet voice." + +At Oxford, Prescott was the guest of the Bishop, the well-known +Wilberforce, popularly known by his sobriquet of "Soapy Sam." The +University conferred upon the American historian the degree of D.C.L. in +spite of the fact that he was a Unitarian. This circumstance was known +and caused some slight difficulty, but possibly the degree given to +Everett, another Unitarian, some years before in spite of great +opposition, was regarded as having established a precedent; and Oxford +cherishes the cult of precedent. At the Bishop's house, however, +Prescott shocked a lady by telling her of his creed. He wrote to +Ticknor: "The term [Unitarian] is absolutely synonymous in a large party +here with Infidel, Jew, Mohammedan; worse even, because regarded as a +wolf in sheep's clothing." The lady, however, succeeded in giving +Prescott a shock in return; for when he happened to mention Dr. +Channing, she told him that she had never even heard the man's name--a +sort of ignorance which to a Bostonian was quite incomprehensible. + +Prescott's account of the university ceremonial is given in a letter to +Mr. Ticknor. + + "Lord Northampton and I were doctorised in due form. We were both + dressed in flaming red robes (it was the hottest day I have felt + here), and then marched out in solemn procession with the Faculty, + etc., in their black and red gowns through the public streets.... + We were marched up the aisle; Professor Phillimore made a long + Latin exposition of our merits, in which each of the adjectives + ended, as Southey said in reference to himself on a like occasion, + in _issimus_; and amidst the cheers of the audience we were + converted into Doctors." + +Prescott was much pleased with this Oxford degree, which rightly seemed +to him more significant than the like honours which had come to him from +various American colleges. "Now," said he, "I am a _real_ Doctor." + +In the same letter he gives a little picture of Lord Brougham during a +debate in the House of Lords. Brougham was denouncing Baron Bunsen for +his course in the Schleswig-Holstein affair,--Bunsen being in the House +at the time. + + "What will interest you is the assault made so brutally by Brougham + on your friend Bunsen. I was present and never saw anything so + coarse as his personalities. He said the individual [Bunsen] took + up the room of two ladies. Bunsen _is_ rather fat as also Madame + and his daughter--all of whom at last marched out of the gallery, + but not until eyes and glasses had been directed to the spot to + make out the unfortunate individuals, while Lord Brougham was + flying up and down, thumping the table with his fists and foaming + at the mouth till all his brother peers, including the old Duke, + were in convulsions of laughter. I dined with Bunsen and Madame the + same day at Ford's." + +Prescott met both Disraeli and Gladstone, and, among other more purely +literary men, Macaulay, Lockhart, Hallam, Thirlwall, Milman, and Rogers. +Of Macaulay he tells some interesting things. + + "I have met him several times, and breakfasted with him the other + morning. His memory for quotations and illustration is a + miracle--quite disconcerting. He comes to a talk like one specially + crammed. Yet you may start the topic. He told me he should be + delivered of twins on his next publication, which would not be till + '53.... Macaulay's first draught--very unlike Scott's--is + absolutely illegible from erasures and corrections.... He tells me + he has his moods for writing. When not in the vein, he does not + press it.... H---- told me that Lord Jeffrey once told him that, + having tripped up Macaulay in a quotation from _Paradise Lost_, two + days after, Macaulay came to him and said, 'You will not catch me + again in the _Paradise_.' At which Jeffrey opened the volume and + took him up in a great number of passages at random, in all of + which he went on correctly repeating the original. Was it not a + miraculous _tour d'esprit_? Macaulay does not hesitate to say now + that he thinks he could restore the first six or seven books of the + _Paradise_ in case they were lost." + +Still again, Prescott expresses his astonishment at Macaulay's memory. + + "Macaulay is the most of a miracle. His _tours_ in the way of + memory stagger belief.... His talk is like the laboured, but still + unintermitting, jerks of a pump. But it is anything but + wishy-washy. It keeps the mind, however, on too great a tension for + table-talk." + +Writing of Samuel Rogers, who was now a very old man, he records a +characteristic little anecdote. + + "I have seen Rogers several times, that is, all that is out of the + bedclothes. His talk is still _sauce piquante_. The best thing on + record of his late sayings is his reply to Lady----, who at a + dinner table, observing him speaking to a lady, said, 'I hope, Mr. + Rogers, you are not attacking me.' 'Attacking you!' he said, 'why, + my dear Lady----, I have been all my life defending you.' Wit could + go no further." + +Prescott was the guest of the Duke of Sutherland at Trentham and at +Stafford House. He was invited to Lord Lansdowne's, the Duke of +Northumberland's, the Duke of Argyle's, and to Lord Grey's, and he +describes himself in one letter as up to his ears in dances, dinners, +and breakfasts. This sort of life, with all its glitter and gayety, +suited Prescott wonderfully well, and his health improved daily. He +remarked, however: "It is a life which, were I an Englishman, I should +not desire a great deal of; two months at most; although I think, on the +whole, the knowledge of a very curious state of society and of so many +interesting and remarkable characters, well compensate the bore of a +voyage. Yet I am quite sure, having once had this experience, nothing +would ever induce me to repeat it, as I have heard you say it would not +pay." Some little personal notes and memoranda may also be quoted. + + "Everything is drawn into the vortex, and there they swim round and + round, so that you may revolve for weeks and not meet a familiar + face half a dozen times. Yet there is monotony in some things--that + everlasting turbot and shrimp sauce. I shall never abide a turbot + again." + + "Do you know, by the way, that I have become a courtier and affect + the royal presence? I wish you could see my gallant costume, + gold-laced coat, white inexpressibles, silk hose, gold-buckled + patent slippers, sword and chapeau. Am I not playing the fool as + well as my betters?" + + "A silly woman ... said when I told her it was thirty years since I + was here, 'Pooh! you are not more than thirty years old.' And on my + repeating it, she still insisted on the same flattering + ejaculation. The Bishop of London the other day with his amiable + family told me they had settled my age at forty.... So I am + convinced there has been some error in the calculation. Ask mother + how it is. They say here that gray hair, particularly whiskers, may + happen to anybody even under thirty. On the whole, I am satisfied + that I am the youngest of the family." + +Writing to his daughter from Alnwick Castle, the seat of the Duke of +Northumberland, Prescott gave a little instance of his own extreme +sensibility. A great number of children were being entertained by the +Duke and Duchess. + + "As they all joined in the beautiful anthem, 'God save the Queen,' + the melody of the little voices rose up so clear and simple in the + open courtyard that everybody was touched. Though I had nothing to + do with the anthem, some of my _opera tears_,[19] dear Lizzie, came + into my eyes, and did me great credit with some of the John and + Jennie Bulls by whom I was surrounded." + +When he left Alnwick:-- + + "My friendly hosts remonstrated on my departure, as they had + requested me to make them a long visit; and 'I never say what I do + not mean,' said the Duke, in an honest way. And when I thanked him + for his hospitable welcome, 'It is no more,' he said, 'than you + should meet in every house in England.' That was hearty." + +The letters written by Prescott while in Europe are marked also by +evidences of the beautiful affection which he cherished for his wife, of +whom he once said, many years after their marriage: "Contrary to the +assertion of La Bruyère--who somewhere says that the most fortunate +husband finds reason to regret his condition at least once in +twenty-four hours--I may truly say that I have found no such day in the +quarter of a century that Providence has spared us to each other." In +the letters written by him during this English visit, there remain, even +after the ruthless editing done by Ticknor, passages that are touching +in their unaffected tenderness. + +Thus, from London, June 14, 1850:-- + + "Why have I no letter on my table from home? I trust I shall find + one there this evening, or I shall, after all, have a heavy heart, + which is far from gay in this gayety." + +And the following from Antwerp, July 23, 1850:-- + + "Dear Susan, I never see anything beautiful in nature or art, or + hear heart-stirring music in the churches--the only place where + music does stir my heart--without thinking of you and wishing you + could be by my side, if only for a moment." + +When Prescott returned from this, his last visit to Europe, he found +himself at the very zenith of his fame. In every respect, his position +was most enviable. The union of critical approval with popular +applause--a thing which is so rare in the experience of authors--had +been fairly won by him. His books were accepted as authoritative, while +they were read by thousands who never looked into the pages of other +historians. Even a volume of miscellaneous essays[20] which he had +collected from his stray contributions to the _North American_, and +which had been published in England by Bentley in 1845, had succeeded +with the public on both sides of the Atlantic. He had the prestige of a +very flattering foreign recognition, and his friendships embraced some +of the best-known men and women in Great Britain and the United States. +It may seem odd that the letters and other writings of his +contemporaries seldom contain more than a mere casual mention of him; +but the explanation of this is to be found in the disposition of +Prescott himself. As a man, and in his social intercourse outside of his +own family, he was so thoroughly well-bred, so far from anything +resembling eccentricity, and so averse from literary pose, as to afford +no material for gossip or indeed for special comment. In this respect, +his life resembled his writings. There was in each a noticeable absence +of the piquant, or the sensational. He pleased by his manners as by his +pen; but he possessed no mannerisms such as are sometimes supposed to be +the hall-marks of originality. Hence, one finds no mass of striking +anecdotes collected and sent about by those who knew him; any more than +in his writing one chances upon startling strokes of style. + +Prescott, however, had his own very definite opinions concerning his +contemporaries, though they were always expressed in kindly words. To +Irving he was especially attracted because of a certain likeness of +temperament between them. His sensitive nature felt all the _nuances_ of +Irving's delicate style, especially when it was used for pathetic +effects. "You have read Irving's _Memoirs of Miss Davidson_," he once +wrote to Miss Ticknor. "Did you ever meet with any novel half so +touching? It is the most painful book I ever listened to. I hear it from +the children and we all cry over it together. What a little flower of +Paradise!" Yet he could accurately criticise his friend's +productions.[21] Longfellow was another of Prescott's associates, and +his ballads of the sea were favourites. Mr. T. W. Higginson quotes +Prescott as saying that _The Skeleton in Armor_ and _The Wreck of the +Hesperus_ were the best imaginative poetry since Coleridge. Of Byron he +wrote, in 1840, some sentences to a friend which condense very happily +the opinion that has finally come to be accepted. Indeed, Prescott shows +in his private letters a critical gift which one seldom finds in his +published essays--a judgment at once shrewd, clear-sighted, and +sensible. + + "I think one is apt to talk very extravagantly of his [Byron's] + poetry; for it is the poetry of passion and carries away the sober + judgment. It defies criticism from its very nature, being lawless, + independent of all rules, sometimes of grammar, and even of common + sense. When he means to be strong he is often affected, violent, + morbid.... But then there is, with all this smoke and fustian, a + deep sensibility to the sublime and beautiful in nature, a + wonderful melody, or rather harmony, of language, consisting ... in + a variety--the variety of nature--in which startling ruggedness is + relieved by soft and cultivated graces." + +Probably the most pungent bit of literary comment that Prescott ever +wrote is found in a letter of his addressed to Bancroft,[22] who had +sent him a copy of Carlyle's _French Revolution_. The clangour and fury +of this book could hardly fail to jar upon the nerves of so decorously +classical a writer as Prescott. + + "I return you Carlyle with my thanks. I have read as much of him as + I could stand. After a very candid desire to relish him, I must say + I do not at all. The French Revolution is a most lamentable comedy + and requires nothing but the simplest statement of facts to freeze + one's blood. To attempt to colour so highly what nature has already + over-coloured is, it appears to me, in very bad taste and produces + a grotesque and ludicrous effect.... Then such ridiculous + affectations of new-fangled words! Carlyle is ever a bungler in his + own business; for his creations or rather combinations are the most + discordant and awkward possible. As he runs altogether for dramatic + or rather picturesque effect, he is not to be challenged, I + suppose, for want of refined views. This forms no part of his plan. + His views, certainly, so far as I can estimate them, are trite + enough. And, in short, the whole thing ... both as to _forme_ and + to _fond_, is perfectly contemptible." + +Of Thackeray, Prescott saw quite a little during the novelist's visit to +America in 1852-1853, and several times entertained him. He did not +greatly care for the lectures on the English humorists, which, as +Thackeray confided to Prescott, caused America to "rain dollars." "I do +not think he made much of an impression as a critic, but the Thackeray +vein is rich in what is better than cold criticism." Thackeray on his +side expresses his admiration for Prescott in the opening sentences of +_The Virginians_, though without naming him:-- + + "On the library wall of one of the most famous writers of America, + there hang two crossed swords, which his relatives wore in the + great war of Independence. The one sword was gallantly drawn in the + service of the King; the other was the weapon of a brave and humane + republican soldier. The possessor of the harmless trophy has earned + for himself a name alike honoured in his ancestor's country and his + own, where genius like his has always a peaceful welcome." + +This little tribute pleased Prescott very much, and he wrote to Lady +Lyell asking her to get _The Virginians_ and read the passage, which, as +he says, "was very prettily done." On the whole, however, he seems to +have preferred Dickens to Thackeray, being deceived by the very +superficial cynicism affected by the latter. But in fiction, his prime +favourites were always Scott and Dumas, whose books he never tired of +hearing read. Thus, in mature age, the tastes of his boyhood continued +to declare themselves; and few days ever passed without an hour or two +devoted to the magic of romance. + +During the winter following his return from Europe, which he spent in +Boston, he found it difficult to settle down to work again, and not +until the autumn did he wholly resume his life of literary activity. +After doing so, however, he worked rapidly, so that the first volume of +_Philip II._ was completed in April, 1852. It was very well received, in +fact, as warmly as any of his earlier work, and the same was true of the +second volume, which appeared in 1854. Prescott himself said that he was +"a little nervous" about the success of the book, inasmuch as a long +interval had elapsed since the publication of his _Peru_, and he feared +lest the public might have lost its interest in him. The result, +however, showed that he need not have felt any apprehension. Within six +months after the second volume had been published, more than eight +thousand copies were sold in the United States, and probably an equal +number in England. Moreover, interest was revived in Prescott's +preceding histories, so that nearly thirty thousand volumes of them were +taken by the public within a year or two. There was the same favourable +consensus of critical opinion regarding _Philip II._, and it received +the honour of a notice from the pen of M. Guizot in the _Edinburgh +Review_. + +In bringing out this last work Prescott had changed his +publishers,--not, however, because of any disagreement with the Messrs. +Harper, with whom his relations had always been most satisfactory, and +of whom he always spoke in terms of high regard. But a Boston firm, +Messrs. Sampson, Phillips and Company, had made him an offer more +advantageous than the Harpers felt themselves justified in doing. In +another sense the change might have been fortunate for Prescott, +inasmuch as the warehouse of the Harpers was destroyed by fire in 1853. +In this fire were consumed several thousand copies of Prescott's earlier +books, for which payment had been already made. Prescott, however, with +his usual generosity, permitted the Harpers to print for their own +account as many copies as had been lost. In England his publishing +arrangements were somewhat less favourable than hitherto. When he had +made his earlier contracts with Bentley, it was supposed that the +English publisher could claim copyright in works written by a foreigner. +A decision of the House of Lords adverse to such a view had now been +rendered, and therefore Mr. Bentley could receive no advantage through +an arrangement with Prescott other than such as might come to him from +securing the advance sheets and from thus being first in the field. As a +matter of fact, _Philip II._ was brought out in four separate editions +in Great Britain. In Germany it was twice reprinted in the original and +once in a German translation. A French version was brought out in Paris +by Didot, and a Spanish one in Madrid. Prescott himself wrote:-- + + "I have received $17,000 for the _Philip_ and the other works the + last six months.... From the tone of the foreign journals and those + of my own country, it would seem that the work has found quite as + much favour as any of its predecessors, and the sales have been + much greater than any other of them in the same space of time." + +Later, writing to Bancroft, he said:-- + + "The book has gone off very well so far. Indeed, double the + quantity, I think, has been sold of any of my preceding works in + the same time. I have been lucky, too, in getting well on before + Macaulay has come thundering along the track with his hundred + horse-power." + +While engaged in the composition of _Philip II._, Prescott had +undertaken to write a continuation of Robertson's _History of Charles +V._ He had been asked to prepare an entirely new work upon the reign of +that monarch, but this seemed too arduous a task. He therefore rewrote +the conclusion of Robertson's book--a matter of some hundred and eighty +pages. This he began in the spring of 1855, and finished it during the +following year. It was published on December 8, 1856, on which day he +wrote to Ticknor: "My _Charles the Fifth_, or rather Robertson's with +my Continuation, made his bow to-day, like a strapping giant with a +little urchin holding on to the tail of his coat."[23] At about the same +time Prescott prepared a brief memoir of Mr. Abbott Lawrence, the father +of his daughter's husband. This was printed for private distribution. + +During the year which followed, Prescott's health began steadily to +fail. He suffered from violent pains in the head; so severe as to rob +him of sleep and to make work of any kind impossible. He still, however, +enjoyed intervals when he could laugh and jest in his old careless way, +and even at times indulge in the pleasant little dinners which he loved +to share with his most intimate friends. On February 4th, however, while +walking in the street, he was stricken down by an apoplectic seizure, +which solved the mystery of his severe headaches. When he recovered +consciousness his first words were, "My poor wife! I am so sorry for you +that this has come upon you so soon." The attack was a warning rather +than an instant summons. After a few days he was once more himself, +except that his enunciation never again became absolutely clear. Serious +work, of course, was out of the question. He listened to a good deal of +reading, chiefly fiction. He was put upon a very careful regimen in the +matter of diet, and wrote, with a touch of rueful amusement, of the +vegetarian meals to which he was restricted: "I have been obliged to +exchange my carnivorous propensities for those of a more innocent and +primitive nature, picking up my fare as our good parents did before the +Fall." Improving somewhat, he completed the third volume of _Philip +II._; not so fully as he had intended, but mainly putting together so +much of it as had already been prepared. The book was printed in April, +1858, and the supervision of the proof-sheets afforded him some +occupation, as did also the making of a few additional notes for a new +edition of the _Conquest of Mexico_. The summer of 1858 he spent in +Pepperell, returning to Boston in October, in the hope of once more +taking up his studies. He did, in fact, linger wistfully over his books +and manuscripts, but accomplished very little; for, soon after the New +Year, there came the end of all his labours. On January 27th, his health +was apparently in a satisfactory condition. He listened to his +secretary, Mr. Kirk, read from one of Sala's books of travel, and, in +order to settle a question which arose in the course of the reading, he +left the library to speak to his wife and sister. Leaving them a moment +later with a laugh, he went into an adjoining room, where presently he +was heard to groan. His secretary hurried to his side, and found him +quite unconscious. In the early afternoon he died, without knowing that +the end had come. + +Prescott had always dreaded the thought of being buried alive. His vivid +imagination had shown him the appalling horror of a living burial. Again +and again he had demanded of those nearest him that he should be +shielded from the possibility of such a fate. Therefore, when the +physicians had satisfied themselves that life had really left him, a +large vein was severed, to make assurance doubly sure. + +On the last day of January he was buried in the family tomb, in the +crypt of St. Paul's. Men and women of every rank and station were +present at the simple ceremony. The Legislature of the State had +adjourned so that its members might pay their tribute of respect to so +distinguished a citizen. The Historical Society was represented among +the mourners. His personal friends and those of humble station, whom he +had so often befriended, filled the body of the church. Before his +burial, his remains, in accordance with a wish of his that was well +known, had been carried to the room in which were his beloved books and +where so many imperishable pages had been written. There, as it were, he +lay in state. It is thus that one may best, in thought, take leave of +him, amid the memorials and records of a past which he had made to live +again. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +"FERDINAND AND ISABELLA"--PRESCOTT'S STYLE + + +The _History of Ferdinand and Isabella_ is best regarded as Prescott's +initiation into the writing of historical literature. It was a +_prolusio_, a preliminary trial of his powers, in some respects an +apprenticeship to the profession which he had decided to adopt. When he +began its composition he had published nothing but a few casual reviews. +He had neither acquired a style nor gained that self-confidence which +does so much to command success. No such work as this had as yet been +undertaken by an American. How far he could himself overcome the +peculiar difficulties which confronted him was quite uncertain. Whether +he had it in him to be at once a serious investigator and a maker of +literature, he did not know. Therefore, the _Ferdinand and Isabella_ +shows here and there an uncertainty of touch and a lack of assured +method such as were quite natural in one who had undertaken so ambitious +a task with so little technical experience. + +In the matter of style, Prescott had not yet emancipated himself from +that formalism which had been inherited from the eighteenth-century +writers, and which Americans, with the wonted conservatism of +provincials, retained long after Englishmen had begun to write with +naturalness and simplicity. Even in fiction this circumstance is +noticeable. At a time when Scott was thrilling the whole world of +English readers with his vivid romances, written hastily and often +carelessly, in a style which reflected his own individual nature, Cooper +was producing stories equally exciting, but told in phraseology almost +as stilted as that which we find in _Rasselas_. This was no less true in +poetry. The great romantic movement which in England found expression in +Byron and Shelley and the exquisitely irregular metres of Coleridge had +as yet awakened no true responsive echo on this side of the Atlantic. +Among the essay-writers and historians of America none had summoned up +the courage to shake off the Addisonian and Johnsonian fetters and to +move with free, unstudied ease. Irving was but a later Goldsmith, and +Bancroft a Yankee Gibbon. The papers which then appeared in the _North +American Review_, to whose pages Prescott himself was a regular +contributor, give ample evidence that the literary models of the time +were those of an earlier age,--an age in which dignity was supposed to +lie in ponderosity and to be incompatible with grace. + +Prescott's nature was not one that had the slightest sympathy with +pedantry. No more spontaneous spirit than his can be imagined. His +joyousness and gayety sometimes even tended toward the frivolous. Yet in +this first serious piece of historical writing, he imposed upon himself +the shackles of an earlier convention. Just because his mood prompted +him to write in an unstudied style, all the more did he feel it +necessary to repress his natural inclination. Therefore, in the text of +his history, we find continual evidence of the eighteenth century +literary manner,--the balanced sentence, the inevitable adjective, the +studied antithesis, and the elaborate parallel. Women are invariably +"females"; a gift is a "donative"; a marriage does not take place, but +"nuptials are solemnized"; a name is usually an "appellation"; a crown +"devolves" upon a successor; a poet "delivers his sentiments"; a king +"avails himself of indeterminateness"; and so on. A cumbrous sentence +like the following smacks of the sort of English that was soon to pass +away:-- + + "Fanaticism is so far subversive of the most established principles + of morality that under the dangerous maxim 'For the advancement of + the faith all means are lawful,' which Tasso has rightly, though + perhaps undesignedly, derived from the spirits of hell, it not only + excuses but enjoins the commission of the most revolting crime as a + sacred duty."[24] + +And the following:-- + + "Casiri's multifarious catalogue bears ample testimony to the + emulation with which not only men but even females of the highest + rank devoted themselves to letters; the latter contending publicly + for the prizes, not merely in eloquence and poetry, but in those + recondite studies which have usually been reserved for the other + sex."[25] + +The style of these sentences is essentially the style of the old _North +American Review_ and of eighteenth-century England. The particular +chapter from which the last quotation has been taken was, in fact, +originally prepared by Prescott for the _North American_, as already +mentioned,[26] and was only on second thought reserved for a chapter of +the history. + +The passion for parallel, which had existed among historical writers +ever since the time of Plutarch, was responsible for the elaborate +comparison which Prescott makes between Isabella and Elizabeth of +England.[27] It is worked out relentlessly--Isabella and Elizabeth in +their private lives, Isabella and Elizabeth in their characters, +Isabella and Elizabeth in the selection of their ministers of State, +Isabella and Elizabeth in their intellectual power, Isabella and +Elizabeth in their respective deaths. Prescott drags it all in; and it +affords evidence of the literary standards of his countrymen at the +time, that this laboured parallel was thought to be the very finest +thing in the whole book. + +If, however, Prescott maintained in the body of his text the rigid +lapidary dignity which he thought to be appropriate, his natural +liveliness found occasional expression in the numerous foot-notes, which +at times he wrote somewhat in the vein of his private letters from +Pepperell and Nahant. The contrast, therefore, between text and notes +was often thoroughly incongruous because so violent. This led his +English reviewer, Mr. Richard Ford,[28] to write some rather acrid +sentences that in their manner suggest the tone which, in our days, the +_Saturday Review_ has always taken with new authors, especially when +they happen to be American. Wrote Mr. Ford of Prescott:-- + + "His style is too often sesquipedalian and ornate; the stilty, + wordy, false taste of Dr. Channing without his depth of thought; + the sugar and sack of Washington Irving without the half-pennyworth + of bread--without his grace and polish of pure, grammatical, + careful Anglicism. We have many suspicions, indeed, from his + ordinary quotations, from what he calls in others 'the cheap + display of school-boy erudition,' and from sundry lurking sneers, + that he has not drunk deeply at the Pierian fountains, which taste + the purer the higher we track them to their source. These, the + only sure foundations of a pure and correct style, are absolutely + necessary to our Transatlantic brethren, who are unfortunately + deprived of the high standing example of an order of nobility, and + of a metropolis where local peculiarities evaporate. The elevated + tone of the classics is the only corrective for their unhappy + democracy. Moral feeling must of necessity be degraded wherever the + multitude are the sole dispensers of power and honour. All + candidates for the foul-breathed universal suffrage must lower + their appeal to base understandings and base motives. The authors + of the United States, independently of the deteriorating influence + of their institutions, can of all people the least afford to be + negligent. Far severed from the original spring of English + undefiled, they always run the risk of sinking into provincialisms, + into Patavinity,--both positive, in the use of obsolete words, and + the adoption of conventional village significations, which differ + from those retained by us,--as well as negative, in the omission of + those happy expressions which bear the fire-new stamp of the only + authorised mint. Instances occur constantly in these volumes where + the word is English, but English returned after many years' + transportation. We do not wish to be hypercritical, nor to strain + at gnats. If, however, the authors of the United States aspire to + be admitted _ad eundem_, they must write the English of the 'old + country,' which they will find it is much easier to forget and + corrupt than to improve. We cannot, however, afford space here for + a _florilegium Yankyense_. A professor from New York, newly + imported into England and introduced into real _good_ society, of + which previously he can only have formed an abstract idea, is no + bad illustration of Mr. Prescott's _over-done_ text. Like the + stranger in question, he is always on his best behaviour, prim, + prudish, and stiff-necky, afraid of self-committal, ceremonious, + remarkably dignified, supporting the honour of the United States, + and monstrously afraid of being laughed at. Some of these + travellers at last discover that bows and starch are not even the + husk of a gentleman; and so, on re-crossing the Atlantic, their + manner becomes like Mr. Prescott's _notes_; levity is mistaken for + ease, an un-'pertinent' familiarity for intimacy, second-rate + low-toned 'jocularities' (which make no one laugh but the retailer) + for the light, hair-trigger repartee, the brilliancy of high-bred + pleasantry. Mr. Prescott emulates Dr. Channing in his text, Dr. + Dunham and Mr. Joseph Miller in his notes. Judging from the facetiĉ + which, by his commending them as 'good,' have furnished a gauge to + measure his capacity for relishing humour, we are convinced that + his non-perception of wit is so genuine as to be organic. It is + perfectly allowable to rise occasionally from the ludicrous into + the serious, but to descend from history to the bathos of + balderdash is too bad--_risu inepto nihil ineptius_." + +This passage, which is an amusing example of an overflow of High Tory +bile, does not by any means fairly represent the general tone of Ford's +review. Prescott had here and there indulged himself in some of the +commonplaces of republicanism such as were usual in American writings of +that time; and these harmlessly trite political pedantries had rasped +the nerves of his British reviewer. To speak of "the empty decorations, +the stars and garters of an order of nobility," to mention "royal +perfidy," "royal dissimulation," "royal recompense of ingratitude," and +generally to intimate that "the people" were superior to royalty and +nobility, roused a spirit of antagonism in the mind of Mr. Ford. Several +of Prescott's semi-facetious notes dealt with rank and aristocracy in +something of the same hold-cheap tone, so that Ford was irritated into a +very personal retort. He wrote:-- + + "These pleasantries come with a bad grace from the son, as we learn + from a full-length dedication, of 'the _Honourable_ William + Prescott, _LL.D._' We really are ignorant of the exact value of + this titular potpourri in a _soi-disant_ land of equality, of these + noble and academic plumes, borrowed from the wing of a professedly + despised monarchy." + +Although Ford's characterisation of Prescott's style had some basis of +truth, it was, of course, grossly exaggerated. Throughout the whole of +the _Ferdinand and Isabella_, one is conscious of a strong tendency +toward simplicity of expression. Many passages are as easy and +unaffected as any that we find in an historical writer of to-day. +Reading the pages over now, one can see the true Prescott under all the +starch and stiffness which at the time he mistakenly regarded as +essential to the dignity of historical writing. In fact, as the work +progressed, the author gained something of that ease which comes from +practice, and wrote more and more simply and more after his own natural +manner. What is really lacking is sharpness of outline. The narrative is +somewhat too flowing. One misses, now and then, crispness of phrase and +force of characterisation. Prescott never wrote a sentence that can be +remembered. His strength lies in his _ensemble_, in the general effect, +and in the agreeable manner in which he carries us along with him from +the beginning to the end. This first book of his, from the point of view +of style, is "pleasant reading." Its movement is that of an ambling +palfrey, well broken to a lady's use. Nowhere have we the sensation of +the rush and thunder of a war-horse. + +Ford's strictures made Prescott wince, or, as Mr. Ticknor gently puts +it, "disturbed his equanimity." They caused him to consider the question +of his own style in the light of Ford's very slashing strictures. In +making this self-examination Prescott was perfectly candid with himself, +and he noted down the conclusions which he ultimately reached. + + "It seems to me the first and sometimes the second volume afford + examples of the use of words not so simple as might be; not + objectionable in themselves, but unless something is gained in the + way of strength or of colouring it is best to use the most simple, + _unnoticeable_ words to express ordinary things; _e.g._ 'to send' + is better than 'to transmit'; 'crown descended' better than + 'devolved'; 'guns fired' than 'guns discharged'; 'to name,' or + 'call,' than 'to nominate'; 'to read' than 'peruse'; 'the term,' or + 'name,' than 'appellation,' and so forth. It is better also not to + encumber the sentence with long, lumbering nouns; as,'the + relinquishment of,' instead of 'relinquishing'; 'the embellishment + and fortification of,' instead of 'embellishing and fortifying'; + and so forth. I can discern no other warrant for Master Ford's + criticism than the occasional use of these and similar words on + such commonplace matters as would make the simpler forms of + expression preferable. In my third volume, I do not find the + language open to much censure." + +He also came to the following sensible decision which very materially +improved his subsequent writing:-- + + "I will not hereafter vex myself with anxious thoughts about my + style when composing. It is formed. And if there be any ground for + the imputation that it is too formal, it will only be made worse in + this respect by extra solicitude. It is not the defect to which I + am predisposed. The best security against it is to write with less + elaboration--a pleasant recipe which conforms to my previous views. + This determination will save me trouble and time. Hereafter what I + print shall undergo no ordeal for the style's sake except only the + grammar." + +Some other remarks of his may be here recorded, though they really +amount to nothing more than the discovery of the old truth, _le style +c'est l'homme_. + + "A man's style to be worth anything should be the natural + expression of his mental character.... The best undoubtedly for + every writer is the form of expression best suited to his peculiar + turn of thinking, even at some hazard of violating the conventional + tone of the most chaste and careful writers. It is this alone which + can give full force to his thoughts. Franklin's style would have + borne more ornament--Washington Irving could have done with + less--Johnson and Gibbon might have had much less formality, and + Hume and Goldsmith have occasionally pointed their sentences with + more effect. But, if they had abandoned the natural suggestions of + their genius and aimed at the contrary, would they not in mending a + hole, as Scott says, have very likely made two?... Originality--the + originality of nature--compensates for a thousand minor + blemishes.... The best rule is to dispense with all rules except + those of grammar, and to consult the natural bent of one's genius." + +Thereafter Prescott held to his resolution so far as concerned the first +draft of what he wrote. He always, however, before publication, asked +his friends to read and criticise what he had written, and he used also +to employ readers to go over his pages with great minuteness, making +notes which he afterwards passed upon, rejecting most of the +suggestions, but nevertheless adopting a good many. + +From the point of view of historical accuracy, _Ferdinand and Isabella_ +is a solid piece of work. The original sources to which Prescott had +access were numerous and valuable. Discrepancies and contradictions he +sifted out with patience and true critical acumen. He overlooked +nothing, not even those "still-born manuscripts" whose writers recorded +their experiences for the pure pleasure of setting down the truth. Ford +very justly said, regarding Prescott's notes: "Of the accuracy of his +quotations and references we cannot speak too highly; they stamp a +guarantee on his narrative; they enable us to give a reason for our +faith; they furnish means of questioning and correcting the author +himself; they enable readers to follow up any particular subject suited +to their own idiosyncrasy." It is only in that part of the book which +relates to the Arab domination in Spain that Prescott's work is +unsatisfactory; and even there it represents a distinct advance upon his +predecessors, both French and Spanish. At the time when he wrote, it +would, indeed, have been impossible for him to secure greater accuracy; +because the Arabic manuscripts contained in the Escurial had not been +opened to the inspection of investigators; and, moreover, a knowledge of +the language in which they were written would have been essential to +their proper use. In default of these sources, Prescott gave too much +credence to Casiri, and especially to Condé's history which had appeared +not long before, but which had been hastily written, so that it +contained some serious misstatements and inconsistencies. Condé, +although he professed to have gone to the original records in Arabic, +had in reality got most of his information at second hand from Cardonne +and Marmol. Hence, Prescott's chapters on the Arabs in Spain, although +they appear to the general reader to represent exact and solid +knowledge, are in fact inaccurate in parts. In other respects, however, +the most modern historical scholarship has detected no serious flaws in +_Ferdinand and Isabella_. Such defects as the book possesses are +negative rather than positive, and they are really due to the author's +cast of mind. Prescott, was not, and he never became, a philosophical +historian. His gift was for synthesis rather than for analysis. He was +an industrious gatherer of facts, an impartial judge of evidence, a +sympathetic and accurate narrator of events. He could not, however, +firmly grasp the underlying causes of what he superficially, observed, +nor penetrate the very heart of things. His power of generalisation was +never strong. There is a certain lack also, especially in this first one +of his historical compositions, of a due appreciation of character. He +describes the great actors in his drama,--Ferdinand, Isabella, Columbus, +Ximenes, and Gonsalvo de Cordova,--and what he says of them is eminently +true; yet, somehow or other, he fails to make them live. They are +stately figures that move in a majestic way across one's field of +vision; yet it is their outward bearing and their visible acts that he +makes us know, rather than the interplay of motive and temperament which +impelled them. His taste, indeed, is decidedly for the splendid and the +spectacular. Kings, princes, nobles, warriors, and statesmen crowd his +pages. Perhaps they satisfied the starved imagination of the New +Englander, whose own life was lived amid surroundings antithetically +prosaic. Certain it is, that, in dwelling upon a memorable epoch, he +omitted all consideration of a stratum of society which underlay the +surface which alone he saw. A few more years, and the fifteenth-century +_picaro_, the common man, the trader, and the peasant were destined to +emerge from the humble position to which the usages of chivalry had +consigned them. The invention of gunpowder and the use of it in war soon +swept away the advantage which the knight in armour had possessed as +against the humble foot-soldier who followed him. The discovery of +America and the opening of new lands teeming with treasures for their +conquerors roused and stimulated the consciousness of the lower orders. +Before long, the man-at-arms, the musketeer, and the artilleryman +attained a consequence which the ordinary fighting man had never had +before. After these had gone forth as adventurers into the New World, +they brought back with them not only riches wrested from the helpless +natives whom they had subdued, but a spirit of freedom verging even upon +lawlessness, which leavened the whole stagnant life of Europe. Then, for +the first time, such as had been only pawns in the game of statesmanship +and war became factors to be anxiously considered. Even literature then +takes notice of them, and for the first time they begin to influence the +course of modern history. A philosophical historian, therefore, would +have looked beyond the _ricos hombres_, and would have revealed to us, +at least in part, the existence and the mode of life of that great mass +of swarming humanity with which the statesman and the feudal lord had +soon to reckon. + +As it was, however, Prescott saw the obvious rather than the recondite. +Within the field which he had marked out, his work was admirably done. +He delineated clearly and impartially the events of a splendid epoch +wherein the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united under two +far-seeing sovereigns, and wherein the power of Spanish feudalism was +broken, the prestige of France and Portugal brought low, the Moors +expelled, and Spain consolidated into one united kingdom from the +Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, while a new and unknown world was opened +for the expansion and enrichment of the old. He well deserved the praise +which a Spanish critic and scholar[29] gave him of having written in a +masterly manner one of the most successful historical productions of the +century in which he lived. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE "CONQUEST OF MEXICO" AS LITERATURE AND AS HISTORY + + +Regarded simply from the standpoint of literary criticism, the _Conquest +of Mexico_ is Prescott's masterpiece. More than that, it is one of the +most brilliant examples which the English language possesses of literary +art applied to historical narration. Its theme is one which contains all +the elements of the romantic,--the chivalrous daring which boldly +attempts the seemingly impossible, the struggle of the few against +overwhelming odds, the dauntless heroism which never quails in the +presence of defeat, desertion, defiance, or disaster, the spectacle of +the forces of one civilisation arrayed against those of another, the +white man striving for supremacy over the red man, and finally, the True +Faith in arms against a bloody form of paganism. In Prescott's treatment +of this theme we find displayed the conscious skill of the born artist +who subordinates everything to the dramatic development of the central +motive. The style is Prescott's at its best,--not terse and pointed like +Macaulay's, nor yet so intimately persuasive as that of Parkman, but +nevertheless free, flowing, and often stately--the fit instrument of +expression for a sensitive and noble mind. Finally, in this book +Prescott shows a power of depicting character that is far beyond his +wont, so that his heroes are not lay figures but living men. We need +not wonder, then, if the _Conquest of Mexico_ has held its own, as +literature, and if to-day it is as widely read and with the same +breathless interest as in the years when the world first felt the +fascination of so great a literary achievement. + +When we come to analyse the structure of the narrative, we find that one +secret of its effectiveness lies in its artistic unity. Prescott had +studied very carefully the manner in which Irving had written the story +of Columbus, and he learned a valuable lesson from the defects of his +contemporary. In a memorandum dated March 21, 1841, he set down some +very shrewd remarks. + + "Have been looking over Irving's _Columbus_ also. A beautiful + composition, but fatiguing as a whole to the reader. Why? The fault + is partly in the subject, partly in the manner of treating it. The + discovery of a new world ... is a magnificent theme in itself, full + of sublimity and interest. But it terminates with the discovery; + and, unfortunately, this is made before half of the first volume is + disposed of. All after that event is made up of little + details,--the sailing from one petty island to another, all + inhabited sailing from one petty island to another, all inhabited + by savages, and having the same general character. Nothing can be + more monotonous, and, of course, more likely to involve the writer + in barren repetition.... Irving should have abridged this part of + his story, and instead of four volumes, have brought it into + two.... The conquest of Mexico, though very inferior in the leading + idea which forms its basis to the story of Columbus, is, on the + whole, a far better subject; since the event is sufficiently grand, + and, as the catastrophe is deferred, the interest is kept up + through the whole. Indeed, the perilous adventures and crosses with + which the enterprise was attended, the desperate chances and + reverses and unexpected vicissitudes, all serve to keep the + interest alive. On my plan, I go on with Cortés to his death. But + I must take care not to make this tail-piece too long." + +This is a bit of very accurate criticism; and the plan which Prescott +formed was executed in a manner absolutely faultless. Never for a moment +is there a break in the continuity of its narrative. Never for a moment +do we lose sight of the central and inspiring figure of Cortés fighting +his way, as it were, single-handed against the intrigues of his own +countrymen, the half-heartedness of his followers, the obstacles of +nature, and the overwhelming forces of his Indian foes, to a superb and +almost incredible success. Everything in the narrative is subordinated +to this. Every event is made to bear directly upon the development of +this leading motive. The art of Prescott in this book is the art of a +great dramatist who keeps his eye and brain intent upon the true +catastrophe, in the light of which alone the other episodes possess +significance. To the general reader this supreme moment comes when +Cortés makes his second entry into Mexico, returning over "the black and +blasted environs," to avenge the horrors of the _noche triste_, and in +one last tremendous assault upon the capital to destroy forever the +power of the Aztecs and bring Guatemozin into the possession of his +conqueror. What follows after is almost superfluous to one who reads the +story for the pure enjoyment which it gives. It is like the last chapter +of some novels, appended to satisfy the curiosity of those who wish to +know "what happened after." In nothing has Prescott shown his literary +tact more admirably than in compressing this record of the aftermath of +Conquest within the limit of some hundred pages. + +The superiority of the _Conquest of Mexico_ to all the rest of +Prescott's works is sufficiently proved by one unquestioned fact. Though +we read his other books with pleasure and unflagging interest, the +_Conquest of Mexico_ alone stamps upon our minds the memory of certain +episodes which are told so vividly as never to be obliterated. We may +never open the book again; yet certain pages remain part and parcel of +our intellectual possessions. In them Prescott has risen to a height of +true greatness as a story-teller, and masterful word-painter. Of these, +for example, is the account of the burning of the ships,[30] when +Cortés, by destroying his fleet, cuts off from his wavering troops all +hope of a return home except as conquerors, and when, facing them, in +imminent peril of death at their hands, his manly eloquence so kindles +their imagination and stirs their fighting blood as to make them shout, +"To Mexico! To Mexico!" Another striking passage is that which tells of +what happened in Cholula, where the little army of Spaniards, after +being received with a show of cordial hospitality, learn that the +treacherous Aztecs have laid a plot for their extermination.[31] + + "That night was one of deep anxiety to the army. The ground they + stood on seemed loosening beneath their feet, and any moment might + be the one marked for their destruction. Their vigilant general + took all possible precautions for their safety, increasing the + number of sentinels, and posting his guns in such a manner as to + protect the approaches to the camp. His eyes, it may well be + believed, did not close during the night. Indeed, every Spaniard + lay down in his arms, and every horse stood saddled and bridled, + ready for instant service. But no assault was meditated by the + Indians, and the stillness of the hour was undisturbed except by + the occasional sounds heard in a populous city, even when buried in + slumber, and by the hoarse cries of the priests from the turrets of + the _teocallis_, proclaiming through their trumpets the watches of + the night."[32] + +Here is true literary art used to excite in the reader the same +fearfulness and apprehension which the Spaniards themselves experienced. +The last sentence has a peculiar and indescribable effect upon the +nerves, so that in the following chapter we feel something of the +exultation of the Castilian soldier when morning breaks, and Cortés +receives the Cholulan chiefs, astounds them by revealing that he knows +their plot, and then, before they can recover from their thunderstruck +amazement, orders a general attack upon the Indians who have stealthily +gathered to destroy the white men. The battle-scene which follows and of +which a part is quoted here, is unsurpassed by any other to be found in +modern history. + + "Cortés had placed his battery of heavy guns in a position that + commanded the avenues, and swept off the files of the assailants as + they rushed on. In the intervals between the discharges, which, in + the imperfect state of the science in that day, were much longer + than in ours, he forced back the press by charging with the horse + into the midst. The steeds, the guns, the weapons of the Spaniards, + were all new to the Cholulans. Notwithstanding the novelty of the + terrific spectacle, the flash of fire-arms mingling with the + deafening roar of the artillery as its thunders reverberated among + the buildings, the despairing Indians pushed on to take the places + of their fallen comrades. + + "While this fierce struggle was going forward, the Tlascalans, + hearing the concerted signal, had advanced with quick pace into the + city. They had bound, by order of Cortés, wreaths of sedge round + their heads, that they might the more surely be distinguished from + the Cholulans. Coming up in the very heat of the engagement, they + fell on the defenceless rear of the townsmen, who, trampled down + under the heels of the Castilian cavalry on one side, and galled by + their vindictive enemies on the other, could no longer maintain + their ground. They gave way, some taking refuge in the nearest + buildings, which, being partly of wood, were speedily set on fire. + Others fled to the temples. One strong party, with a number of + priests at its head, got possession of the great _teocalli_. There + was a vulgar tradition, already alluded to, that on removal of part + of the walls the god would send forth an inundation to overwhelm + his enemies. The superstitious Cholulans with great difficulty + succeeded in wrenching away some of the stones in the walls of the + edifice. But dust, not water, followed. Their false god deserted + them in the hour of need. In despair they flung themselves into the + wooden turrets that crowned the temple, and poured down stones, + javelins, and burning arrows on the Spaniards, as they climbed the + great staircase which, by a flight of one hundred and twenty steps, + scaled the face of the pyramid. But the fiery shower fell harmless + on the steel bonnets of the Christians, while they availed + themselves of the burning shafts to set fire to the wooden citadel, + which was speedily wrapt in flames. Still the garrison held out, + and though quarter, _it is said_, was offered, only one Cholulan + availed himself of it. The rest threw themselves headlong from the + parapet, or perished miserably in the flames. + + "All was now confusion and uproar in the fair city which had so + lately reposed in security and peace. The groans of the dying, the + frantic supplications of the vanquished for mercy, were mingled + with the loud battle-cries of the Spaniards as they rode down their + enemy, and with the shrill whistle of the Tlascalans, who gave full + scope to the long-cherished rancour of ancient rivalry. The tumult + was still further swelled by the incessant rattle of musketry and + the crash of falling timbers, which sent up a volume of flame that + outshone the ruddy light of morning, making altogether a hideous + confusion of sights and sounds that converted the Holy City into a + Pandemonium." + +This spirited description, which deserves comparison with Livy's picture +of the rout at Cannĉ, shows Prescott at his best. In it he has shaken +off every trace of formalism and of leisurely repose. His blood is up. +The short, nervous sentences, the hurry of the narrative, the rapid +onrush of events, rouse the reader and fill him with the true +battle-spirit. Of an entirely different _genre_ is the account of the +entrance of the Spanish army into Mexico as Montezuma's guest, and of +the splendid city which they beheld,--the broad streets coated with a +hard cement, the intersecting canals, the inner lake darkened by +thousands of canoes, the great market-places, the long vista of snowy +mansions, their inner porticoes embellished with porphyry and jasper, +and the fountains of crystal water leaping up and glittering in the +sunlight. Memorable, too, is the scene of the humiliation of Montezuma +when, having come as a friend to the quarters of the Spaniards, he is +fettered like a slave; and that other scene, no less painful, where the +fallen monarch appears upon the walls and begs his people to desist from +violence, only to be greeted with taunts and insults, and a shower of +stones. + +But most impressive of all and most unforgettable is the story of the +_noche triste_--the Spanish army and their Indian allies stealing +silently and at dead of night out of the city which but a short time +before they had entered with so brave a show. + + "The night was cloudy, and a drizzling rain, which fell without + intermission, added to the obscurity. The great square before the + palace was deserted, as, indeed, it had been since the fall of + Montezuma. Steadily, and as noiselessly as possible, the Spaniards + held their way along the great street of Tlacopan, which so lately + had resounded with the tumult of battle. All was now hushed in + silence; and they were only reminded of the past by the occasional + presence of some solitary corpse, or a dark heap of the slain, + which too plainly told where the strife had been hottest. As they + passed along the lanes and alleys which opened into the great + street, or looked down the canals, whose polished surface gleamed + with a sort of ebon lustre through the obscurity of night, they + easily fancied that they discerned the shadowy forms of their foe + lurking in ambush and ready to spring on them. But it was only + fancy; and the city slept undisturbed even by the prolonged echoes + of the tramp of the horses and the hoarse rumbling of the artillery + and baggage-trains. At length, a lighter space beyond the dusky + line of buildings showed the van of the army that it was emerging + on the open causeway. They might well have congratulated themselves + on having thus escaped the dangers of an assault in the city + itself, and that a brief time would place them in comparative + safety on the opposite shore. But the Mexicans were not all asleep. + + "As the Spaniards drew near the spot where the street opened on the + causeway, and were preparing to lay the portable bridge across the + uncovered breach, which now met their eyes, several Indian + sentinels, who had been stationed at this, as at the other + approaches to the city, took the alarm, and fled, rousing their + countrymen by their cries. The priests, keeping their night-watch + on the summit of the _teocallis_, instantly caught the tidings and + sounded their shells, while the huge drum in the desolate temple of + the war-god sent forth those solemn tones, which, heard only in + seasons of calamity, vibrated through every corner of the capital. + The Spaniards saw that no time was to be lost.... Before they had + time to defile across the narrow passage, a gathering sound was + heard, like that of a mighty forest agitated by the winds. It grew + louder and louder, while on the dark waters of the lake was heard a + plashing noise, as of many oars. Then came a few stones and arrows + striking at random among the hurrying troops. They fell every + moment faster and more furious, till they thickened into a terrible + tempest, while the very heavens were rent with the yells and + warcries of myriads of combatants, who seemed all at once to be + swarming over land and lake!" + +What reader of this passage can forget the ominous, melancholy note of +that great war drum? It is one of the most haunting things in all +literature--like the blood-stained hands of the guilty queen in +_Macbeth_, or the footprint on the sand in _Robinson Crusoe_, or the +chill, mirthless laughter of the madwoman in _Jane Eyre_. + +One other splendidly vital passage is that which recounts the last great +agony on the retreat from Mexico. The shattered remnants of the army of +Cortés are toiling slowly onward to the coast, faint with famine and +fatigue, deprived of the arms which in their flight they had thrown +away, and harassed by their dusky enemies, who hover about them, calling +out in tones of menace, "Hasten on! You will soon find yourselves where +you cannot escape!" + + "As the army was climbing the mountain steeps which shut in the + Valley of Otompan, the vedettes came in with the intelligence that + a powerful body was encamped on the other side, apparently awaiting + their approach. The intelligence was soon confirmed by their own + eyes, as they turned the crest of the sierra, and saw spread out, + below, a mighty host, filling up the whole depth of the valley, and + giving to it the appearance, from the white cotton mail of the + warriors, of being covered with snow.... As far as the eye could + reach, were to be seen shields and waving banners, fantastic + helmets, forests of shining spears, the bright feather-mail of the + chief, and the coarse cotton panoply of his follower, all mingled + together in wild confusion and tossing to and fro like the billows + of a troubled ocean. It was a sight to fill the stoutest heart + among the Christians with dismay, heightened by the previous + expectation of soon reaching the friendly land which was to + terminate their wearisome pilgrimage. Even Cortés, as he + contrasted the tremendous array before him with his own diminished + squadrons, wasted by disease and enfeebled by hunger and fatigue, + could not escape the conviction that his last hour had + arrived."[33] + +But it is not merely in vivid narration and description of events that +the _Conquest of Mexico_ attains so rare a degree of excellence. Here, +as nowhere else, has Prescott succeeded in delineating character. All +the chief actors of his great historic drama not only live and breathe, +but they are as distinctly differentiated as they must have been in +life. Cortés and his lieutenants are persons whom we actually come to +know in the pages of Prescott, just as in the pages of Xenophon we come +to know Clearchus and the adventurous generals who, like Cortés, made +their way into the heart of a great empire and faced barbarians in +battle. The comparison between Xenophon and Prescott is, indeed, a very +natural one, and it was made quite early after the appearance of the +_Ferdinand and Isabella_ by an English admirer, Mr. Thomas Grenville. +Calling upon this gentleman one day, Mr. Everett found him in his +library reading Xenophon's _Anabasis_ in the original Greek. Mr. Everett +made some casual remark upon the merits of that book, whereupon Mr. +Grenville holding up a volume of _Ferdinand and Isabella_ said, "Here is +one far superior."[34] + +Xenophon's character-drawing was done in his own way, briefly and in +dry-point; yet Clearchus, Proxenus, and Menon are not more subtly +distinguished from each other than are Cortés, Sandoval, and Alvarado. +Cortés is very real,--a bold, martial figure, the ideal man of action, +gallant in bearing and powerful of physique, tireless, confident, and +exerting a magnetic influence over all who come into his presence; +gifted also with a truly Spanish craft, and not without a touch of +Spanish cruelty. Sandoval is the true knight,--loyal, devoted to his +chief, wise, and worthy of all trust. Alvarado is the reckless +man-at-arms,--daring to desperation, hot-tempered, fickle, and +passionate, yet with all his faults a man to extort one's liking, even +as he compelled the Aztecs to admire him for his intrepidity and +frankness. Over against these three brilliant figures stands the +melancholy form of Montezuma, around whom, even from the first, one +feels gathering the darkness of his coming fate. He reminds one of some +hero of Greek tragedy, doomed to destruction and intensely conscious of +it, yet striving in vain against the decree of an inexorable destiny. +One recalls him as he is described when the head of a Spanish soldier +had been cut off and sent to him. + + "It was uncommonly large and covered with hair; and, as Montezuma + gazed on the ferocious features, rendered more horrible by death, + he seemed to read in them the dark lineaments of the destined + destroyers of his house. He turned from it with a shudder, and + commanded that it should be taken from the city, and not offered at + the shrine of any of his gods."[35] + +The contrast between this dreamy, superstitious, half-hearted, and +almost womanish prince and his successor Guatemozin is splendidly worked +out. Guatemozin's fierce patriotism, his hatred of the Spaniards, his +ferocity in battle, and his stubborn unwillingness to yield are +displayed with consummate art, yet in such a way as to win one's +sympathy for him without estranging it from those who conquered him. A +touch of sentiment is delicately infused into the whole narrative of the +Conquest by the manner in which Prescott has treated the relations of +Cortés and the Indian girl, Marina. Here we find interesting evidence of +Prescott's innate purity of mind and thought, for he undoubtedly +idealised this girl and suppressed, or at any rate passed over very +lightly, the truth which Bernal Diaz, on the other hand, sets forth with +the blunt coarseness of a foul-mouthed old soldier.[36] No one would +gather from Prescott's pages that Marina had been the mistress of other +men before Cortés. Nor do we get any hint from him that Cortés wearied +of her in the end, and thrust her off upon one of his captains whom he +made drunk in order to render him willing to go through the forms of +marriage with her. In Prescott's narrative she is lovely, graceful, +generous, and true; and the only hint that is given of her former life +is found in the statement that "she had her errors."[37] To his readers +she is, after a fashion, the heroine of the Conquest,--the tender, +affectionate companion of the Conqueror, sharing his dangers or averting +them, and not seldom mitigating by her influence the sternness of his +character. Another instance of Prescott's delicacy of mind is found in +the way in which he glides swiftly over the whole topic of the position +which women occupied among the Aztecs, although his Spanish sources were +brutally explicit on this point. There were some things, therefore, +from which Prescott shrank instinctively and in which he allowed his +sensitive modesty to soften and refine upon the truth. + +The mention of this circumstance leads one to consider the much-mooted +question as to how far the _Conquest of Mexico_ may be accepted as +veracious history. Is it history at all or is it, as some have said, +historical romance? Are we to classify it with such books as those of +Ranke and Parkman, whose brilliancy of style is wholly compatible with +scrupulous fidelity to historic fact, or must we think of it as verging +upon the category of romances built up around the material which history +affords--with books like _Ivanhoe_ and _Harold_ and _Salammbô_? In the +years immediately following its publication, Prescott's great work was +accepted as indubitably accurate. His imposing array of foot-notes, his +thorough acquaintance with the Spanish chronicles, and the unstinted +approval given to him by contemporary historians inspired in the public +an implicit faith. Then, here and there, a sceptic began to raise his +head, and to question, not the good faith of Prescott, but rather the +value of the very sources upon which Prescott's history had been built. +As a matter of fact, long before Prescott's time, the reports and +narratives of the conquerors had in parts been doubted. As early as the +eighteenth century Lafitau, the Jesuit missionary, in a treatise +published in 1723,[38] had discussed with great acuteness some questions +of American ethnology in a spirit of scientific criticism; and later in +the same century, James Adair had gathered valuable material in the same +department of knowledge.[39] Even earlier, the Spanish Jesuit, José de +Acosta, had published a treatise which exhibits traces of a critical +method.[40] Again, Robertson, in his _History of America_ (a book, by +the way, which Prescott had studied very carefully), shows an +independence of attitude and an acumen which find expression in a +definite disagreement with much that had been set down by the Spanish +chroniclers. Such criticism as these and other isolated writers had +brought to bear was directed against that part of the accepted tradition +which relates to the Aztec civilisation. Prescott, following the notices +of Las Casas, Herrera, Bernal Diaz, Oviedo, Cortés himself, and the +writer who is known as the _conquistador anonimo_, had simply weighed +the assertions of one as against those of another, striving to reconcile +their discrepancies of statement and following one rather than the +other, according to the apparent preponderance of probability. He did +not, however, perceive in these discrepancies the clue which might have +guided him, as it subsequently did others, to a clearer understanding of +the actual facts. Therefore, he has painted for us the Mexico of +Montezuma in gorgeous colours, seeing in it a great Empire, possessed of +a civilisation no less splendid than that of Western Europe, and +exhibiting a political and social system comparable with that which +Europeans knew. The magnificence and wealth of this fancied Empire gave, +indeed, the necessary background to his story of the Conquest. It was a +stage setting which raised the exploits of the conquerors to a lofty +and almost epic altitude. + +The first serious attempt directly to discredit the accuracy of this +description was made by an American writer, Mr. Robert A. Wilson. Wilson +was an enthusiastic amateur who took a particular interest in the +ethnology of the American Indians. He had travelled in Mexico. He knew +something of the Indians of our Western territory, and he had read the +Spanish chroniclers. The result of his observations was a thorough +disbelief in the traditional picture of Aztec civilisation. He, +therefore, set out to demolish it and to offer in its place a substitute +based upon such facts as he had gathered and such theories as he had +formed. After publishing a preliminary treatise which attracted some +attention, he wrote a bulky volume entitled _A New History of the +Conquest of Mexico_.[41] In the introduction to this book he declares +that his visit to Mexico had shaken his belief "in those Spanish +historic romances upon which Mr. Prescott has founded his magnificent +tale of the conquest of Mexico." He adds that the despatches of Cortés +are the only valuable written authority, and that these consist of two +distinct parts,--first, "an accurate detail of adventures consistent +throughout with the topography of the region in which they occurred"; +and second, "a mass of foreign material, apparently borrowed from fables +of the Moorish era, for effect in Spain." "It was not in great battles, +but in a rapid succession of skirmishes, that he distinguished himself +and won the character ... of an adroit leader in Indian war." Wilson +endeavours to show, in the first place, that the Aztecs were simply a +branch of the American Indian race; that their manners and customs were +essentially those of the more northern tribes; that the origin of the +whole race was Phoenician; and that the Spanish account of early +Mexico is almost wholly fabulous. Writing of the different historians of +the Conquest, he mentions Prescott in the following words:-- + + "A more delicate duty remains,--to speak freely of an American + whose success in the field of literature has raised him to the + highest rank. His talents have not only immortalised himself--they + have added a new charm to the subject of his histories. He showed + his faith by the expenditure of a fortune at the commencement of + his enterprise, in the purchase of books and Mss. relating to + 'America of the Spaniards.' These were the materials out of which + he framed his two histories of the two aboriginal empires, Mexico + and Peru. At the time these works were written he could not have + had the remotest idea of the circumstances under which his Spanish + authorities had been produced, or of the external pressure that + gave them their peculiar form and character. He could hardly + understand that peculiar organisation of Spanish society through + which one set of opinions might be uniformly expressed in public, + while the intellectual classes in secret entertain entirely + opposite ones. He acted throughout in the most perfect good faith; + and if, on a subsequent scrutiny, his authorities have proved to be + the fabulous creations of Spanish-Arabian fancy, he is not in + fault. They were the standards when he made use of them--a + sufficient justification of his acts. 'This beautiful world we + inhabit,' said an East Indian philosopher, 'rests on the back of a + mighty elephant; the elephant stands on the back of a monster + turtle; the turtle rests upon a serpent; and the serpent on + nothing.' Thus stand the literary monuments Mr. Prescott has + constructed. They are castles resting upon a cloud which reflects + an eastern sunrise upon a western horizon." + +This book appeared in the year of Prescott's death, and he himself made +no published comment on it. A very sharp notice, however, was written +by some one who did not sign his name, but who was undoubtedly very near +to Prescott.[42] The writer of this notice had little difficulty in +showing that Wilson was a very slipshod investigator; that he was in +many respects ignorant of the very authorities whom he attempted to +refute; and that as a writer he was very crude indeed. Some portions of +this paper may be quoted, mainly because they sum up such of Mr. +Wilson's points as were in reality important. The first paragraph has +also a somewhat personal interest. + + "Directly and knowingly, as we shall hereafter show, he has availed + himself of Mr. Prescott's labours to an extent which demanded the + most ample 'acknowledgment.' No such acknowledgment is made. But we + beg to ask Mr. Wilson whether there were not other reasons why he + should have spoken of this eminent writer, if not with deference, + at least with respect. He himself informs us that 'most kindly + relations' existed between them. If we are not misinformed, Mr. + Wilson opened the correspondence by modestly requesting the loan of + Mr. Prescott's collection of works relating to Mexican history, for + the purpose of enabling him to write a refutation of the latter's + History of the Conquest. That the replies which he received were + courteous and kindly, we need hardly say. He was informed, that, + although the constant use made of the collection by its possessor + for the correction of his own work must prevent a full compliance + with this request, yet any particular books which he might + designate should be sent to him, and, if he were disposed to make a + visit to Boston, the fullest opportunities should be granted him + for the prosecution of his researches. This invitation Mr. Wilson + did not think fit to accept. Books which were got in readiness for + transmission to him he failed to send for. He had, in the meantime, + discovered that 'the American standpoint' did not require any + examination of 'authorities.' We regret that it should also have + rendered superfluous an acquaintance with the customs of civilised + society. The tone in which he speaks of his distinguished + predecessor is sometimes amusing from the conceit which it + displays, sometimes disgusting from its impudence and coarseness. + He concedes Mr. Prescott's good faith in the use of his materials. + It was only his ignorance and want of the proper qualifications + that prevented him from using them aright 'His non-acquaintance + with Indian character is much to be regretted.' Mr. Wilson himself + enjoys, as he tells us, the inestimable advantage of being the son + of an adopted member of the Iroquois tribe. Nay, 'his ancestors, + for several generations, dwelt near the Indian agency at Cherry + Valley, on Wilson's Patent, though in Cooperstown village was he + born.' We perceive the author's fondness for the inverted style in + composition,--acquired, perhaps, in the course of his long study of + aboriginal oratory. Even without such proofs, and without his own + assertion of the fact, it would not have been difficult, we think, + to conjecture his familiarity with the forms of speech common among + barbarous nations.... + + "Mr. Wilson ... has found, from his own observation,--the only + source of knowledge, if such it can be called, on which he is + willing to place much reliance,--that the Ojibways and Iroquois are + savages, and he rightly argues that their ancestors must have been + savages. From these premises, without any process of reasoning, he + leaps at once to the conclusion, that in no part of America could + the aboriginal inhabitants ever have lived in any other than a + savage state. Hence he tells us, that, in all statements regarding + them, everything 'must be rejected that is inconsistent with + well-established Indian traits.' The ancient Mexican empire was, + according to his showing, nothing more than one of those + confederacies of tribes with which the reader of early New England + history is perfectly familiar. The far-famed city of Mexico was 'an + Indian village of the first class,'--such, we may hope, as that + which the author saw on his visit to the Massasaugus, where, to his + immense astonishment, he found the people 'clothed, and in their + right minds.' The Aztecs, he argues, could not have built temples, + for the Iroquois do not build temples. The Aztecs could not have + been idolaters or offered up human sacrifices, for the Iroquois are + not idolaters and do not offer up human sacrifices. The Aztecs + could not have been addicted to cannibalism, for the Iroquois never + eat human flesh, unless driven to it by hunger. This is what Mr. + Wilson means by the 'American standpoint'; and those who adopt his + views may consider the whole question settled without any debate." +... + + "If, at Mr. Wilson's summons, we reject as improbable a series of + events supported by far stronger evidence than can be adduced for + the conquests of Alexander, the Crusades, or the Norman conquest of + England, what is it, we may ask, that he calls upon us to believe? + His scepticism, as so often happens, affords the measure of his + credulity. He contends that Cortés, the greatest Spaniard of the + sixteenth century, a man little acquainted with books, but endowed + with a gigantic genius and with all the qualities requisite for + success in warlike enterprises and an adventurous career, had his + brain so filled with the romances of chivalry, and so preoccupied + with reminiscences of the Spanish contests with the Moslems, that + he saw in the New World nothing but duplicates of those + contests,--that his heated imagination turned wigwams into palaces, + Indian villages into cities like Granada, swamps into lakes, a + tribe of savages into an empire of civilised men,--that, in the + midst of embarrassments and dangers which, even on Mr. Wilson's + showing, must have taxed all his faculties to the utmost, he + employed himself chiefly in coining lies with which to deceive his + imperial master and all the inhabitants of Christendom,--that, + although he had a host of powerful enemies among his countrymen, + enemies who were in a position to discover the truth, his + statements passed unchallenged and uncontradicted by them,--that + the numerous adventurers and explorers who followed in his track, + instead of exposing the falsity of his relations and descriptions, + found their interest in embellishing the narrative." + +Of course Wilson's book was unscientific to a degree, with its +Phoenician theories, its estimate of Spanish sources of information, +and its assorted ignorance of many things. Its author, had, however, +stumbled upon a bit of truth which no ridicule could shake, and which +proved fruitful in suggestion to a very different kind of investigator. +This was Mr. Lewis Henry Morgan, an important name in the history of +American ethnological study. As a young man Morgan had felt an interest +in the American Indian, which developed into a very unusual enthusiasm. +It led him ultimately to spend a long time among the Iroquois, studying +their tribal organisation and social phenomena. He embodied the +knowledge so obtained in a book entitled _The League of the +Iroquois_,[43] a truly epoch-making work, though the author himself was +at the time wholly unaware of its far-reaching importance. This book +described the forms of government, the social organisation, the manners +and the customs of the Iroquois, with great accuracy and thoroughness. +Seven years later, Morgan happened to fall in with a camp of Ojibway +Indians, and found to his astonishment that their tribal customs were +practically identical with those of the Iroquois. While this coincidence +was fresh in his mind, Morgan read Wilson's iconoclastic book on Mexico. +The suggestion made by Wilson that the Aztec civilisation was +essentially the same as that of the northern tribes of Red Indians did +much to crystallise the hypothesis which has now been definitely +established as a fact. + +Those who do not care to read a long series of monographs and several +large volumes in order to arrive at a knowledge of what recent +ethnologists hold as true of Ancient Mexico may find the essence of +accepted doctrine somewhat divertingly set forth in a paper written by +Mr. Morgan in criticism of H. H. Bancroft's _Native Races of the Pacific +States_. Mr. Morgan's paper is entitled "Montezuma's Dinner."[44] In it +the statement is briefly made that the Aztecs were simply one branch of +the same Red Race which extended all over the American Continent; that +their forms of government, their usages, and their occupations were not +in kind different from those of the Iroquois, the Ojibways, or any other +of the North American Indian tribes. These institutions and customs +found no analogues among civilised nations, and could not, in their day, +be explained in terms intelligible to contemporary Europeans. Hence, +when the Spaniards under Cortés discovered in Mexico a definite and +fully developed form of civilisation, instead of studying it on the +assumption that it might be different from their own, they described it, +as Mr. A. F. Bandelier has well said, "in terms of comparison selected +from types accessible to the limited knowledge of the times."[45] Thus, +they beheld in Montezuma an "emperor" surrounded by "kings," "princes," +"nobles," and "generals." His residence was to them an imperial palace. +His mode of life showed the magnificent and stately etiquette of a +European monarch, with lords-in-waiting, court jesters, pages, +secretaries, and household guards. In narrating all these things, the +first Spanish observers were wholly honest, although in their enthusiasm +they added many a touch of literary colour. Their records are +paralleled by those of the English explorers who, in New England, +thought they had found "kings" among the Pequods and Narragansetts, and +who, in Virginia, viewed Powhatan as an "emperor" and Pocahontas as a +"princess." That the Spaniards, like the English, wrote in ignorant good +faith, rather than with a desire to deceive, is shown by the fact that +they actually did record circumstances which even then, if critically +studied, would have shown the falsity of their general belief. Thus, as +Mr. Bandelier points out, the Spaniards tell of the Aztecs that they had +great wealth, reared great palaces, and acquired both scientific +knowledge and skill in art, while in mechanical appliances they remained +on the level of the savage, using stone and flint for tools and weapons, +making pottery without the potter's wheel, and weaving intricate +patterns with the hand-loom only. Equally inconsistent are the +statements that the Aztecs were mild, gentle, virtuous, and kind, and +yet that they sacrificed their prisoners with the most savage rites, +made war that they might secure more sacrificial victims, viewed +marriage as a barter, and regarded chastity as a restraint.[46] Still +further inconsistencies are to be found in the Spanish accounts of the +Aztec government. Montezuma, for instance, is picturesquely held to have +been an absolute ruler, one whose very name aroused awe and veneration +throughout the whole extent of his vast dominions; and yet it is +recorded that while still alive he was superseded by Guatemozin; and +even Acosta notes that there was a council without whose consent nothing +of importance could be done. In fact, under the solvent of Mr. Morgan's +criticism, the gorgeous Aztec empire of Cortés and Prescott shrinks to +very modest proportions. Montezuma is transformed from an hereditary +monarch into an elective war-chief. His dominions become a territory of +about the size of the state of Rhode Island. His capital appears as a +stronghold built amid marshes and surrounded by flat-roofed houses of +_adobe_; while his "palace" is a huge communal-house, built of stone and +lime, and inhabited by his gentile kindred, united in one household. The +magnificent feast which the Spaniards describe so lusciously,--the +throned king served by beautiful women and by stewards who knelt before +him without daring to lift their eyes, the dishes of gold and silver, +the red and black Cholulan jars filled with foaming chocolate, the +"ancient lords" attending at a distance, the orchestra of flutes, reeds, +horns, and kettle-drums, and the three thousand guards without--all this +is converted by Morgan into a sort of barbaric buffet-luncheon, with +Montezuma squatting on the floor, surrounded by his relatives in +breech-clouts, and eating a meal prepared in a common cook-house, +divided at a common kettle, and eaten out of an earthen bowl. + +One need not, however, lend himself to so complete a disillusionment as +Mr. Morgan in this paper seeks to thrust upon us. Still more recent +investigations, such as those of Brinton, McGee, and Bandelier, have +restored some of the prestige which Cortés and his followers attached to +the early Mexicans. While the Aztecs were very far from possessing a +monarchical form of government, and while their society was constituted +far differently from that of any European community, and while they are +to be studied simply as one division of the Red Indian race, they were +scarcely so primitive as Mr. Morgan would have us think. They differed +from their more northern kindred not, to be sure, in kind, but very +greatly in degree. Though we have to substitute the communal-house for +the palace, the war-chief for the king, and the tribal organisation for +the feudal system, there still remains a great and interesting people, +fully organised, rich, warlike, and highly skilled in their own arts. In +architecture, weaving, gold and silver work, and pottery, they achieved +artistic wonders. Their instinct for the decorative produced results +which justified the admiration of their conquerors. Their capital, +though it was not the immense city which the Spaniards saw, teeming with +a vast population, was, nevertheless, an imposing collection of +mansions, great and small, whose snowy whiteness, standing out against +the greenery and diversified by glimpses of water, might well impress +the imagination of European strangers. If the communal-houses lacked the +"golden cupolas" of Disraeli's Oriental fancy, neither were they the +"mud huts" which Wilson tells of. If Montezuma was not precisely an +occidental Charles the Fifth, neither is he to be regarded as an earlier +Sitting Bull. + +So far, then, as we have to modify Prescott's chapters which describe +the Mexico of Cortés, this modification consists largely in a mere +change of terminology. Following the Spanish records, he has accurately +reproduced just what the Spaniards saw, or thought they saw, in old +Tenochtitlan. He has looked at all things through their eyes; and such +errors as he made were the same errors which they had made while they +were standing in the great _pueblo_ which was to them the scene of so +much suffering and of so great a final triumph. When Prescott wrote, +there lived no man who could have gainsaid him. His story represents the +most accurate information which was then attainable. As Mr. Thorpe has +well expressed it: "No historian is responsible for not using +undiscovered evidence. Prescott wrote from the archives of Europe ... +from the European side. If one cares to know how the Old World first +understood the New, he will read Prescott." Even Morgan, who goes +further in his destructive criticism than any other authoritative +writer, admits that Prescott and his sources "may be trusted in whatever +relates to the acts of the Spaniards, and to the acts and personal +characteristics of the Indians; in whatever relates to their weapons, +implements and utensils, fabrics, food and raiment, and things of a +similar character." Only in what relates to their government, social +relations, and plan of life does the narrative need to be in part +rewritten. It is but fair to note that Prescott himself, in his +preliminary chapters on the Aztecs, is far from dogmatising. His +statements are made with a distinct reserve, and he acknowledges alike +the difficulty of the subject and his doubts as to the finality of what +he tells. Even in his descriptive passages, he is solicitous lest the +warm imagination of the Spanish chroniclers may have led them to throw +too high a light on what they saw. Thus, after ending his account of +Montezuma's household and the Aztec "court," drawn from the pages of +Bernal Diaz, Toribio, and Oviedo, he qualifies its gorgeousness in the +following sentence:[47] + + "Such is the picture of Montezuma's domestic establishment and way + of living as delineated by the Conquerors and their immediate + followers, who had the best means of information; too highly + coloured, it may be, by the proneness to exaggerate which was + natural to those who first witnessed a spectacle so striking to the + imagination, so new and unexpected." + +And in a foot-note on the same page he expressly warns the student of +history against the fanciful chapters of the Spaniards who wrote a +generation later, comparing their accounts with the stories in the +_Arabian Nights_. + +Putting aside, then, the single topic of Aztec ethnology and tribal +organisation, it remains to see how far the rest of Prescott's history +of the Conquest has stood the test of recent criticism. Here one finds +himself on firmer ground, and it may be asserted with entire confidence +that Prescott's accuracy cannot be impeached in aught that is essential +to the truth of history. His careful use of his authorities, and his +excellent judgment in checking the evidence of one by the evidence of +another, remain unquestioned. In one respect alone has fault been found +with him. His desire to avail himself of every possible aid caused him +to procure, often with great difficulty and at great expense, documents, +or copies of documents, which had hitherto been inaccessible to the +investigator. So far he was acting in the spirit of the truly scientific +scholar. But sometimes the very rarity of these new sources led him to +attach an undue value to them. Here and there he has followed them as +against the more accessible authorities, even when the latter were +altogether trustworthy. In this we find something of the passion of the +collector; and now and then in minor matters it has led him into +error.[48] Thus, in certain passages relating to the voyage of Cortés +from Havana, Prescott has misstated the course followed by the pilot, as +again with regard to the expedition from Santiago de Cuba[49]; and he +errs because he has followed a manuscript copy of Juan Diaz, overlooking +the obviously correct and consistent accounts of Bernal Diaz and other +standard chroniclers. There are similar though equally unimportant slips +elsewhere in his narrative, arising from the same cause. None of them, +however, affects the essential accuracy of his text. His masterpiece +stands to-day still fundamentally unshaken, a faithful and brilliant +panorama of a wonderful episode in history. Those who are inclined to +question its veracity do so, not because they can give substantial +reasons for their doubt, but because, perhaps, of the romantic colouring +which Prescott has infused into his whole narrative, because it is as +entertaining as a novel, and because he had the art to transmute the +acquisitions of laborious research into an enduring monument of pure +literature. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +"THE CONQUEST OF PERU"--"PHILIP II." + + +The _Conquest of Peru_ was, for the most part, written more rapidly than +any other of Prescott's histories. Much of the material necessary for it +had been acquired during his earlier studies, and with this material he +had been long familiar when he began to write. The book was, indeed, as +he himself described it, a pendant to the _Conquest of Mexico_. Had the +latter work not been written, it is likely that the _Conquest of Peru_ +would be now accepted as the most popular of Prescott's works. +Unfortunately, it is always subjected to a comparison with the other and +greater book, and therefore, relatively, it suffers. In the first place, +when so compared, it resembles an imperfect replica of the _Mexico_ +rather than an independent history. The theme is, in its nature, the +same, and so it lacks the charm of novelty. The exploits of Pizarro do +not merely recall to the modern reader the adventurous achievements of +Cortés, but, as a matter of fact, they were actually inspired by them. +Thus, Pizarro's march from the coast over the Andes closely resembles +the march of Cortés over the Cordilleras. His seizure of the Inca, +Atahualpa, was undoubtedly suggested to him by the seizure of Montezuma. +The massacre of the Peruvians in Caxamarca reads like a reminiscence of +the massacre of the Aztecs by Alvarado in Mexico. The fighting, if +fighting it may be called, presents the same features as are found in +the battles of Cortés. So far as there is any difference in the two +narratives, this difference is not in favour of the later book. If +Pizarro bears a likeness to Cortés, the likeness is but superficial. His +soul is the soul of Cortés _habitans in sicco_. There is none of the +frankness of the conqueror of Mexico, none of his chivalry, little of +his bluff good comradeship. Pizarro rather impresses one as +mean-spirited, avaricious, and cruel, so that we hold lightly his +undoubted courage, his persistency, and his endurance. Moreover, the +Peruvians are too feeble as antagonists to make the record of their +resistance an exciting one. They lack the ferocity of the Aztec +character, and when they are slaughtered by the white men, the tale is +far more pitiful than stirring. Even Prescott's art cannot make us feel +that there is anything romantic in the conquest and butchery of a flock +of sheep. The outrages perpetrated upon an effeminate people by their +Spanish masters form a long and dreary record of robbery and rape and it +is inevitably monotonous. + +Another fundamental defect in the subject which Prescott chose was +thoroughly appreciated by him. "Its great defect," he wrote in 1845, "is +want of unity. A connected tissue of adventures ... but not the especial +interest that belongs to the _Iliad_ and to the _Conquest of Mexico_." +In another memorandum (made in 1846) he calls his subject "second +rate,--quarrels of banditti over their spoils." This criticism is +absolutely just, and it well explains the inferiority of the story of +Peru when we contrast it with the book which went before. Up to the +capture of the Inca there is no lack of unity; but after that, the +stream of narration filters away in different directions, like some +river which grows broader and shallower until at last in a multitude of +little streams it disappears in dry and sandy soil. The fault is not the +fault of the writer. It is inherent in the subject. Nowhere has Prescott +written with greater skill. It is only that no display of literary art +can give dignity and distinction to that which in itself is unheroic and +sometimes even sordid. The one passage which stands out from all the +rest is that which sets before us the famous incident at Panama, when +Pizarro, at the head of his little band of followers, mutinous, +famished, and half-naked, still boldly scorns all thought of a return. + + "Drawing his sword he traced a line with it on the sand from East + to West. Then, turning towards the South, 'Friends and comrades!' + he said, 'on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching + storm, desertion, and death; on this side ease and pleasure. There + lies Peru with its riches; here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, + each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian. For my part, I go to + the South.' So saying, he stepped across the line." + +Here is an heroic event told with that simplicity which means +effectiveness. This is the one page in the _Peru_ where the narrator +makes us thrill with a sense of what, in its way, verges upon moral +sublimity. + +As to the historical value of the book, it stands in much the same +category as the _Conquest of Mexico_. All that relates to the actual +history of the Conquest is told with the same accurate regard for the +original authorities which Prescott always showed, and for this part of +the narrative, the original authorities are worthy of credence. The +preliminary chapters on Peruvian antiquities are less satisfactory even +than the corresponding portions of the other book. Prescott found them +very hard to write. He was conscious that the subject was a formidable +one. He did the best he could and all that any one could possibly have +done at the time in which he wrote. Even now, after the elaborate +explorations and researches of Bandelier, Markham, Baessler, Cunow, and +others, the social and political relations of the Peruvians are little +understood. Much has been learned of their art and of the monuments +which they have left behind; but of their institutional history the +records still remain obscure. The modern student, however, discovers +many indications that they, too, like the Aztecs, were of the Red Race, +and that their government was based upon the clan system; so that even +the Inca himself, like the Mexican war-chief, was merely the elected +executive of a council of the gentes. Here, as in Mexico, the Spaniards +carelessly described in terms of Europe the institutions which they +found, and made no serious attempt to understand them. Even the account +of the Peruvian religion which Prescott gives, in accordance with the +statements of the early Catholic missionaries, needs considerable +modification.[50] + +The Spanish chroniclers whom Prescott followed describe the Peruvians as +united under a great monarchy,--an "empire,"--the head of which, the +Inca, was an hereditary and absolute ruler, whose person was sacred in +that he was divine and the sole giver of law. The system was, therefore, +a theocratic one, with the chief priest appointed by the Inca. There was +a nobility, but the great offices of state were filled by the members +of the imperial family. The rule of the Inca extended over a vast +territory, and of it he was the supreme lord, having his wives from +among the Virgins of the Sun, the fifteen hundred beautiful maidens who +abode in the Palace of the Sun in Cuzco. Over the wonderful system of +roads which intersected the empire, the couriers of the Inca passed back +and forth with the commands of their master, to which all gave heed. The +Peruvian religion was strongly monotheistic in that it recognised the +unity, and preëminence of a supreme deity. + +Recent investigation has left practically nothing of this interesting +fiction which has been repeated by hundreds of writers with every +possible magnificence of detail. There was no "empire" of Peru. The +Indians of the coast governed themselves, though they sometimes paid +tribute to the Cuzco Indians. There was, however, no homogeneous +nationality. In the valley of Cuzco there was a tribe known as the Inca, +perhaps seventy thousand souls in all, who were locally divided into +twelve clans, each having its own government, and dwelling in its own +village or ward; for it was a combination of these twelve villages which +made up the whole settlement collectively styled Cuzco. A council of the +twelve clans chose a war-chief whom some of the other tribes called +"Inca," but who was not so called by his own people. He was not an +hereditary chief; he could be deposed; he had no especial sanctity. The +Virgins of the Sun were something very different from virgins. The road +system of the Peruvians really constituted no system at all. The nobles +were not nobles. The religion was not monotheistic, but embodied the +worship not only of sun, moon, and stars, but of rocks, mountains, stone +idols, and a variety of fetishes. Metal-work, pottery, weaving, and +building were the chief arts of the Peruvians; but in them all, +quaintness, utility, and permanence were more conspicuous than +beauty.[51] + +Disregarding, however, all questions of Peruvian archĉology, we may +accept the judgment passed upon the _Conquest of Peru_ by one of the +most eminent of modern investigators, Sir Clements Markham, who, as a +young man, knew Prescott well, and to whom the reading of this book +proved to be an inspiration in his chosen field. Long after Prescott's +death, and speaking with the fuller knowledge of the subject which he +had acquired, he declared of the Peru: "It deservedly stands in the +first rank as a judicious history of the Conquest." + +The _History of the Reign of Philip II._ remains an unfinished work. Its +subject, of course, provokes a comparison with the two brilliant +histories by Motley,--_The Rise of the Dutch Republic and The History of +the United Netherlands_. The interest in this comparison lies in the +view which each of the historians has taken of the gloomy Philip. The +contrasted temperaments of the two writers are well indicated in a +letter which Motley sent to Prescott after the first volume of _Philip +II._ had appeared. He wrote:-- + + "I can vouch for its extraordinary accuracy both of narration and + of portrait-painting. You do not look at people or events from my + point of view, but I am, therefore, a better witness to your + fairness and clearness of delineation and statement. You have by + nature the judicial mind which is the _costume de rigueur_ of all + historians.... I haven't the least of it--I am always in a passion + when I write and so shall be accused, very justly perhaps, of the + qualities for which Byron commended Mitford, 'wrath and + partiality.'" + +The two men, indeed, approached their subject in very different fashion. +In Motley, rigidly scientific though he was, there are always a touch of +emotion, a love of liberty, a hatred of oppression. He once wrote to his +father that it gratified him "to pitch into the Duke of Alva and Philip +II. to my heart's content." Prescott, on the other hand, was more +detached, partly because he was by nature tolerant and calm; and it may +be also because his protracted Spanish studies had given him +unconsciously the Spanish point of view. He even came at last to adopt +this theory himself, and he wrote of it in a humorous way. Thus to Lady +Lyell, he declared:-- + + "If I should go to heaven ... I shall find many acquaintances + there, and some of them very respectable, of the olden time.... + Don't you think I should have a kindly greeting from good Isabella? + Even Bloody Mary, I think, will smile on me; for I love the old + Spanish stock, the house of Trastamara. But there is one that I am + sure will owe me a grudge, and that is the very man I have been + making two good volumes upon. With all my good nature, I can't wash + him even into the darkest French grey. He is black and all + black.... Is it not charitable to give Philip a place in heaven?" + +Again, he styles Philip one "who may be considered as to other Catholics +what a Puseyite is to other Protestants." And elsewhere he confesses to +"a sneaking fondness for Philip." It was very like him, this hesitation +to condemn; and it recalls a memorandum which he made while writing his +_Peru_: "never call hard names à la Southey." Hence in a letter of his +to Motley, who had sent him a copy of the _Dutch Republic_,--a letter +which forms an interesting complement to Motley's note to him, he +wrote:-- + + "You have laid it on Philip rather hard. Indeed, you have whittled + him down to such an imperceptible point that there is hardly enough + of him left to hang a newspaper paragraph on, much less five or six + volumes of solid history as I propose to do. But then, you make it + up with your own hero, William of Orange, and I comfort myself with + the reflection that you are looking through a pair of Dutch + spectacles after all." + +Prescott's _Philip II_. raised no such questions of accuracy as followed +upon the publications of the Mexican and Peruvian histories. As in the +case of the _Ferdinand and Isabella_, the sources were unimpeachable, +first-hand, and contained the more intimate revelations of incident and +motive. There were no archĉological problems to be solved, no obscure +racial puzzles to perplex the investigator. The reign of Philip had +simply to be interpreted in the light of the revelations which Philip +himself and his contemporaries left behind them--often in papers which +were never meant for more than two pairs of eyes. How complete are these +revelations, one may learn from a striking passage written by Motley, +who speaks in it of the abundant stores of knowledge which lie at the +disposal of the modern student of history. + + "To him who has the patience and industry, many mysteries are thus + revealed, which no political sagacity or critical acumen could have + divined. He leans over the shoulder of Philip the Second at his + writing-table, as the King spells patiently out, with cipher-key + in hand, the most concealed hieroglyphics of Parma, or Guise, or + Mendoza.... He enters the cabinet of the deeply pondering + Burghleigh, and takes from the most private drawer the memoranda + which record that minister's unutterable doubtings; he pulls from + the dressing-gown folds of the stealthy, soft-gliding Walsingham + the last secret which he has picked from the Emperor's pigeon-holes + or the Pope's pocket.... He sits invisible at the most secret + councils of the Nassaus and Barneveldt and Buys, or pores with + Farnese over coming victories and vast schemes of universal + conquest; he reads the latest bit of scandal, the minutest + characteristic of King or minister, chronicled by his gossiping + Venetians for the edification of the Forty."[52] + +All this material and more was in Prescott's hands, and he made full use +of it. His narrative, moreover, was told in a style which was easy and +unstudied, less glowing than in the _Mexico_, but even better fitted for +the telling of events which were so pregnant with good and ill to +succeeding generations. In the pages of _Philip II._ we have neither the +somewhat formal student who wrote of Ferdinand and Isabella, nor the +romanticist whose imagination was kindled by the reports of Cortés. +Rather do we find one who has at last reached the highest levels of +historical writing, and who with perfect poise develops a noble theme in +a noble way. The only criticism which has ever been brought against the +book has come from those who, like Thoreau, regard literary finish as a +defect in historical composition. The author of Walden seemed, indeed, +to single out Prescott for special animadversion in this respect, and +his rather rasping sentences contain the only jarring notes that were +sounded by any contemporary of the historian. Thoreau, writing of the +colonial historians of Massachusetts, such as Josselyn, remarked with a +sort of perverse appreciation: "They give you one piece of nature at any +rate, and that is themselves, smacking their lips like a +coach-whip,--none of those emasculated modern histories, such as +Prescott's, cursed with a style." + +If style be really a curse to an historian, then Prescott remained under +its ban to the very last. As a bit of vivid writing his description of +the battle of Lepanto was much admired, and Irving thought it the best +thing in the book. A bit of it may be quoted by way of showing that +Prescott in his later years lost nothing of his vivacity or of his +fondness for battle-scenes. + +First we see the Turkish armament moving up to battle against the allied +fleets:-- + + "The galleys spread out, as usual with the Turks, in the form of a + regular half-moon, covering a wider extent of surface than the + combined fleets, which they somewhat exceeded in number. They + presented, indeed, as they drew nearer, a magnificent array, with + their gilded and gaudily-painted prows, and their myriads of + pennons and streamers fluttering gayly in the breeze; while the + rays of the morning sun glanced on the polished scimitars of + Damascus, and on the superb aigrettes of jewels which sparkled in + the turbans of the Ottoman chiefs.... The distance between the two + fleets was now rapidly diminishing. At this solemn moment a + death-like silence reigned throughout the armament of the + confederates. Men seemed to hold their breath, as if absorbed in + the expectation of some great catastrophe. The day was magnificent. + A light breeze, still adverse to the Turks, played on the waters, + somewhat fretted by the contrary winds. It was nearly noon; and as + the sun, mounting through a cloudless sky, rose to the zenith, he + seemed to pause, as if to look down on the beautiful scene, where + the multitude of galleys moving over the water, showed like a + holiday spectacle rather than a preparation for mortal combat." + +Then we have the two fleets in the thick of combat:-- + + "The Pacha opened at once on his enemy a terrible fire of cannon + and musketry. It was returned with equal spirit and much more + effect; for the Turks were observed to shoot over the heads of + their adversaries. The Moslem galley was unprovided with the + defences which protected the sides of the Spanish vessels; and the + troops, crowded together on the lofty prow, presented an easy mark + to their enemy's balls. But though numbers of them fell at every + discharge, their places were soon supplied by those in reserve. + They were enabled, therefore, to keep up an incessant fire, which + wasted the strength of the Spaniards; and, as both Christian and + Mussulman fought with indomitable spirit, it seemed doubtful to + which side victory would incline.... + + "Thus the fight raged along the whole extent of the entrance to the + Gulf of Lepanto. The volumes of vapour rolling heavily over the + waters effectually shut out from sight whatever was passing at any + considerable distance, unless when a fresher breeze dispelled the + smoke for a moment, or the flashes of the heavy guns threw a + transient gleam on the dark canopy of battle. If the eye of the + spectator could have penetrated the cloud of smoke that enveloped + the combatants, and have embraced the whole scene at a glance, he + would have perceived them broken up into small detachments, + separately engaged one with another, independently of the rest, and + indeed ignorant of all that was doing in other quarters. The + contest exhibited few of those large combinations and skilful + manoeuvres to be expected in a great naval encounter. It was + rather an assemblage of petty actions, resembling those on land. + The galleys, grappling together, presented a level arena, on which + soldier and galley-slave fought hand to hand, and the fate of the + engagement was generally decided by boarding. As in most + hand-to-hand contests, there was an enormous waste of life. The + decks were loaded with corpses, Christian and Moslem lying + promiscuously together in the embrace of death. Instances are + recorded where every man on board was slain or wounded. It was a + ghastly spectacle, where blood flowed in rivulets down the sides of + the vessels, staining the waters of the Gulf for miles around. + + "It seemed as if a hurricane had swept over the sea and covered it + with the wreck of the noble armaments which a moment before were so + proudly riding on its bosom. Little had they now to remind one of + their late magnificent array, with their hulls battered, their + masts and spars gone or splintered by the shot, their canvas cut + into shreds and floating wildly on the breeze, while thousands of + wounded and drowning men were clinging to the floating fragments + and calling piteously for help." + +Had Prescott lived, his history of Philip II. would have been extended +to a greater length than any of his other books--probably to six volumes +instead of the three which are all that he ever finished. It is likely, +too, that this book would have constituted his surest claim to high rank +as an historian. He came to the writing of it with a mind stored with +the accumulations of twenty years of patient, conscientious study. He +had lost none of his charm as a writer, while he had acquired +laboriously that special knowledge and training which are needed in one +who would be a master of historical research. _Philip II._ shows on +every page the skill with which information drawn from multifarious +sources can be massed and marshalled by one who is not only documented +but who has thoroughly assimilated everything of value which his +documents contain. No better evidence of Prescott's thoroughness is +needed than the tribute which was paid to him by Motley, who had +diligently gleaned in the same field. He said; "I am astonished at your +omniscience. Nothing seems to escape you. Many a little trait of +character, scrap of intelligence, or dab of scene-painting which I had +kept in my most private pocket, thinking I had fished it out of unsunned +depths, I find already in your possession."[53] + +And we may well join with Motley in his expression of regret that so +solid a piece of historical composition should remain unfinished. +Writing from Rome to Mr. William Amory soon after Prescott's death, +Motley said:-- + + "I feel inexpressibly disappointed ... that the noble and crowning + monument of his life, for which he had laid such massive + foundations, and the structure of which had been carried forward in + such a grand and masterly manner, must remain uncompleted, like the + unfinished peristyle of some stately and beautiful temple on which + the night of time has suddenly descended."[54] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +PRESCOTT'S RANK AS AN HISTORIAN + + +In forming an estimate of Prescott's rank among American writers of +history, one's thought inevitably associates him with certain of his +contemporaries. The Spanish subjects which he made his own invite a +direct comparison with Irving. His study of the sombre Philip compels us +to think at once of Motley. The broadly general theme of his first three +books--the extension of European domination over the New World--brings +him into a direct relation to Francis Parkman. + +The comparison with Irving is more immediately suggested by the fact +that had Prescott not entered the field precisely when he did, the story +of Cortés and of the Mexican conquest would have been written by Irving. +How fortunate was the chance which gave the task to Prescott must be +obvious to all who are familiar with the writings of both men. It has +been said that in Irving's hands literature would have profited at the +expense of history; but even this is too much of a concession, Irving, +even as a stylist, was never at his best in serious historical +composition. His was not the spirit which gladly undertakes a work _de +longue haleine_, nor was his genial, humorous nature suited to the +gravity of such an undertaking. His fame had been won, and fairly won, +in quite another field,--a field in which his personal charm, his mellow +though far from deep philosophy of life, and his often whimsical +enjoyment of his own world could find spontaneous and individual +expression. The labour of research, the comparison of authorities, the +long months of hard reading and steady note-taking, were not congenial +to his nature. He moved less freely in the heavy armour of the historian +than in the easy-fitting modern garb of the essayist and story-teller. +The best that one can say of the style of his _Granada_, his _Columbus_, +and his _Washington_ is that it is smooth, well-worded, and correct. It +shows little of the real distinction which we find in many of his +shorter papers,--in that on Westminster Abbey, for example, and on +English opinion of America; while the peculiar flavour which makes his +account of Little Britain so delightful is wholly absent. + +On the purely historical side, the two men are in wholly different +classes. Irving resembled Livy in his use of the authorities. Such +sources as were ready to his hand and easy to consult, he used with +conscientious care; but those that were farther afield, and for the +mastery of which both time and labour were demanded, he let alone. Thus, +his history of Columbus was prepared in something less than two years, +in which period both his preliminary studies and the actual composition +were completed. Yet this book was the one over which he took the +greatest pains, and for which he made his only serious attempt at +something like original investigation. His _Mahomet_ was confessedly +written at second hand; while in his _Washington_ he followed in the +main such records and already published works as were convenient. In the +_Granada_ he only plays with history, and ascribes the main portion of +the narrative to a mythical ecclesiastic, "the worthy Fray Antonio +Agapida," in whose lineaments we may not infrequently detect a strong +family resemblance to the no less worthy Diedrich Knickerbocker. In the +letter which Irving wrote to Prescott, relinquishing to him the subject +of Cortés, he lets us see quite plainly the very moderate amount of +reading which he had been doing.[55] He had dipped into Solis, Bernal +Diaz, and Herrera, using them, so he said, "as guide-books." Upon the +basis of this reading he had sketched out the entire narrative, and had +fallen to work upon the actual history with the intention of "working +up" other material as he went along. When we compare these easy-going +methods with the scientific thoroughness of Prescott, his ransacking, by +agents, of every important library in Europe, his great collection of +original documents, the many years which he gave to the study of them, +and the conscientious judgment with which he weighed and balanced them, +we cannot fail to see how much the world has gained by Irving's act of +generous self-abnegation. It is only fair to add that he himself, at the +time when Prescott wrote to him, was beginning to doubt whether he had +not undertaken a task unsuited to his inclinations and beyond his +powers. "Ever since I have been meddling with the theme," he said, "its +grandeur and magnificence had been growing upon me, and I had felt more +and more doubtful whether I should be able to treat it +_conscientiously_,--that is to say, with the extensive research and +thorough investigation which it merited." + +Professor Jameson hazards the conjecture[56] that Irving's real +importance in the development of American historiography is not at all +to be discerned in the serious works which have just been mentioned, but +rather in his quaintly humorous picture of New York under the Dutch, +contained in the pretended narration of Diedrich Knickerbocker, and +published as early as 1809. There can be no doubt that, as Professor +Jameson says, this book did much to excite both interest and curiosity +concerning the Dutch régime. "Very likely the great amount of work which +the state government did for the historical illustration of the Dutch +period, through the researches of Mr. Brodhead in foreign archives, had +this unhistorical little book as one of its principal causes." Here, +indeed, is only one more illustration of the fact that the work which +one does in his natural vein and in his own way is certain not only to +be his best, but to exercise a genuine influence in spheres which at the +time were quite beyond the writer's consciousness. + +Something has already been said concerning Prescott in his relationship +to Motley as an historian. A brief but more explicit comparison may be +added here. The diligence and zeal of the investigator both men shared +on even terms. The only advantage which Motley possessed was the +opportunity, denied to Prescott, of prosecuting his own researches, of +discovering his own materials, and of visiting and living in the very +places of which he had to write, instead of working largely through the +eyes and brains of other men. This was a very real advantage; for the +inspiration of the search and of the scenes themselves gave a keen +stimulus to the ambition of the scholar and a glow to the imagination +of the writer. One attaches less importance to Motley's academic +training; for while it was broader than that of Prescott, and comprised +the valuable teaching which was given him in the two great universities +of Berlin and Göttingen, we cannot truthfully assert that Prescott's +equipment was inferior to that of his contemporary. Indeed, _Ferdinand_ +and _Isabella_ and _Philip II._ can better stand the test of searching +criticism than Motley's _Dutch Republic_. + +Motley is, indeed, the most "literary" of all the so-called "literary +historians". In the glow and fervour of his narrative he is unsurpassed. +He feels all the passion of the times whereof he writes, and he makes +the reader feel it too. He has, moreover, a power of drawing character +which Prescott seldom shows and which, when he shows it, he shows in +less degree. Motley writes with the magnetism of a great pleader and +with something also of the imagination of a poet. Unlike Prescott, he +understands the philosophy of history and delves beneath the surface to +search out and reveal the hidden causes of events. Yet first and last +and all the time, he is a partisan. He is pleading for a cause far more +than he is seeking for impartial truth. In this respect he resembles +Mommsen, whose _Römische Geschichte_ is likewise in its later books a +splendid piece of partisanship. Motley is an American and a Protestant, +and therefore he is eloquent for liberty and harsh toward what he views +as superstition. William the Silent is his hero just as Cĉsar is +Mommsen's, and he hates tyranny as Mommsen hated the insolence of the +Roman _Junkerthum_. This vivid feeling springing from intensity of +conviction makes both books true masterpieces, nor to the critical +scholar does it greatly lessen their value as historical compositions. +Yet in each, one has continually to check the writer, to modify his +statements, and to make allowance for his very individual point of view. +In reading Prescott, on the other hand, nothing of the sort is +necessary. He is free from the passion of politics, his judgment is +impartial, and those who read him feel, as an eminent scholar has +remarked, that they are listening to a wise and learned judge rather +than to a skilful advocate. Even in the sphere of characterisation, +Prescott is more sound than Motley, even though he be not half so +forceful. Re-reading many of the portraits which the latter has drawn +for us in glowing colours, the student of human nature will perceive +that they are quite impossible. Take, for instance Motley's Philip and +compare it with the Philip whom Prescott has described for us. The +former is not a man at all. He is either a devil, or a lunatic, or it +may be a blend of each. Indeed, Motley himself in conversation used to +describe him as a devil, though he once remarked, "He is not my head +devil." Everywhere Philip is depicted in the same sable hues, without a +touch of light to relieve the blackness of his character. On the other +hand, Prescott shows us one who, with all his cruelty, his hypocrisy, +and his superstition, is still quite comprehensible because, after all, +he remains a human being. Prescott discovers and records in him some +qualities of which Motley in his sweeping condemnation takes no heed. We +see a Philip scrupulously faithful to his duty as he understands it, +bearing toil and loneliness, patient to his secretaries, gracious to his +petitioners, whom he tries to set at ease, generous in his patronage of +art, and putting aside all his coldness and reserve while watching the +progress of his favourite architects and builders. These things and +others like them count perhaps for very little in one sense; yet in +another they bring out the fact that Prescott viewed his subject in the +clear light of historic truth rather than in the glare of fiery +prejudice. + +There are some who would rate Parkman above Prescott. They speak of him +as more truly an American historian because the topic which he +chose--the development of New France--has a direct bearing upon the +national history of the United States. This, however, is at once to +limit the word "American" in a thoroughly unreasonable way, and also to +allow the choice of theme to prejudice one's judgment of the manner in +which that theme is treated. Parkman, to be sure, has merits of his own, +some of which are less discernible in Prescott. For picturesqueness, as +for accuracy, both men are on a level. There is a greater freshness of +feeling in Parkman, a sort of open air effect, which is redolent of his +actual experience of the great plains and the far Western mountains in +the days which he passed among the Indian tribes. This cannot be +expected of one whose physical infirmities confined him to the limits of +his library. But, on the other hand, Prescott chose a broader field, and +he made that field more thoroughly his own. These two--Prescott and +Parkman--must take rank not far apart. Between them, they have divided, +so to speak, the early history of the American Continent in the sphere +which lies beyond the bounds of purely Anglo-Saxon conquest. + +Disciples of the dismal school of history often yield a very grudging +tribute to the enduring merit of what Prescott patiently achieved. Yet +in their own field he met them upon equal terms and need not fear +comparison. Though self-trained as an historical investigator, his +mastery of his authorities has hardly been excelled by those whose merit +is found solely in their gift for delving. The evidence of his +thoroughness, his judgment, and his critical faculty is to be seen in +the documentary treasures of his foot-notes. He did not, like Mommsen, +write a brilliant narrative and leave the reader without the ready means +of verifying what he wrote. He has, to use his own words, "suffered the +scaffolding to remain after the building has been completed." Those who +sneer at his array of testimony are none the less unable to impeach it. +Though historical science has in many respects made great advances since +his death, his work still stands essentially unshaken. He had the +historical conscience in a rare degree; one feels his fairness and is +willing to accept his judgment. If he seems to lack a special gift for +philosophical analysis, the plan and scope of his histories did not +contemplate a subjective treatment. What he meant to do, he did, and he +did it with a combination of historical exactness and literary artistry +such as no other American at least, has yet exhibited. Without the +humour of Irving, or the fire of Motley, or the intimate touch of +Parkman, he is superior to all three in poise and judgment and +distinction; so that on the whole one may accept the dictum of a +distinguished scholar[57] who, in summing up the merits which we +recognise in Prescott, declares them to be so conspicuous and so +abounding as to place him at the head of all American historians. + + + + +INDEX + + + A + + Academy, Royal Spanish, 76, 80. + + Adair, James, 146. + + Adams, Dr. C. K., quoted, 180. + + Adams, John Quincy, library of, 20; + absence in Europe, 20, 23, 37; + professor at Harvard, 23; + Minister to England, 37. + + Adams, Sir William, 37. + + Albert, Prince, 105, 106. + + Amory, Thomas C., 43. + + Amory, William, letter to, 172. + + Athenĉum, Boston, 19, 20, 21. + + Aztecs, 76, 82, 136, 143, 144, 146; + as viewed by Wilson, 147-151; + Morgan's view of, 152-155; + later opinions regarding, 155-156. + + + B + + Bancroft, George, 10; + letters to, 48, 114, 117; + reviews _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 69; + honour conferred on, 86; + quoted, 87; estimate of, 122. + + Bancroft, H. H., quoted, 153, 159. + + Bandelier, A. F., 155, 163, 165; + quoted, 136, 153, 154. + + Bentley, Richard, 69, 80, 85, 112, 116, 117. + + Bradford, Governor William, 8. + + Brougham, Lord, Prescott's description of, 107, 108. + + Brown, Charles Brockden, novels of, 5; + _Life of_, 65, 112. + + Bunsen, Baron, 107, 108. + + Byron, Lord, Prescott's estimate of, 113; + as exponent of romanticism, 122; + quoted, 166. + + + C + + Calderon de La Barca, Señor, 76, 91. + + Carlisle, Lord, Prescott's friendship with, 88, 91, 104, 105, 106. + + Carlyle, Thomas, Prescott's comment on, 114. + + Channing, W. E., 28, 107, 124, 126. + + _Charles V._, _History of_, 117, 118. + + Circourt, Comte Adolphe de, 71. + + _Club-Room_, edited by Prescott, 42. + + Cogswell, J. G., 74, 75. + + Condé, _History of the Arabs in Spain_, 65, 130. + + Cooper, Sir Astley, 37. + + Cortés, Hernan, 134, 135, 155; + quoted, 136; + attack on Cholulans, 137, 138; + retreat from Mexico, 141, 142; + character + of, 143, 144, 147, 151; + compared with Pizarro, 160, 161. + + Cashing, Caleb, 88. + + + D + + Dante, Prescott's admiration for, 46. + + Daudet, Alphonse, 86. + + Dexter, Franklin, 42. + + Diaz, Bernal, 146, 159; + quoted, 144. + + Dickens, Charles, entertained by Prescott, 91; + preferred by him to Thackeray, 115. + + Dumas, Alexandre, 115. + + Dunham, Dr. S.P., 70, 126. + + + E + + Edwards, Jonathan, 7, 9. + + English, James, Prescott's secretary, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64. + + Everett, A. H., 77. + + Everett, Edward, 25, 106. + + + F + + Farre, Dr., 37. + + _Ferdinand and Isabella_, beginnings of, 52, 61; + progress, 62-65; + completion and publication, 66-71; + success of, 69-71, 77, 79, 95; + style of, 121, 127; + historical accuracy, 129, 130, 131, 132. + + Ford, Richard, criticises _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 70; + his ridicule of Prescott's style, 124-126; + Prescott's reply, 127, 128; + quoted, 129, 130. + + Franklin, Benjamin, 5; + style of, 129. + + + G + + Gardiner, Rev. Dr. John S., 18, 19. + + Gardiner, William, 20, 21, 22, 40. + + Gayangos, Don Pascual de, reviews _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 70, 132; + aids Prescott, 76, 77, 101. + + Grenville, Thomas, quoted, 142. + + Guatemozin, character of, 143, 144; + successor of Montezuma, 135, 154. + + Guizot, M., reviews _Philip II._, 116. + + + H + + Hale, Edward Everett, quoted, 77, 78. + + Hallam, Henry, praises _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 71; + Prescott's acquaintance with, 108. + + Harper Brothers, publish _Conquest of Mexico_, 79, 80; + publish _Conquest of Peru_, 84; + Prescott's generosity to, 116. + + Harvard College, faculty of, in 1811, 22, 23, 25; + entrance examinations, 24; + curriculum, 24, 25; + methods, 25, 26, 33; + confers degree upon Prescott, 80. + + Hickling, Thomas, 15, 35, 36. + + Higginson, Mehitable, 16. + + Higginson, T. W., 113. + + Hughes, Thomas, quoted, 55. + + Humboldt, Baron Alexander von, 81, 101. + + + I + + Irving, Washington, characteristics of, 5; + quoted, 57; + correspondence regarding _Conquest of Mexico_, 74-77; + praised by Prescott, 113; + compared to Goldsmith, 122; + style of, 124, 129; his _Columbus_ criticised by Prescott, 134; + comment on _Philip II._, 169; + compared with Prescott, 173-175, 180. + + + J + + Jackson, Dr. James, 31. + + Jameson, Prof. J. F., quoted, 3 _n._, 54 _n._, 176. + + Jeffrey, Lord, 108. + + Johnson, Dr. Samuel, quoted, 54; + style of, 122, 129. + + + K + + Kirk, John Foster, Prescott's secretary, 87, 119, 136. + + Kirkland, Rev. Dr. John Thornton, 22, 23. + + Knapp, Jacob Newman, 16. + + + L + + La Bruyère, quoted, 111. + + Lafitau, Père, 145. + + Lawrence, Abbott, 103, 105; + memoir of, 118. + + Lawrence, James, 97, 103. + + Lembke, Dr. J. B., Prescott's agent in Spain, 77, 100, 101. + + Linzee, Hannah, 43. + + Longfellow, Henry W., Prescott's admiration for, 113. + + Lowell, James Russell, 12, 23, 103. + + Lyell, Lady, entertained by Prescott, 91; + letter to, 115, 166. + + Lyell, Sir Charles, 91, 103. + + Lynn, Prescott's house at, 97, 98. + + + M + + Macaulay, Lord, anecdotes of, 108, 109; style of, 117, 133. + + Marina, 144. + + Markham, Sir Clements, judgment of Prescott's _Peru_, 165. + + Massachusetts Historical Society, 57, 86, 120, 142, 172. + + Mather, Cotton, his _Magnalia_, 8. + + _Mexico_, _Conquest of_, preparations for, 72-77; + four years of work on, 78-79; + publication and success of, 79-81, 95; + estimate of, 133-159. + + Middle States, literature in the, 4-6. + + Middleton, Arthur, 26; + aids Prescott in Spain, 77, 100. + + Mommsen, Theodor, as a partisan compared with Motley, 177, 178; + compared with Prescott, 180. + + Montezuma, described by Prescott, 139, 143; + Spaniards' view of, 153-156. + + Morgan, Lewis Henry, Indian researches of, 152, 153, 155, 156; + quoted, 157. + + Motley, J. L., quoted, 89, 165, 166, 167, 168, 171, 172; + compared with Prescott, 176-179, 180. + + + N + + Nahant, Prescott's cottage at, 91, 96, 97. + + Navarrete, M. F., 76, 80. + + New England, literature in, 6-10; + historians of, 10-12. + + Noctograph, description of, 57. + + Northumberland, Duke of, entertains Prescott, 110, 111. + + + O + + Ogden, Rollo, quoted, 93, 172. + + Oxford University, 88; + confers degree on Prescott, 106, 107. + + + P + + Parkman, Francis, style of, 133, 145; + compared with Prescott, 179, 180. + + Parr, Dr. Samuel, 18. + + Parsons, Theophilus, 42; + quoted, 89. + + Peabody, Dr. A. P., _Harvard Reminiscences_, 22 _n._ + + Peel, Sir Robert, 104. + + Peirce, Benjamin, 25. + + Pepperell, Prescott's home at, 96, 97. + + _Peru_, _Conquest of_, memorising of parts of, 59; + composition and publication, 81, 82, 84, 85, 95; + estimate of, 160-165. + + Peruvians, 163-165. + + Phi Beta Kappa, 34. + + _Philip II._, Prescott's memorising of parts, 59; + obstacles in way, 99-100; + preparations for, 101, 102; + two volumes completed, 115, 116, 117; + third volume, 119; + estimate of, 165-172; + compared with _Dutch Republic_, 177. + + Pickering, John, memoir of, 86. + + Pizarro, Francisco, 160; + character of, 161; + quoted, 162. + + Poe, Edgar Allan, 4. + + Prescott, Catherine Hickling, parentage and character, 15, 16; + rearing of son, 16. + + Prescott, Colonel William, 13, 14, 43. + + Prescott, John, 18. + + Prescott, Oliver, 14. + + Prescott, Susan Amory, 50, 93; + marriage to Prescott, 42, 43; + character, 43; + letters to, 104, 105, 111. + + Prescott, William, birth and career, 14; + characteristics of, 15, 82, 83; + home, 14, 15; + illness of, 17; + removal to Boston, 17, 18; + quoted, 67; + death, 82. + + PRESCOTT, William Hickling, literary importance of, 12; + birth of, 15; + his first teachers, 16; + traits as a boy, 16, 17; + prepares for college, 18, 19; + his tastes in reading, 19, 20; + amusements, 20, 21, 22; + candidate for Harvard, 22; + letter to father about examination, 25, 26; + enters college, 27; + his studies and ideals, 27; + love of pleasure, 28; + laxity of conduct, 28, 29, 30; + accident, 31; + loss of eye, 31; + effect on character, 32; + magnanimity, 32; + returns to college, 32; + dislike for mathematics, 33; + commencement poem, 33, 34; + election to Phi Beta Kappa, 34; + studies law, 34; + second illness and temporary blindness, 34, 35; + sails for Azores, 35, 36; + third illness, 36; + first visit to London, 36, 37; + visits Paris and Italy, 37, 38; + returns to England, 38; + sails for home, 38; + anxiety regarding career, 39, 40; + vicarious reading, 40, 41; + first attempts at composition, 41, 42, 46; + marriage, 42, 43; + resolves to become a man of letters, 44; + studies languages, 45, 46, 47; + interest in Spanish, 47, 48; + drift toward historical composition, 49, 50; + perplexity in choosing subject, 50, 51, 52; + decides upon _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 52, 53; + difficulties of task, 54, 55; + time of preparation and composition, 55, 56, 62, 66; + his methods, of work, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61; + his memory, 33, 57, 58, 59; + his mode of life, 59, 60, 61, 62; + death of daughter, 62, 63, 73; + contributes to periodicals, 64, 65; + completes _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 66; + search for publisher, 66, 67; + terms of contract, 67; + success of book, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 95; + criticisms, 69, 70, 71; + theological studies and beliefs, 73, 74; + begins Mexican researches, 74, 75, 76, 77; + correspondence with Irving, 75; + writes _Conquest of Mexico_, 78, 79; + contract with the Harpers, 79, 80; + honours conferred upon, 80, 81; + writes _Conquest of Peru_, 81, 82, 84; + reception of book, 85, 86; + death of father, 82; + opinion of American critics, 85; + period of inactivity, 83, 86; + political views, 89, 90; + entertainment of friends, 91, 92, 93; + his boyish ways, 93; + his tactlessness, 93; + his Yankeeisms, 94; + preparations for _Philip_ + _II._, 99, 100, 101, 102; + his Boston residence, 83, 96; + the homestead at Pepperell, 96, 97; + his cottage at Nahant, 96, 97; + cottage at Lynn, 97, 98; + third visit to England, 94, 102-111; + presented at court, 105; + his sensibility, 110; + at zenith of his fame, 111, 112; + his opinions of contemporary writers, 112, 113, 114, 115; + completes two volumes of _Philip II._, 115, 116, 117; + rewrites conclusion of Robertson's _Charles V._, 117, 118; + health fails, 118; + completes third volume of _Philip II._, 119; + death, 119; + his burial, 119, 120; + style and accuracy of _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 121-131; + criticised by Ford, 124, 125, 126; + his place as an historian, 173-181. + + + Q + + Quincy, Josiah, 7, 25. + + + R + + Raumer, Friedrich von, 81. + + _Review_, _Edinburgh_, notices of Prescott's books, 70, 76, 85, 116. + + _Review_, _English Quarterly_, 46, 70, 85. + + _Review, North American_, Prescott's contributions to, 41, 46, 64, 65; + its notices of Prescott's books, 62, 69. + + Robertson, William, 117, 146. + + Rogers, Samuel, 108, 109. + + + S + + Scott, General Winfield, 90, 91. + + Scott, Sir Walter, 6, 86, 108, 122; + a favourite of Prescott's, 41, 115; + quoted, 129. + + Shepherd, Dr. W.R. 100 _n._ + + Simancas, archives at, 99, 100. + + Southern States, literature in the, 2-4. + + Southey, Robert, 20, 67; + praises _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 71; + quoted, 107. + + Sparks, Jared, 12, 42; + estimate of, 9, 10; + encourages Prescott, 46, 65, 68, 88. + + Stith, Dr. W., quoted, 3. + + Story, Judge Joseph, 25. + + Sumner, Charles, Prescott's friendship with, 88, 89, 90. + + + T + + Talleyrand, quoted, 11. + + Thackeray, W. M., 43, 86; + entertained by Prescott, 91, 114; + tribute to Prescott, 114, 115. + + Thierry, Augustin, 54, 86. + + Thoreau, Henry D., quoted, 168, 169. + + Ticknor, George, 25, 94, 111; + quoted, 19, 22, 26, 28, 43, 48, 71, 84, 103, 127; + letters to, 46, 69, 70, 107, 117, 118; + reads to Prescott, 47. + + Tocqueville, Alexis de, 11, 71. + + + V + + Victoria, Queen, 105, 106. + + + W + + Ware, John, 42. + + Wars, Napoleonic, 21. + + Wellington, Duke of, 21, 104. + + Wendell, Prof. Barrett, 5. + + Wilson, J. Grant, quoted, 91 n. + + Wilson, Robert A., criticises Prescott's _Conquest of Mexico_, 147, 148; + reply to, 149-151. + + + X + + Xenophon, Prescott compared with, 142, 143. + + * * * * * + +ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS + +Edited by JOHN MORLEY + +Cloth. 12mo. Price, 40 cents, each + +=ADDISON.= By W. J. Courthope. + +=BACON.= By R. W. Church. + +=BENTLEY.= By Prof. Jebb. + +=BUNYAN.= By J. A. Froude. + +=BURKE.= By John Morley. + +=BURNS.= By Principal Shairp. + +=BYRON.= By Prof. Nichol. + +=CARLYLE.= By Prof. Nichol. + +=CHAUCER.= By Prof. A. W. Ward. + +=COLERIDGE.= By H. D. Traill. + +=COWPER.= By Goldwin Smith. + +=DEFOE.= By W. Minto. + +=DE QUINCEY.= By Prof. Masson. + +=DICKENS.= By A. W. Ward. + +=DRYDEN.= By G. Saintsbury. + +=FIELDING.= By Austin Dobson. + +=GIBBON.= By J. Cotter Morison. + +=GOLDSMITH.= By William Black. + +=GRAY.= By Edmund Gosse. + +=JOHNSON.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=HUME.= By T. H. Huxley. + +=KEATS.= By Sidney Colvin. + +=LAMB.= By Alfred Ainger. + +=LANDOR.= By Sidney Colvin. + +=LOCKE.= By Prof. Fowler. + +=MACAULAY.= By J. Cotter Morison. + +=MILTON.= By Mark Pattison. + +=POPE.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=SCOTT.= By R. H. Hutton. + +=SHELLEY.= By J. A. Symonds. + +=SHERIDAN.= By Mrs. Oliphant. + +=SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.= By J. A. Symonds. + +=SOUTHEY.= By Prof. Dowden. + +=SPENSER.= By R. W. Church. + +=STERNE.= By H. D. Traill. + +=SWIFT.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=THACKERAY.= By A. Trollope. + +=WORDSWORTH.= By F. W. H. Myers. + + +NEW VOLUMES + +Cloth. 12mo. Price, 75 cents net + +=GEORGE ELIOT.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=WILLIAM HAZLITT.= By Augustine Birrell. + +=MATTHEW ARNOLD.= By Herbert W. Paul. + +=JOHN RUSKIN.= By Frederic Harrison. + +=JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.= By Thomas W. Higginson. + +=ALFRED TENNYSON.= By Alfred Lyall. + +=SAMUEL RICHARDSON.= By Austin Dobson. + +=ROBERT BROWNING.= By G. K. Chesterton. + +=CRABBE.= By Alfred Ainger. + +=FANNY BURNEY.= By Austin Dobson. + +=JEREMY TAYLOR.= By Edmund Gosse. + +=ROSSETTI.= By Arthur C. Benson. + +=MARIA EDGEWORTH.= By the Hon. Emily Lawless. + +=HOBBES.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=ADAM SMITH.= By Francis W. Hirst. + +=THOMAS MOORE.= By Stephen Gwynn. + +=SYDNEY SMITH.= By George W. E. Russell. + +=WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.= By William A. Bradley. + +=WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT.= By Harry Thurston Peck. + + +ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS + +EDITED BY + +JOHN MORLEY + +THREE BIOGRAPHIES IN EACH VOLUME + +Cloth. 12mo. Price, $1.00, each + +=CHAUCER.= By Adolphus William Ward. + +=SPENSER.= BY R. W. Church. + +=DRYDEN.= By George Saintsbury. + +=MILTON.= By Mark Pattison, B.D. + +=GOLDSMITH.= By William Black. + +=COWPER.= By Goldwin Smith. + +=BYRON.= By John Nichol. + +=SHELLEY.= By John Addington Symonds. + +=KEATS.= By Sidney Colvin, M.A. + +=WORDSWORTH.= By F. W. H. Myers. + +=SOUTHEY.= By Edward Dowden. + +=LANDOR.= By Sidney Colvin, M.A. + +=LAMB.= By Alfred Ainger. + +=ADDISON.= By W. J. Courthope. + +=SWIFT.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=SCOTT.= By Richard H. Hutton. + +=BURNS.= By Principal Shairp. + +=COLERIDGE.= By H. D. Traill. + +=HUME.= By T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. + +=LOCKE.= By Thomas Fowler. + +=BURKE.= By John Morley. + +=FIELDING.= By Austin Dobson. + +=THACKERAY.= By Anthony Trollope. + +=DICKENS.= By Adolphus William Ward. + +=GIBBON.= By J. Cotter Morison. + +=CARLYLE.= By John Nichol. + +=MACAULAY.= By J. Cotter Morison. + +=SIDNEY.= By J. A. Symonds. + +=DE QUINCEY.= By David Masson. + +=SHERIDAN.= By Mrs. Oliphant. + +=POPE.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=JOHNSON.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=GRAY.= By Edmund Gosse. + +=BACON.= By R. W. Church. + +=BUNYAN.= By J. A. Froude. + +=BENTLEY.= By R. C. Jebb. + +PUBLISHED BY + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Quoted by Jameson: _Historical Writing in America_, p. 72, Boston, +1891. + +[2] This house was long ago demolished. Its site is now occupied by +Plummer Hall, containing a public library. + +[3] A very interesting appreciation of President Kirkland is given by +Dr. A. P. Peabody in his _Harvard Reminiscences_ (Boston, 1888). + +[4] John Quincy Adams was titularly Professor of Rhetoric, but he had +been absent for several years on a diplomatic mission in Europe. + +[5] The first number appeared in February, 1820; the last in July of the +same year. + +[6] Her mother had been Miss Hannah Linzee, whose father, Captain +Linzee, of the British sloop-of-war _Falcon_, had tried by heavy +cannonading to dislodge Colonel William Prescott from the redoubt at +Bunker Hill. The swords of the two had been handed down in their +respective families, and now found a peaceful resting-place in young +Prescott's "den," where they hung crossed upon the wall above his books. + +[7] Professor Jameson mentions two other contemporary instances,--Karl +Szaynocha and Prescott's Florentine correspondent, the Marquis Gino +Capponi. + +[8] Prescott owned two noctographs, but did nearly all of his writing +with one, keeping the other in reserve in case the first should suffer +accident. One of these two implements is preserved in the Massachusetts +Historical Society. + +[9] See ch. vii. + +[10] _Life of Irving_, 111. p. 133 (New York, 1863). + +[11] Lembke was a German, the author of a work on early Spanish history, +and a member of the Spanish Historical Academy. Prescott mentions him in +his letter to Irving. "This learned Theban happens to be in Madrid for +the nonce, pursuing some investigations of his own, and he has taken +charge of mine, like a true German, inspecting everything and selecting +just what has reference to my subject. In this way he has been employed +with four copyists since July, and has amassed a quantity of unpublished +documents. He has already sent off two boxes to Cadiz." + +[12] Hale, _Memories of a Hundred Years_, ii. pp. 71, 72 (New York, +1902). + +[13] In place of Navarrete, deceased. Prescott received eighteen ballots +out of the twenty that were cast. + +[14] Wilson, _Thackeray in America_, i. pp. 16, 17 (New York, 1904). + +[15] Meaning, of course, that he took more wine than was good for his +eye. + +[16] See p. 116. + +[17] For an interesting account of Simancas and the archives, see a +paper by Dr. W. R. Shepherd, in the _Reports of the American Historical +Association for 1903_ (Washington, 1905). + +[18] The father of Mr. James Lawrence, who afterward married Prescott's +daughter Elizabeth. See p. 97. + +[19] Alluding to the fact that he always shed tears at the opera. + +[20] The English title of this book was _Critical and Historical +Essays_. It contained twelve papers and also the life of Charles +Brockden Brown already mentioned (p. 65). The American edition bore the +title _Biographical and Critical Miscellanies_. It has been several +times reprinted, the last issue appearing in Philadelphia in 1882. + +[21] _Infra_, p. 134. + +[22] November 1, 1838. + +[23] Nearly seven thousand copies of this book had been taken up before +the end of the following three years. + +[24] p. 268. + +[25] p. 285. + +[26] _Supra_, p. 65. + +[27] iii. pp. 199-204. + +[28] In the _British Quarterly Review_, lxiv (1839). + +[29] Don Pascual de Gayangos. + +[30] i. pp. 364-369. Ed. by Kirk (Philadelphia, 1873). + +[31] For a revision of Prescott's narrative here in its light of later +research, see Bandelier, _The Gilded Man_, pp. 258-281 (New York, 1893). + +[32] ii. p. 20. + +[33] ii. pp. 379-380. + +[34] Everett, Memorial Address, delivered before the Massachusetts +Historical Society (1859). + +[35] ii. p. 157. + +[36] _Mujer entremetida y desembuelta_ (Diaz). + +[37] i. p. 294. + +[38] _Moeurs des Sauvages Américains Comparées aux Moeurs des +Premiers Temps_ (Paris, 1723). Lafitau had lived as a missionary among +the Iroquois for five years, after which he returned to France and spent +the rest of his life in teaching and writing. + +[39] _The History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775). + +[40] H_istoria Natural y Moral de las Indias_ (Seville, 1590). + +[41] Philadelphia, 1859. + +[42] _Atlantic Monthly_, iii, pp. 518-525 and pp. 633-645. + +[43] New York, 1851. + +[44] _North American Review_, cxxii, pp. 265-308 (1876). + +[45] _The Romantic School of American Archĉology._ A paper read before +the New York Historical Society, February 3, 1885 (New York, 1885). + +[46] Bandelier, _op. cit._, p. 8. + +[47] ii. p. 125. + +[48] "Though remarkably fair and judicious in the main, Mr. Prescott's +partiality for a certain class of his material is evident. To the copies +from the Spanish archives, most of which have been since published with +hundreds of others equally or more valuable, he seemed to attach an +importance proportionate to their cost. Thus, throughout his entire +work, these papers are paraded to the exclusion of the more reliable, +but more accessible standard authorities."--H. H. Bancroft, _History of +Mexico_, i. p. 7, _Note_. + +[49] i. pp. 222, 224. + +[50] Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 52 (Philadelphia, 1868). + +[51] See the section by Markham on "The Inca Civilisation in Peru," in +Winsor, _A Narrative and Critical History of America_, vol. i. (Boston, +1889); and an interesting summary of the results of eleven years +researches by Bandelier in a paper entitled "The Truth about Inca +Civilisation," published in H_arper's Magazine_ for March, 1905. + +[52] Motley, _History of the United Netherlands_, i. p. 54. + +[53] Quoted by Ogden, _Prescott_, p. 32. + +[54] Cited by R. C. Winthrop, address before the Massachusetts +Historical Society, June 14, 1877. + +[55] Letter of January 18, 1839. + +[56] _Historical Writing in America_, pp. 97-98. + +[57] Dr. C. K. Adams. + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's William Hickling Prescott, by Harry Thurston Peck + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT *** + +***** This file should be named 39084-8.txt or 39084-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/0/8/39084/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/39084-8.zip b/39084-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..533d3cf --- /dev/null +++ b/39084-8.zip diff --git a/39084-h.zip b/39084-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4ba305 --- /dev/null +++ b/39084-h.zip diff --git a/39084-h/39084-h.htm b/39084-h/39084-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24ab877 --- /dev/null +++ b/39084-h/39084-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6261 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> + <head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of English Men of Letters: William Hickling Prescott, by Harry Thurston Peck. +</title> +<style type="text/css"> + p {margin-top:.2em;text-align:justify;margin-bottom:.2em;text-indent:2%;} + +.c {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;} + +.csml {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;font-size:75%;} + +.cb {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;font-weight:bold;} + +.eng {font-family:OLD ENGLISH TEXT MT, serif;} + +.nind {text-indent:0%;} + +.r {text-align:right;margin-right: 5%;} + +small {font-size: 70%;} + + h1 {margin-top:5%;text-align:center;clear:both;} + + h2 {margin-top:5%;margin-bottom:2%;text-align:center;clear:both; + font-size:120%;} + + hr {width:90%;margin:2em auto 2em auto;clear:both;color:black;} + + hr.full {width: 50%;margin:5% auto 5% auto;border:4px double gray;} + + table {margin-top:5%;margin-bottom:5%;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;border:none;text-align:left;} + + body{margin-left:2%;margin-right:2%;background:#fdfdfd;color:black;font-family:"Times New Roman", serif;font-size:medium;} + + ul {list-style-type:none;text-indent:-1em;} + +.un {text-decoration:underline;} + +a:link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;} + + link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;} + +a:visited {background-color:#ffffff;color:purple;text-decoration:none;} + +a:hover {background-color:#ffffff;color:#FF0000;text-decoration:underline;} + +.smcap {font-variant:small-caps;font-size:95%;} + + img {border:none;} + +.blockquot {margin-top:2%;margin-bottom:2%;font-size:95%;} + +.blockquot1 {margin-top:2%;margin-bottom:2%; +margin-left:15%;margin-right:15%;} + +.boxx {border-top:4px solid rgb(144, 67, 53); +border-left:4px solid rgb(144, 67, 53); +border-bottom:4px solid rgb(144, 67, 53); +border-right:4px solid rgb(144, 67, 53);max-width:50%; +margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;padding: 0%;} + +.boxx2 {border-top:4px solid rgb(144, 67, 53);padding:0%; +margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;} + +.figcenter {margin-top:3%;margin-bottom:3%; +margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:center;text-indent:0%;} + +.footnotes {border:dotted 3px gray;margin-top:15%;clear:both;} + +.footnote {width:95%;margin:auto 3% 1% auto;font-size:0.9em;position:relative;} + +.label {position:relative;left:-.5em;top:0;text-align:left;font-size:.8em;} + +.fnanchor {vertical-align:30%;font-size:.8em;} + +</style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's William Hickling Prescott, by Harry Thurston Peck + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: William Hickling Prescott + +Author: Harry Thurston Peck + +Release Date: March 9, 2012 [EBook #39084] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Internet Archive.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p class="cb"><i>ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS</i><br /><br /> +<i>PRESCOTT</i></p> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/cover_lg.jpg"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="338" height="550" alt="image of the book's cover" title="image of the book's cover" /></a> +</p> + +<div class="boxx"> +<p> </p> +<p class="cb"><i><big>ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS</big></i></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="boxx2"> +<h1>WILLIAM HICKLING<br /> +PRESCOTT</h1> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="cb">BY<br /> +HARRY THURSTON PECK<br /><br /> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> +<span class="eng">New York</span><br /> +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br /> +<span class="smcap">LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd.</span><br /> +1905<br /><br /> +<i>All rights reserved</i><br /> </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="csml"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1905</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span>.<br /> +———<br /> +Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1905.<br /> +<br /><br /><br /> +<span class="eng">Norwood Press</span><br /> +J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.<br /> +Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="c"> +<span class="eng">To</span><br /> +WILLIAM ARCHIBALD DUNNING<br /> +<i>AMICITIĈ CAUSA</i><br /> +</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h2>PREFATORY NOTE</h2> + +<div class="blockquot1"> +<p>For the purely biographical portion of this book an especial +acknowledgment of obligation is due to the valuable collection of +Prescott's letters and memoranda made by his friend George Ticknor, and +published in 1864 as part of Ticknor's <i>Life of W. H. Prescott</i>. All +other available sources, however, have been explored, and are +specifically mentioned either in the text or in the footnotes.</p> + +<p class="r"> +H. T. P.</p> + +<p class="nind">C<small>OLUMBIA</small> U<small>NIVERSITY</small>,<br /> + March 1, 1905.<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS"> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The New England Historians</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_001">1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Early Years</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_013">13</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Choice of a Career</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_039">39</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Success</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_054">54</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">In Mid Career</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_072">72</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Last Ten Years</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_099">99</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">"Ferdinand and Isabella"—Prescott's Style</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_121">121</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">"The Conquest of Mexico" as Literature and as History </span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_133">133</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">"The Conquest of Peru"—"Philip II."</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_160">160</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Prescott's Rank as an Historian</span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_173">173</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td><span class="smcap"><a href="#INDEX">Index</a></span></td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_181">181</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<h2><i>PRESCOTT</i></h2> + +<p><a name="page_001" id="page_001"></a></p> + +<h2>WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT</h2> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I<br /><br /> +<small>THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIANS</small></h2> + +<p class="nind">T<small>HROUGHOUT</small> the first few decades of the nineteenth century, the United +States, though forming a political entity, were in everything but name +divided into three separate nations, each one of which was quite unlike +the other two. This difference sprang partly from the character of the +population in each, partly from divergent tendencies in American +colonial development, and partly from conditions which were the result +of both these causes. The culture-history, therefore, of each of the +three sections exhibits, naturally enough, a distinct and definite phase +of intellectual activity, which is reflected very clearly in the records +of American literature.</p> + +<p>In the Southern States, just as in the Southern colonies out of which +they grew, the population was homogeneous and of English stock. Almost +the sole occupation of the people was agriculture, while the tone of +society was markedly aristocratic, as was to be expected from a +community dominated by great landowners who were also the masters of +many slaves. These landowners, living on their estates rather than in +towns and cities, caring nothing for<a name="page_002" id="page_002"></a> commerce or for manufactures, +separated from one another by great distances, and cherishing the +intensely conservative traditions of that England which saw the last of +the reigning Stuarts, were inevitably destined to intellectual +stagnation. The management of their plantations, the pleasures of the +chase, and the exercise of a splendid though half-barbaric hospitality, +satisfied the ideals which they had inherited from their Tory ancestors. +Horses and hounds, a full-blooded conviviality, and the exercise of a +semi-feudal power, occupied their minds and sufficiently diverted them. +Such an atmosphere was distinctly unfavourable to the development of a +love of letters and of learning. The Southern gentleman regarded the +general diffusion of education as a menace to his class; while for +himself he thought it more or less unnecessary. He gained a practical +knowledge of affairs by virtue of his position. As for culture, he had +upon the shelves of his library, where also were displayed his weapons +and the trophies of the chase, a few hundred volumes of the standard +essayists, poets, and dramatists of a century before. If he seldom read +them and never added to them, they at least implied a recognition of +polite learning and such a degree of literary taste as befitted a +Virginian or Carolinian gentleman. But, practically, English literature +had for him come to an end with Addison and Steele and Pope and their +contemporaries. The South stood still in the domain of letters and +education. Not that there were lacking men who cherished the ambition to +make for themselves a name in literature. There were many such, among +whom Gayarré, Beverly, and Byrd deserve an honourable remembrance; but +their surroundings were<a name="page_003" id="page_003"></a> unfavourable, and denied to them that +intelligent appreciation which inspires the man of letters to press on +to fresh achievement. An interesting example is found in the abortive +history of Virginia undertaken by Dr. William Stith, who was President +of William and Mary College, and who possessed not only scholarship but +the gift of literary expression. The work which he began, however, was +left unfinished, because of an utter lack of interest on the part of the +public for whom it had been undertaken. Dr. Stith's own quaint comment +throws a light upon contemporary conditions. He had laboured diligently +in collecting documents which represented original sources of +information; yet, when he came to publish the first and only volume of +his history, he omitted many of them, giving as his reason:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I perceive, to my no small Surprise and Mortification, that some +of my Countrymen (and those too, Persons of high Fortune and +Distinction) seemed to be much alarmed, and to grudge, that a +complete History of their own Country would run to more than one +Volume, and cost them above half a Pistole. I was, therefore, +obliged to restrain my Hand, ... for fear of enhancing the Price, +to the immense Charge and irreparable Damage of such generous and +publick-spirited Gentlemen."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p></div> + +<p>The Southern universities were meagrely attended; and though the sons of +wealthy planters might sometimes be sent to Oxford or, more usually, to +Princeton or to Yale, the discipline thus acquired made no general +impression upon the class to which they belonged. In fact, the +intellectual energy of the South found its only continuous and powerful +expression in<a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a> the field of politics. To government and statesmanship +its leading minds gave much attention, for only thus could they retain +in national affairs the supremacy which they arrogated to themselves and +which was necessary to preserve their peculiar institution. Hence, there +were to be found among the leaders of the Southern people a few +political philosophers like Jefferson, a larger number of political +casuists like Calhoun, and a swarm of political rhetoricians like +Patrick Henry, Hayne, Legaré, and Yancey. But beyond the limits of +political life the South was intellectually sterile. So narrowing and so +hostile to liberal culture were its social conditions that even to this +day it has not produced a single man of letters who can be truthfully +described as eminent, unless the name of Edgar Allan Poe be cited as an +exception whose very brilliance serves only to prove and emphasise the +rule.</p> + +<p>In the Middle States, on the other hand, a very different condition of +things existed. Here the population was never homogeneous. The English +Royalists and the Dutch in New York, the English Quakers and the Germans +in Pennsylvania and the Swedes in Delaware, made inevitable, from the +very first, a cosmopolitanism that favoured variety of interests, with a +resulting breadth of view and liberality of thought. Manufactures +flourished and foreign commerce was extensively pursued, insuring +diversity of occupation. The two chief cities of the nation were here, +and not far distant from each other. Wealth was not unevenly +distributed, and though the patroon system had created in New York a +landed gentry, this class was small, and its influence was only one of +many. Comfort<a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a> was general, religious freedom was unchallenged, +education was widely and generally diffused. The large urban population +created an atmosphere of urbanity. Even in colonial times, New York and +Philadelphia were the least provincial of American towns. They attracted +to themselves, not only the most interesting people from the other +sections, but also many a European wanderer, who found there most of the +essential graces of life, with little or none of that combined austerity +and rawness which elsewhere either disgusted or amused him. We need not +wonder, then, if it was in the Middle States that American literature +really found its birth, or if the forms which it there assumed were +those which are touched by wit and grace and imagination. Franklin, +frozen and repelled by what he thought the bigotry of Boston, sought +very early in his life the more congenial atmosphere of Philadelphia, +where he found a public for his copious writings, which, if not +precisely literature, were, at any rate, examples of strong, idiomatic +English, conveying the shrewd philosophy of an original mind. Charles +Brockden Brown first blazed the way in American fiction with six novels, +amid whose turgid sentences and strange imaginings one may here and +there detect a touch of genuine power and a striving after form. +Washington Irving, with his genial humour and well-bred ease, was the +very embodiment of the spirit of New York. Even Professor Barrett +Wendell, whose critical bias is wholly in favour of New England, +declares that Irving was the first of American men of letters, as he was +certainly the first American writer to win a hearing outside of his own +country. And to these we may add still others,—Freneau, from<a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a> whom both +Scott and Campbell borrowed; Cooper, with his stirring sea-tales and +stories of Indian adventure; and Bryant, whose early verses were thought +to be too good to have been written by an American. And there were also +Drake and Halleck and Woodworth and Paine, some of whose poetry still +continues to be read and quoted. The mention of them serves as a +reminder that American literature in the nineteenth century, like +English literature in the fourteenth, found its origin where wealth, +prosperity, and a degree of social elegance made possible an +appreciation of belles-lettres.</p> + +<p>Far different was it in New England. There, as in the South, the +population was homogeneous and English. But it was a Puritan population, +of which the environment and the conditions of its life retarded, and at +the same time deeply influenced, the evolution of its literature. One +perceives a striking parallel between the early history of the people of +New England and that of the people of ancient Rome. Each was forced to +wrest a living from a rugged soil. Each dwelt in constant danger from +formidable enemies. The Roman was ready at every moment to draw his +sword for battle with Faliscans, Samnites, or Etruscans. The New +Englander carried his musket with him even to the house of prayer, +fearing the attack of Pequots or Narragansetts. The exploits of such +half-mythical Roman heroes as Camillus and Cincinnatus find their +analogue in the achievements credited to Miles Standish and the doughty +Captain Church. Early Rome knew little of the older and more polished +civilisation of Greece. New England was separated by vast distances from +the richer life of Europe. In<a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a> Rome, as in New England, religion was +linked closely with all the forms of government; and it was a religion +which appealed more strongly to men's sense of duty and to their fears, +than to their softer feelings. The Roman gods needed as much +propitiation as did the God of Jonathan Edwards. When a great calamity +befell the Roman people, they saw in it the wrath of their divinities +precisely as the true New Englander was taught to view it as a +"providence." In both commonwealths, education of an elementary sort was +deemed essential; but it was long before it reached the level of +illumination.</p> + +<p>Like influences yield like results. The Roman character, as moulded in +the Republic's early years, was one of sternness and efficiency. It +lacked gayety, warmth, and flexibility. And the New England character +resembled it in all of these respects. The historic worthies of Old Rome +would have been very much at ease in early Massachusetts. Cato the +Censor could have hobnobbed with old Josiah Quincy, for they were +temperamentally as like as two peas. It is only the Romans of the Empire +who would have felt out of place in a New England environment. Horace +might conceivably have found a smiling <i>angulus terrarum</i> somewhere on +the lower Hudson, but he would have pined away beside the Nashua; while +to Ovid, Beacon Street would have seemed as ghastly as the frozen slopes +of Tomi. And when we compare the native period of Roman literature with +the early years of New England's literary history, the parallel becomes +more striking still. In New England, as in Rome, beneath all the forms +of a self-governing and republican State, there existed a genuine +aristocracy<a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a> whose prestige was based on public service of some sort; +and in New England, as in Rome, public service had in it a theocratic +element. In civil life, the most honourable occupation for a free +citizen was to share in this public service. Hence, the disciplines +which had a direct relation to government were the only civic +disciplines to be held in high consideration. Such an attitude +profoundly affected the earliest attempts at literature. The two +literary or semi-literary pursuits which have a close relation to +statesmanship are oratory and history—oratory, which is the statesman's +instrument, and history, which is in part the record of his +achievements. Therefore, at Rome, a line of native orators arose before +a native poet won a hearing, and therefore, too, the annalists and +chroniclers precede the dramatists.</p> + +<p>In New England it was much the same. Almost from the founding of the +Massachusetts Bay Colony, there were men among the colonists who wrote +down with diffusive dulness the records of whatever they had seen and +suffered. Governor William Bradford composed a history of New England; +and Thomas Prince, minister of the Old South Church, compiled another +work of like title, described by its author as told "in the Form of +Annals." Hutchinson prepared a history of Massachusetts Bay; and many +others had collected local traditions, which seemed to them of great +moment, and had preserved them in books, or else in manuscripts which +were long afterwards to be published by zealous antiquarians. Cotton +Mather's curious <i>Magnalia</i>, printed in 1700, was intended by its author +to be history, though strictly speaking it is theological and is clogged +with inappropriate learning,<a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a>—Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The parallel +between early Rome and early Massachusetts breaks down, however, when we +consider the natural temperament of the two peoples as distinct from +that which external circumstances cultivated in them. Underneath the +sternness and severity which were the fruits of Puritanism, there +existed in the New England character a touch of spirituality, of +idealism, and of imagination such as were always foreign to the Romans. +Under the repression of a grim theocracy, New England idealism still +found its necessary outlet in more than one strange form. We can trace +it in the hot religious eloquence of Edwards even better than in the +imitative poetry of Mrs. Bradstreet. It is to be found even in such +strange panics as that which shrieked for the slaying of the Salem +"witches." Time alone was needed to bring tolerance and intellectual +freedom, and with them a freer choice of literary themes and moods. The +New England temper remained, and still remains, a serious one; yet +ultimately it was to find expression in forms no longer harsh and rigid, +but modelled upon the finer lines of truth and beauty.</p> + +<p>The development was a gradual one. The New England spirit still exacted +sober subjects of its writers. And so the first evolution of New England +literature took place along the path of historical composition. The +subjects were still local or, at the most, national; but there was a +steady drift away from the annalistic method to one which partook of +conscious art. In the writings of Jared Sparks there is seen imperfectly +the scientific spirit, entirely self-developed and self-trained. His +laborious collections of historical material, and his dry but accurate +biographies,<a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a> mark a distinct advance beyond his predecessors. Here, at +least, are historical scholarship and, in the main, a conscientious +scrupulosity in documentation. It is true that Sparks was charged, and +not quite unjustly, with garbling some of the material which he +preserved; yet, on the whole, one sees in him the founder of a school of +American historians. What he wrote was history, if it was not +literature. George Bancroft, his contemporary, wrote history, and was +believed for a time to have written it in literary form. To-day his six +huge volumes, which occupied him fifty years in writing, and which bring +the reader only to the inauguration of Washington, make but slight +appeal to a cultivated taste. The work is at once too ponderous and too +rhetorical. Still, in its way, it marks another step.</p> + +<p>Up to this time, however, American historians were writing only for a +restricted public. They had not won a hearing beyond the country whose +early history they told. Their themes possessed as yet no interest for +foreign nations, where the feeble American Republic was little known and +little noticed. The republican experiment was still a doubtful one, and +there was nothing in the somewhat paltry incidents of its early years to +rivet the attention of the other hemisphere. "America" was a convenient +term to denote an indefinite expanse of territory somewhere beyond seas. +A London bishop could write to a clergyman in New York and ask him for +details about the work of a missionary in Newfoundland without +suspecting the request to be absurd. The British War Office could +believe the river Bronx a mighty stream, the crossing of which was full +of strategic possibilities. As for<a name="page_011" id="page_011"></a> the American people, they interested +Europe about as much as did the Boers in the days of the early treks. +Even so acute an observer as Talleyrand, after visiting the United +States, carried away with him only a general impression of rusticity and +bad manners. When Napoleon asked him what he thought of the Americans, +he summed up his opinion with a shrug: <i>Sire, ce sont des fiers cochons +et des cochons fiers</i>. Tocqueville alone seems to have viewed the +nascent nation with the eye of prescience. For the rest, petty +skirmishes with Indians, a few farmers defending a rustic bridge, and a +somewhat discordant gathering of planters, country lawyers, and +drab-clad tradesmen held few suggestions of the picturesque and, to most +minds, little that was significant to the student of politics and +institutional history.</p> + +<p>There were, however, other themes, American in a larger sense, which +contained within themselves all the elements of the romantic, while they +closely linked the ambitions of old Europe with the fortunes and the +future of the New World. The narration of these might well appeal to +that interest which the more sober annals of England in America wholly +failed to rouse. There was the story of New France, which had for its +background a setting of savage nature, while in the foreground was +fought out the struggle between Englishmen and Frenchmen, at grips in a +feud perpetuated through the centuries. There was the story of Spanish +conquest in the south,—a true romance of chivalry, which had not yet +been told in all its richness of detail. To choose a subject of this +sort, and to develop it in a fitting way, was to write at once for the +Old World and the New. The task demanded<a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a> scholarship, and presented +formidable difficulties. The chief sources of information were to be +found in foreign lands. To secure them needed wealth. To compare and +analyse and sift them demanded critical judgment of a high order. And +something more was needed,—a capacity for artistic presentation. When +both these gifts were found united in a single mind, historical writing +in New England had passed beyond the confines of its early crudeness and +had reached the stage where it claimed rank as lasting literature. +Rightly viewed, the name of William Hickling Prescott is something more +than a mere landmark in the field of historical composition. It +signalises the beginning of a richer growth in New England letters,—the +coming of a time when the barriers of a Puritan scholasticism were +broken down. Prescott is not merely the continuator of Sparks. He is the +precursor of Hawthorne and Parkman and Lowell. He takes high rank among +American historians; but he is enrolled as well in a still more +illustrious group by virtue of his literary fame.<a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II<br /><br /> +<small>EARLY YEARS</small></h2> + +<p class="nind">T<small>O</small> the native-born New Englander the name of Prescott has, for more than +a century, possessed associations that give to it the stamp of genuine +distinction. Those who have borne it have belonged of right to the true +patriciate of their Commonwealth. The Prescotts were from the first a +fighting race, and their men were also men of mind; and, according to +the times in which they lived, they displayed one or the other +characteristic in a very marked degree. The pioneer among them on +American soil was John Prescott, a burly Puritan soldier who had fought +under Cromwell, and who loved danger for its own sake. He came from +Lancashire to Massachusetts about twenty years after the landing of the +<i>Mayflower</i>, and at once pushed off into the unbroken wilderness to mark +out a large plantation for himself in what is now the town of Lancaster. +A half-verified tradition describes him as having brought with him a +coat of mail and a steel helmet, glittering in which he often terrified +marauding Indians who ventured near his lands. His son and grandson and +his three great-grandsons all served as officers in the military forces +of Massachusetts; and among the last was Colonel William Prescott, who +commanded the American troops at Bunker Hill. Later, he served under the +eye of Washington, who<a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a> personally commended him after the battle of +Long Island; and he took part in the defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga—a +success which brought the arms of France to the support of the American +cause.</p> + +<p>In times of peace as well, the Prescotts were men of light and leading. +Their names are found upon the rolls of the Massachusetts General Court, +of the Governor's Council in colonial days, of the Continental Congress, +and of the State judiciary. One of them, Oliver Prescott, a brother of +the Revolutionary warrior, who had been bred as a physician, made some +elaborate researches on the subject of that curious drug, ergot, and +embodied his results in a paper of such value as to attract the notice +of the profession in Europe. It was translated into French and German, +and was included in the <i>Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales</i>—an +unusual compliment for an American of those days to receive. Most +eminent of all the Prescotts in civil life, however, before the +historian won his fame, was William Prescott,—the family names were +continually repeated,—whose career was remarkable for its distinction, +and whose character is significant because of its influence upon his +illustrious son. William Prescott was born in 1762, and, after a most +careful training, entered Harvard, from which he was graduated in 1783. +Admitted to the bar, he won high rank in his profession, twice receiving +and twice declining an appointment to the Supreme Court of the State. +His widely recognised ability brought him wealth, so that he lived in +liberal fashion, in a home whose generous appointments and cultivated +ease created an atmosphere that was rare indeed in those early days, +when narrow means and a crude provincialism combined to<a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a> make New +England life unlovely. Prescott was not only an able lawyer, the worthy +compeer of Dexter, Otis, and Webster—he was a scholar by instinct, +widely read, thoughtful, and liberal-minded in the best sense of the +word. His intellectual conflicts with such professional antagonists as +have just been named gave him mental flexibility and a delightful +sanity; and though in temperament he was naturally of a serious turn, he +had both pungency and humour at his command. No more ideal father could +be imagined for a brilliant son; for he was affectionate, generous, and +sympathetic, with a knowledge of the world, and a happy absence of +Puritan austerity. He had, moreover, the very great good fortune to love +and marry a woman dowered with every quality that can fill a house with +sunshine. This was Catherine Hickling, the daughter of a prosperous +Boston merchant, afterward American consul in the Azores. As a girl, and +indeed all through her long and happy life, she was the very spirit of +healthful, normal womanhood,—full of an irrepressible and infectious +gayety, a miracle of buoyant life, charming in manner, unselfish, +helpful, and showing in her every act and thought the promptings of a +beautiful and spotless soul.</p> + +<p>It was of this admirably mated pair that William Hickling Prescott, +their second son, was born, at Salem, on the 4th of May, 1796. The elder +Prescott had not yet acquired the ample fortune which he afterward +possessed; yet even then his home was that of a man of easy +circumstances,—one of those big, comfortable, New England houses, +picturesquely situated amid historic surroundings.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Here young +Prescott<a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a> spent the first twelve years of his life under his mother's +affectionate care, and here began his education, first at a sort of dame +school, kept by a kindly maiden lady, Miss Mehitable Higginson, and +then, from about the age of seven, under the more formal instruction of +an excellent teacher, Mr. Jacob Newman Knapp, quaintly known as "Master +Knapp." It was here that he began to reveal certain definite and very +significant traits of character. The record of them is interesting, for +it shows that, but for the accident which subsequently altered the whole +tenor of his life, he might have grown up into a far from admirable man, +even had he escaped moral shipwreck. Many of his natural traits, indeed, +were of the kind that need restraint to make them safe to their +possessor, and in these early years restraint was largely lacking in the +life of the young Prescott, who, it may frankly be admitted, was badly +spoiled. His father, preoccupied in his legal duties, left him in great +part to his mother's care, and his mother, who adored him for his +cleverness and good looks, could not bear to check him in the smallest +of his caprices. He was, indeed, peculiarly her own, since from her he +had inherited so much. By virtue of his natural gifts, he was, no doubt, +a most attractive boy. Handsome, like his father, he had his mother's +vivacity and high spirits almost in excess. Quick of mind, imaginative, +full of eager curiosity, and with a tenacious memory, it is no wonder +that her pride in him was great, and that her mothering heart went out +to him in unconscious recognition of a kindred temperament. But his +school companions, and even his elders, often found these ebullient +spirits of his by no means so delightful.<a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a> The easy-going indulgence +which he met at home, and very likely also the recognised position of +his father in that small community, combined to make young Prescott +wilful and self-confident and something of an <i>enfant terrible</i>. He was +allowed to say precisely what he thought, and he did invariably say it +on all occasions and to persons of every age. In fact, he acquired a +somewhat unenviable reputation for rudeness, while his high spirits +prompted him to contrive all sorts of practical jokes—a form of humour +which seldom tends to make one popular. Moreover, though well-grown for +his age, he had a distaste for physical exertion, and took little or no +part in active outdoor games. Naturally, therefore, he was not +particularly liked by his school companions, while, on the other hand, +he attained no special rank in the schoolroom. Although he was quick at +learning, he contented himself with satisfying the minimum of what was +required—a trait that remained very characteristic of him for a long +time. Of course, there is no particular significance in the general +statement that a boy of twelve was rude, mischievous, physically +indolent, and averse to study. Yet in Prescott's case these qualities +were somewhat later developed at a critical period of his life, and +might have spoiled a naturally fine character had they not been +ultimately checked and controlled by the memorable accident which befell +him a few years afterward.</p> + +<p>In 1803, the elder Prescott suffered from a hemorrhage from the lungs +which compelled him for a time to give up many of his professional +activities. Five years after this he removed his home to Boston, where +the practice of his profession would be less<a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a> burdensome, and where, as +it turned out, his income was very largely increased. The change was +fortunate both for him and for his son; since, in a larger community, +the boy came to be less impressed with his own importance, and also fell +under an influence far more stimulating than could ever have been +exerted by a village schoolmaster. The rector of Trinity Church in +Boston, the Rev. Dr. John S. Gardiner, was a gentleman of exceptional +cultivation. As a young man he had been well trained in England under +the learned Dr. Samuel Parr, a Latinist of the Ciceronian school. He +was, besides, a man possessing many genial and very human qualities, so +that all who knew him felt his personal fascination to a rare degree. He +had at one time been the master of a classical school in Boston and had +met with much success; but his clerical duties had obliged him to give +up this occupation. Thereafter, he taught only a small number of boys, +the sons of intimate friends in whom he took a special and personal +interest. His methods with them were not at all those of a typical +schoolmaster. He received his little classes in the library of his home, +and taught them, in a most informal fashion, English, Greek, and Latin. +He resembled, indeed, one of those ripe scholars of the Renaissance who +taught for the pure love of imparting knowledge. Much of his instruction +was conveyed orally rather than through the medium of text-books; and +his easy talk, flowing from a full mind, gave interest and richness to +his favourite subjects. Such teaching as this is always rare, and it was +peculiarly so in that age of formalism. To the privilege of Dr. +Gardiner's instruction, young Prescott was admitted, and from it he +derived not only a correct<a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a> feeling for English style, but a genuine +love of classical study, which remained with him throughout his life. It +may be said here that he never at any time felt an interest in +mathematics or the natural sciences. His cast of mind was naturally +humanistic; and now, through the influence of an accomplished teacher, +he came to know the meaning and the beauty of the classical tradition.</p> + +<p>Under Gardiner, Prescott's indifference to study disappeared, and he +applied himself so well that he was rapidly advanced from elementary +reading to the study of authors so difficult as Ĉschylus. His +biographer, Mr. Ticknor, who was his fellow-pupil at this time, has left +us some interesting notes upon the subject of Prescott's literary +preferences. It appears that he enjoyed Sophocles, while Horace +"interested and excited him beyond his years." The pessimism of Juvenal +he disliked, and the crabbed verse of Persius he utterly refused to +read. Under private teachers he studied French, Italian, and Spanish,—a +rather unusual thing for boys at that time,—and he reluctantly acquired +what he regarded as the irreducible minimum of mathematics. It was +decided that he should be fitted to enter the Sophomore Class in +Harvard, and to this end he devoted his mental energies. Like most boys, +he worked hardest upon those studies which related to his college +examination, viewing others as more or less superfluous. He did, +however, a good deal of miscellaneous reading, opportunities for which +he found in the Boston Athenĉum. This institution had been opened but a +short time before, and its own collection of books, which to-day numbers +more than two hundred thousand, was rather meagre; but in it had been +deposited<a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a> some ten thousand volumes, constituting the private library +of John Quincy Adams, who was then holding the post of American Minister +to Russia. At a time when book-shops were few, and when books were +imported from England with much difficulty and expense, these ten +thousand volumes seemed an enormous treasure-house of good reading. +Prescott browsed through the books after the fashion of a clever boy, +picking out what took his fancy and neglecting everything that seemed at +all uninteresting. Yet this omnivorous reading stimulated his love of +letters and gave to him a larger range of vision than at that time he +could probably have acquired in any other way. It is interesting to note +the fact that his preference was for old romances—the more extravagant +the better—and for tales of wild and lawless adventure. An especial +favourite with him was the romance of <i>Amadis de Gaule</i>, which he found +in Southey's somewhat pedestrian translation, and which appealed +intensely to Prescott's imagination and his love of the fantastic.</p> + +<p>His other occupations were decidedly significant. His most intimate +friend at this time was William Gardiner, his preceptor's son; and the +two boys were absolutely at one in their tastes and amusements. Both of +them were full of mischief, and both were irrepressibly boisterous, +playing all sorts of tricks at evening in the streets, firing off +pistols, and in general causing a good deal of annoyance to the sober +citizens of Boston. In this they were like any other healthy boys,—full +of animal spirits and looking for "fun" without any especial sense of +responsibility. Something else, however, is recorded of them which seems +to have a real importance, as revealing in Prescott, at<a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a> least, some of +those mental characteristics which in his after life were to find +expression in his serious work.</p> + +<p>The period was one when the thoughts of all men were turned to the +Napoleonic wars. The French and English were at grips in Spain for the +possession of the Peninsula. Wellington had landed in Portugal and, +marching into Spain, had flung down the gage of battle, which was taken +up by Soult, Masséna, and Victor, in the absence of their mighty chief. +The American newspapers were filled with long, though belated, accounts +of the brilliant fighting at Ciudad Rodrigo, Almeida, and Badajoz; and +these narratives fired the imagination of Prescott, whose eagerness his +companion found infectious, so that the two began to play at battles; +not after the usual fashion of boys, but in a manner recalling the +<i>Kriegspiel</i> of the military schools of modern Germany. Pieces of paper +were carefully cut into shapes which would serve to designate the +difference between cavalry, infantry, and artillery; and with these bits +of paper the disposition and manœuvring of armies were indicated, so +as to make clear, in a rough way, the tactics of the opposing +commanders. Not alone were the Napoleonic battles thus depicted, but +also the great contests of which the boys had read or heard at +school,—Thermopylĉ, Marathon, Leuctra, Cannĉ, and Pharsalus. Some +pieces of old armour, unearthed among the rubbish of the Athenĉum, +enabled the boys to mimic in their play the combats of Amadis and the +knights with whom he fought.</p> + +<p>Side by side with these amusements there was another which curiously +supplemented it. As Prescott<a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a> and his friend went through the streets on +their way to school, they made a practice of inventing impromptu +stories, which they told each other in alternation. If the story was +unfinished when they arrived at school, it would be resumed on their way +home and continued until it reached its end. It was here that Prescott's +miscellaneous reading stood him in good stead. His mind was full of the +romances and histories that he had read; and his quick invention and +lively imagination enabled him to piece together the romantic bits which +he remembered, and to give them some sort of consistency and form. +Ticknor attaches little importance either to Prescott's interest in the +details of warfare or to this fondness of his for improvised narration. +Yet it is difficult not to see in both of them a definite bias; and we +may fairly hold that the boy's taste for battles, coupled with his love +of picturesque description, foreshadowed, even in these early years, the +qualities which were to bring him lasting fame.</p> + +<p>All these boyish amusements, however, came to an end when, in August, +1811, Prescott presented himself as a candidate for admission to +Harvard. Harvard was then under the presidency of the Rev. Dr. John +Thornton Kirkland, who had been installed in office the year before +Prescott entered college. President Kirkland was the first of Harvard's +really eminent presidents.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Under his rule there definitely began that +slow but steady evolution, which was, in the end, to transform the small +provincial college into a great and splendid university. Kirkland was an +earlier Eliot,<a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a> and some of his views seemed as radical to his +colleagues as did those of Eliot in 1869. Lowell has said of him, +somewhat unjustly: "He was a man of genius, but of genius that evaded +utilisation." It is fairer to suppose that, if he did not accomplish all +that he desired and attempted, this was because the time was not yet +ripe for radical innovations. He did secure large benefactions to the +University, the creation of new professorships on endowed foundations, +and the establishment of three professional schools. President Kirkland, +in reality, stood between the old order and the new, with his face set +toward the future, but retaining still some of the best traditions of +the small college of the past. It is told of him that he knew every +student by name, and took a very genuine interest in all of them, +helping them in many quiet, tactful ways, so that more than one +distinguished man in later life declared that, but for the thoughtful +and unsolicited kindness of Dr. Kirkland, he would have been forced to +abandon his college life in debt and in despair. Kirkland was a man of +striking personal presence, and could assume a bearing of such +impressive dignity as to verge on the majestic, as when he officially +received Lafayette in front of University Hall and presented the +assembled students to the nation's guest. The faculty over which he +presided contained at that time no teacher of enduring reputation,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> so +that whatever personal influence was exerted upon Prescott by his +instructors must have come chiefly from such intercourse as he had with +Dr. Kirkland.<a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a></p> + +<p>It is of interest to note just how much of an ordeal an entrance +examination at Harvard was at the time when Prescott came up as a +candidate for admission. The subjects were very few in number, and would +appear far from formidable to a modern Freshman. Dalzel's <i>Collectanea +Grœa Minora</i>, the Greek Testament, Vergil, Sallust, and several +selected orations of Cicero represented, with the Greek and Latin +grammars, the classical requirements which constituted, indeed, almost +the entire test, since the only other subjects were arithmetic, "so for +as the rule of three," and a general knowledge of geography. The +curriculum of the College, while Prescott was a member of it, was meagre +enough when compared with what is offered at the present time. The +classical languages occupied most of the students' attention. Sallust, +Livy, Horace, and one of Cicero's rhetorical treatises made up the +principal work in Latin. Xenophon's <i>Anabasis</i>, Homer, and some +desultory selections from other authors were supposed to give a +sufficient knowledge of Greek literature. The Freshmen completed the +study of arithmetic, and the Sophomores did something in algebra and +geometry. Other subjects of study were rhetoric, declamation, a modicum +of history, and also logic, metaphysics, and ethics. The ecclesiastical +hold upon the College was seen in the inclusion of a lecture course on +"some topic of positive or controversial divinity," in an examination on +Doddridge's Lectures, in the reading of the Greek Testament, and in a +two years' course in Hebrew for Sophomores and Freshmen. Indeed, Hebrew +was regarded as so important that a "Hebrew part" was included in every +commencement programme until<a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a> 1817—three years after Prescott's +graduation. In place of this language, however, while Prescott was in +college, students might substitute a course in French given by a tutor; +for as yet no regular chair of modern languages had been founded in the +University. The natural sciences received practically no attention, +although, in 1805, a chair of natural history had been endowed by +subscription. An old graduate of Harvard has recorded the fact that +chemistry in those days was regarded very much as we now look upon +alchemy; and that, on its practical side, it was held to be simply an +adjunct to the apothecary's profession. A few years later, and the +Harvard faculty contained such eminent men as Josiah Quincy, Judge +Joseph Story, Benjamin Peirce, the mathematician, George Ticknor, and +Edward Everett, and the opportunities for serious study were broadened +out immensely. But while Prescott was an undergraduate, the curriculum +had less variety and range than that of any well-equipped high school of +the present day.</p> + +<p>A letter written by Prescott on August 23d, the day after he had passed +through the ordeal of examination, is particularly interesting. It +gives, in the first place, a notion of the quaint simplicity which then +characterised the academic procedure of the oldest of American +universities; and it also brings us into rather intimate touch with +Prescott himself as a youth of fifteen. At that time a great deal of the +eighteenth-century formality survived in the intercourse between fathers +and their sons; and especially in the letters which passed between them +was there usually to be found a degree of stiffness and restraint both +in feeling and expression. Yet this letter of<a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a> Prescott's might have +been written yesterday by an American youth of the present time, so easy +and assured is it, and indeed, for the most part, so mature. It might +have been written also to one of his own age, and there is something +deliciously naïve in its revelation of Prescott's approbativeness. The +boy evidently thought very well of himself, and was not at all averse to +fishing for a casual compliment from others. The letter is given in full +by Ticknor, but what is here quoted contains all that is important:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="r">"B<small>OSTON</small>, August 23rd.</p> + +<p>"D<small>EAR</small> F<small>ATHER</small>:—I now write you a few lines to inform you of my +fate. Yesterday at eight o'clock I was ordered to the President's +and there, together with a Carolinian, Middleton, was examined for +Sophomore. When we were first ushered into their presence, they +looked like so many judges of the Inquisition. We were ordered down +into the parlour, almost frightened out of our wits, to be examined +by each separately; but we soon found them quite a pleasant sort of +chaps. The President sent us down a good dish of pears, and treated +us very much like gentlemen. It was not ended in the morning; but +we returned in the afternoon when Professor Ware [the Hollis +Professor of Divinity] examined us in Grotius' <i>De Veritate</i>. We +found him very good-natured; for I happened to ask him a question +in theology, which made him laugh so that he was obliged to cover +his face with his hand. At half past three our fate was decided and +we were declared 'Sophomores of Harvard University.'</p> + +<p>"As you would like to know how I appeared, I will give you the +conversation <i>verbatim</i> with Mr. Frisbie when I went to see him +after the examination. I asked him,'Did I appear well in my +examination?' Answer. 'Yes.' Question. 'Did I appear <i>very</i> well, +sir?' Answer. 'Why are you so particular, young man? Yes, you did +yourself a great deal of credit.' I feel today twenty pounds +lighter than I did yesterday.... Love to mother, whose affectionate +son I remain,</p> + +<p class="r">"W<small>M</small>. H<small>ICKLING</small> P<small>RESCOTT</small>."</p> +</div> + +<p><a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a></p> + +<p>Prescott entered upon his college life in the autumn of this same year +(1811). We find that many of those traits which he had exhibited in his +early school days were now accentuated rather sharply. He was fond of +such studies as appealed to his instinctive tastes. English literature +and the literatures of Greece and Rome he studied willingly because he +liked them and not because he was ambitious to gain high rank in the +University. To this he was more or less indifferent, and, therefore, +gave as little attention as possible to such subjects as mathematics, +logic, the natural sciences, philosophy, and metaphysics, without which, +of course, he could not hope to win university honours. Nevertheless, he +disliked to be rated below the average of his companions, and, +therefore, he was careful not to fall beneath a certain rather moderate +standard of excellence. He seems, indeed, to have adopted the Horatian +<i>aurea mediocritas</i> as his motto; and the easy-going, self-indulgent +philosophy of Horace he made for the time his own. In fact, the ideal +which he set before himself was the life of a gentleman in the +traditional English meaning of that word; and it was a gentleman's +education and nothing more which he desired to attain. To be socially +agreeable, courteous, and imbued with a liberal culture, seemed to him a +sufficient end for his ambition. His father was wealthy and generous. He +was himself extremely fond of the good things of life. He made friends +readily, and had a very large share of personal attractiveness. Under +the circumstances, it is not to be wondered at if his college life was +marked by a pleasant, well-bred hedonism rather than by the austerity of +the true New England temperament. The Prescotts as a family had<a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a> some +time before slipped away from the clutch of Puritanism and had accepted +the mild and elastic creed of Channing, which, in its tolerant view of +life, had more than a passing likeness to Episcopalianism. Prescott was +still running over with youthful spirits, his position was an assured +one, his means were ample, and his love of pleasure very much in +evidence. We cannot wonder, then, if we find that in the early part of +his university career he slipped into a sort of life which was probably +less commendable than his cautious biographers are willing to admit. Mr. +Ticknor's very guarded intimations seem to imply in Prescott a +considerable laxity of conduct; and it is not unfair to read between the +lines of what he has written and there find unwilling but undeniable +testimony. Thus Ticknor remarks that Prescott "was always able to stop +short of what he deemed flagrant excesses and to keep within the limits, +though rather loose ones, which he had prescribed to himself. His +standard for the character of a gentleman varied, no doubt, at this +period, and sometimes was not so high on the score of morals as it +should have been." Prescott is also described as never having passed the +world's line of honour, but as having been willing to run exceedingly +close to it. "He pardoned himself too easily for his manifold neglect +and breaches of the compacts he had made with his conscience; but there +was repentance at the bottom of all." It is rather grudgingly admitted +also that "the early part of his college career, when for the first time +he left the too gentle restraints of his father's house, ... was the +most dangerous period of his life. Upon portions of it he afterwards +looked back with regret." There is a good deal of significance,<a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a> +moreover, in some sentences which Prescott himself wrote, long +afterwards, of the temptations which assail a youth during those years +when he has attained to the independence of a man but while he is still +swayed by the irresponsibility of a boy. There seems to be in these +sentences a touch of personal reminiscence and regret:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The University, that little world of itself ... bounding the +visible horizon of the student like the walls of a monastery, still +leaves within him scope enough for all the sympathies and the +passions of manhood.... He meets with the same obstacles to success +as in the world, the same temptations to idleness, the same gilded +seductions, but without the same power of resistance. For in this +morning of life his passions are strongest; his animal nature is +more sensible to enjoyment; his reasoning faculties less vigorous +and mature. Happy the youth who in this stage of his existence is +so strong in his principles that he can pass through the ordeal +without faltering or failing, on whom the contact of bad +companionship has left no stain for future tears to wash away."</p></div> + +<p>Just how much is meant by this reluctant testimony can only be +conjectured. It is not unfair, however, to assume that, for a time, +Prescott's diversions were such as even a lenient moralist would think +it necessary to condemn. The fondness for wine, which remained with him +throughout his life, makes it likely that convival excess was one of his +undergraduate follies; while the flutter of a petticoat may at times +have stirred his senses. No doubt many a young man in his college days +has plunged far deeper into dissipation than ever Prescott did and has +emerged unscathed to lead a useful life. Yet in Prescott's case there +existed a peculiar danger. His future did not call<a name="page_030" id="page_030"></a> upon him to face the +stern realities of a life of toil. He was assured of a fortune ample for +his needs, and therefore his easy-going, pleasure-loving disposition, +his boundless popularity, his handsome face, his exuberant spirits, and +his very moderate ambition might easily have combined to lead him down +the primrose path where intellect is enervated and moral fibre +irremediably sapped.</p> + +<p>One dwells upon this period of indolence and folly the more willingly, +because, after all, it reveals to us in Prescott those pardonable human +failings which only serve to make his character more comprehensible. +Prescott's eulogists have so studiously ignored his weaknesses as to +leave us with no clear-cut impression of the actual man. They have +unwisely smoothed away so much and have extenuated so much in their +halting and ambiguous phrases, as to create a picture of which the +outlines are far too faint. Apparently, they wish to draw the likeness +of a perfect being, and to that extent they have made the subject of +their encomiums appear unreal. One cannot understand how truly lovable +the actual Prescott was, without reconstructing him in such a way as to +let his faults appear beside his virtues. Moreover, an understanding of +the perils which at first beset him is needed in order to make clear the +profound importance of an incident which sharply called a halt to his +excesses and, by curbing his wilful nature, set his finer qualities in +the ascendant. It is only by remembering how far he might have fallen, +that we can view as a blessing in disguise the blow which Fate was soon +to deal him.</p> + +<p>In the second (Junior) year of his college life, he<a name="page_031" id="page_031"></a> was dining one day +with the other undergraduates in the Commons Hall. During these meals, +so long as any college officers were present, decorum usually reigned; +but when the dons had left the room, the students frequently wound up by +what, in modern student phrase, would be described as "rough-house." +There were singing and shouting and frequently some boisterous +scuffling, such as is natural among a lot of healthy young barbarians. +On this particular occasion, as Prescott was leaving the hall, he heard +a sudden outbreak and looked around to learn its cause. Missiles were +flying about; and, just as he turned his head, a large hard crust of +bread struck him squarely in the open eye. The shock was great, +resembling a concussion of the brain, and Prescott fell unconscious. He +was taken to his father's house, where, on recovering consciousness, he +evinced extreme prostration, with nausea, a fluttering pulse, and all +the evidences of physical collapse. So weak was he that he could not +even sit upright in his bed. For several weeks unbroken rest was +ordered, so that nature, aided by a vigorous constitution, might repair +the injury which his system had sustained. When he returned to +Cambridge, the sight of the injured eye (the left one) was gone forever. +Oddly enough, in view of the severity of the blow, the organ was not +disfigured, and only through powerful lenses could even the slightest +difference be detected between it and the unhurt eye. Dr. James Jackson, +who attended Prescott at this time, described the case as one of +paralysis of the retina, for which no remedy was possible. This +accident, with the consequences which it entailed, was to have a +profound effect not only upon the whole of<a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a> Prescott's subsequent +career, but upon his character as well. His affliction, indeed, is +inseparably associated with his work, and it must again and again be +referred to, both because it was continually in his thoughts and because +it makes the record of his literary achievement the more remarkable. +Incidentally, it afforded a revelation of one of Prescott's noblest +traits,—his magnanimity. He was well aware of the identity of the +person to whom he owed this physical calamity. Yet, knowing as he did +that the whole thing was in reality an accident, he let it be supposed +that he had no knowledge of the person and that the mishap had come +about in such a way that the responsibility for it could not be fixed. +As a matter of fact, the thing had been done unintentionally; yet this +cannot excuse its perpetrator for never expressing to Prescott his +regret and sympathy. Years afterwards, Prescott spoke of this man to +Ticknor in the kindest and most friendly fashion, and once he was able +to confer on him a signal favour, which he did most readily and with +sincere cordiality.</p> + +<p>Prescott returned to the University in a mood of seriousness, which +showed forth the qualities inherited from his father. Hitherto he had +been essentially his mother's son, with all her gayety and mirthfulness +and joy of life. Henceforth he was to exhibit more and more the strength +of will and power of application which had made his father so honoured +and so influential. Not that he let his grave misfortune cloud his +spirits. He had still the use of his uninjured eye, and he had recovered +from his temporary physical prostration; but he now went about his work +in a different spirit, and was resolved to win at least an honourable<a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a> +rank for scholarship. In the classics and in English he studied hard, +and he overcame to some extent his aversion to philosophy and logic. +Mathematics, however, still remained the bane of his academic existence. +For a time he used to memorise word for word all the mathematical +demonstrations as he found them in the text-books, without the slightest +comprehension of what they meant; and his remarkable memory enabled him +to reproduce them in the class room, so that the professor of +mathematics imagined him to be a promising disciple. This fact does not +greatly redound to the acumen of the professor nor to the credit of his +class-room methods, and what followed gives a curious notion of the +easy-going system which then prevailed. Prescott found the continual +exertion of his memory a good deal of a bore. To his candid nature it +also savoured of deception. He, therefore, very frankly explained to the +professor the secret of his mathematical facility. He said that, if +required, he would continue to memorise the work, but that he knew it to +be for him nothing but a waste of time, and he asked, with much +<i>naïveté</i>, that he might be allowed to use his leisure to better +advantage. This most ingenuous request must have amused the gentleman of +whom it was made; but it proved to be effectual. Prescott was required +to attend all the mathematical exercises conscientiously, but from that +day he was never called upon to recite. For the rest, his diligence in +those studies which he really liked won him the respect of the faculty +at large. At graduation he received as a commencement honour the +assignment of a Latin poem, which he duly declaimed to a crowded +audience in the old "meeting-<a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a>house" at Cambridge, in August, 1814. This +poem was in Latin elegiacs, and was an apostrophe to Hope (<i>Ad Spem</i>), +of which, unfortunately, no copy has been preserved. At the same time, +Prescott was admitted to membership in the Phi Beta Kappa, from which a +single blackball was sufficient to exclude a candidate. His father +celebrated these double honours by giving an elaborate dinner, in a +pavilion, to more than five hundred of the family's acquaintances.</p> + +<p>Prescott had now to make his choice of a profession; for to a New +Englander of those days every man, however wealthy, was expected to have +a definite occupation. Very naturally he decided upon the law, and began +the study of it in his father's office, though it was evident enough +from the first that to his taste the tomes of Blackstone made no very +strong appeal. He loved rather to go back to his classical reading and +to enlarge his knowledge of modern literature. Indeed, his legal studies +were treated rather cavalierly, and it is certain that had he ever been +admitted to the bar, he would have found no pleasure in the routine of a +lawyer's practice. Fate once more intervened, though, as before, in an +unpleasant guise. In January, 1815, a painful inflammation appeared in +his right eye—the one that had not been injured. This inflammation +increased so rapidly as to leave Prescott for the time completely blind. +Nor was the disorder merely local. A fever set in with a high pulse and +a general disturbance of the system. Prescott's suffering was intense +for several days; and at the end of a week, when the local inflammation +had passed away, the retina of the right eye was found to be so +seriously affected as to threaten a permanent loss of sight.<a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a> At the +same time, symptoms of acute rheumatism appeared in the knee-joints and +in the neck. For several months the patient's condition was pitiable. +Again and again there was a recurrence of the inflammation in the eye, +alternating with the rheumatic symptoms, so that for sixteen weeks +Prescott was unable to leave his room, which had to be darkened almost +into blackness. Medical skill availed very little, and no doubt the +copious blood-letting which was demanded by the practice of that time +served only to deplete the patient's strength. Through all these weary +months, however, Prescott bore his sufferings with indomitable courage, +and to those friends of his who groped their way through the darkness to +his bedside he was always cheerful, animated, and even gay, talking very +little of his personal affliction and showing a hearty interest in the +concerns of others. When autumn came it was decided that he should take +a sea voyage, partly to invigorate his constitution and partly to enable +him to consult the most eminent specialists of France and England. First +of all, however, he planned to visit his grandfather, Mr. Thomas +Hickling, who, as has been already mentioned, was American consul at the +island of St. Michael's in the Azores, where it was thought the mildness +of the climate might prove beneficial.</p> + +<p>Prescott set out, on September 26th of the same year (1815), in one of +the small sailing vessels which plied between Boston and the West +African islands. The voyage occupied twenty-two days, during which time +Prescott had a recurrence both of his rheumatic pains and of the +inflammatory condition of his eye. His discomfort was enhanced by the +wretchedness of his<a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a> accommodations—a gloomy little cabin into which +water continually trickled from the deck, and in which the somewhat +fastidious youth was forced to live upon nauseous messes of rye pudding +sprinkled with coarse salt. Cockroaches and other vermin swarmed about +him; and it must have been with keen pleasure that he exchanged this +floating prison for the charming villa in the Azores, where his +grandfather had made his home in the midst of groves and gardens, +blooming with a semi-tropical vegetation. Mr. Hickling, during his long +residence at St. Michael's, had married a Portuguese lady for his second +wife, and his family received Prescott with unstinted cordiality. The +change from the bleak shores of New England to the laurels and myrtles +and roses of the Azores delighted Prescott, and so appealed to his sense +of beauty that he wrote home long and enthusiastic letters. But his +unstinted enjoyment of this Hesperian paradise lasted for little more +than two short weeks. He had landed on the 18th of October, and by +November 1st he had gone back to his old imprisonment in darkness, +living on a meagre diet and smarting under the blisters which were used +as a counter-irritant to the rheumatic inflammation. As usual, however, +his cheerfulness was unabated. He passed his time in singing, in +chatting with his friends, and in walking hundreds of miles around his +darkened room. He remained in this seclusion from November to February, +when his health once more improved; and two months later, on the 8th of +April, 1816, he took passage from St. Michael's for London. The sea +voyage and its attendant discomforts had their usual effect, and during +twenty-two out of the twenty-four days, to which his<a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a> weary journey was +prolonged, he was confined to his cabin.</p> + +<p>On reaching London his case was very carefully diagnosed by three of the +most eminent English specialists, Dr. Farre, Sir William Adams, and Mr. +(afterward Sir) Astley Cooper. Their verdict was not encouraging, for +they decided that no local treatment of his eyes could be of any +particular advantage, and that the condition of the right eye would +always depend very largely upon the general condition of his system. +They prescribed for him, however, and he followed out their regimen with +conscientious scrupulosity. After a three months' stay in London, he +crossed the Channel and took up his abode in Paris. In England, owing to +his affliction, he had been able to do and see but little, because he +was forbidden to leave his room after nightfall, and of course he could +not visit the theatre or meet the many interesting persons to whom Mr. +John Quincy Adams, then American Minister to England, offered to present +him. Something he saw of the art collections of London, and he was +especially impressed by the Elgin Marbles and Raphael's cartoons. There +was a touch of pathos in the wistful way in which he paused in the +booksellers' shops and longingly turned over rare editions of the +classics which it was forbidden him to read. "When I look into a Greek +or Latin book," he wrote to his father, "I experience much the same +sensation as does one who looks on the face of a dead friend, and the +tears not infrequently steal into my eyes." In Paris he remained two +months, and passed the following winter in Italy, making a somewhat +extended tour, and visiting the most famous of the Italian cities in +company<a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a> with an old schoolmate. Thence he returned to Paris, where once +more he had a grievous attack of his malady; and at last, in May of +1817, he again reached London, embarking not long after for the United +States. Before leaving England on this second visit, he had explored +Oxford and Cambridge, which interested him extremely, but which he was +glad to leave in order to be once more at home.<a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III<br /><br /> +<small>THE CHOICE OF A CAREER</small></h2> + +<p class="nind">P<small>RESCOTT'S</small> return to his home brought him face to face with the +perplexing question of his future. During his two years of absence this +question must often have been forced upon his mind, especially during +those weary weeks when the darkness of his sick-room and the lack of any +mental diversion threw him in upon himself and left him often with his +own thoughts for company. Even to his optimistic temperament the future +may well have seemed a gloomy one. Half-blind and always dreading the +return of a painful malady, what was it possible for him to do in the +world whose stir and movement and boundless opportunity had so much +attracted him? Must he spend his years as a recluse, shut out from any +real share in the active duties of life? Little as he was wont to dwell +upon his own anxieties, he could not remain wholly silent concerning a +subject so vital to his happiness. In a letter to his father, written +from St. Michael's not long before he set out for London, he broached +very briefly a subject that must have been very often in his thoughts.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The most unpleasant of my reflections suggested by this late +inflammation are those arising from the probable necessity of +abandoning a profession congenial with my taste and recommended by +such favourable opportunities, and adopting<a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a> one for which I am ill +qualified and have but little inclination. It is some consolation +that this latter alternative, should my eyes permit, will afford me +more leisure for the pursuit of my favourite studies. But on this +subject I shall consult my physician and will write you his +opinion."</p></div> + +<p>Apparently at this time he still cherished the hope of entering upon +some sort of a professional career, even though the practice of the law +were closed to him. But after the discouraging verdict of the London +specialists had been made known, he took a more despondent view. He +wrote:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"As to the future, it is too evident I shall never be able to +pursue a profession. God knows how poorly I am qualified and how +little inclined to be a merchant. Indeed, I am sadly puzzled to +think how I shall succeed even in this without eyes."</p></div> + +<p>It was in this uncertain state of mind that he returned home in the late +summer of 1817. The warmth of the welcome which he received renewed his +buoyant spirits, even though he soon found himself again prostrated by a +recurrence of his now familiar trouble. His father had leased a +delightful house in the country for his occupancy; but the shade-trees +that surrounded it created a dampness which was unfavourable to a +rheumatic subject, and so Prescott soon returned to Boston. Here he +spent the winter in retirement, yet not in idleness. His love of books +and of good literature became the more intense in proportion as physical +activity was impossible; and he managed to get through a good many +books, thanks to the kindness of his sister and of his former school +companion, William Gardiner, both of whom devoted a part of each day to +reading aloud to Prescott,—Gardiner the<a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a> classics, and Miss Prescott +the standard English authors in history, poetry, and belles-lettres in +general. These readings often occupied many consecutive hours, extending +at times far into the night; and they relieved Prescott's seclusion of +much of its irksomeness, while they stored his mind with interesting +topics of thought. It was, in reality, the continuation of a system of +vicarious reading which he had begun two years before in St. Michael's, +where he had managed, by the aid of another's eyes, to enjoy the +romances of Scott, which were then beginning to appear, and to renew his +acquaintance with Shakespeare, Homer, and the Greek and Roman +historians.</p> + +<p>From reading literature, it was a short step to attempting its +production. Pledging his sister to secrecy, Prescott composed and +dictated to her an essay which was sent anonymously to the <i>North +American Review</i>, then a literary fledgling of two years, but already +making its way to a position of authority. This little <i>ballon d'essai</i> +met the fate of many such, for the manuscript was returned within a +fortnight. Prescott's only comment was, "There! I was a fool to send +it!" Yet the instinct to write was strong within him, and before very +long was again to urge him with compelling force to test his gift. But +meanwhile, finding that his life of quiet and seclusion did very little +for his eyes, he made up his mind that he might just as well go out into +the world more freely and mingle with the friends whose society he +missed so much. After a little cautious experimenting, which apparently +did no harm, he resumed the old life from which, for three years, he had +been self-banished. The effect upon him mentally was admirable, and he +was now<a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a> safe from any possible danger of becoming morbidly +introspective from the narrowness of his environment. He went about +freely all through the year 1818, indulging in social pleasures with the +keenest zest. His bent for literature, however, asserted itself in the +foundation of a little society or club, whose members gathered +informally, from time to time, for the reading of papers and for genial +yet frank criticism of one another's productions. This club never +numbered more than twenty-four persons, but they were all cultivated +men, appreciative and yet discriminating, and the list of them contains +some names, such as those of Franklin Dexter, Theophilus Parsons, John +Ware, and Jared Sparks, which, like Prescott's own, belong to the record +of American letters. For their own amusement, they subsequently brought +out a little periodical called <i>The Club-Room</i>, of which four numbers in +all were published,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> and to which Prescott, who acted as its editor, +made three contributions, one of them a sort of humorous editorial +article, very local in its interest, another a sentimental tale called +"The Vale of Allerid," and the third a ghost story called "Calais." They +were like thousands of such trifles which are written every year by +amateurs, and they exhibit no literary qualities which raise them above +the level of the commonplace. The sole importance of <i>The Club-Room's</i> +brief existence lies in the fact that it possibly did something to lure +Prescott along the path that led to serious literary productiveness.</p> + +<p>One very important result of his return to social life was found in his +marriage, in 1820, to Miss Susan<a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a> Amory, the daughter of Mr. Thomas C. +Amory, a leading merchant of Boston.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The bride was a very charming +girl, to whom her young husband was passionately devoted, and who filled +his life with a radiant happiness which delighted all who knew and loved +him. His naturally buoyant spirits rose to exuberance after his +engagement. He forgot his affliction. He let his reading go by the +board. He was, in fact, too happy for anything but happiness, and this +delight even inspired him to make a pun that is worth recording. +Prescott was an inveterate punster, and his puns were almost invariably +bad; but when his bachelor friends reproached him for his desertion of +them, he laughed and answered them with the Vergilian line,—</p> + +<p class="c">"<i>Omnia vincit amor et nos cedamus Amori</i>"—</p> + +<p class="nind">a play upon words which Thackeray independently chanced upon many years +later in writing <i>Pendennis</i>, and <i>à propos</i> of a very different Miss +Amory. It is of interest to recall the description given by Mr. Ticknor +of Prescott as he appeared at the time of his marriage (May 4, 1820) +and, indeed, very much as he remained down to the hour of his death.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"My friend was one of the finest looking men I have ever seen; or, +if this should be deemed in some respects a strong expression, I +shall be fully justified ... in saying that he was one of the most +attractive. He was tall, well formed, manly in his bearing but +gentle, with light brown hair that<a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a> was hardly changed or +diminished by years, with a clear complexion and a ruddy flash on +his cheek that kept for him to the last an appearance of +comparative youth, but above all with a smile that was the most +absolutely contagious I ever looked on.... Even in the last months +of his life when he was in some other respects not a little +changed, he appeared at least ten years younger than he really was. +And as for the gracious sunny smile that seemed to grow sweeter as +he grew older, it was not entirely obliterated even by the touch of +death."</p></div> + +<p>After Prescott had been married for about a year, the old question of a +life pursuit recurred and was considered by him seriously. Without any +very definite aim, yet with a half-unconscious intuition, he resolved to +store his mind with abundant reading, so that he might, at least in some +way, be fitted for the career of a man of letters. Hitherto, in the +desultory fashion of his boyhood, he had dipped into many authors, yet +he really knew nothing thoroughly and well. In the classics he was +perhaps best equipped; but of English literature his knowledge was +superficial because he had read only here and there, and rather for the +pleasure of the moment than for intellectual discipline. He had a slight +smattering of French, sufficient for the purposes of a traveller, but +nothing more. Of Italian, Spanish, and German he was wholly ignorant, +and with the literatures of these three languages he had never made even +the slightest acquaintance. Conning over in a reflective mood the sum +total of his acquisitions and defects, he came to the conclusion that he +would undertake what he called in a memorandum "a course of studies," +including "the principles of grammar and correct writing" and the +history of the North American Continent. He also resolved to devote<a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a> one +hour a day to the Latin classics. Some six months after this, his +purpose had expanded, and he made a second resolution, which he recorded +in the following words:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I am now twenty-six years of age, nearly. By the time I am thirty, +God willing, I propose with what stock I have already on hand to be +a very well read English scholar; to be acquainted with the +classical and useful authors, prose and poetry, in Latin, French, +and Italian, and especially in history—I do not mean a critical or +profound acquaintance. The two following years I may hope to learn +German, and to have read the classical German writers; and the +translations, if my eye continues weak, of the Greek."</p></div> + +<p>To this memorandum he adds the comment that such a course of study would +be sufficient "for general discipline"—a remark which proves that he +had not as yet any definite plan in undertaking his self-ordered task. +For several years he devoted himself with great industry to the course +which he had marked out. He went back to the pages of Blair's Rhetoric +and to Lindley Murray's Grammar, and he read consecutively, making notes +as he read, the older masters of English prose style from Roger Ascham, +Sidney, Bacon, and Raleigh down to the authors of the eighteenth +century, and even later. In Latin he reviewed Tacitus, Livy, and Cicero. +His reading seems to have been directed less to the subject-matter than +to the understanding and appreciation of style as a revelation of the +writer's essential characteristics. It was, in fact, a study of +psychology quite as much as a study of literature. Passing on to French, +he found the literature of that language comparatively unsympathetic, +and he contrasted it unfavourably<a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a> with the English. He derived some +pleasure from the prose of Montaigne and Bossuet, and from Corneille and +Molière; but, on the whole, French poetry always seemed to him too rigid +in its formal classicism to be enjoyable. Side by side with his French +reading, he made the acquaintance of the early English ballad-poetry and +the old romances, and, in 1823, he took up Italian, which appealed to +him intensely, so that he read an extraordinary amount and made the most +voluminous notes upon every author that interested him, besides writing +long criticisms and argumentative letters to his friend Ticknor, full of +praises of Petrarch and Dante, and defending warmly the real existence +of Laura and the genuineness of Dante's passion for Beatrice. For Dante, +indeed, Prescott conceived a most enthusiastic admiration, which found +expression in many a letter to his friend.</p> + +<p>The immediate result of his Italian studies was the preparation of some +articles which were published in the <i>North American Review</i>—the first +on Italian narrative poetry (October, 1824). This was the beginning of a +series; since, nearly every year thereafter, some paper from his pen +appeared in that publication. One article on Italian poetry and romance +was originally offered to the English <i>Quarterly Review</i> through Jared +Sparks, and was accepted by the editor; but Prescott, growing impatient +over the delay in its appearance, recalled the manuscript and gave it to +the <i>North American</i>. These essays of Prescott were not rated very +highly by their author, and we can accept his own estimate as, on the +whole, a just one. They are written in an urbane and agreeable manner, +but are wholly lacking in originality, insight, and vigour;<a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a> while their +bits of learning strike the more modern reader as old fashioned, even if +not pedantic. This literary work, however, slight as may be its +intrinsic merit, was at least an apprenticeship in letters, and gave to +Prescott a useful training in the technique of composition.</p> + +<p>In 1824, something of great moment happened in the course of Prescott's +search for a life career. He had, in accordance with the resolution +already mentioned, taken up the study of German; but he found it not +only difficult but, to him, uninteresting. After several months he +became discouraged; and though he read on, he did so, as he himself has +recorded, with no method and with very little diligence or spirit. Just +at this time Mr. George Ticknor, who had been delivering a course of +lectures in Harvard on the subject of Spanish literature, read over some +of these lectures to Prescott, merely to amuse him and to divert his +mind. The immediate result was that Prescott resolved to give up his +German studies and to substitute a course in Spanish. On the first day +of December, 1824, he employed a teacher of that language, and commenced +a course of study which was to prove wonderfully fruitful, and which +ended only with his life. He seems to have begun the reading of Spanish +from the very moment that he took up the study of its grammar, and there +is an odd significance in a remark which he wrote down only a few days +after: "I snatch a fraction of the morning from the interesting treatise +of M. Jossé on the Spanish language and from the <i>Conquista de Mexico</i>, +which, notwithstanding the time I have been upon it, I am far from +having conquered." The deadening effects of<a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a> German upon his mind seem +to have endured for a while, since at Christmas time he was still +pursuing his studies with a certain listlessness; and he wrote to +Bancroft, the historian, a letter which contained one remark that is +very curious when we read it in the light of his subsequent career:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I am battling with the Spaniards this winter, but I have not the +heart for it as I had for the Italians. <i>I doubt whether there are +many valuable things that the key of knowledge will unlock in that +language.</i>"</p></div> + +<p>Another month, however, found him filled with the joy of one who has at +last laid his hand upon that for which he has long been groping. He +expressed this feeling very vividly in a letter quoted by Mr. Ticknor:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Did you never, in learning a language, after groping about in the +dark for a long while, suddenly seem to turn an angle where the +light breaks upon you all at once? The knack seems to have come to +me within the last fortnight in the same manner as the art of +swimming comes to those who have been splashing about for months in +the water in vain."</p></div> + +<p>Spanish literature exercised upon his mind a peculiar charm, and he +boldly dashed into the writing of Spanish even from the first. Ticknor's +well-stored library supplied him with an abundance of books, and his own +comments upon the Castilian authors in whom he revelled were now written +not in English but in Spanish—naturally the Spanish of a beginner, yet +with a feeling for idiom which greatly surprised Ticknor. Even in after +years, Prescott never acquired a faultless Spanish diction; but he wrote +with clearness and fluency, so that his Spanish was very individual, +and, in this respect, not unlike the Latin of Politian or of Milton.</p> + +<p>Up to this time Prescott had been cultivating his<a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a> mind and storing it +with knowledge without having formed any clear conception of what he was +to do with his intellectual accumulations. At first, when he formed a +plan of systematic study, his object had been only the modest one of +"general discipline," as he expressed it. As he went on, however, he +seems to have had an instinctive feeling that even without intention he +was moving toward a definite goal. Just what this was he did not know, +but none the less he was not without faith that it would ultimately be +revealed to him. Looking back over all the memoranda that he has left +behind, it is easy now to see that his drift had always been toward +historical investigation. His boyish tastes, already described, declared +his interest in the lives of men of action. His maturer preferences +pointed in the same direction. It has heretofore been noted that, in +1821, when he marked out for himself his first formal plan of study, he +included "the compendious history of North America" as one of the +subjects. While reading French he had dwelt especially upon the +chroniclers and historians from Froissart down. In Spanish he had been +greatly attracted by Mariana's <i>Historia de España</i>, which is still one +of the Castilian classics; and this work had led him to the perusal of +Mably's acute and philosophical <i>Étude de l'Histoire</i>. He himself long +afterward explained that still earlier than this he had been strongly +attracted to historical writing, especially after reading Gibbon's +<i>Autobiography</i>, which he came upon in 1820. Even then, he tells us, he +had proposed to himself to become an historian "in the best sense of the +term." About 1822 he jotted down the following in his private notes:—<a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"History has always been a favourite study with me and I have long +looked forward to it as a subject on which I was one day to +exercise my pen. It is not rash, in the dearth of well-written +American history, to entertain the hope of throwing light upon this +matter. This is my hope."</p></div> + +<p>Nevertheless, although his bent was so evidently for historical +composition, he had as yet received no impulse toward any especial +department of that field. In October, 1825, we find him making this +confession of his perplexity: "I have been so hesitating and reflecting +upon what I shall do, that I have in fact done nothing." And five days +later, he set down the following: "I have passed the last fortnight in +examination of a suitable subject for historical composition." In his +case there was no need for haste. He realised that historical research +demands maturity of mind. "I think," he said, "thirty-five years of age +full soon enough to put pen to paper." And again: "I care not how long a +time I take for it, provided I am diligent in all that time."</p> + +<p>It is clear from one of the passages just quoted, that his first thought +was to choose a distinctively American theme. This, however, he put +aside without any very serious consideration, although he had looked +into the material at hand and had commented upon its richness. His love +of Italian literature and of Italy drew him strongly to an Italian +theme, and for a while he thought of preparing a careful study of that +great movement which transformed the republic of ancient Rome into an +empire. Again, still with Italy in mind, he debated with himself the +preparation of a work on Italian literature,—a work (to use his own +words) "which, without giving a chronological and<a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a> minute analysis of +authors, should exhibit in masses the most important periods, +revolutions, and characters in the history of Italian letters." Further +reflection, however, led him to reject this, partly because it would +involve so extensive and critical a knowledge of all periods of Italian +literature, and also because the subject was not new, having in a way +been lately treated by Sismondi. Prescott makes another and very +characteristic remark, which shows him to have been then as always the +man of letters as well as the historian, with a keen eye to what is +interesting. "Literary history," he says, "is not so amusing as civil."</p> + +<p>The choice of a Spanish subject had occurred to him in a casual way soon +after he had taken up the study of the Spanish language. In a letter +already quoted as having been written in December of 1825, he balances +such a theme with his project for a Roman one:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have been hesitating between two topics for historical +investigation—Spanish history from the invasion of the Arabs to +the consolidation of the monarchy under Charles V., or a history of +the revolution of ancient Rome which converted the republic into an +empire.... I shall probably select the first as less difficult of +execution than the second."</p></div> + +<p>He also planned a collection of biographical sketches and criticisms, +but presently rejected that, as he did, a year later, the Roman subject; +and after having done so, the mists began to clear away and a great +purpose to take shape before his mental vision. On January 8, 1826, he +wrote a long memorandum which represents the focussing of his hitherto +vague mental strivings.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Cannot I contrive to embrace the <i>gist</i> of the Spanish subject +without involving myself in the unwieldy barbarous<a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a> records of a +thousand years? What new and interesting topic may be admitted—not +forced—into the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella? Can I not +indulge in a retrospective picture of the constitutions of Castile +and Aragon—of the Moorish dynasties and the causes of their decay +and dissolution? Then I have the Inquisition with its bloody +persecutions; the conquest of Granada, a brilliant passage; the +exploits of the Great Captain in Italy; ... the discovery of a new +world, my own country.... A biography will make me responsible for +a limited space only; will require much less reading; will offer +the deeper interest which always attaches to minute developments of +character, and the continuous, closely connected narratives. The +subject brings me to a point whence [modern] English history has +started, is untried ground, and in my opinion a rich one. The age +of Ferdinand is most important.... It is in every respect an +interesting and momentous period of history; the materials +authentic, ample. I will chew upon this matter and decide this +week."</p></div> + +<p>Long afterward (in 1847) Prescott pencilled upon this memorandum the +words: "This was the first germ of my conception of <i>Ferdinand and +Isabella</i>." On January 19th, after some further wavering, he wrote down +definitely: "I subscribe to the <i>History of the Reign of Ferdinand and +Isabella</i>." Opposite this note he made, in 1847, the brief but emphatic +comment,—"A fortunate choice."</p> + +<p>From this decision he never retreated, though at times he debated with +himself the wisdom of his choice. His apparent vacillation was due to a +return of the inflammation in his eye. For a little while this caused +him to shrink back from the difficulties of his Spanish subject, +involving as it did an immense amount of reading; and there came into +his head the project of writing an historical survey of English +literature. But on the whole he held fast to his original<a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a> resolution, +and soon entered upon that elaborate preparation which was to give to +American literature a masterpiece. In his final selection of a theme we +can, indeed, discern the blending of several currents of reflection and +the combination of several of his earlier purposes. Though his book was +to treat of two Spanish sovereigns, it nevertheless related to a reign +whose greatest lustre was conferred upon it by an Italian and by the +discovery of the Western World. Thus Prescott's early predilection for +American history his love for Italy, and his new-born interest in Spain +were all united to stimulate him in the task upon which he had now +definitely entered.<a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV<br /><br /> +<small>SUCCESS</small></h2> + +<p class="nind">D<small>R</small>. J<small>OHNSON</small>, in his rather unsympathetic life of Milton, declares that +it is impossible for a blind man to write history. Already, before +Prescott began historical composition, this dictum had been refuted by +the brilliant French historian, Augustin Thierry, whose scholarly study +of the Merovingian period was composed after he had wholly lost his +sight.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Moreover, Prescott was not wholly blind, for at times he could +make a cautious use of the right eye. Nevertheless, the task to which he +had set himself was sufficiently formidable to deter a less persistent +spirit. In the first place, all the original sources of information were +on the other side of the Atlantic. Nowhere in the United States was +there a public library such as even some of our smaller cities now +possess. Prescott himself, moreover, had at this time done comparatively +little special reading in the subject of which he proposed to write; and +the skilled assistance which he might easily have secured in Europe was +not to be had in the United States. Finally, though he was not blind in +the ordinary sense, he could not risk a total loss of sight by putting +upon his remaining eye the strain of continuous and fatiguing use.<a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a></p> + +<p>In spite of all these obstacles and discouragements, however, he began +his undertaking with a touch of that stoicism which, as Thomas Hughes +has somewhere said, makes the Anglo-Saxon find his keenest pleasure in +enduring and overcoming. Prescott had planned to devote a year to +preliminary studies before putting pen to paper. The work which he then +had in mind was intended by him to be largely one of compilation from +the works of foreign writers, to be of moderate size, with few +pretensions to originality, and to claim attention chiefly because the +subject was still a new one to English readers. He felt that he would be +accomplishing a great deal if he should read and thoroughly digest the +principal French, Spanish, and Italian historians—Mariana, Llorente, +Varillas, Fléchier, and Sismondi—and give a well-balanced account of +Ferdinand and Isabella's reign based upon what these and a few other +scholarly authorities had written. But the zeal of the investigator soon +had him in its grip. Scarcely had the packages of books which he had +ordered from Madrid begun to reach his library than his project +broadened out immensely into a work of true creative scholarship. His +year of reading now appeared to him absurdly insufficient. It had, +indeed, already been badly broken into by one of his inflammatory +attacks; and his progress was hampered by the inadequate assistance +which he received. A reader, employed by him to read aloud the Spanish +books, performed the duty valiantly but without understanding a single +word of Spanish, very much as Milton's daughters read Greek and Hebrew +to their father. Thinking of his new and more ambitious conception of +his purpose and of the hindrances which<a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a> beset him, Prescott wrote: +"Travelling at this lame gait, I may yet hope in five or six years to +reach the goal." As a matter of fact, it was three years and a half +before he wrote the opening sentence of his book. It was ten years +before he finished the last foot-note of the final chapter. It was +nearly twelve years before the book was given to the public.</p> + +<p>Some account of his manner of working may be of interest, and it is +convenient to describe it here once for all. In the second year, after +he had begun his preliminary studies, he secured the services of a Mr. +James English, a young Harvard graduate, who had some knowledge of the +modern languages. This gentleman devoted himself to Prescott's +interests, and henceforth a definite routine of study and composition +was established and was continued with other secretaries throughout +Prescott's life. Mr. English has left some interesting notes of his +experiences, which admit us to the library of the large house on Bedford +Street, where the two men worked so diligently together. It was a +spacious room in the back of the house, lined on two sides with books +which reached the ceiling. Against a third side was a large green +screen, toward which Prescott faced while seated at his table; while +behind him was an ample window, over which a series of pale blue muslin +shades could be drawn, thus regulating the illumination of the room +according to the state of Prescott's eye and the conditions of the +weather. At a second window sat Mr. English, ready to act either as +reader or as amanuensis when required.</p> + +<p>Allusion has been made from time to time to Prescott's written memoranda +and to his letters, which, indeed, were often very long and very +frequent. It<a name="page_057" id="page_057"></a> must not be thought that in writing these he had to make +any use of his imperfect sight. The need of this had been obviated by an +invention which he had first heard of in London during his visit there +in 1816. It was a contrivance called "the noctograph," meant for the use +of the blind. A frame like that of a slate was crossed by sixteen +parallel wires fastened into the sides and holding down a sheet of +blackened paper like the carbon paper now used in typewriters and +copying-machines. Under this blackened paper was placed a sheet of plain +white note-paper. A person using the noctograph wrote with a sort of +stylus of ivory, agate, or some other hard substance upon the blackened +paper, which conveyed the impression to the white paper underneath. Of +course, the brass wires guided the writer's hand and kept the point of +the stylus somewhere near the line.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>Of his noctograph Prescott made constant use. For composition he +employed it almost altogether, seldom or never dictating to a scribe. +Obviously, however, the instrument allowed no erasures or corrections to +be made, and the writer must go straight forward with his task; since to +go back and try to alter what had been once set down would make the +whole illegible. Hence arose the necessity of what Irving once described +as "pre-thinking,"—the determination not only of the content but of the +actual form of the sentence before it should be written down. In this +pre-thinking Prescott showed a power of memory and of<a name="page_058" id="page_058"></a> visualisation +that was really wonderful. To carry in his mind the whole of what had +been read over to him in a session of several hours,—names, dates, +facts, authorities,—and then to shape his narrative, sentence by +sentence, before setting down a word, and, finally, to bear in mind the +whole structure of each succeeding paragraph and the form in which they +had been carefully built up—this was, indeed, an intellectual and +literary achievement of an unusual character. Of course, such a power as +this did not come of itself, but was slowly gained by persistent +practice and unwearied effort. His personal memoranda show this: "Think +closely," he writes, "gradually concentrating the circle of thought." +And again: "Think continuously and closely before taking up my pen. Make +corrections chiefly in my own mind." And still again: "Never take up my +pen until I have travelled over the subject so often that I can write +almost from memory."</p> + +<p>But in 1827, the time had not yet come for composition. He was hearing +books read to him and was taking copious notes. How copious these were, +his different secretaries have told; and besides, great masses of them +have been preserved as testimony to the minute and patient labour of the +man who made and used them. As his reader went on, Prescott would say, +"Mark that!" whenever anything seemed to him especially significant. +These marked passages were later copied out in a large clear hand for +future reference. When the time came, they would be read, studied, +compared, verified, and digested. Sometimes he spent as much as five +days in thus mastering the notes collected for a single chapter. Then at +least another day<a name="page_059" id="page_059"></a> would be given to reflection and (probably) to +composition, while from five to nine days more might go to the actual +writing out of the text. This power of Prescott's increased with +constant exercise. Later, he was able to carry in his head the whole of +the first and second chapters of his <i>Conquest of Peru</i> (nearly sixty +pages) before committing them to paper, and in preparing his last work, +<i>Philip II.</i>, he composed and memorised the whole fifth, sixth, and +seventh chapters of Book II., amounting to seventy-two printed pages.</p> + +<p>Prescott had elaborated a system of his own for the regulation of his +daily life while he was working. This system was based upon the closest +observation, extending over years, of the physical effect upon him of +everything he did. The result was a regimen which represented his +customary mode of living. Rising early in the morning, he took outdoor +exercise, except during storms of exceptional severity. He rode well and +loved a spirited horse, though sometimes he got a fall from letting his +attention stray to his studies instead of keeping it on the temper of +his animal. But, in the coldest weather, on foot or in the saddle, he +covered several miles before breakfast, to which he always came back in +high spirits, having, as he expressed it, "wound himself up for the +day." After a very simple breakfast, he went at once to his library, +where, for an hour or so, he chatted with Mrs. Prescott or had her read +to him the newspapers or some popular book of the day. By ten o'clock, +serious work began with the arrival of his secretary, with whom he +worked diligently until one o'clock, for he seldom sat at his desk for +more than three consecutive hours. A brisk walk of a mile or two gave +him an appetite for dinner, which<a name="page_060" id="page_060"></a> was served at three o'clock, an hour +which, in the year 1827, was not regarded as remarkable, at least in +Massachusetts. This was a time of relaxation, of chat and gossip and +family fun; and it was then that Prescott treated himself to the amount +of wine which he had decided to allow himself. His fondness for wine has +been already casually mentioned. To him the question of its use was so +important, that once, for two years and nine months, he recorded every +day the exact amount that he had drunk and the effect which it had had +upon his eye and upon his general health. A further indulgence which +followed after dinner was the smoking of a mild cigar while his wife +read or talked to him. Then, another walk or drive, a cup of tea at +five, and finally, two or more industrious hours with his secretary, +after which he came down to the library and enjoyed the society of his +family or of friends who happened in.</p> + +<p>This, it will be seen, was not the life of a recluse or of a Casaubon, +though it was a life regulated by a wise discretion. To adjust himself +to its routine, Prescott had to overcome many of his natural tendencies. +In the first place, he was, as has been already noted, of a somewhat +indolent disposition; and a steady grind, day after day and week after +week, was something which he had never known in school or college. Even +now in his maturity, and with the spurring of a steady purpose to urge +him on, he often faltered. His memoranda show now and then a touch of +self-accusation or regret.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have worked lazily enough, or rather have been too busy to work +at all. Ended the old year very badly."</p> + +<p>"I find it as hard to get under way, as a crazy hulk that has been +boarded up for repairs."</p></div> + +<p><a name="page_061" id="page_061"></a></p> + +<p>How thoroughly he conquered this repugnance to hard work is illustrated +by a pathetic incident which happened once when he was engaged upon a +bit of writing that interested him, but when he was prevented by +rheumatic pains from sitting upright. Prescott then placed his +noctograph upon the floor and lay down flat beside it, writing in this +attitude for many hours on nine consecutive days rather than give in.</p> + +<p>He tried some curious devices to penalise himself for laziness. He used +to persuade his friends to make bets with him that he would not complete +certain portions of writing within a given time. This sort of thing was +a good deal of a make-believe, for Prescott cared nothing about money +and had plenty of it at his disposal; and when his friends lost, he +never permitted them to pay. He did a like thing on a larger scale and +in a somewhat different way by giving a bond to his secretary, Mr. +English, binding himself to pay a thousand dollars if within one year +from September, 1828, Prescott should not have written two hundred and +fifty pages of <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>. This number of pages was +specified, because Prescott dreaded his own instability of purpose, and +felt that if he should once get so far as two hundred and fifty pages, +he would be certain to go on and finish the entire history. Other wagers +or bonds with Mr. English were made by Prescott from time to time, all +with the purpose of counteracting his own disposition to <i>far niente</i>.</p> + +<p>His settled mode of life also compelled him in some measure to give up +the delights of general social intercourse and the convivial pleasures +of which he was naturally fond. There were, indeed, times<a name="page_062" id="page_062"></a> when he did +let his work go and enjoyed a return to a freer life, as when in the +country at Pepperell he romped and rollicked like a boy; or when in +Boston, he was present at some of the jolly little suppers given by his +friends and so much liked by him. But on the whole, neither his health +nor the arduous researches which he had undertaken allowed him often to +break the regularity of his way of living. Nothing, indeed, testifies +more strikingly to his naturally buoyant disposition than the fact that +years of unvarying routine were unable to make of Prescott a formalist +or to render him less charming as a social favourite. In his study he +was conspicuously the scholar, the investigator; elsewhere he was the +genial companion, full of fun and jest, telling stories and manifesting +that gift of personal attractiveness which compelled all within its +range to feel wholly and completely at their ease. No writer was ever +less given to literary posing. It is, indeed, an extraordinary fact that +although Prescott was occupied for ten whole years in preparing his +<i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, during all that time not more than three +persons outside of his own family knew that he was writing a book. His +friends supposed that his hours of seclusion were occupied in general +reading and study. Only when a formal announcement of the history was +made in the <i>North American Review</i> in 1837, did even his familiar +associates begin to think of him as an author.</p> + +<p>The death of Prescott's little daughter, Catherine, in February, 1829, +did much to drive him to hard work as a relief from sorrow. She was his +first-born child, and when she died, she was a few months over four +years of age,—a winsome little creature, upon<a name="page_063" id="page_063"></a> whom her father had +lavished an unstinted affection. She alone had the privilege of +interrupting him during his hours of work. Often she used to climb up to +his study and put an end to the most profound researches, greatly, it is +recorded, to the delight of his secretary, who thus got a little moment +of relief from the deciphering of almost undecipherable scrawls. Her +death was sudden, and the shock of it was therefore all the greater. +Years afterward, Prescott, in writing to a friend who had suffered a +like bereavement, disclosed the depths of his own anguish: "I can never +suffer again as I then did. It was my first heavy sorrow, and I suppose +we cannot twice feel so bitterly." His labour now took on the character +of a solace, and perhaps it was at this time that he formed the opinion +which he set down long after: "I am convinced that intellectual +occupation—steady, regular, literary occupation—is the true vocation +for me, indispensable to my happiness."</p> + +<p>And so his preparation for <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i> went on apace. +Prescott no longer thought it enough to master the historians who had +already written of this reign. He went back of them to the very +<i>Quellen</i>, having learned that the true historical investigator can +afford to slight no possible source of information,—that nothing, good, +bad, or indifferent, can safely be neglected. The packets which now +reached him from Spain and France grew bulkier and their contents more +diversified. Not merely modern tomes, not merely printed books were +there, but parchments in quaint and crabbed script, to be laboriously +deciphered by his secretary, with masses of black-letter and copies of +ancient archives, from which some precious fact<a name="page_064" id="page_064"></a> or chance corroboration +might be drawn by inquisitive industry. The sifting out of all this +rubbish-heap went on with infinite patience, until at last his notes and +memoranda contained the substance of all that was essential.</p> + +<p>Prescott had given a bond to Mr. English pledging himself to complete by +September, 1829, two hundred and fifty printed pages of the book. Yet it +was actually not until this month had ended that the first line was +written. On October 6, 1829, after three months devoted to reviewing his +notes for the opening chapter, he took his noctograph and scrawled the +initial sentence. A whole month was consumed in finishing the chapter, +and two months more in writing out the second and the third. From this +time a sense of elation filled him, now that all his patient labour was +taking concrete form, and there was no more question of putting his task +aside. His progress might be, as he called it, "tortoise-like," but he +had felt the joy of creation; and the work went on, always with a firmer +grasp, a surer sense of form, and the clearer light which comes to an +artist as his first vague impressions begin under his hand to take on +actuality. There were times when, from illness, he had almost to cease +from writing; there were other times when he turned aside from his +special studies to accomplish some casual piece of literary work. But +these interruptions, while they delayed the accomplishment of his +purpose, did not break the current of his interest.</p> + +<p>The casual pieces of writing, to which allusion has just been made, were +oftenest contributions to the <i>North American Review</i>. One of them, +however, was somewhat more ambitious than a magazine article.<a name="page_065" id="page_065"></a> It was a +life of Charles Brockden Brown, which Prescott undertook at the request +of Jared Sparks, who was editing a series of American biographies. This +was in 1834, and the book was written in two weeks at Nahant. It +certainly did nothing for Prescott's reputation. What is true of this is +true of everything that he wrote outside of his histories. In his +essays, and especially in his literary criticisms, he seemed devoid of +penetration and of a grasp upon the verities. His style, too, in all +such work was formal and inert. He often showed the extent of his +reading, but never an intimate feeling for character. He could not get +down to the very core of his subject and weigh and judge with the +freedom of an independent critic. His life of Brown will be found fully +to bear out this view. In it Prescott chooses to condone the worst of +Brown's defects, and he gives no intimation of the man's real power. +Prescott himself felt that he had been too eulogistic, whereas his +greatest fault was that the eulogy was misapplied. Sparks mildly +criticised the book for its excess of generalities and its lack of +concrete facts.</p> + +<p>How thoroughly Prescott prepared himself for the writing of his book +reviews may be seen in the fact that, having been asked for a notice of +Condé's <i>History of the Arabs in Spain</i>, he spent from three to four +months in preliminary reading, and then occupied nearly three months +more in writing out the article. In this particular case, however, he +felt that the paper represented too much labour to be sent to the <i>North +American</i>, and therefore it was set aside and ultimately made into a +chapter of his <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>.<a name="page_066" id="page_066"></a></p> + +<p>It was on the 25th of June, 1836, that his history was finished, and he +at once began to consider the question of its publication. Three years +before, he had had the text set up in type so far as it was then +completed; and as the work went on, this private printing continued +until, soon after he had reached the end, four copies of the book were +in his hands. These printed copies had been prepared for several +reasons. First of all, the sight of his labour thus taking concrete form +was a continual stimulus to him. He was still, so far as the public was +concerned, a young author, and he felt all of the young author's joy in +contemplating the printed pages of his first real book. In the second +place, he wished to make a number of final alterations and corrections; +and every writer of experience is aware that the last subtle touches can +be given to a book only when it is actually in type, for only then can +he see the workmanship as it really is, with its very soul exposed to +view, seen as the public will see it, divested of the partial nebulosity +which obscures the vision while it still remains in manuscript. Finally, +Prescott wished to have a printed copy for submission to the English +publishers. It was his earnest hope to have the book appear +simultaneously in England and America, since on the other side of the +Atlantic, rather than in the United States, were to be found the most +competent judges of its worth.</p> + +<p>But the search for an English publisher was at first unsuccessful. +Murray rejected it without even looking at it. The Longmans had it +carefully examined, but decided against accepting it. Prescott was hurt +by this rejection, the more so as he thought (quite<a name="page_067" id="page_067"></a> incorrectly, as he +afterward discovered) that it was Southey who had advised the Longmans +not to publish it. The fact was that both of the firms just mentioned +had refused it because their lists were then too full to justify them in +undertaking a three-volume history. Prescott, for a time, experienced +some hesitation in bringing it out at all. He had written on the day of +its completion: "I should feel not only no desire, but a reluctance to +publish, and should probably keep it by me for emendations and +additions, were it not for the belief that the ground would be more or +less occupied in the meantime by abler writers." The allusion here is to +a history of the Spanish Arabs announced by Southey. But what really +spurred Prescott on to give his book to the world was a quiet remark of +his father's, in which there was something of a challenge and a taunt. +"The man," said he, "who writes a book which he is afraid to publish is +a coward." "Coward" was a name which no true Prescott could endure; and +so, after some months of negotiation and reflection, an arrangement was +made to have the history appear with the imprint of a newly founded +publishing house, the American Stationers' Company of Boston, with which +Prescott signed a contract in April, 1837. By the terms of this contract +Prescott was to furnish the plates and also the engravings for the book, +of which the company was to print 1250 copies and to have five years in +which to sell them—surely a very modest bargain. But Prescott cared +little for financial profits, nor was he wholly sanguine of the book's +success. On the day after signing the contract, he wrote: "I must +confess I feel some disquietude at the prospect of coming in full bodily +presence before the public." And<a name="page_068" id="page_068"></a> somewhat earlier he had written with a +curious though genuine humility:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"What do I expect from it, now it is done? And may it not be all in +vain and labour lost, after all? My expectations are not such, if I +know myself, as to expose me to any serious disappointment. I do +not flatter myself with the idea that I have achieved anything very +profound, or, on the other hand, that will be very popular. I know +myself too well to suppose the former for a moment. I know the +public too well, and the subject I have chosen, to expect the +latter. But I have made a book illustrating an unexplored and +important period, from authentic materials, obtained with much +difficulty, and probably in the possession of no one library, +public or private, in Europe. As a plain, veracious record of +facts, the work, therefore, till some one else shall be found to +make a better one, will fill up a gap in literature which, I should +hope, would give it a permanent value,—a value founded on its +utility, though bringing no great fame or gain to its author.</p> + +<p>"Come to the worst, and suppose the thing a dead failure, and the +book born only to be damned. Still, it will not be all in vain, +since it has encouraged me in forming systematic habits of +intellectual occupation, and proved to me that my greatest +happiness is to be the result of such. It is no little matter to be +possessed of this conviction from experience."</p></div> + +<p>But Prescott had received encouragement in his moods of doubt from Jared +Sparks, at that time one of the most scientific American students of +history. Sparks had read the book in one of the first printed copies, +and had written to Prescott, in February, 1837: "The book will be +successful—bought, read, and praised." And so finally, on Christmas Day +of 1837,—though dated 1838 upon the title-page,—the <i>History of the +Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella</i> was first offered for sale. It was in +three volumes of about four hundred pages each, and was dedicated to his +father.<a name="page_069" id="page_069"></a></p> + +<p>Only five hundred copies of the book had been printed as a first +edition, and of these only a small number had been bound in readiness +for the day of publication. The demand for the book took both author and +publishers by surprise. This demand came, first of all, and naturally +enough, from Prescott's personal friends. One of these, a gentleman of +convivial habits, and by no means given to reading, rose early on +Christmas morning and waited outside of the bookshop in order to secure +the first copy sold. Literary Boston, which was also fashionable Boston, +adopted the book as its favourite New Year's present. The bookbinders +could not work fast enough to supply the demand, and in a few months the +whole of the 1250 copies, which it had been supposed would last for at +least five years, had been sold. Other parts of the country followed +Boston's lead. The book was praised by the newspapers and, after a +little interval, by the more serious reviews,—the <i>North American</i>, the +<i>Examiner</i>, and the <i>Democratic Review</i>, the last of which published an +elaborate appreciation by George Bancroft.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Prescott had succeeded in finding a London publisher; for in +May, Mr. Richard Bentley accepted the book, and it soon after appeared +in England. To the English criticisms Prescott naturally looked forward +with interest and something like anxiety. American approval he might +well ascribe to national bias if not to personal friendship. Therefore, +the uniformly favourable reviews in his own country could not be +accepted by him as definitely fixing the value of what he had +accomplished. In a letter to Ticknor, after recounting his first +success, he said:—<a name="page_070" id="page_070"></a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'Poor fellow!'—I hear you exclaim by this time,—'his wits are +actually turned by this flurry in his native village,—the Yankee +Athens.' Not a whit, I assure you. Am I not writing to two dear +friends, to whom I can talk as freely and foolishly as to one of my +own household, and who, I am sure, will not misunderstand me? The +effect of all this—which a boy at Dr. Gardiner's school, I +remember, called <i>fungum popularitatem</i>—has been rather to depress +me, and S—— was saying yesterday, that she had never known me so +out of spirits as since the book has come out."</p></div> + +<p>What he wanted most was to read a thoroughly impartial estimate written +by some foreign scholar of distinction. He had not long to wait. In the +<i>Athenœum</i> there soon appeared a very eulogistic notice, written by +Dr. Dunham, an industrious student of Spanish and Portuguese history. +Then followed an admirably critical paper in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> by +Don Pascual de Gayangos, a distinguished Spanish writer living in +England. Highly important among the English criticisms was that which +was published in the <i>Quarterly Review</i> of June, 1839, from the pen of +Richard Ford, a very accurate and critical Spanish scholar. Mr. Ford +approached the book with something of the <i>morgue</i> of a true British +pundit when dealing with the work of an unknown American;<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> but, none +the less, his criticism, in spite of his reluctance to praise, gave +Prescott genuine pleasure. Ford found fault with some of the details of +<i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, yet he was obliged to admit both the sound +scholarship and literary merit of the book. On the Continent appeared +the most elaborate review of all in a series of five articles written +for the <i>Bibliothèque<a name="page_071" id="page_071"></a> Universelle de Genève</i>, by the Comte Adolphe de +Circourt. The Comte was a friend of Lamartine (who called him <i>la +mappemonde vivante des connaissances humaines</i>) and also of Tocqueville +and Cavour. Few of his contemporaries possessed so minute a knowledge of +the subject which Prescott treated, and of the original sources of +information; and the favourably philosophical tone of the whole review +was a great compliment to an author hitherto unknown in Europe. Still +later, sincere and almost unqualified praise was given by Guizot in +France, and by Lockhart, Southey, Hallam, and Milman, in England. +Indeed, as Mr. Ticknor says, although these personages had never before +heard of Prescott, their spirit was almost as kindly as if it had been +due to personal friendship. The long years of discouragement, of +endurance, and of patient, arduous toil had at last borne abundant +fruit; and from the time of the appearance of <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, +Prescott won and held an international reputation, and tasted to the +full the sweets of a deserved success.<a name="page_072" id="page_072"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V<br /><br /> +<small>IN MID CAREER</small></h2> + +<p class="nind">A<small>FTER</small> the publication of <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, its author rested on +his oars, treating himself to social relaxation and enjoying thoroughly +the praise which came to him from every quarter. Of course he had no +intention of remaining idle long, but a new subject did not at once +present itself so clearly to him as to make his choice of it inevitable. +For about eighteen months, therefore, he took his ease. His +correspondence, however, shows that he was always thinking of a second +venture in the field of historical composition. His old bent for +literary history led him to consider the writing of a life of Molière—a +book that should be agreeable and popular rather than profound. Yet +Spain still kept its hold on his imagination, and even before his +<i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i> had won its sure success, he had written in a +letter to Ticknor the following paragraph:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"My heart is set on a Spanish subject, could I compass the +materials: viz. the conquest of Mexico and the anterior +civilisation of the Mexicans—a beautiful prose epic, for which +rich virgin materials teem in Simancas and Madrid, and probably in +Mexico. I would give a couple of thousand dollars that they lay in +a certain attic in Bedford Street."</p></div> + +<p>This purpose lingered in his mind all through his holidays, which were, +indeed, not wholly given up to<a name="page_073" id="page_073"></a> idleness, for he listened to a good deal +of general reading at this time, most of it by no means of a superficial +character. Ever since his little daughter's death, Prescott had felt a +peculiar interest in the subject of the immortality of the soul, and had +read all of the most serious treatises to be found upon that subject. He +had also gone carefully through the Gospels, weighing them with all the +acumen which he had brought to bear upon his Castilian chronicles. This +investigation, which he had begun with reference to the single question +of immortality, broadened out into an examination of the whole +evidential basis of orthodox Christianity. In this study he was aided by +his father, who brought to it the keen, impartial judgment of an able +lawyer. Of the conclusions at which he ultimately arrived, he was not +wont to talk except on rare occasions, and his cast of mind was always +reverential. He did, however, reject the doctrines of his Puritan +ancestors. He held fast to the authenticity of the Gospels, but he found +in these no evidence to support the tenets of Calvinism.</p> + +<p>Now, in his leisure time, he read over various works of a theological +character, and came to the general conclusion that "the study of +polemics or Biblical critics will tend neither to settle principles nor +clear up doubts, but rather to confuse the former and multiply the +latter." Prescott's whole religious creed was, in fact, summed up by +himself in these words: "To do well and act justly, to fear and to love +God, and to love our neighbour as ourselves—in these is the essence of +religion. For what we can believe, we are not responsible, supposing we +examine candidly and patiently. For what we do, we shall indeed be +accountable.<a name="page_074" id="page_074"></a> The doctrines of the Saviour unfold the whole code of +morals by which our conduct should be regulated. Who, then, whatever +difficulties he may meet with in particular incidents and opinions +recorded in the Gospels, can hesitate to receive the great religious and +moral truths inculcated by the Saviour as the words of inspiration? I +cannot, certainly. On these, then, I will rest."</p> + +<p>In April, 1838, Prescott took the first step toward beginning a study of +the Mexican conquest. He wrote to Madrid in order to discover what +materials were available for his proposed researches. At the same time +he began collecting such books relating to Mexico as could be obtained +in London. Securing personal letters to scholars and officials in Mexico +itself, he wrote to them to enlist their interest in his new +undertaking. By the end of the year it became evident that the wealth of +material bearing upon the Conquest was very great, and a knowledge of +this fact roused in Prescott all the enthusiasm of an historical +investigator who has scented a new and promising trail. Only one thing +now stood in the way. This was an intimation to the effect that +Washington Irving had already planned a similar piece of work. This bit +of news was imparted to Prescott by Mr. J. G. Cogswell, who was then in +charge of the Astor Library in New York, and who was an intimate friend +of both Prescott and Irving. Mr. Cogswell told Prescott that Irving was +intending to write a history of the conquest of Mexico, as a sort of +sequel, or rather pendant, to his life of Columbus. Of course, under the +circumstances, Prescott felt that, in courtesy to one who was then the +most distinguished American man of letters,<a name="page_075" id="page_075"></a> he could not proceed with +his undertaking so long as Mr. Irving was in the field. He therefore +wrote a long letter to Irving, detailing what he had already done toward +acquiring material, and to say that Mr. Cogswell had intimated that +Irving was willing to relinquish the subject in his favour.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have learned from Mr. Cogswell that you had originally proposed +to treat the same subject, and that you requested him to say to me +that you should relinquish it in my favour. I cannot sufficiently +express to you my sense of your courtesy, which I can very well +appreciate, as I know the mortification it would have caused me if, +contrary to my expectations, I had found you on the ground.... I +fear the public will not feel so much pleased as myself by this +liberal conduct on your part, and I am not sure that I should have +a right in their eyes to avail myself of it. But I trust you will +think differently when I accept your proffered courtesy in the same +cordial spirit in which it was given."</p></div> + +<p>To this letter Irving made a long and courteous reply, not only assuring +Prescott that the subject would be willingly abandoned to him, but +offering to send him any books that might be useful and to render any +service in his power. The episode affords a beautiful instance of +literary and scholarly amenities. The sacrifice which Irving made in +giving up his theme was as fine as the manner of it was graceful. +Prescott never knew how much it meant to Irving, who had already not +only made some study of the subject, but had sketched out the +ground-plan of the first volume, and had been actually at work upon the +task of composition for a period of three months. But there was +something more in it than this. Writing to his nephew, Pierre Irving, +who was afterward<a name="page_076" id="page_076"></a> his biographer, he disclosed his real feeling with +much frankness.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I doubt whether Mr. Prescott was aware of the extent of the +sacrifice I made. This was a favourite subject which had delighted +my imagination ever since I was a boy. I had brought home books +from Spain to aid me in it, and looked upon it as the pendant to my +Columbus. When I gave it up to him I, in a manner, gave him up my +bread; for I depended upon the profits of it to recruit my waning +finances. I had no other subject at hand to supply its place. I was +dismounted from my <i>cheval de bataille</i> and have never been +completely mounted since. Had I accomplished that work my whole +pecuniary situation would have been altered."<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p></div> + +<p>There was no longer any obstacle in Prescott's way, and he set to work +with an interest which grew as the richness of the material revealed +itself. There came to him from Madrid, books, manuscripts, copies of +official documents, and all the <i>apparatus criticus</i> which even the most +exacting scholar could require. The distinguished historian, Navarrete, +placed his entire collection of manuscripts relating to Mexico and Peru +at the disposal of his American <i>confrère</i>. The Spanish Academy let him +have copies of the collections made by Muñoz and by Vargas y Ponce—a +matter of some five thousand pages. Prescott's friend, Señor Calderon, +who at this time was Spanish Minister to Mexico, aided him in gathering +materials relating to the early Aztec civilisation. Don Pascual de +Gayangos, who had written the favourable notice in the <i>Edinburgh +Review</i>, delved among the documents in the British Museum on behalf of +Prescott, and caused copies to be made of whatever seemed to bear upon<a name="page_077" id="page_077"></a> +the Mexican conquest. A year or two later, he even sent to Prescott the +whole of his own collection of manuscripts. In Spain very valuable +assistance was given by Mr. A. H. Everett, at that time American +Minister to the Spanish court, and by his first Secretary of Legation, +the South Carolinian who had taken his entrance examination to Harvard +in Prescott's company, and who throughout his college life had been a +close and valued friend. A special agent, Dr. Lembke,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> was also +employed, and he gave a good part of his time to rummaging among the +archives and libraries. Prescott's authorship of <i>Ferdinand and +Isabella</i>, however, was the real touchstone which opened all doors to +him, and enlisted in his service enthusiastic purveyors of material in +every quarter. In Spain especially, the prestige of his name was very +great; and more than one traveller from Boston received distinguished +courtesies in that country as being the <i>conciudadano</i> of the American +historian. Mr. Edward Everett Hale, whose acquaintance with Prescott was +very slight, relates an experience which is quite illustrative:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I had gone there [to Madrid] to make some studies and collect some +books for the history of the Pacific, which, with a prophetic +instinct, I have always wanted to write. Different friends gave me +letters of introduction, and among<a name="page_078" id="page_078"></a> others the gentlemen of the +Spanish Embassy here were very kind to me. They gave me four such +letters, and when I was in Madrid and when I was in Seville it +seemed as though every door flew open for me and every facility was +offered me. It was not until I was at home again that I came to +know the secret of these most diligent civilities. I still had one +of my Embassy letters which I had never presented. I read it for +the first time, to learn that I was the coadjutor and friend of the +great historian Prescott through all his life, that I was his +assistant through all his historical work, and, indeed, for these +reasons, no American was more worthy of the consideration of the +gentlemen in charge of the Spanish archives. It was certainly by no +fault of mine that an exaggeration so stupendous had found its way +to the Spanish Legation. Somebody had said, what was true, that +Prescott was always good to me, and that our friendship began when +he engaged me as his reader. And, what with translating this simple +story, what with people's listening rather carelessly and +remembering rather carelessly, by the time my letters were drafted +I had become a sort of 'double' of Mr. Prescott himself. I hope +that I shall never hear that I disgraced him."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p></div> + +<p>Actual work upon the <i>Conquest</i> began early in 1839, though not at first +with a degree of progress which was satisfactory to the investigator. By +May, however, he had warmed to his work. He went back to his old +rigorous regime, giving up again all social pleasures outside of his own +house, and spending in his library at least five hours each day. His +period of rest had done him good, and his eyesight was now better than +at any time since it first became impaired. After three months of +preliminary reading he was able to sketch out the plan of the entire +work, and on October 14, 1839, he began the actual task of composition. +He found the introduction extremely<a name="page_079" id="page_079"></a> difficult to write, for it dealt +with the pre-historic period of Mexico, obscured as it was by the mist +of myth and by the contradictory assertions of conflicting authorities. +"The whole of that part of the story," wrote Prescott, "is in twilight, +and I fear I shall at least make only moonshine of it. I must hope that +it will be good moonshine. It will go hard with me, however, but that I +can fish something new out of my ocean of manuscripts." He had hoped to +dispose of his introduction in a hundred pages, and to finish it in six +months at the most. It actually extended to two hundred and fifty pages, +and the writing of it took nearly eighteen months. One interruption +occurred which he had not anticipated. The success of <i>Ferdinand and +Isabella</i> had tempted an unscrupulous publisher to undertake an +abridgment of that book. To protect his own interests Prescott decided +to make an abridgment of his own, and thus to forestall the pirate. This +work disheartened and depressed him, but he finished it with great +celerity, only to find that the rival abridgment had been given up. A +brief stay upon the sea-coast put him once more into working condition, +and from that time he went on steadily with the <i>Conquest</i>, which he +completed on August 2, 1843, not quite four years from the time when he +began the actual composition. His weariness was lightened by the +confidence which he felt in his own success. He knew that he had +produced a masterpiece.</p> + +<p>Naturally, he now had no trouble in securing a publisher and in making +very advantageous terms for the production of the book. It was brought +out by the Harpers of New York, though, as before, Prescott himself +owned the plates. His contract allowed the<a name="page_080" id="page_080"></a> Harpers to publish five +thousand copies for which they paid the author $7500, with the right of +publishing more copies if required within the period of one year and on +the same general terms. An English edition was simultaneously brought +out by Bentley in London, who purchased the foreign copyright for £650. +Three Spanish translations appeared soon after, one in Madrid in 1847 +and two in Mexico in 1844. A French translation was published in Paris, +by Didot in 1846, and a German translation, in Leipzig, by Brockhaus in +1845. A French reprint in English appeared in Paris soon after Bentley +placed the London edition upon the market.</p> + +<p>No historical work written by an American has ever been received with so +much enthusiasm alike in America and in Europe. Within a month, four +thousand copies were disposed of by the Harpers, and at the end of four +months the original edition of five thousand had been sold. The +reviewers were unanimous in its praise, and an avalanche of +congratulatory letters descended upon Prescott from admirers, known and +unknown, all over the civilised world. <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i> had +brought him reputation; the <i>Conquest of Mexico</i> made him famous. +Honours came to him unsought. He was elected a member of the French +Institute<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and of the Royal Society of Berlin. He had already +accepted membership in the Royal Spanish Academy of History at Madrid +and in the Royal Academy of Sciences in Naples. Harvard conferred upon +him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Perhaps nothing pleased him more, +however, than a personal<a name="page_081" id="page_081"></a> letter from Humboldt, for whom Prescott had +long entertained a feeling of deep admiration. This eminent scholar, at +that time the President of the Royal Society of Berlin, in which body +Niebuhr, Von Raumer, and Ranke had been enrolled, wrote in French a +letter of which the following sentences form a part:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"My satisfaction has been very great in studying line by line your +excellent work. One judges with severity, with perhaps a bias +towards injustice, when he has had a vivid impression of the +places, and when the study of ancient history with which I have +been occupied from preference has been pursued on the very soil +itself where a part of these great events took place. My severity, +sir, has been disarmed by the reading of your <i>Conquest of Mexico</i>. +You paint with success because you have <i>seen</i> with the eyes of the +spirit and of the inner sense. It is a pleasure to me, a citizen of +Mexico, to have lived long enough to read you and to speak to you +of my appreciation of the kind expressions with which you have done +honour to my name.... Were I not wholly occupied with my <i>Cosmos</i>, +which I have had the imprudence to print, I should have wished to +translate your work into the language of my own country."</p></div> + +<p>While gathering the materials for the <i>Conquest of Mexico</i>, Prescott had +felt his way toward still another subject which his Mexican researches +naturally suggested. This was the conquest of Peru. Much of his Mexican +reading had borne directly upon this other theme, so that the labour of +preparation was greatly lightened. Moreover, by this time, he had +acquired both an accurate knowledge of sources and also great facility +in composition. Hence the only serious work which was necessary for him +to undertake as a preliminary to composition was the study of Peruvian +antiquities. This occupied him eight months, and proved to be far more +troublesome to him and much<a name="page_082" id="page_082"></a> less satisfactory than the like +investigation which he had made with reference to the Aztecs. However, +after the work had been commenced it proceeded rapidly,—so rapidly, in +fact, as to cause him a feeling of half-comical dismay. He began to +write on the 12th of August, 1844, and completed his task on November 7, +1846. During its progress he made a note that he had written two +chapters, amounting in all to fifty-one printed pages, in four days, +adding the comment, "I never did up so much yarn in the same time. At +this rate Peru will not hold out six months. Can I finish it in a year? +Alas for the reader!" No doubt he might have finished it in a year had +certain interruptions not occurred. The first of these was the death of +his father, which took place on December 8th, not long after he had +begun the book. His brother Edward had died shortly before, and this +double affliction affected very deeply so sensitive a nature as +Prescott's. To his father, indeed, he owed more than he could ever +express. The two had been true comrades, and had treated one another +with an affectionate familiarity which, between father and son, was as +rare in those days as it was beautiful. Judge Prescott's generosity had +made it possible for the younger man to break through all the barriers +of physical infirmity, and not only to win fame but also the happiness +which comes from a creative activity. They understood each other very +well, and in many points they were much alike both in their friendliness +and in their habits of reserve. One little circumstance illustrates this +likeness rather curiously. Fond as both of them were of their fellows, +and cordial as they both were to all their friends, each wished at times +to be alone, and these times were<a name="page_083" id="page_083"></a> when they walked or rode. Therefore, +each morning when the two men mounted their horses or when they set out +for a walk, they always parted company when they reached the road, one +turning to the right and the other to the left by a tacit understanding, +and neither ever thought of accompanying the other. Sometimes a friend +not knowing of this trait would join one of them to share the ride or +walk. Whenever such a thing as this took place, that particular route +would be abandoned the next day and another and a lonelier one selected.</p> + +<p>A further interruption came from the purchase of a house on Beacon +Street and the necessity of arranging to leave the old mansion on +Bedford Street. The new house was a fine one, overlooking the Mall and +the Common; and the new library, which was planned especially for +Prescott's needs, was much more commodious than the old one. But the +confusion and feeling of unsettlement attendant on the change distracted +Prescott more than it would have done a man less habituated to a +self-imposed routine. "A month of pandemonium," he wrote; "an +unfurnished house coming to order; a library without books; books +without time to open them." It took Prescott quite a while to resume his +methodical habits. His old-time indolence settled down upon him, and it +was some time before his literary momentum had been recovered. Moreover, +he presumed upon the fairly satisfactory condition of his eye and used +it to excess. The result was that his optic nerve was badly over-taxed, +"probably by manuscript digging," as he said. The strain was one from +which his eye never fully recovered; and from this time until the +completion of<a name="page_084" id="page_084"></a> the <i>Peru</i>, he could use it in reading for only a few +minutes every day, sometimes perhaps for ten or fifteen, but never for +more than thirty. As this is the last time that we shall mention this +subject, it may be said that for all purposes of literary work Prescott +was soon afterward reduced to the position of one who was actually +blind. What had before been a merely stationary dimness of vision became +a slowly progressive decay of sight, or, to express it in medical +language, amblyopia had passed into amaurosis. He followed rigorously +his oculist's injunctions, but in the end he had to face the facts +unflinchingly; and a little later he recorded his determination to give +up all use of the eye for the future in his studies, and to be contented +with preserving it for the ordinary purposes of life. The necessity +disheartened him. "It takes the strength out of me," he said. +Nevertheless, neither this nor the fact that his general health was most +unsatisfactory, caused him to abandon work. He could not bring himself +to use what he called "the coward's word, 'impossible.'" And so, after a +little time, he went on as before, studying "by ear-work," and turning +off upon his noctograph from ten to fifteen pages every day. He +continued also his outdoor exercise, and, in fact, one of the +best-written chapters of the <i>Conquest of Peru</i>—the last one—was +composed while galloping through the woods at Pepperell. On November 7, +1846, the <i>Conquest of Peru</i> was finished. Like the preceding history, +it was published by the Harper Brothers, who agreed to pay the author +one dollar per copy and to bring out a first edition of seventy-five +hundred copies. This, Mr. Ticknor says, was a more liberal arrangement +than had ever before been made<a name="page_085" id="page_085"></a> with an historical writer in the United +States. The English copyright was purchased by Bentley for £800.</p> + +<p>Prescott's main anxiety about the reception which would be given to the +<i>Conquest of Peru</i> was based upon his doubts as to its literary style. +Neither of his other books had been written so rapidly, and he feared +that he might incur the charge of over-fluency or even slovenliness. +Yet, as a matter of fact, the chorus of praise which greeted the two +volumes was as loud and as spontaneous as it had been over his <i>Mexico</i>. +Prescott now stood so firmly on his feet as to look at much of this +praise in a somewhat humorous light. The approbation of the <i>Edinburgh +Review</i> no longer seemed to him the <i>summa laus</i>, though he valued it +more highly than the praise given him by American periodicals, of which +he wrote very shrewdly:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I don't know how it is, but our critics, though not pedantic, have +not the businesslike air, or the air of the man of the world, which +gives manliness and significance to criticism. Their satire, when +they attempt it—which cannot be often laid to their door—has +neither the fine edge of the <i>Edinburgh</i> nor the sledgehammer +stroke of the <i>Quarterly</i>. They twaddle out their humour as if they +were afraid of its biting too hard, or else they deliver axioms +with a sort of smart, dapper conceit, like a little parson laying +down the law to his little people.... In England there is a far +greater number of men highly cultivated—whether in public life or +men of leisure—whose intimacy with affairs and with society, as +well as books, affords supplies of a high order for periodical +criticism."</p></div> + +<p>As for newspaper eulogies, he remarked: "I am certainly the cause of +some wit and much folly in others." His latest work, however, brought +him two new honours which he greatly prized,—an election<a name="page_086" id="page_086"></a> to the Royal +English Society of Literature, and the other an invitation to membership +in the Royal Society of Antiquaries. The former honour he shared with +only one of his fellow-countrymen, Bancroft; the latter had heretofore +been given to no American.</p> + +<p>Prescott now indulged himself with a long period of "literary loafing," +as he described it, broken in upon only by the preparation of a short +memoir of John Pickering, the antiquarian and scholar, who had been one +of Prescott's most devoted friends. This memoir was undertaken at the +request of the Massachusetts Historical Society. It has no general +interest now, but is worthy of note as having been the only one of +Prescott's works which he dictated to an amanuensis. Prescott had an +aversion to writing in this way, although he had before him the example +of his blind contemporary, Thierry. Like Alphonse Daudet, he seems to +have felt that what is written by hand comes more directly from the +author's inner self, and that it represents most truly the tints and +half-tones of his personality. That this is only a fancy is seen clearly +enough from several striking instances which the history of literature +records. Scott dictated to Lockhart the whole of <i>The Bride of +Lammermoor</i>. Thackeray dictated a good part of <i>The Newcomes</i> and all of +<i>Pendennis</i>, and even <i>Henry Esmond</i>, of which the artificial style +might well have made dictation difficult. Prescott, however, had his own +opinion on the subject, and, with the single exception which has just +been cited, he used his noctograph for composition down to the very end, +dictating only his correspondence to his secretary.</p> + +<p>His days of "literary loafing" allowed him to enjoy the pleasures of +friendship which during his periods<a name="page_087" id="page_087"></a> of work were necessarily, to some +extent, intermitted. No man ever had more cordially devoted friends than +Prescott. He knew every one who was worth knowing, and every one was +attracted by the spontaneous charm of his manner and his invincible +kindliness. Never was a man more free from petulance or peevishness, +though these defects at times might well have been excused in one whose +health was such as his. He presented the anomaly of a dyspeptic who was +still an optimist and always amiable. Mr. John Foster Kirk, who was one +of his secretaries, wrote of him:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"No annoyance, great or small, the most painful illness or the most +intolerable bore, could disturb his equanimity, or render him in +the least degree sullen, or fretful, or discourteous. He was always +gay, good-humoured, and manly. He carried his kindness of +disposition not only into his public, but into his private, +writings. In the hundreds of letters, many of them of the most +confidential character, treating freely of other authors and of a +great variety of persons, which I wrote at his dictation, not a +single unkind or harsh or sneering expression occurs. He was +totally free from the jealousy and envy so common among authors, +and was always eager in conversation, as in print, to point out the +merits of the great contemporary historians whom many men in his +position would have looked upon as rivals to be dreaded if not +detested."</p></div> + +<p>Bancroft the historian has added his testimony to the greatness of +Prescott's personal charm.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"His countenance had something that brought to mind the 'beautiful +disdain' that hovers on that of the Apollo. But while he was +high-spirited, he was tender and gentle and humane. His voice was +like music and one could never hear enough of it. His cheerfulness +reached and animated all about him. He could indulge in playfulness +and could also speak earnestly and profoundly; but he knew not how +to be ungracious or pedantic."</p></div> + +<p><a name="page_088" id="page_088"></a></p> + +<p>No wonder then that his friends were legion, comprising men and women of +the most different types. Dry and formal scholars such as Jared Sparks; +men of the world like Lord Carlisle; nice old ladies like Maria +Edgeworth and the octogenarian Miss Berry, Walpole's friend; women of +fashion like Lady Lyell, Lady Mary Labouchère, and the Duchess of +Sutherland; Spanish hidalgos like Calderon de la Barca; smooth +politicians like Caleb Cushing; and intense partisans like Charles +Sumner,—all agreed in their affectionate admiration for Prescott. His +friendship with Sumner was indeed quite notable, since no men could have +been more utterly unlike. Sumner was devoid of the slightest gleam of +humour, and his self-consciousness was extreme; yet Prescott sometimes +poked fun at him with impunity. Thus, writing to Sumner about his Phi +Beta Kappa oration (delivered in 1846), he said:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Last year you condemned wars <i>in toto</i>, making no exception even +for the wars of freedom. This year you condemn the <i>representation</i> +of war, whether by the pencil or the pen. Marathon, Salamis, Bunker +Hill, the retreat from Moscow, Waterloo, great and small, are <i>all</i> +to be blotted from memory equally with my own wild skirmishes of +barbarians and banditti. Lord deliver us! Where will you bring up? +If the stories are not to be painted or written, such records of +them as have been heedlessly made should by the same rule be +destroyed. I laugh; but I fear you will make the judicious grieve. +But fare thee well, dear Sumner. Whether thou deportest thyself +<i>sana mente</i> or <i>mente insana</i>, believe me always truly yours."</p></div> + +<p>But Sumner's arrogance and egoism were always in abeyance where Prescott +was concerned, and even their lack of political sympathy never marred +the warmth<a name="page_089" id="page_089"></a> of their intercourse. Prescott, in fact, cared very little +about contemporary politics. He had inherited from his fighting +ancestors a sturdy patriotism, but his loyalty was given to the whole +country and not to any faction or party. His cast of mind was +essentially conservative, and down to 1856 he would no doubt have called +himself an old-line Whig. He was always, however, averse to political +discussion which, indeed, led easily to personalities that were +offensive not only to Prescott's taste but to his amiable disposition. +His friend Parsons said of him: "He never sought or originated political +conversation, but he would not decline contributing his share to it; and +the contribution he made was always of good sense, of moderation, and of +forbearance."</p> + +<p>Prescott's detachment with regard to politics was partly due, no doubt, +to the nature of the life he led, which kept him isolated from the +bustle of the world about him; yet it was probably due still more to a +lack of combativeness in his nature. Motley once said of him that he +lacked the capacity for <i>sĉva indignatio</i>. This remark was called forth +by Prescott's tolerant view of Philip II. of Spain, who was in Motley's +eyes little better than a monster. One might fairly, however, give it a +wider application, and we must regard it as an undeniable defect in +Prescott that nothing external could strike fire from him. Thus, when +his intimate friend Sumner had been brutally assaulted in the Senate +chamber by the Southern bully, Brooks, Prescott wrote to him: "You have +escaped the crown of martyrdom by a narrow chance, and have got all the +honours, which are almost as dangerous to one's head as a gutta-percha<a name="page_090" id="page_090"></a> +cane." There is a tameness about this sentence which one would scarcely +notice had Sumner merely received a black eye, but which offends one's +sense of fitness when we recall that Sumner had been beaten into +insensibility, and that he never fully recovered from the attack. Again, +when, in 1854, Boston was all ablaze over the capture of a fugitive +slave, when the city was filled with troops and muskets were levelled at +the populace, Prescott merely remarked to an English correspondent: "It +is a disagreeable business." To be sure, he also said, "It made my blood +boil," but the general tone of the letter shows that his blood must have +boiled at a very low temperature. Nevertheless, he seems to have been +somewhat stirred by the exciting struggle which took place over Kansas +between the Free-Soil forces and the partisans of slavery. Hence, in +1856, he cast his vote for Frémont, the first Republican candidate for +the Presidency. But, as a rule, the politics of the sixteenth century +were his most serious concern, and in the very year in which he voted +for Frémont, he wrote: "I belong to the sixteenth century and am quite +out of place when I sleep elsewhere." It was this feeling which led him +to decline a tempting invitation to write a history of the modern +conquest of Mexico by the American army under General Scott. The offer +came to him in 1847; and both the theme itself and the terms in which +the offer was made might well have attracted one whose face was set less +resolutely toward the historic past. His comment was characteristic. "I +had rather not meddle with heroes who have not been under ground two +centuries at least." It is interesting to note that the subject which +Prescott<a name="page_091" id="page_091"></a> then rejected has never been adequately treated; and that the +brilliant exploits of Scott in Mexico still await a worthy chronicler.</p> + +<p>It was natural that a writer so popular as Prescott should, in spite of +his methodical life, find his time encroached upon by those who wished +to meet him. He had an instinct for hospitality; and this made it the +more difficult for him to maintain that scholarly seclusion which had +been easy to him in the days of his comparative obscurity. His personal +friends were numerous, and there were many others who sought him out +because of his distinction. Many foreign visitors were entertained by +him, and these he received with genuine pleasure. Their number increased +as the years went by so that once in a single week he entertained, at +Pepperell, Señor Calderon, Stephens the Central American traveller, and +the British General Harlan from Afghanistan. Sir Charles Lyell, Lady +Lyell, Lord Carlisle, and Dickens were also visitors of his. It was as +the guest of Prescott that Thackeray ate his first dinner in +America.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Visitors of this sort, of course, he was very glad to see. +Not so much could be said of the strangers who forced themselves upon +him at Nahant, where swarms of summer idlers filled the hotels and +cottages, and with well-meaning but thoughtless interest sought out the +historian in the darkened parlour of his house. "I have lost a clear +month here by company," he wrote in 1840, "company which brings the +worst of all satieties; for the satiety from study brings the +consciousness of improvement. But this dissipation impairs health, +spirit, scholarship. Yet how can I escape it, tied like a bear to a +stake here?"<a name="page_092" id="page_092"></a></p> + +<p>Prescott's favourite form of social intercourse was found in little +dinners shared with a few chosen friends. These affairs he called +"cronyings," and in them he took much delight, even though they often +tempted him to an over-indulgence in tobacco and sometimes in wine.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> +One rule, however, he seldom broke, and that was his resolve never to +linger after ten o'clock at any function, however pleasant. An old +friend of his has left an account of one especially convivial occasion +to which Prescott had invited a number of his friends. The dinner was +given at a restaurant, and the guests were mostly young men and fond of +good living. The affair went off so well that, as the hour of ten +approached, no one thought of leaving. Prescott began to fidget in his +chair and even to drop a hint or two, which passed unnoticed, for the +reason that Prescott's ten o'clock rule was quite unknown to his jovial +guests. At last, to the surprise of every one, he rose and made a little +speech to the company, in which he said that he was sorry to leave them, +but that he must return home.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"But," he added, "I am sure you will be very soon in no condition +to miss me,—especially as I leave behind that excellent +representative"—pointing to a basket of uncorked bottles which +stood in a corner. "Then you know you are just as much at home in +this house as I am. You can call for what you like. Don't be +alarmed—I mean on <i>my</i> account. I abandon to you, without reserve, +all my best wines, my credit with the house, and my reputation to +boot. Make free with them all, I beg of you—and if you don't go +home till morning, I wish you a merry night of it."</p></div> + +<p><a name="page_093" id="page_093"></a></p> + +<p>It is to be hoped that Prescott was not quite accurately reported, and +that he did not speak that little sentence, "Don't be alarmed," which +may have been characteristic of a New Englander, but which certainly +would have induced a different sort of guests to leave the place at +once. If he did say it, however, it was somewhat in keeping with the +tactlessness which he occasionally showed. The habit of frank speech, +which had made him a nuisance as a boy, never quite left him, and he +frequently blurted out things which were of the sort that one would +rather leave unsaid. His wife would often nod and frown at him on these +occasions, and then he would always make the matter worse by asking her, +with the greatest innocence, what the matter was. Mr. Ogden records an +amusing instance of Prescott's <i>naïveté</i> during his last visit to +England. Conversing about Americanisms with an English lady of rank, she +criticised the American use of the word "snarl" in the sense of +disorder. "Why, surely," cried Prescott, "you would say that your +ladyship's hair is in a snarl!" Which, unfortunately, it was—a fact +that by no means soothed the lady's temper at being told so. There was a +certain boyishness about Prescott, however, which usually enabled him to +carry these things off without offence, because they were obviously so +natural and so unpremeditated. His boyishness took other forms which +were more generally pleasing. One evidence of it was his fondness for +such games as blindman's buff and puss-in-the-corner, in which he used +to engage with all the zest of a child, even after he had passed his +fiftieth year, and in which the whole household took part, together with +any distinguished foreigners who might<a name="page_094" id="page_094"></a> be present. Another youthful +trait was his readiness to burst into song on all occasions, even in the +midst of his work. In fact, just before beginning any animated bit of +descriptive writing he would rouse himself up by shouting out some +ballad that had caught his fancy; so that strangers visiting his house +would often be amused when, from the grave historian's study, there came +forth the sonorous musical appeal, "O give me but my Arab steed!" +Boyish, too, was his racy talk, full of colloquialisms and bits of +Yankee dialect, with which also his personal correspondence was +peppered. Even though his rather prim biographer, Ticknor, has gone over +Prescott's letters with a fine-tooth comb, there still remain enough of +these Doric gems to make us wish that all of them had been retained. It +is interesting to find the author of so many volumes of stately and +ornate narration letting himself go in private life, and dropping into +such easy phrases as "whopper-jawed," "cotton to," "quiddle," "book up," +"crack up," "podder" (a favourite word of his), and "slosh." He retained +all of a young man's delight in his own convivial feats, and we find him +in one of his letters, after describing a rather prolonged and +complicated entertainment, asking gleefully, "Am I not a fast boy?"</p> + +<p>His Yankee phrases were the hall-mark of his Yankee nature. Old England, +with all its beauty of landscape and its exquisite finish, never drove +New England from his head or heart. Thus, on his third visit to England, +he wrote to his wife: "I came through the English garden,—lawns of +emerald green, winding streams, light arched bridges, long lines +stretching between hedges of hawthorn all flowering; rustic<a name="page_095" id="page_095"></a> cottages, +lordly mansions, and sweeping woods—the whole landscape a miracle of +beauty." And then he adds: "I would have given something to see a ragged +fence, or an old stump, or a bit of rock, or even a stone as big as +one's fist, to show that man's hand had not been combing Nature's head +so vigorously. I felt I was not in my own dear, wild America." Prescott +was a true Yankee also in the carefulness of his attention to matters of +business. He did not value money for its own sake. His father had left +him a handsome competence. He spent freely both for himself and for his +friends; but none the less, he made the most minute notes of all his +publishing ventures and analysed the publishers' returns as carefully as +though he were a professional accountant. This was due in part, no +doubt, to a natural desire to measure the popularity of his books by the +standard of financial success. He certainly had no reason to be +dissatisfied. Up to the time of his death, of the <i>Ferdinand and +Isabella</i> there had been sold in the United States and England nearly +eighteen thousand copies; of the <i>Conquest of Mexico</i>, twenty-four +thousand copies; and of the <i>Conquest of Peru</i>, seventeen thousand +copies—a total, for the three works, of nearly sixty thousand copies. +When we remember that each of these histories was in several volumes and +was expensively printed and bound, and that the reading public was much +smaller in those days than now, this is a very remarkable showing for +three serious historical works. Since his death, the sales have grown +greater with the increase of general readers and the lapse of the +American copyright Prescott made excellent terms with his publishers, as +has already been recorded, and if a decision<a name="page_096" id="page_096"></a> of the House of Lords had +been favourable to his copyright in England, his literary gains in that +country would have been still larger.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<p>His liking for New England country life led him to maintain in addition +to his Boston house, at 55 Beacon Street, two other places of residence. +One was at Nahant, then, as now, a very popular resort in summer. There +he had an unpretentious wooden cottage of two stories, with a broad +veranda about it, occupying an elevated position at the extremity of a +bold promontory which commanded a wide view of the sea. Nahant is famous +for its cool—almost too cool—sea-breeze, which even in August so +tempers the heat of the sun as to make a shaded spot almost +uncomfortably cold. This bracing air Prescott found admirably tonic, and +beneficial both to his eye and to his digestion, which was weak. On the +other hand, the dampness of the breeze affected unfavourably his +tendency to rheumatism, so that he seldom spent more than eight weeks of +the year upon the sea-shore. He found also that the reflection of the +sun from the water was a thing to be avoided. Therefore, he most +thoroughly enjoyed his other country place at Pepperell, where his +grandmother had lived. The plain little house, known as "The Highlands," +and shaded by great trees, seemed to him his truest home. Here, more +than elsewhere, he threw off his cares and gave himself up completely to +his drives and rides and walks and social pleasures. The country round +about was then well wooded, and Prescott delighted to gallop through the +forests and over the rich countryside, every inch of which had been +familiar to him since<a name="page_097" id="page_097"></a> his boyhood days. He felt something of the +English landowner's pride in remembering that his modest estate had been +in the possession of his family for more than a century and a half—"An +uncommon event," he wrote, "among our locomotive people." Behind the +house was a lovely shaded walk with a distant view of Mount Monadnock; +and here Prescott often strolled while composing portions of his +histories before committing them to paper. Beyond the road stood a +picturesque cluster of oak trees, making a thick grove which he called +"the Fairy Grove," for in it he used to tell his children the stories +about elves and gnomes and fairies which delighted them so much.</p> + +<p>It was the death of his parents that led him in the last years of his +own life to abandon this home which he so dearly loved. The memories +which associated it with them were painful to him after they had gone. +He missed their faces and their happy converse, and so, in 1853, he +purchased a house on Lynn Bay, some five or six miles distant from his +cottage at Nahant. Here the sea-breeze was cool but never damp; while, +unlike Nahant, the place was surrounded by green meadow-land and +pleasant woods. This new house was much more luxurious than the cottages +at Nahant and Pepperell, and he spent at Lynn nearly all his summers +during his last five years. He added to the place, laying out its +grounds and tastefully decorating its interior, having in view not +merely his own comfort but that of his children and grandchildren, who +now began to gather about him. His daughter Elizabeth, who was married +in 1852 to Mr. James Lawrence of Boston, occupied a delightful country +house near by.</p> + +<p>One memorial of Prescott long remained here to recall<a name="page_098" id="page_098"></a> alike the owner +of the place and the work to which his life had been devoted. This was a +large cherry tree, which afforded the only shade about the house when he +first took possession of it. The state of his eye made it impossible for +him to remain long in the sunshine; and so, in his hours of composition, +he paced around the circle of the shade afforded by this tree, carrying +in his hand a light umbrella, which he raised for a moment when he +passed that portion of the circle on which the sunlight fell. He thus +trod a deep path in the turf; and for years after his death the path +remained still visible,—a touching reminder to those friends of his who +saw it.<a name="page_099" id="page_099"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI<br /><br /> +<small>THE LAST TEN YEARS</small></h2> + +<p class="nind">W<small>HILE</small> Prescott was still engaged in his Mexican and Peruvian researches, +and, in fact, even before he had undertaken them, another fascinating +subject had found lodgement in his mind. So far back as 1838, only a few +months after the publication of <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, he had said: +"Should I succeed in my present collections, who knows what facilities I +may find for making one relative to Philip the Second's reign—a +fruitful theme if discussed under all its relations, civil and literary +as well as military." And again, in 1839, he reverted to the same +subject in his memoranda. Could he have been sure of obtaining access to +the manuscript and other sources, he might at that time have chosen this +theme in preference to the story of the Mexican conquest. He knew, +however, that nothing could be done unless he were able to make a free +use of the Spanish archives preserved at Simancas. To this ancient town, +at the suggestion of Cardinal Ximenes, the most precious historical +documents relating to Spanish history had been removed, in 1536, by +order of Charles V. The old castle of the Admiral of Castile had been +prepared to receive them, and there they still remained, as they do +to-day, filling some fifty large rooms and contained in some eighty +thousand packages. It has been estimated<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> that fully thirty million +separate documents of various kinds are included in this remarkably rich +collection,—not only state papers of a formal character, but private +letters, secret reports, and the confidential correspondence of Spanish +ambassadors in foreign countries.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> Such a treasure-house of +historical information scarcely exists elsewhere; and Prescott, +therefore, wrote to his friends in Madrid to learn whether he might hope +for access to this Spanish Vatican. In 1839, however, he made the +following memorandum: "By advices from Madrid this week, I learn that +the archives of Simancas are in so disorderly a state that it is next to +impossible to gather material for the reign of Philip II." His friend, +Arthur Middleton, cited to him the instance of a young scholar who had +been permitted to explore these collections for six months, and who had +found that the documents of a date prior to the year 1700 were "all +thrown together without order or index." Furthermore, Prescott's agent +in Spain, Dr. Lembke, had incurred the displeasure of the government, +which expelled him from the country. Prescott was, therefore, obliged +for the time to put aside the project of a history of Philip II., and he +turned instead to the study of the Mexican conquest.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, with that quiet pertinacity which was one of his +conspicuous traits, he still kept the theme in mind, and let it be known +to his friends in Paris and London, as well as in Madrid and elsewhere, +that all materials bearing upon the career of Philip II.<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> were much +desired by him. These friends responded very zealously to his wishes. In +Paris, M. Mignet and M. Ternaux-Compans allowed Dr. Lembke to have their +important manuscript collections copied. In London, Prescott's +correspondent and former reviewer, Don Pascual de Gayangos, searched the +documents in the British Museum and a very rich private collection owned +by Sir Thomas Philips. He also visited Brussels, where he found more +valuable material, and later, having been appointed Professor of Arabic +in the University of Madrid (1842), he used his influence on behalf of +Prescott with very great success. Many noble houses in Spain put at his +disposal their family memorials. The National Library and other public +institutions offered whatever they possessed in the way of books and +papers. Two years later, this indefatigable friend spent some weeks at +Simancas, where he unearthed many an interesting <i>trouvaille</i>. Even +these sources, however, were not the only ones which contributed to +Prescott's store of documents. Ferdinand Wolf in Vienna, and Humboldt +and Ranke in Berlin, also aided him, and secured additional material, +not only in Austria and Prussia, but in Tuscany. His collection grew +apace; so that, long before he was ready to take up the subject of +Philip II., he possessed over three hundred and seventy volumes bearing +directly upon the reign of that monarch, while his manuscript copies, +which he caused to be richly bound, came to number in the end some +thirty-eight huge folios. These occupied a position of special honour in +his library, and were playfully called by him his Seraglio.</p> + +<p>Thus, in 1847, when about to take up his fourth<a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a> important work, he was +already richly documented. His health, however, was unsatisfactory. He +had now some ailments that had become chronic,—dyspepsia and a urethral +complication, which often caused him intense suffering. It was not until +July 29, 1849, that he began to write the first chapter of <i>Philip II.</i> +at Nahant. He makes the laconic note: "Heavy work, this starting. I have +been out of harness too long.... The business of fixing thought is +incredibly difficult." He continued writing at Pepperell, and at his +home in Boston, until he had regained a good deal of his old facility. +His physical strength, however, was waning, and he could no longer +continue to work with his former regularity and method. He lost flesh, +and was threatened for a while with deafness, the fear of which was +almost too much for even his inveterate cheerfulness. In February, 1850, +he wrote: "Increasing interest in the work is hardly to be expected, +considering it has to depend so much on the ear. As I shall have to +depend more and more on this one of my senses as I grow older, it is to +be hoped that Providence will spare me my hearing. It would be a fearful +thing to doubt it." His depression finally became so great that he +suspended for a time his labours and made a short visit to Washington, +where he was received with abundant hospitality. He was entertained by +President Taylor, by Sir Henry Bulwer, the British Minister, by Webster, +and by many other distinguished persons; but he became more and more +convinced that a complete change was necessary to restore his health and +spirits; and so, on May 22d of the same year, he sailed from New York +for Liverpool, where he arrived on the 3d of June.<a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a></p> + +<p>Prescott's stay in England was perhaps the most delightful episode in +his life. His biographer, Mr. Ticknor, speaks of it as "the most +brilliant visit ever made to England by an American citizen not clothed +with the prestige of official station." The assertion is quite true, +since the cordiality which Lowell met with in that country was, in part, +at any rate, due to his diplomatic rank, while General Grant was +essentially a political personage who was, besides, personally commended +to all foreign courts by his successor in office, President Hayes. But +Prescott, with no credentials save his reputation as a man of letters +and his own charming personality, enjoyed a welcome of boundless +cordiality. It was not merely that he was a literary celebrity and was +received everywhere by his brothers of the pen,—he became the fashion +and was unmistakably the lion of the season. From the moment when he +landed at Liverpool he found himself encircled by friends. The +attentions paid to him were never formal or perfunctory. He was admitted +to the homes of the greatest Englishmen, and was there made free of that +delightful hospitality which Englishmen reserve for the chosen few. No +sooner had he reached London than he was showered with cards of +invitation to the greatest houses, and with letters couched in terms of +personal friendship. Sir Charles Lyell, his old acquaintance, welcomed +him to London a few hours after his arrival. The American Minister, Mr. +Abbott Lawrence,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> begged him to be present at a diplomatic dinner. In +company of the Lyells he was taken at once to an evening party where he +met Lord<a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a> Palmerston, then Premier, and other members of the Ministry. +Lord Carlisle greeted him in a fashion strangely foreign to English +reserve, for he threw his arms around Prescott, making the historian +blush like a great girl. It would be tedious to recount the unbroken +series of brilliant entertainments at which Prescott was the guest of +honour. His letters written at this time from England are full of +interesting and often amusing bits of description, and they show that +even his exceptional social honours were very far from turning his head. +In fact, he viewed the whole thing as a diverting show, except when the +warmth of the personal welcome touched his heart. Through it all he was +the self-poised American, never losing his native sense of humour. He +made friends with Sir Robert Peel, who, at their first meeting, +addressed him in French, having taken him for the French dramatist M. +Scribe! He chatted often with the Duke of Wellington, and described him +in a comparison which makes one smile because it is so Yankee-like and +Bostonese.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In the crowd I saw an old gentleman, very nicely made up, stooping +a good deal, very much decorated with orders, and making his way +easily along, as all, young and old, seemed to treat him with +deference. It was the Duke—the old Iron Duke—and I thought myself +lucky in this opportunity of seeing him.... He paid me some pretty +compliments on which I grew vain at once, and I did my best to +repay him in coin that had no counterfeit in it. He is a striking +figure, reminding me a good deal of Colonel Perkins in his general +air."</p></div> + +<p>Prescott attended the races at Ascot with the American and Swedish +Ministers, was the guest of Sir Robert Peel, and was presented at +Court—a ceremony which he described to Mrs. Prescott in a very lively +letter.<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I was at Lawrence's, at one, in my costume: a chapeau with gold +lace, blue coat, and white trousers, begilded with buttons and +metal,—a sword and patent leather boots. I was a figure indeed! +But I had enough to keep me in countenance. I spent an hour +yesterday with Lady M. getting instructions for demeaning myself. +The greatest danger was that I should be tripped up by my own +sword.... The company were at length permitted one by one to pass +into the presence chamber—a room with a throne and gorgeous canopy +at the farther end, before which stood the little Queen of the +mighty Isle and her Consort, surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting. +She was rather simply dressed, but he was in a Field Marshal's +uniform, and covered, I should think, with all the orders of +Europe. He is a good-looking person, but by no means so +good-looking as the portraits of him. The Queen is better-looking +than you might expect. I was presented by our Minister, according +to the directions of the Chamberlain, as the historian of Ferdinand +and Isabella, in due form—and made my profound obeisance to her +Majesty, who made a very dignified curtesy, as she made to some two +hundred others who were presented in like manner. I made the same +low bow to his Princeship to whom I was also presented, and so +bowed myself out of the royal circle, without my sword tripping up +the heels of my nobility.... Lord Carlisle ... said he had come to +the drawing-room to see how I got through the affair, which he +thought I did without any embarrassment. Indeed, to say truth, I +have been more embarrassed a hundred times in my life than I was +here. I don't know why; I suppose because I am getting old."</p></div> + +<p>Somewhat later, while Prescott was a guest at Castle Howard, where the +Queen was also entertained, he had something more to tell about her.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"At eight we went to dinner all in full dress, but mourning for the +Duke of Cambridge; I, of course, for President Taylor! All wore +breeches or tight pantaloons. It was a brilliant show, I assure +you—that immense table with its fruits and flowers and lights +glancing over beautiful plate<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a> and in that superb gallery. I was as +near the Queen as at our own family table. She has a good appetite +and laughs merrily. She has fine eyes and teeth, but is short. She +was dressed in black silk and lace with the blue scarf of the Order +of the Garter across her bosom. Her only ornaments were of jet. The +Prince, who is certainly a handsome and very well made man, wore +the Garter with its brilliant buckle round his knee, a showy star +on his breast, and the collar of a foreign order round his neck.</p> + +<p>"In the evening we listened to some fine music and the Queen +examined the pictures. Odd enough the etiquette. Lady Carlisle, who +did the honours like a high-bred lady as she is, and the Duchess of +Sutherland, were the only ladies who talked with her Majesty. Lord +Carlisle, her host, was the only gentleman who did so unless she +addressed a person herself. No one can sit a moment when she +chooses to stand. She did me the honour to come and talk with +me—asking me about my coming here, my stay in the Castle, what I +was doing now in the historic way, how Everett was and where he +was—for ten minutes or so; and Prince Albert afterwards a long +while, talking about the houses and ruins in England, and the +churches in Belgium, and the pictures in the room, and I don't know +what. I found myself now and then trenching on the rules by +interrupting, etc.; but I contrived to make it up by a respectful +'Your Royal Highness,' 'Your Majesty,' etc. I told the Queen of the +pleasure I had in finding myself in a land of friends instead of +foreigners—a sort of stereotype with me—and of my particular good +fortune in being under the roof with her. She is certainly very +much of a lady in her manner, with a sweet voice."</p></div> + +<p>At Oxford, Prescott was the guest of the Bishop, the well-known +Wilberforce, popularly known by his sobriquet of "Soapy Sam." The +University conferred upon the American historian the degree of D.C.L. in +spite of the fact that he was a Unitarian. This circumstance was known +and caused some slight difficulty, but possibly the degree given to +Everett, another<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a> Unitarian, some years before in spite of great +opposition, was regarded as having established a precedent; and Oxford +cherishes the cult of precedent. At the Bishop's house, however, +Prescott shocked a lady by telling her of his creed. He wrote to +Ticknor: "The term [Unitarian] is absolutely synonymous in a large party +here with Infidel, Jew, Mohammedan; worse even, because regarded as a +wolf in sheep's clothing." The lady, however, succeeded in giving +Prescott a shock in return; for when he happened to mention Dr. +Channing, she told him that she had never even heard the man's name—a +sort of ignorance which to a Bostonian was quite incomprehensible.</p> + +<p>Prescott's account of the university ceremonial is given in a letter to +Mr. Ticknor.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Lord Northampton and I were doctorised in due form. We were both +dressed in flaming red robes (it was the hottest day I have felt +here), and then marched out in solemn procession with the Faculty, +etc., in their black and red gowns through the public streets.... +We were marched up the aisle; Professor Phillimore made a long +Latin exposition of our merits, in which each of the adjectives +ended, as Southey said in reference to himself on a like occasion, +in <i>issimus</i>; and amidst the cheers of the audience we were +converted into Doctors."</p></div> + +<p>Prescott was much pleased with this Oxford degree, which rightly seemed +to him more significant than the like honours which had come to him from +various American colleges. "Now," said he, "I am a <i>real</i> Doctor."</p> + +<p>In the same letter he gives a little picture of Lord Brougham during a +debate in the House of Lords. Brougham was denouncing Baron Bunsen for +his course in the Schleswig-Holstein affair,—Bunsen being in the House +at the time.<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"What will interest you is the assault made so brutally by Brougham +on your friend Bunsen. I was present and never saw anything so +coarse as his personalities. He said the individual [Bunsen] took +up the room of two ladies. Bunsen <i>is</i> rather fat as also Madame +and his daughter—all of whom at last marched out of the gallery, +but not until eyes and glasses had been directed to the spot to +make out the unfortunate individuals, while Lord Brougham was +flying up and down, thumping the table with his fists and foaming +at the mouth till all his brother peers, including the old Duke, +were in convulsions of laughter. I dined with Bunsen and Madame the +same day at Ford's."</p></div> + +<p>Prescott met both Disraeli and Gladstone, and, among other more purely +literary men, Macaulay, Lockhart, Hallam, Thirlwall, Milman, and Rogers. +Of Macaulay he tells some interesting things.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have met him several times, and breakfasted with him the other +morning. His memory for quotations and illustration is a +miracle—quite disconcerting. He comes to a talk like one specially +crammed. Yet you may start the topic. He told me he should be +delivered of twins on his next publication, which would not be till +'53.... Macaulay's first draught—very unlike Scott's—is +absolutely illegible from erasures and corrections.... He tells me +he has his moods for writing. When not in the vein, he does not +press it.... H—— told me that Lord Jeffrey once told him that, +having tripped up Macaulay in a quotation from <i>Paradise Lost</i>, two +days after, Macaulay came to him and said, 'You will not catch me +again in the <i>Paradise</i>.' At which Jeffrey opened the volume and +took him up in a great number of passages at random, in all of +which he went on correctly repeating the original. Was it not a +miraculous <i>tour d'esprit</i>? Macaulay does not hesitate to say now +that he thinks he could restore the first six or seven books of the +<i>Paradise</i> in case they were lost."</p></div> + +<p>Still again, Prescott expresses his astonishment at Macaulay's memory.<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Macaulay is the most of a miracle. His <i>tours</i> in the way of +memory stagger belief.... His talk is like the laboured, but still +unintermitting, jerks of a pump. But it is anything but +wishy-washy. It keeps the mind, however, on too great a tension for +table-talk."</p></div> + +<p>Writing of Samuel Rogers, who was now a very old man, he records a +characteristic little anecdote.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have seen Rogers several times, that is, all that is out of the +bedclothes. His talk is still <i>sauce piquante</i>. The best thing on +record of his late sayings is his reply to Lady——, who at a +dinner table, observing him speaking to a lady, said, 'I hope, Mr. +Rogers, you are not attacking me.' 'Attacking you!' he said, 'why, +my dear Lady——, I have been all my life defending you.' Wit could +go no further."</p></div> + +<p>Prescott was the guest of the Duke of Sutherland at Trentham and at +Stafford House. He was invited to Lord Lansdowne's, the Duke of +Northumberland's, the Duke of Argyle's, and to Lord Grey's, and he +describes himself in one letter as up to his ears in dances, dinners, +and breakfasts. This sort of life, with all its glitter and gayety, +suited Prescott wonderfully well, and his health improved daily. He +remarked, however: "It is a life which, were I an Englishman, I should +not desire a great deal of; two months at most; although I think, on the +whole, the knowledge of a very curious state of society and of so many +interesting and remarkable characters, well compensate the bore of a +voyage. Yet I am quite sure, having once had this experience, nothing +would ever induce me to repeat it, as I have heard you say it would not +pay." Some little personal notes and memoranda may also be quoted.<a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Everything is drawn into the vortex, and there they swim round and +round, so that you may revolve for weeks and not meet a familiar +face half a dozen times. Yet there is monotony in some things—that +everlasting turbot and shrimp sauce. I shall never abide a turbot +again."</p> + +<p>"Do you know, by the way, that I have become a courtier and affect +the royal presence? I wish you could see my gallant costume, +gold-laced coat, white inexpressibles, silk hose, gold-buckled +patent slippers, sword and chapeau. Am I not playing the fool as +well as my betters?"</p> + +<p>"A silly woman ... said when I told her it was thirty years since I +was here, 'Pooh! you are not more than thirty years old.' And on my +repeating it, she still insisted on the same flattering +ejaculation. The Bishop of London the other day with his amiable +family told me they had settled my age at forty.... So I am +convinced there has been some error in the calculation. Ask mother +how it is. They say here that gray hair, particularly whiskers, may +happen to anybody even under thirty. On the whole, I am satisfied +that I am the youngest of the family."</p></div> + +<p>Writing to his daughter from Alnwick Castle, the seat of the Duke of +Northumberland, Prescott gave a little instance of his own extreme +sensibility. A great number of children were being entertained by the +Duke and Duchess.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"As they all joined in the beautiful anthem, 'God save the Queen,' +the melody of the little voices rose up so clear and simple in the +open courtyard that everybody was touched. Though I had nothing to +do with the anthem, some of my <i>opera tears</i>,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> dear Lizzie, came +into my eyes, and did me great credit with some of the John and +Jennie Bulls by whom I was surrounded."</p></div> + +<p>When he left Alnwick:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"My friendly hosts remonstrated on my departure, as they had +requested me to make them a long visit; and 'I never<a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> say what I do +not mean,' said the Duke, in an honest way. And when I thanked him +for his hospitable welcome, 'It is no more,' he said, 'than you +should meet in every house in England.' That was hearty."</p></div> + +<p>The letters written by Prescott while in Europe are marked also by +evidences of the beautiful affection which he cherished for his wife, of +whom he once said, many years after their marriage: "Contrary to the +assertion of La Bruyère—who somewhere says that the most fortunate +husband finds reason to regret his condition at least once in +twenty-four hours—I may truly say that I have found no such day in the +quarter of a century that Providence has spared us to each other." In +the letters written by him during this English visit, there remain, even +after the ruthless editing done by Ticknor, passages that are touching +in their unaffected tenderness.</p> + +<p>Thus, from London, June 14, 1850:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Why have I no letter on my table from home? I trust I shall find +one there this evening, or I shall, after all, have a heavy heart, +which is far from gay in this gayety."</p></div> + +<p>And the following from Antwerp, July 23, 1850:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Dear Susan, I never see anything beautiful in nature or art, or +hear heart-stirring music in the churches—the only place where +music does stir my heart—without thinking of you and wishing you +could be by my side, if only for a moment."</p></div> + +<p>When Prescott returned from this, his last visit to Europe, he found +himself at the very zenith of his fame. In every respect, his position +was most enviable. The union of critical approval with popular +applause—a thing which is so rare in the experience of authors—had +been fairly won by him. His books were accepted<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a> as authoritative, while +they were read by thousands who never looked into the pages of other +historians. Even a volume of miscellaneous essays<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> which he had +collected from his stray contributions to the <i>North American</i>, and +which had been published in England by Bentley in 1845, had succeeded +with the public on both sides of the Atlantic. He had the prestige of a +very flattering foreign recognition, and his friendships embraced some +of the best-known men and women in Great Britain and the United States. +It may seem odd that the letters and other writings of his +contemporaries seldom contain more than a mere casual mention of him; +but the explanation of this is to be found in the disposition of +Prescott himself. As a man, and in his social intercourse outside of his +own family, he was so thoroughly well-bred, so far from anything +resembling eccentricity, and so averse from literary pose, as to afford +no material for gossip or indeed for special comment. In this respect, +his life resembled his writings. There was in each a noticeable absence +of the piquant, or the sensational. He pleased by his manners as by his +pen; but he possessed no mannerisms such as are sometimes supposed to be +the hall-marks of originality. Hence, one finds no mass of striking +anecdotes collected and sent about by those who knew him; any more than +in his writing one chances upon startling strokes of style.</p> + +<p>Prescott, however, had his own very definite opinions<a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a> concerning his +contemporaries, though they were always expressed in kindly words. To +Irving he was especially attracted because of a certain likeness of +temperament between them. His sensitive nature felt all the <i>nuances</i> of +Irving's delicate style, especially when it was used for pathetic +effects. "You have read Irving's <i>Memoirs of Miss Davidson</i>," he once +wrote to Miss Ticknor. "Did you ever meet with any novel half so +touching? It is the most painful book I ever listened to. I hear it from +the children and we all cry over it together. What a little flower of +Paradise!" Yet he could accurately criticise his friend's +productions.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> Longfellow was another of Prescott's associates, and +his ballads of the sea were favourites. Mr. T. W. Higginson quotes +Prescott as saying that <i>The Skeleton in Armor</i> and <i>The Wreck of the +Hesperus</i> were the best imaginative poetry since Coleridge. Of Byron he +wrote, in 1840, some sentences to a friend which condense very happily +the opinion that has finally come to be accepted. Indeed, Prescott shows +in his private letters a critical gift which one seldom finds in his +published essays—a judgment at once shrewd, clear-sighted, and +sensible.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I think one is apt to talk very extravagantly of his [Byron's] +poetry; for it is the poetry of passion and carries away the sober +judgment. It defies criticism from its very nature, being lawless, +independent of all rules, sometimes of grammar, and even of common +sense. When he means to be strong he is often affected, violent, +morbid.... But then there is, with all this smoke and fustian, a +deep sensibility to the sublime and beautiful in nature, a +wonderful melody, or rather harmony, of language, consisting ... in +a variety—the variety of nature—in which startling ruggedness is +relieved by soft and cultivated graces."</p></div> + +<p><a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a></p> + +<p>Probably the most pungent bit of literary comment that Prescott ever +wrote is found in a letter of his addressed to Bancroft,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> who had +sent him a copy of Carlyle's <i>French Revolution</i>. The clangour and fury +of this book could hardly fail to jar upon the nerves of so decorously +classical a writer as Prescott.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I return you Carlyle with my thanks. I have read as much of him as +I could stand. After a very candid desire to relish him, I must say +I do not at all. The French Revolution is a most lamentable comedy +and requires nothing but the simplest statement of facts to freeze +one's blood. To attempt to colour so highly what nature has already +over-coloured is, it appears to me, in very bad taste and produces +a grotesque and ludicrous effect.... Then such ridiculous +affectations of new-fangled words! Carlyle is ever a bungler in his +own business; for his creations or rather combinations are the most +discordant and awkward possible. As he runs altogether for dramatic +or rather picturesque effect, he is not to be challenged, I +suppose, for want of refined views. This forms no part of his plan. +His views, certainly, so far as I can estimate them, are trite +enough. And, in short, the whole thing ... both as to <i>forme</i> and +to <i>fond</i>, is perfectly contemptible."</p></div> + +<p>Of Thackeray, Prescott saw quite a little during the novelist's visit to +America in 1852-1853, and several times entertained him. He did not +greatly care for the lectures on the English humorists, which, as +Thackeray confided to Prescott, caused America to "rain dollars." "I do +not think he made much of an impression as a critic, but the Thackeray +vein is rich in what is better than cold criticism." Thackeray on his +side expresses his admiration for Prescott in the opening sentences of +<i>The Virginians</i>, though without naming him:—<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"On the library wall of one of the most famous writers of America, +there hang two crossed swords, which his relatives wore in the +great war of Independence. The one sword was gallantly drawn in the +service of the King; the other was the weapon of a brave and humane +republican soldier. The possessor of the harmless trophy has earned +for himself a name alike honoured in his ancestor's country and his +own, where genius like his has always a peaceful welcome."</p></div> + +<p>This little tribute pleased Prescott very much, and he wrote to Lady +Lyell asking her to get <i>The Virginians</i> and read the passage, which, as +he says, "was very prettily done." On the whole, however, he seems to +have preferred Dickens to Thackeray, being deceived by the very +superficial cynicism affected by the latter. But in fiction, his prime +favourites were always Scott and Dumas, whose books he never tired of +hearing read. Thus, in mature age, the tastes of his boyhood continued +to declare themselves; and few days ever passed without an hour or two +devoted to the magic of romance.</p> + +<p>During the winter following his return from Europe, which he spent in +Boston, he found it difficult to settle down to work again, and not +until the autumn did he wholly resume his life of literary activity. +After doing so, however, he worked rapidly, so that the first volume of +<i>Philip II.</i> was completed in April, 1852. It was very well received, in +fact, as warmly as any of his earlier work, and the same was true of the +second volume, which appeared in 1854. Prescott himself said that he was +"a little nervous" about the success of the book, inasmuch as a long +interval had elapsed since the publication of his <i>Peru</i>, and he feared +lest the public might have lost its interest in him. The result, +however,<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> showed that he need not have felt any apprehension. Within six +months after the second volume had been published, more than eight +thousand copies were sold in the United States, and probably an equal +number in England. Moreover, interest was revived in Prescott's +preceding histories, so that nearly thirty thousand volumes of them were +taken by the public within a year or two. There was the same favourable +consensus of critical opinion regarding <i>Philip II.</i>, and it received +the honour of a notice from the pen of M. Guizot in the <i>Edinburgh +Review</i>.</p> + +<p>In bringing out this last work Prescott had changed his +publishers,—not, however, because of any disagreement with the Messrs. +Harper, with whom his relations had always been most satisfactory, and +of whom he always spoke in terms of high regard. But a Boston firm, +Messrs. Sampson, Phillips and Company, had made him an offer more +advantageous than the Harpers felt themselves justified in doing. In +another sense the change might have been fortunate for Prescott, +inasmuch as the warehouse of the Harpers was destroyed by fire in 1853. +In this fire were consumed several thousand copies of Prescott's earlier +books, for which payment had been already made. Prescott, however, with +his usual generosity, permitted the Harpers to print for their own +account as many copies as had been lost. In England his publishing +arrangements were somewhat less favourable than hitherto. When he had +made his earlier contracts with Bentley, it was supposed that the +English publisher could claim copyright in works written by a foreigner. +A decision of the House of Lords adverse to such a view had now been +rendered, and therefore<a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a> Mr. Bentley could receive no advantage through +an arrangement with Prescott other than such as might come to him from +securing the advance sheets and from thus being first in the field. As a +matter of fact, <i>Philip II.</i> was brought out in four separate editions +in Great Britain. In Germany it was twice reprinted in the original and +once in a German translation. A French version was brought out in Paris +by Didot, and a Spanish one in Madrid. Prescott himself wrote:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have received $17,000 for the <i>Philip</i> and the other works the +last six months.... From the tone of the foreign journals and those +of my own country, it would seem that the work has found quite as +much favour as any of its predecessors, and the sales have been +much greater than any other of them in the same space of time."</p></div> + +<p>Later, writing to Bancroft, he said:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The book has gone off very well so far. Indeed, double the +quantity, I think, has been sold of any of my preceding works in +the same time. I have been lucky, too, in getting well on before +Macaulay has come thundering along the track with his hundred +horse-power."</p></div> + +<p>While engaged in the composition of <i>Philip II.</i>, Prescott had +undertaken to write a continuation of Robertson's <i>History of Charles +V.</i> He had been asked to prepare an entirely new work upon the reign of +that monarch, but this seemed too arduous a task. He therefore rewrote +the conclusion of Robertson's book—a matter of some hundred and eighty +pages. This he began in the spring of 1855, and finished it during the +following year. It was published on December 8, 1856, on which day he +wrote to Ticknor: "My <i>Charles the Fifth</i>, or rather Robertson's with<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a> +my Continuation, made his bow to-day, like a strapping giant with a +little urchin holding on to the tail of his coat."<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> At about the same +time Prescott prepared a brief memoir of Mr. Abbott Lawrence, the father +of his daughter's husband. This was printed for private distribution.</p> + +<p>During the year which followed, Prescott's health began steadily to +fail. He suffered from violent pains in the head; so severe as to rob +him of sleep and to make work of any kind impossible. He still, however, +enjoyed intervals when he could laugh and jest in his old careless way, +and even at times indulge in the pleasant little dinners which he loved +to share with his most intimate friends. On February 4th, however, while +walking in the street, he was stricken down by an apoplectic seizure, +which solved the mystery of his severe headaches. When he recovered +consciousness his first words were, "My poor wife! I am so sorry for you +that this has come upon you so soon." The attack was a warning rather +than an instant summons. After a few days he was once more himself, +except that his enunciation never again became absolutely clear. Serious +work, of course, was out of the question. He listened to a good deal of +reading, chiefly fiction. He was put upon a very careful regimen in the +matter of diet, and wrote, with a touch of rueful amusement, of the +vegetarian meals to which he was restricted: "I have been obliged to +exchange my carnivorous propensities for those of a more innocent and +primitive nature, picking up my fare as our good parents did before the +Fall." Improving somewhat, he<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a> completed the third volume of <i>Philip +II.</i>; not so fully as he had intended, but mainly putting together so +much of it as had already been prepared. The book was printed in April, +1858, and the supervision of the proof-sheets afforded him some +occupation, as did also the making of a few additional notes for a new +edition of the <i>Conquest of Mexico</i>. The summer of 1858 he spent in +Pepperell, returning to Boston in October, in the hope of once more +taking up his studies. He did, in fact, linger wistfully over his books +and manuscripts, but accomplished very little; for, soon after the New +Year, there came the end of all his labours. On January 27th, his health +was apparently in a satisfactory condition. He listened to his +secretary, Mr. Kirk, read from one of Sala's books of travel, and, in +order to settle a question which arose in the course of the reading, he +left the library to speak to his wife and sister. Leaving them a moment +later with a laugh, he went into an adjoining room, where presently he +was heard to groan. His secretary hurried to his side, and found him +quite unconscious. In the early afternoon he died, without knowing that +the end had come.</p> + +<p>Prescott had always dreaded the thought of being buried alive. His vivid +imagination had shown him the appalling horror of a living burial. Again +and again he had demanded of those nearest him that he should be +shielded from the possibility of such a fate. Therefore, when the +physicians had satisfied themselves that life had really left him, a +large vein was severed, to make assurance doubly sure.</p> + +<p>On the last day of January he was buried in the family tomb, in the +crypt of St. Paul's. Men and<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a> women of every rank and station were +present at the simple ceremony. The Legislature of the State had +adjourned so that its members might pay their tribute of respect to so +distinguished a citizen. The Historical Society was represented among +the mourners. His personal friends and those of humble station, whom he +had so often befriended, filled the body of the church. Before his +burial, his remains, in accordance with a wish of his that was well +known, had been carried to the room in which were his beloved books and +where so many imperishable pages had been written. There, as it were, he +lay in state. It is thus that one may best, in thought, take leave of +him, amid the memorials and records of a past which he had made to live +again.<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII<br /><br /> +<small>"FERDINAND AND ISABELLA"—PRESCOTT'S STYLE</small></h2> + +<p class="nind">T<small>HE</small> <i>History of Ferdinand and Isabella</i> is best regarded as Prescott's +initiation into the writing of historical literature. It was a +<i>prolusio</i>, a preliminary trial of his powers, in some respects an +apprenticeship to the profession which he had decided to adopt. When he +began its composition he had published nothing but a few casual reviews. +He had neither acquired a style nor gained that self-confidence which +does so much to command success. No such work as this had as yet been +undertaken by an American. How far he could himself overcome the +peculiar difficulties which confronted him was quite uncertain. Whether +he had it in him to be at once a serious investigator and a maker of +literature, he did not know. Therefore, the <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i> +shows here and there an uncertainty of touch and a lack of assured +method such as were quite natural in one who had undertaken so ambitious +a task with so little technical experience.</p> + +<p>In the matter of style, Prescott had not yet emancipated himself from +that formalism which had been inherited from the eighteenth-century +writers, and which Americans, with the wonted conservatism of +provincials, retained long after Englishmen had begun to write with +naturalness and simplicity. Even in fiction this circumstance is +noticeable. At a time<a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a> when Scott was thrilling the whole world of +English readers with his vivid romances, written hastily and often +carelessly, in a style which reflected his own individual nature, Cooper +was producing stories equally exciting, but told in phraseology almost +as stilted as that which we find in <i>Rasselas</i>. This was no less true in +poetry. The great romantic movement which in England found expression in +Byron and Shelley and the exquisitely irregular metres of Coleridge had +as yet awakened no true responsive echo on this side of the Atlantic. +Among the essay-writers and historians of America none had summoned up +the courage to shake off the Addisonian and Johnsonian fetters and to +move with free, unstudied ease. Irving was but a later Goldsmith, and +Bancroft a Yankee Gibbon. The papers which then appeared in the <i>North +American Review</i>, to whose pages Prescott himself was a regular +contributor, give ample evidence that the literary models of the time +were those of an earlier age,—an age in which dignity was supposed to +lie in ponderosity and to be incompatible with grace.</p> + +<p>Prescott's nature was not one that had the slightest sympathy with +pedantry. No more spontaneous spirit than his can be imagined. His +joyousness and gayety sometimes even tended toward the frivolous. Yet in +this first serious piece of historical writing, he imposed upon himself +the shackles of an earlier convention. Just because his mood prompted +him to write in an unstudied style, all the more did he feel it +necessary to repress his natural inclination. Therefore, in the text of +his history, we find continual evidence of the eighteenth century +literary manner,—the balanced sentence, the inevitable adjective, the +studied antithesis,<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a> and the elaborate parallel. Women are invariably +"females"; a gift is a "donative"; a marriage does not take place, but +"nuptials are solemnized"; a name is usually an "appellation"; a crown +"devolves" upon a successor; a poet "delivers his sentiments"; a king +"avails himself of indeterminateness"; and so on. A cumbrous sentence +like the following smacks of the sort of English that was soon to pass +away:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Fanaticism is so far subversive of the most established principles +of morality that under the dangerous maxim 'For the advancement of +the faith all means are lawful,' which Tasso has rightly, though +perhaps undesignedly, derived from the spirits of hell, it not only +excuses but enjoins the commission of the most revolting crime as a +sacred duty."<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p></div> + +<p>And the following:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Casiri's multifarious catalogue bears ample testimony to the +emulation with which not only men but even females of the highest +rank devoted themselves to letters; the latter contending publicly +for the prizes, not merely in eloquence and poetry, but in those +recondite studies which have usually been reserved for the other +sex."<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p></div> + +<p>The style of these sentences is essentially the style of the old <i>North +American Review</i> and of eighteenth-century England. The particular +chapter from which the last quotation has been taken was, in fact, +originally prepared by Prescott for the <i>North American</i>, as already +mentioned,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> and was only on second thought reserved for a chapter of +the history.</p> + +<p>The passion for parallel, which had existed among historical writers +ever since the time of Plutarch, was responsible for the elaborate +comparison which Prescott<a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a> makes between Isabella and Elizabeth of +England.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> It is worked out relentlessly—Isabella and Elizabeth in +their private lives, Isabella and Elizabeth in their characters, +Isabella and Elizabeth in the selection of their ministers of State, +Isabella and Elizabeth in their intellectual power, Isabella and +Elizabeth in their respective deaths. Prescott drags it all in; and it +affords evidence of the literary standards of his countrymen at the +time, that this laboured parallel was thought to be the very finest +thing in the whole book.</p> + +<p>If, however, Prescott maintained in the body of his text the rigid +lapidary dignity which he thought to be appropriate, his natural +liveliness found occasional expression in the numerous foot-notes, which +at times he wrote somewhat in the vein of his private letters from +Pepperell and Nahant. The contrast, therefore, between text and notes +was often thoroughly incongruous because so violent. This led his +English reviewer, Mr. Richard Ford,<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> to write some rather acrid +sentences that in their manner suggest the tone which, in our days, the +<i>Saturday Review</i> has always taken with new authors, especially when +they happen to be American. Wrote Mr. Ford of Prescott:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"His style is too often sesquipedalian and ornate; the stilty, +wordy, false taste of Dr. Channing without his depth of thought; +the sugar and sack of Washington Irving without the half-pennyworth +of bread—without his grace and polish of pure, grammatical, +careful Anglicism. We have many suspicions, indeed, from his +ordinary quotations, from what he calls in others 'the cheap +display of school-boy erudition,' and from sundry lurking sneers, +that he has not drunk deeply at the Pierian fountains, which taste +the purer the higher<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a> we track them to their source. These, the +only sure foundations of a pure and correct style, are absolutely +necessary to our Transatlantic brethren, who are unfortunately +deprived of the high standing example of an order of nobility, and +of a metropolis where local peculiarities evaporate. The elevated +tone of the classics is the only corrective for their unhappy +democracy. Moral feeling must of necessity be degraded wherever the +multitude are the sole dispensers of power and honour. All +candidates for the foul-breathed universal suffrage must lower +their appeal to base understandings and base motives. The authors +of the United States, independently of the deteriorating influence +of their institutions, can of all people the least afford to be +negligent. Far severed from the original spring of English +undefiled, they always run the risk of sinking into provincialisms, +into Patavinity,—both positive, in the use of obsolete words, and +the adoption of conventional village significations, which differ +from those retained by us,—as well as negative, in the omission of +those happy expressions which bear the fire-new stamp of the only +authorised mint. Instances occur constantly in these volumes where +the word is English, but English returned after many years' +transportation. We do not wish to be hypercritical, nor to strain +at gnats. If, however, the authors of the United States aspire to +be admitted <i>ad eundem</i>, they must write the English of the 'old +country,' which they will find it is much easier to forget and +corrupt than to improve. We cannot, however, afford space here for +a <i>florilegium Yankyense</i>. A professor from New York, newly +imported into England and introduced into real <i>good</i> society, of +which previously he can only have formed an abstract idea, is no +bad illustration of Mr. Prescott's <i>over-done</i> text. Like the +stranger in question, he is always on his best behaviour, prim, +prudish, and stiff-necky, afraid of self-committal, ceremonious, +remarkably dignified, supporting the honour of the United States, +and monstrously afraid of being laughed at. Some of these +travellers at last discover that bows and starch are not even the +husk of a gentleman; and so, on re-crossing the Atlantic, their +manner becomes like Mr. Prescott's <i>notes</i>; levity is mistaken for +ease, an un-'pertinent'<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a> familiarity for intimacy, second-rate +low-toned 'jocularities' (which make no one laugh but the retailer) +for the light, hair-trigger repartee, the brilliancy of high-bred +pleasantry. Mr. Prescott emulates Dr. Channing in his text, Dr. +Dunham and Mr. Joseph Miller in his notes. Judging from the facetiĉ +which, by his commending them as 'good,' have furnished a gauge to +measure his capacity for relishing humour, we are convinced that +his non-perception of wit is so genuine as to be organic. It is +perfectly allowable to rise occasionally from the ludicrous into +the serious, but to descend from history to the bathos of +balderdash is too bad—<i>risu inepto nihil ineptius</i>."</p></div> + +<p>This passage, which is an amusing example of an overflow of High Tory +bile, does not by any means fairly represent the general tone of Ford's +review. Prescott had here and there indulged himself in some of the +commonplaces of republicanism such as were usual in American writings of +that time; and these harmlessly trite political pedantries had rasped +the nerves of his British reviewer. To speak of "the empty decorations, +the stars and garters of an order of nobility," to mention "royal +perfidy," "royal dissimulation," "royal recompense of ingratitude," and +generally to intimate that "the people" were superior to royalty and +nobility, roused a spirit of antagonism in the mind of Mr. Ford. Several +of Prescott's semi-facetious notes dealt with rank and aristocracy in +something of the same hold-cheap tone, so that Ford was irritated into a +very personal retort. He wrote:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"These pleasantries come with a bad grace from the son, as we learn +from a full-length dedication, of 'the <i>Honourable</i> William +Prescott, <i>LL.D.</i>' We really are ignorant of the exact value of +this titular potpourri in a <i>soi-disant</i> land of equality, of these +noble and academic plumes, borrowed from the wing of a professedly +despised monarchy."</p></div> + +<p><a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a></p> + +<p>Although Ford's characterisation of Prescott's style had some basis of +truth, it was, of course, grossly exaggerated. Throughout the whole of +the <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, one is conscious of a strong tendency +toward simplicity of expression. Many passages are as easy and +unaffected as any that we find in an historical writer of to-day. +Reading the pages over now, one can see the true Prescott under all the +starch and stiffness which at the time he mistakenly regarded as +essential to the dignity of historical writing. In fact, as the work +progressed, the author gained something of that ease which comes from +practice, and wrote more and more simply and more after his own natural +manner. What is really lacking is sharpness of outline. The narrative is +somewhat too flowing. One misses, now and then, crispness of phrase and +force of characterisation. Prescott never wrote a sentence that can be +remembered. His strength lies in his <i>ensemble</i>, in the general effect, +and in the agreeable manner in which he carries us along with him from +the beginning to the end. This first book of his, from the point of view +of style, is "pleasant reading." Its movement is that of an ambling +palfrey, well broken to a lady's use. Nowhere have we the sensation of +the rush and thunder of a war-horse.</p> + +<p>Ford's strictures made Prescott wince, or, as Mr. Ticknor gently puts +it, "disturbed his equanimity." They caused him to consider the question +of his own style in the light of Ford's very slashing strictures. In +making this self-examination Prescott was perfectly candid with himself, +and he noted down the conclusions which he ultimately reached.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It seems to me the first and sometimes the second volume afford +examples of the use of words not so simple as<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> might be; not +objectionable in themselves, but unless something is gained in the +way of strength or of colouring it is best to use the most simple, +<i>unnoticeable</i> words to express ordinary things; <i>e.g.</i> 'to send' +is better than 'to transmit'; 'crown descended' better than +'devolved'; 'guns fired' than 'guns discharged'; 'to name,' or +'call,' than 'to nominate'; 'to read' than 'peruse'; 'the term,' or +'name,' than 'appellation,' and so forth. It is better also not to +encumber the sentence with long, lumbering nouns; as,'the +relinquishment of,' instead of 'relinquishing'; 'the embellishment +and fortification of,' instead of 'embellishing and fortifying'; +and so forth. I can discern no other warrant for Master Ford's +criticism than the occasional use of these and similar words on +such commonplace matters as would make the simpler forms of +expression preferable. In my third volume, I do not find the +language open to much censure."</p></div> + +<p>He also came to the following sensible decision which very materially +improved his subsequent writing:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I will not hereafter vex myself with anxious thoughts about my +style when composing. It is formed. And if there be any ground for +the imputation that it is too formal, it will only be made worse in +this respect by extra solicitude. It is not the defect to which I +am predisposed. The best security against it is to write with less +elaboration—a pleasant recipe which conforms to my previous views. +This determination will save me trouble and time. Hereafter what I +print shall undergo no ordeal for the style's sake except only the +grammar."</p></div> + +<p>Some other remarks of his may be here recorded, though they really +amount to nothing more than the discovery of the old truth, <i>le style +c'est l'homme</i>.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A man's style to be worth anything should be the natural +expression of his mental character.... The best undoubtedly for +every writer is the form of expression best<a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a> suited to his peculiar +turn of thinking, even at some hazard of violating the conventional +tone of the most chaste and careful writers. It is this alone which +can give full force to his thoughts. Franklin's style would have +borne more ornament—Washington Irving could have done with +less—Johnson and Gibbon might have had much less formality, and +Hume and Goldsmith have occasionally pointed their sentences with +more effect. But, if they had abandoned the natural suggestions of +their genius and aimed at the contrary, would they not in mending a +hole, as Scott says, have very likely made two?... Originality—the +originality of nature—compensates for a thousand minor +blemishes.... The best rule is to dispense with all rules except +those of grammar, and to consult the natural bent of one's genius."</p></div> + +<p>Thereafter Prescott held to his resolution so far as concerned the first +draft of what he wrote. He always, however, before publication, asked +his friends to read and criticise what he had written, and he used also +to employ readers to go over his pages with great minuteness, making +notes which he afterwards passed upon, rejecting most of the +suggestions, but nevertheless adopting a good many.</p> + +<p>From the point of view of historical accuracy, <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i> +is a solid piece of work. The original sources to which Prescott had +access were numerous and valuable. Discrepancies and contradictions he +sifted out with patience and true critical acumen. He overlooked +nothing, not even those "still-born manuscripts" whose writers recorded +their experiences for the pure pleasure of setting down the truth. Ford +very justly said, regarding Prescott's notes: "Of the accuracy of his +quotations and references we cannot speak too highly; they stamp a +guarantee on his narrative; they enable us to give a reason for our +faith;<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> they furnish means of questioning and correcting the author +himself; they enable readers to follow up any particular subject suited +to their own idiosyncrasy." It is only in that part of the book which +relates to the Arab domination in Spain that Prescott's work is +unsatisfactory; and even there it represents a distinct advance upon his +predecessors, both French and Spanish. At the time when he wrote, it +would, indeed, have been impossible for him to secure greater accuracy; +because the Arabic manuscripts contained in the Escurial had not been +opened to the inspection of investigators; and, moreover, a knowledge of +the language in which they were written would have been essential to +their proper use. In default of these sources, Prescott gave too much +credence to Casiri, and especially to Condé's history which had appeared +not long before, but which had been hastily written, so that it +contained some serious misstatements and inconsistencies. Condé, +although he professed to have gone to the original records in Arabic, +had in reality got most of his information at second hand from Cardonne +and Marmol. Hence, Prescott's chapters on the Arabs in Spain, although +they appear to the general reader to represent exact and solid +knowledge, are in fact inaccurate in parts. In other respects, however, +the most modern historical scholarship has detected no serious flaws in +<i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>. Such defects as the book possesses are +negative rather than positive, and they are really due to the author's +cast of mind. Prescott, was not, and he never became, a philosophical +historian. His gift was for synthesis rather than for analysis. He was +an industrious gatherer of facts, an impartial judge of evidence, a +sympathetic and accurate<a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a> narrator of events. He could not, however, +firmly grasp the underlying causes of what he superficially, observed, +nor penetrate the very heart of things. His power of generalisation was +never strong. There is a certain lack also, especially in this first one +of his historical compositions, of a due appreciation of character. He +describes the great actors in his drama,—Ferdinand, Isabella, Columbus, +Ximenes, and Gonsalvo de Cordova,—and what he says of them is eminently +true; yet, somehow or other, he fails to make them live. They are +stately figures that move in a majestic way across one's field of +vision; yet it is their outward bearing and their visible acts that he +makes us know, rather than the interplay of motive and temperament which +impelled them. His taste, indeed, is decidedly for the splendid and the +spectacular. Kings, princes, nobles, warriors, and statesmen crowd his +pages. Perhaps they satisfied the starved imagination of the New +Englander, whose own life was lived amid surroundings antithetically +prosaic. Certain it is, that, in dwelling upon a memorable epoch, he +omitted all consideration of a stratum of society which underlay the +surface which alone he saw. A few more years, and the fifteenth-century +<i>picaro</i>, the common man, the trader, and the peasant were destined to +emerge from the humble position to which the usages of chivalry had +consigned them. The invention of gunpowder and the use of it in war soon +swept away the advantage which the knight in armour had possessed as +against the humble foot-soldier who followed him. The discovery of +America and the opening of new lands teeming with treasures for their +conquerors roused and stimulated the consciousness of the lower orders. +Before<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a> long, the man-at-arms, the musketeer, and the artilleryman +attained a consequence which the ordinary fighting man had never had +before. After these had gone forth as adventurers into the New World, +they brought back with them not only riches wrested from the helpless +natives whom they had subdued, but a spirit of freedom verging even upon +lawlessness, which leavened the whole stagnant life of Europe. Then, for +the first time, such as had been only pawns in the game of statesmanship +and war became factors to be anxiously considered. Even literature then +takes notice of them, and for the first time they begin to influence the +course of modern history. A philosophical historian, therefore, would +have looked beyond the <i>ricos hombres</i>, and would have revealed to us, +at least in part, the existence and the mode of life of that great mass +of swarming humanity with which the statesman and the feudal lord had +soon to reckon.</p> + +<p>As it was, however, Prescott saw the obvious rather than the recondite. +Within the field which he had marked out, his work was admirably done. +He delineated clearly and impartially the events of a splendid epoch +wherein the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united under two +far-seeing sovereigns, and wherein the power of Spanish feudalism was +broken, the prestige of France and Portugal brought low, the Moors +expelled, and Spain consolidated into one united kingdom from the +Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, while a new and unknown world was opened +for the expansion and enrichment of the old. He well deserved the praise +which a Spanish critic and scholar<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> gave him of having written in a +masterly manner one of the most successful historical productions of the +century in which he lived.<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII<br /><br /> +<small>THE "CONQUEST OF MEXICO" AS LITERATURE AND AS HISTORY</small></h2> + +<p class="nind">R<small>EGARDED</small> simply from the standpoint of literary criticism, the <i>Conquest +of Mexico</i> is Prescott's masterpiece. More than that, it is one of the +most brilliant examples which the English language possesses of literary +art applied to historical narration. Its theme is one which contains all +the elements of the romantic,—the chivalrous daring which boldly +attempts the seemingly impossible, the struggle of the few against +overwhelming odds, the dauntless heroism which never quails in the +presence of defeat, desertion, defiance, or disaster, the spectacle of +the forces of one civilisation arrayed against those of another, the +white man striving for supremacy over the red man, and finally, the True +Faith in arms against a bloody form of paganism. In Prescott's treatment +of this theme we find displayed the conscious skill of the born artist +who subordinates everything to the dramatic development of the central +motive. The style is Prescott's at its best,—not terse and pointed like +Macaulay's, nor yet so intimately persuasive as that of Parkman, but +nevertheless free, flowing, and often stately—the fit instrument of +expression for a sensitive and noble mind. Finally, in this book +Prescott shows a power of depicting character that is far beyond his +wont, so that his heroes are<a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a> not lay figures but living men. We need +not wonder, then, if the <i>Conquest of Mexico</i> has held its own, as +literature, and if to-day it is as widely read and with the same +breathless interest as in the years when the world first felt the +fascination of so great a literary achievement.</p> + +<p>When we come to analyse the structure of the narrative, we find that one +secret of its effectiveness lies in its artistic unity. Prescott had +studied very carefully the manner in which Irving had written the story +of Columbus, and he learned a valuable lesson from the defects of his +contemporary. In a memorandum dated March 21, 1841, he set down some +very shrewd remarks.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Have been looking over Irving's <i>Columbus</i> also. A beautiful +composition, but fatiguing as a whole to the reader. Why? The fault +is partly in the subject, partly in the manner of treating it. The +discovery of a new world ... is a magnificent theme in itself, full +of sublimity and interest. But it terminates with the discovery; +and, unfortunately, this is made before half of the first volume is +disposed of. All after that event is made up of little +details,—the sailing from one petty island to another, all +inhabited sailing from one petty island to another, all inhabited +by savages, and having the same general character. Nothing can be +more monotonous, and, of course, more likely to involve the writer +in barren repetition.... Irving should have abridged this part of +his story, and instead of four volumes, have brought it into +two.... The conquest of Mexico, though very inferior in the leading +idea which forms its basis to the story of Columbus, is, on the +whole, a far better subject; since the event is sufficiently grand, +and, as the catastrophe is deferred, the interest is kept up +through the whole. Indeed, the perilous adventures and crosses with +which the enterprise was attended, the desperate chances and +reverses and unexpected vicissitudes, all serve to keep the +interest alive. On my plan, I go on with Cortés to his<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a> death. But +I must take care not to make this tail-piece too long."</p></div> + +<p>This is a bit of very accurate criticism; and the plan which Prescott +formed was executed in a manner absolutely faultless. Never for a moment +is there a break in the continuity of its narrative. Never for a moment +do we lose sight of the central and inspiring figure of Cortés fighting +his way, as it were, single-handed against the intrigues of his own +countrymen, the half-heartedness of his followers, the obstacles of +nature, and the overwhelming forces of his Indian foes, to a superb and +almost incredible success. Everything in the narrative is subordinated +to this. Every event is made to bear directly upon the development of +this leading motive. The art of Prescott in this book is the art of a +great dramatist who keeps his eye and brain intent upon the true +catastrophe, in the light of which alone the other episodes possess +significance. To the general reader this supreme moment comes when +Cortés makes his second entry into Mexico, returning over "the black and +blasted environs," to avenge the horrors of the <i>noche triste</i>, and in +one last tremendous assault upon the capital to destroy forever the +power of the Aztecs and bring Guatemozin into the possession of his +conqueror. What follows after is almost superfluous to one who reads the +story for the pure enjoyment which it gives. It is like the last chapter +of some novels, appended to satisfy the curiosity of those who wish to +know "what happened after." In nothing has Prescott shown his literary +tact more admirably than in compressing this record of the aftermath of +Conquest within the limit of some hundred pages.<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a></p> + +<p>The superiority of the <i>Conquest of Mexico</i> to all the rest of +Prescott's works is sufficiently proved by one unquestioned fact. Though +we read his other books with pleasure and unflagging interest, the +<i>Conquest of Mexico</i> alone stamps upon our minds the memory of certain +episodes which are told so vividly as never to be obliterated. We may +never open the book again; yet certain pages remain part and parcel of +our intellectual possessions. In them Prescott has risen to a height of +true greatness as a story-teller, and masterful word-painter. Of these, +for example, is the account of the burning of the ships,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> when +Cortés, by destroying his fleet, cuts off from his wavering troops all +hope of a return home except as conquerors, and when, facing them, in +imminent peril of death at their hands, his manly eloquence so kindles +their imagination and stirs their fighting blood as to make them shout, +"To Mexico! To Mexico!" Another striking passage is that which tells of +what happened in Cholula, where the little army of Spaniards, after +being received with a show of cordial hospitality, learn that the +treacherous Aztecs have laid a plot for their extermination.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"That night was one of deep anxiety to the army. The ground they +stood on seemed loosening beneath their feet, and any moment might +be the one marked for their destruction. Their vigilant general +took all possible precautions for their safety, increasing the +number of sentinels, and posting his guns in such a manner as to +protect the approaches to the camp. His eyes, it may well be +believed, did not close during the night. Indeed, every Spaniard +lay down in his arms, and every horse stood saddled and bridled, +ready<a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> for instant service. But no assault was meditated by the +Indians, and the stillness of the hour was undisturbed except by +the occasional sounds heard in a populous city, even when buried in +slumber, and by the hoarse cries of the priests from the turrets of +the <i>teocallis</i>, proclaiming through their trumpets the watches of +the night."<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p></div> + +<p>Here is true literary art used to excite in the reader the same +fearfulness and apprehension which the Spaniards themselves experienced. +The last sentence has a peculiar and indescribable effect upon the +nerves, so that in the following chapter we feel something of the +exultation of the Castilian soldier when morning breaks, and Cortés +receives the Cholulan chiefs, astounds them by revealing that he knows +their plot, and then, before they can recover from their thunderstruck +amazement, orders a general attack upon the Indians who have stealthily +gathered to destroy the white men. The battle-scene which follows and of +which a part is quoted here, is unsurpassed by any other to be found in +modern history.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Cortés had placed his battery of heavy guns in a position that +commanded the avenues, and swept off the files of the assailants as +they rushed on. In the intervals between the discharges, which, in +the imperfect state of the science in that day, were much longer +than in ours, he forced back the press by charging with the horse +into the midst. The steeds, the guns, the weapons of the Spaniards, +were all new to the Cholulans. Notwithstanding the novelty of the +terrific spectacle, the flash of fire-arms mingling with the +deafening roar of the artillery as its thunders reverberated among +the buildings, the despairing Indians pushed on to take the places +of their fallen comrades.</p> + +<p>"While this fierce struggle was going forward, the Tlascalans, +hearing the concerted signal, had advanced with quick pace into the +city. They had bound, by order of<a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a> Cortés, wreaths of sedge round +their heads, that they might the more surely be distinguished from +the Cholulans. Coming up in the very heat of the engagement, they +fell on the defenceless rear of the townsmen, who, trampled down +under the heels of the Castilian cavalry on one side, and galled by +their vindictive enemies on the other, could no longer maintain +their ground. They gave way, some taking refuge in the nearest +buildings, which, being partly of wood, were speedily set on fire. +Others fled to the temples. One strong party, with a number of +priests at its head, got possession of the great <i>teocalli</i>. There +was a vulgar tradition, already alluded to, that on removal of part +of the walls the god would send forth an inundation to overwhelm +his enemies. The superstitious Cholulans with great difficulty +succeeded in wrenching away some of the stones in the walls of the +edifice. But dust, not water, followed. Their false god deserted +them in the hour of need. In despair they flung themselves into the +wooden turrets that crowned the temple, and poured down stones, +javelins, and burning arrows on the Spaniards, as they climbed the +great staircase which, by a flight of one hundred and twenty steps, +scaled the face of the pyramid. But the fiery shower fell harmless +on the steel bonnets of the Christians, while they availed +themselves of the burning shafts to set fire to the wooden citadel, +which was speedily wrapt in flames. Still the garrison held out, +and though quarter, <i>it is said</i>, was offered, only one Cholulan +availed himself of it. The rest threw themselves headlong from the +parapet, or perished miserably in the flames.</p> + +<p>"All was now confusion and uproar in the fair city which had so +lately reposed in security and peace. The groans of the dying, the +frantic supplications of the vanquished for mercy, were mingled +with the loud battle-cries of the Spaniards as they rode down their +enemy, and with the shrill whistle of the Tlascalans, who gave full +scope to the long-cherished rancour of ancient rivalry. The tumult +was still further swelled by the incessant rattle of musketry and +the crash of falling timbers, which sent up a volume of flame that +outshone the ruddy light of morning, making altogether a hideous +confusion of sights and sounds that converted the Holy City into a +Pandemonium."</p></div> + +<p><a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a></p> + +<p>This spirited description, which deserves comparison with Livy's picture +of the rout at Cannĉ, shows Prescott at his best. In it he has shaken +off every trace of formalism and of leisurely repose. His blood is up. +The short, nervous sentences, the hurry of the narrative, the rapid +onrush of events, rouse the reader and fill him with the true +battle-spirit. Of an entirely different <i>genre</i> is the account of the +entrance of the Spanish army into Mexico as Montezuma's guest, and of +the splendid city which they beheld,—the broad streets coated with a +hard cement, the intersecting canals, the inner lake darkened by +thousands of canoes, the great market-places, the long vista of snowy +mansions, their inner porticoes embellished with porphyry and jasper, +and the fountains of crystal water leaping up and glittering in the +sunlight. Memorable, too, is the scene of the humiliation of Montezuma +when, having come as a friend to the quarters of the Spaniards, he is +fettered like a slave; and that other scene, no less painful, where the +fallen monarch appears upon the walls and begs his people to desist from +violence, only to be greeted with taunts and insults, and a shower of +stones.</p> + +<p>But most impressive of all and most unforgettable is the story of the +<i>noche triste</i>—the Spanish army and their Indian allies stealing +silently and at dead of night out of the city which but a short time +before they had entered with so brave a show.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The night was cloudy, and a drizzling rain, which fell without +intermission, added to the obscurity. The great square before the +palace was deserted, as, indeed, it had been since the fall of +Montezuma. Steadily, and as noiselessly as possible, the Spaniards +held their way along the great street<a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a> of Tlacopan, which so lately +had resounded with the tumult of battle. All was now hushed in +silence; and they were only reminded of the past by the occasional +presence of some solitary corpse, or a dark heap of the slain, +which too plainly told where the strife had been hottest. As they +passed along the lanes and alleys which opened into the great +street, or looked down the canals, whose polished surface gleamed +with a sort of ebon lustre through the obscurity of night, they +easily fancied that they discerned the shadowy forms of their foe +lurking in ambush and ready to spring on them. But it was only +fancy; and the city slept undisturbed even by the prolonged echoes +of the tramp of the horses and the hoarse rumbling of the artillery +and baggage-trains. At length, a lighter space beyond the dusky +line of buildings showed the van of the army that it was emerging +on the open causeway. They might well have congratulated themselves +on having thus escaped the dangers of an assault in the city +itself, and that a brief time would place them in comparative +safety on the opposite shore. But the Mexicans were not all asleep.</p> + +<p>"As the Spaniards drew near the spot where the street opened on the +causeway, and were preparing to lay the portable bridge across the +uncovered breach, which now met their eyes, several Indian +sentinels, who had been stationed at this, as at the other +approaches to the city, took the alarm, and fled, rousing their +countrymen by their cries. The priests, keeping their night-watch +on the summit of the <i>teocallis</i>, instantly caught the tidings and +sounded their shells, while the huge drum in the desolate temple of +the war-god sent forth those solemn tones, which, heard only in +seasons of calamity, vibrated through every corner of the capital. +The Spaniards saw that no time was to be lost.... Before they had +time to defile across the narrow passage, a gathering sound was +heard, like that of a mighty forest agitated by the winds. It grew +louder and louder, while on the dark waters of the lake was heard a +plashing noise, as of many oars. Then came a few stones and arrows +striking at random among the hurrying troops. They fell every +moment faster and more furious, till they thickened into a terrible +tempest, while the very heavens were rent with the yells and +warcries<a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a> of myriads of combatants, who seemed all at once to be +swarming over land and lake!"</p></div> + +<p>What reader of this passage can forget the ominous, melancholy note of +that great war drum? It is one of the most haunting things in all +literature—like the blood-stained hands of the guilty queen in +<i>Macbeth</i>, or the footprint on the sand in <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>, or the +chill, mirthless laughter of the madwoman in <i>Jane Eyre</i>.</p> + +<p>One other splendidly vital passage is that which recounts the last great +agony on the retreat from Mexico. The shattered remnants of the army of +Cortés are toiling slowly onward to the coast, faint with famine and +fatigue, deprived of the arms which in their flight they had thrown +away, and harassed by their dusky enemies, who hover about them, calling +out in tones of menace, "Hasten on! You will soon find yourselves where +you cannot escape!"</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"As the army was climbing the mountain steeps which shut in the +Valley of Otompan, the vedettes came in with the intelligence that +a powerful body was encamped on the other side, apparently awaiting +their approach. The intelligence was soon confirmed by their own +eyes, as they turned the crest of the sierra, and saw spread out, +below, a mighty host, filling up the whole depth of the valley, and +giving to it the appearance, from the white cotton mail of the +warriors, of being covered with snow.... As far as the eye could +reach, were to be seen shields and waving banners, fantastic +helmets, forests of shining spears, the bright feather-mail of the +chief, and the coarse cotton panoply of his follower, all mingled +together in wild confusion and tossing to and fro like the billows +of a troubled ocean. It was a sight to fill the stoutest heart +among the Christians with dismay, heightened by the previous +expectation of soon reaching the friendly land which was to +terminate their wearisome pilgrimage.<a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a> Even Cortés, as he +contrasted the tremendous array before him with his own diminished +squadrons, wasted by disease and enfeebled by hunger and fatigue, +could not escape the conviction that his last hour had +arrived."<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p></div> + +<p>But it is not merely in vivid narration and description of events that +the <i>Conquest of Mexico</i> attains so rare a degree of excellence. Here, +as nowhere else, has Prescott succeeded in delineating character. All +the chief actors of his great historic drama not only live and breathe, +but they are as distinctly differentiated as they must have been in +life. Cortés and his lieutenants are persons whom we actually come to +know in the pages of Prescott, just as in the pages of Xenophon we come +to know Clearchus and the adventurous generals who, like Cortés, made +their way into the heart of a great empire and faced barbarians in +battle. The comparison between Xenophon and Prescott is, indeed, a very +natural one, and it was made quite early after the appearance of the +<i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i> by an English admirer, Mr. Thomas Grenville. +Calling upon this gentleman one day, Mr. Everett found him in his +library reading Xenophon's <i>Anabasis</i> in the original Greek. Mr. Everett +made some casual remark upon the merits of that book, whereupon Mr. +Grenville holding up a volume of <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i> said, "Here is +one far superior."<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p>Xenophon's character-drawing was done in his own way, briefly and in +dry-point; yet Clearchus, Proxenus, and Menon are not more subtly +distinguished from each<a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a> other than are Cortés, Sandoval, and Alvarado. +Cortés is very real,—a bold, martial figure, the ideal man of action, +gallant in bearing and powerful of physique, tireless, confident, and +exerting a magnetic influence over all who come into his presence; +gifted also with a truly Spanish craft, and not without a touch of +Spanish cruelty. Sandoval is the true knight,—loyal, devoted to his +chief, wise, and worthy of all trust. Alvarado is the reckless +man-at-arms,—daring to desperation, hot-tempered, fickle, and +passionate, yet with all his faults a man to extort one's liking, even +as he compelled the Aztecs to admire him for his intrepidity and +frankness. Over against these three brilliant figures stands the +melancholy form of Montezuma, around whom, even from the first, one +feels gathering the darkness of his coming fate. He reminds one of some +hero of Greek tragedy, doomed to destruction and intensely conscious of +it, yet striving in vain against the decree of an inexorable destiny. +One recalls him as he is described when the head of a Spanish soldier +had been cut off and sent to him.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It was uncommonly large and covered with hair; and, as Montezuma +gazed on the ferocious features, rendered more horrible by death, +he seemed to read in them the dark lineaments of the destined +destroyers of his house. He turned from it with a shudder, and +commanded that it should be taken from the city, and not offered at +the shrine of any of his gods."<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p></div> + +<p>The contrast between this dreamy, superstitious, half-hearted, and +almost womanish prince and his successor Guatemozin is splendidly worked +out. Guatemozin's fierce patriotism, his hatred of the<a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a> Spaniards, his +ferocity in battle, and his stubborn unwillingness to yield are +displayed with consummate art, yet in such a way as to win one's +sympathy for him without estranging it from those who conquered him. A +touch of sentiment is delicately infused into the whole narrative of the +Conquest by the manner in which Prescott has treated the relations of +Cortés and the Indian girl, Marina. Here we find interesting evidence of +Prescott's innate purity of mind and thought, for he undoubtedly +idealised this girl and suppressed, or at any rate passed over very +lightly, the truth which Bernal Diaz, on the other hand, sets forth with +the blunt coarseness of a foul-mouthed old soldier.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> No one would +gather from Prescott's pages that Marina had been the mistress of other +men before Cortés. Nor do we get any hint from him that Cortés wearied +of her in the end, and thrust her off upon one of his captains whom he +made drunk in order to render him willing to go through the forms of +marriage with her. In Prescott's narrative she is lovely, graceful, +generous, and true; and the only hint that is given of her former life +is found in the statement that "she had her errors."<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> To his readers +she is, after a fashion, the heroine of the Conquest,—the tender, +affectionate companion of the Conqueror, sharing his dangers or averting +them, and not seldom mitigating by her influence the sternness of his +character. Another instance of Prescott's delicacy of mind is found in +the way in which he glides swiftly over the whole topic of the position +which women occupied among the Aztecs, although his Spanish sources were +brutally explicit on<a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a> this point. There were some things, therefore, +from which Prescott shrank instinctively and in which he allowed his +sensitive modesty to soften and refine upon the truth.</p> + +<p>The mention of this circumstance leads one to consider the much-mooted +question as to how far the <i>Conquest of Mexico</i> may be accepted as +veracious history. Is it history at all or is it, as some have said, +historical romance? Are we to classify it with such books as those of +Ranke and Parkman, whose brilliancy of style is wholly compatible with +scrupulous fidelity to historic fact, or must we think of it as verging +upon the category of romances built up around the material which history +affords—with books like <i>Ivanhoe</i> and <i>Harold</i> and <i>Salammbô</i>? In the +years immediately following its publication, Prescott's great work was +accepted as indubitably accurate. His imposing array of foot-notes, his +thorough acquaintance with the Spanish chronicles, and the unstinted +approval given to him by contemporary historians inspired in the public +an implicit faith. Then, here and there, a sceptic began to raise his +head, and to question, not the good faith of Prescott, but rather the +value of the very sources upon which Prescott's history had been built. +As a matter of fact, long before Prescott's time, the reports and +narratives of the conquerors had in parts been doubted. As early as the +eighteenth century Lafitau, the Jesuit missionary, in a treatise +published in 1723,<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> had discussed with great acuteness some questions +of American ethnology in a spirit of scientific criticism;<a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a> and later in +the same century, James Adair had gathered valuable material in the same +department of knowledge.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> Even earlier, the Spanish Jesuit, José de +Acosta, had published a treatise which exhibits traces of a critical +method.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> Again, Robertson, in his <i>History of America</i> (a book, by +the way, which Prescott had studied very carefully), shows an +independence of attitude and an acumen which find expression in a +definite disagreement with much that had been set down by the Spanish +chroniclers. Such criticism as these and other isolated writers had +brought to bear was directed against that part of the accepted tradition +which relates to the Aztec civilisation. Prescott, following the notices +of Las Casas, Herrera, Bernal Diaz, Oviedo, Cortés himself, and the +writer who is known as the <i>conquistador anonimo</i>, had simply weighed +the assertions of one as against those of another, striving to reconcile +their discrepancies of statement and following one rather than the +other, according to the apparent preponderance of probability. He did +not, however, perceive in these discrepancies the clue which might have +guided him, as it subsequently did others, to a clearer understanding of +the actual facts. Therefore, he has painted for us the Mexico of +Montezuma in gorgeous colours, seeing in it a great Empire, possessed of +a civilisation no less splendid than that of Western Europe, and +exhibiting a political and social system comparable with that which +Europeans knew. The magnificence and wealth of this fancied Empire gave, +indeed, the necessary background to his story of the Conquest. It was a +stage setting which raised the<a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a> exploits of the conquerors to a lofty +and almost epic altitude.</p> + +<p>The first serious attempt directly to discredit the accuracy of this +description was made by an American writer, Mr. Robert A. Wilson. Wilson +was an enthusiastic amateur who took a particular interest in the +ethnology of the American Indians. He had travelled in Mexico. He knew +something of the Indians of our Western territory, and he had read the +Spanish chroniclers. The result of his observations was a thorough +disbelief in the traditional picture of Aztec civilisation. He, +therefore, set out to demolish it and to offer in its place a substitute +based upon such facts as he had gathered and such theories as he had +formed. After publishing a preliminary treatise which attracted some +attention, he wrote a bulky volume entitled <i>A New History of the +Conquest of Mexico</i>.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> In the introduction to this book he declares +that his visit to Mexico had shaken his belief "in those Spanish +historic romances upon which Mr. Prescott has founded his magnificent +tale of the conquest of Mexico." He adds that the despatches of Cortés +are the only valuable written authority, and that these consist of two +distinct parts,—first, "an accurate detail of adventures consistent +throughout with the topography of the region in which they occurred"; +and second, "a mass of foreign material, apparently borrowed from fables +of the Moorish era, for effect in Spain." "It was not in great battles, +but in a rapid succession of skirmishes, that he distinguished himself +and won the character ... of an adroit leader in Indian war." Wilson +endeavours to show, in the first place, that the<a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a> Aztecs were simply a +branch of the American Indian race; that their manners and customs were +essentially those of the more northern tribes; that the origin of the +whole race was Phœnician; and that the Spanish account of early +Mexico is almost wholly fabulous. Writing of the different historians of +the Conquest, he mentions Prescott in the following words:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A more delicate duty remains,—to speak freely of an American +whose success in the field of literature has raised him to the +highest rank. His talents have not only immortalised himself—they +have added a new charm to the subject of his histories. He showed +his faith by the expenditure of a fortune at the commencement of +his enterprise, in the purchase of books and Mss. relating to +'America of the Spaniards.' These were the materials out of which +he framed his two histories of the two aboriginal empires, Mexico +and Peru. At the time these works were written he could not have +had the remotest idea of the circumstances under which his Spanish +authorities had been produced, or of the external pressure that +gave them their peculiar form and character. He could hardly +understand that peculiar organisation of Spanish society through +which one set of opinions might be uniformly expressed in public, +while the intellectual classes in secret entertain entirely +opposite ones. He acted throughout in the most perfect good faith; +and if, on a subsequent scrutiny, his authorities have proved to be +the fabulous creations of Spanish-Arabian fancy, he is not in +fault. They were the standards when he made use of them—a +sufficient justification of his acts. 'This beautiful world we +inhabit,' said an East Indian philosopher, 'rests on the back of a +mighty elephant; the elephant stands on the back of a monster +turtle; the turtle rests upon a serpent; and the serpent on +nothing.' Thus stand the literary monuments Mr. Prescott has +constructed. They are castles resting upon a cloud which reflects +an eastern sunrise upon a western horizon."</p></div> + +<p>This book appeared in the year of Prescott's death, and he himself made +no published comment on it. A<a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a> very sharp notice, however, was written +by some one who did not sign his name, but who was undoubtedly very near +to Prescott.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> The writer of this notice had little difficulty in +showing that Wilson was a very slipshod investigator; that he was in +many respects ignorant of the very authorities whom he attempted to +refute; and that as a writer he was very crude indeed. Some portions of +this paper may be quoted, mainly because they sum up such of Mr. +Wilson's points as were in reality important. The first paragraph has +also a somewhat personal interest.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Directly and knowingly, as we shall hereafter show, he has availed +himself of Mr. Prescott's labours to an extent which demanded the +most ample 'acknowledgment.' No such acknowledgment is made. But we +beg to ask Mr. Wilson whether there were not other reasons why he +should have spoken of this eminent writer, if not with deference, +at least with respect. He himself informs us that 'most kindly +relations' existed between them. If we are not misinformed, Mr. +Wilson opened the correspondence by modestly requesting the loan of +Mr. Prescott's collection of works relating to Mexican history, for +the purpose of enabling him to write a refutation of the latter's +History of the Conquest. That the replies which he received were +courteous and kindly, we need hardly say. He was informed, that, +although the constant use made of the collection by its possessor +for the correction of his own work must prevent a full compliance +with this request, yet any particular books which he might +designate should be sent to him, and, if he were disposed to make a +visit to Boston, the fullest opportunities should be granted him +for the prosecution of his researches. This invitation Mr. Wilson +did not think fit to accept. Books which were got in readiness for +transmission to him he failed to send for. He had, in the meantime, +discovered that 'the American standpoint' did not require any +examination of<a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a> 'authorities.' We regret that it should also have +rendered superfluous an acquaintance with the customs of civilised +society. The tone in which he speaks of his distinguished +predecessor is sometimes amusing from the conceit which it +displays, sometimes disgusting from its impudence and coarseness. +He concedes Mr. Prescott's good faith in the use of his materials. +It was only his ignorance and want of the proper qualifications +that prevented him from using them aright 'His non-acquaintance +with Indian character is much to be regretted.' Mr. Wilson himself +enjoys, as he tells us, the inestimable advantage of being the son +of an adopted member of the Iroquois tribe. Nay, 'his ancestors, +for several generations, dwelt near the Indian agency at Cherry +Valley, on Wilson's Patent, though in Cooperstown village was he +born.' We perceive the author's fondness for the inverted style in +composition,—acquired, perhaps, in the course of his long study of +aboriginal oratory. Even without such proofs, and without his own +assertion of the fact, it would not have been difficult, we think, +to conjecture his familiarity with the forms of speech common among +barbarous nations....</p> + +<p>"Mr. Wilson ... has found, from his own observation,—the only +source of knowledge, if such it can be called, on which he is +willing to place much reliance,—that the Ojibways and Iroquois are +savages, and he rightly argues that their ancestors must have been +savages. From these premises, without any process of reasoning, he +leaps at once to the conclusion, that in no part of America could +the aboriginal inhabitants ever have lived in any other than a +savage state. Hence he tells us, that, in all statements regarding +them, everything 'must be rejected that is inconsistent with +well-established Indian traits.' The ancient Mexican empire was, +according to his showing, nothing more than one of those +confederacies of tribes with which the reader of early New England +history is perfectly familiar. The far-famed city of Mexico was 'an +Indian village of the first class,'—such, we may hope, as that +which the author saw on his visit to the Massasaugus, where, to his +immense astonishment, he found the people 'clothed, and in their +right minds.' The Aztecs, he argues, could not have built temples, +for the Iroquois do<a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a> not build temples. The Aztecs could not have +been idolaters or offered up human sacrifices, for the Iroquois are +not idolaters and do not offer up human sacrifices. The Aztecs +could not have been addicted to cannibalism, for the Iroquois never +eat human flesh, unless driven to it by hunger. This is what Mr. +Wilson means by the 'American standpoint'; and those who adopt his +views may consider the whole question settled without any debate." +...</p> + +<p>"If, at Mr. Wilson's summons, we reject as improbable a series of +events supported by far stronger evidence than can be adduced for +the conquests of Alexander, the Crusades, or the Norman conquest of +England, what is it, we may ask, that he calls upon us to believe? +His scepticism, as so often happens, affords the measure of his +credulity. He contends that Cortés, the greatest Spaniard of the +sixteenth century, a man little acquainted with books, but endowed +with a gigantic genius and with all the qualities requisite for +success in warlike enterprises and an adventurous career, had his +brain so filled with the romances of chivalry, and so preoccupied +with reminiscences of the Spanish contests with the Moslems, that +he saw in the New World nothing but duplicates of those +contests,—that his heated imagination turned wigwams into palaces, +Indian villages into cities like Granada, swamps into lakes, a +tribe of savages into an empire of civilised men,—that, in the +midst of embarrassments and dangers which, even on Mr. Wilson's +showing, must have taxed all his faculties to the utmost, he +employed himself chiefly in coining lies with which to deceive his +imperial master and all the inhabitants of Christendom,—that, +although he had a host of powerful enemies among his countrymen, +enemies who were in a position to discover the truth, his +statements passed unchallenged and uncontradicted by them,—that +the numerous adventurers and explorers who followed in his track, +instead of exposing the falsity of his relations and descriptions, +found their interest in embellishing the narrative."</p></div> + +<p>Of course Wilson's book was unscientific to a degree, with its +Phœnician theories, its estimate of Spanish sources of information, +and its assorted ignorance of<a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a> many things. Its author, had, however, +stumbled upon a bit of truth which no ridicule could shake, and which +proved fruitful in suggestion to a very different kind of investigator. +This was Mr. Lewis Henry Morgan, an important name in the history of +American ethnological study. As a young man Morgan had felt an interest +in the American Indian, which developed into a very unusual enthusiasm. +It led him ultimately to spend a long time among the Iroquois, studying +their tribal organisation and social phenomena. He embodied the +knowledge so obtained in a book entitled <i>The League of the +Iroquois</i>,<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> a truly epoch-making work, though the author himself was +at the time wholly unaware of its far-reaching importance. This book +described the forms of government, the social organisation, the manners +and the customs of the Iroquois, with great accuracy and thoroughness. +Seven years later, Morgan happened to fall in with a camp of Ojibway +Indians, and found to his astonishment that their tribal customs were +practically identical with those of the Iroquois. While this coincidence +was fresh in his mind, Morgan read Wilson's iconoclastic book on Mexico. +The suggestion made by Wilson that the Aztec civilisation was +essentially the same as that of the northern tribes of Red Indians did +much to crystallise the hypothesis which has now been definitely +established as a fact.</p> + +<p>Those who do not care to read a long series of monographs and several +large volumes in order to arrive at a knowledge of what recent +ethnologists hold as true of Ancient Mexico may find the essence of +accepted doctrine somewhat divertingly set forth<a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> in a paper written by +Mr. Morgan in criticism of H. H. Bancroft's <i>Native Races of the Pacific +States</i>. Mr. Morgan's paper is entitled "Montezuma's Dinner."<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> In it +the statement is briefly made that the Aztecs were simply one branch of +the same Red Race which extended all over the American Continent; that +their forms of government, their usages, and their occupations were not +in kind different from those of the Iroquois, the Ojibways, or any other +of the North American Indian tribes. These institutions and customs +found no analogues among civilised nations, and could not, in their day, +be explained in terms intelligible to contemporary Europeans. Hence, +when the Spaniards under Cortés discovered in Mexico a definite and +fully developed form of civilisation, instead of studying it on the +assumption that it might be different from their own, they described it, +as Mr. A. F. Bandelier has well said, "in terms of comparison selected +from types accessible to the limited knowledge of the times."<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> Thus, +they beheld in Montezuma an "emperor" surrounded by "kings," "princes," +"nobles," and "generals." His residence was to them an imperial palace. +His mode of life showed the magnificent and stately etiquette of a +European monarch, with lords-in-waiting, court jesters, pages, +secretaries, and household guards. In narrating all these things, the +first Spanish observers were wholly honest, although in their enthusiasm +they added many a touch of literary colour. Their records<a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a> are +paralleled by those of the English explorers who, in New England, +thought they had found "kings" among the Pequods and Narragansetts, and +who, in Virginia, viewed Powhatan as an "emperor" and Pocahontas as a +"princess." That the Spaniards, like the English, wrote in ignorant good +faith, rather than with a desire to deceive, is shown by the fact that +they actually did record circumstances which even then, if critically +studied, would have shown the falsity of their general belief. Thus, as +Mr. Bandelier points out, the Spaniards tell of the Aztecs that they had +great wealth, reared great palaces, and acquired both scientific +knowledge and skill in art, while in mechanical appliances they remained +on the level of the savage, using stone and flint for tools and weapons, +making pottery without the potter's wheel, and weaving intricate +patterns with the hand-loom only. Equally inconsistent are the +statements that the Aztecs were mild, gentle, virtuous, and kind, and +yet that they sacrificed their prisoners with the most savage rites, +made war that they might secure more sacrificial victims, viewed +marriage as a barter, and regarded chastity as a restraint.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> Still +further inconsistencies are to be found in the Spanish accounts of the +Aztec government. Montezuma, for instance, is picturesquely held to have +been an absolute ruler, one whose very name aroused awe and veneration +throughout the whole extent of his vast dominions; and yet it is +recorded that while still alive he was superseded by Guatemozin; and +even Acosta notes that there was a council without whose consent nothing +of importance could be done. In fact,<a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a> under the solvent of Mr. Morgan's +criticism, the gorgeous Aztec empire of Cortés and Prescott shrinks to +very modest proportions. Montezuma is transformed from an hereditary +monarch into an elective war-chief. His dominions become a territory of +about the size of the state of Rhode Island. His capital appears as a +stronghold built amid marshes and surrounded by flat-roofed houses of +<i>adobe</i>; while his "palace" is a huge communal-house, built of stone and +lime, and inhabited by his gentile kindred, united in one household. The +magnificent feast which the Spaniards describe so lusciously,—the +throned king served by beautiful women and by stewards who knelt before +him without daring to lift their eyes, the dishes of gold and silver, +the red and black Cholulan jars filled with foaming chocolate, the +"ancient lords" attending at a distance, the orchestra of flutes, reeds, +horns, and kettle-drums, and the three thousand guards without—all this +is converted by Morgan into a sort of barbaric buffet-luncheon, with +Montezuma squatting on the floor, surrounded by his relatives in +breech-clouts, and eating a meal prepared in a common cook-house, +divided at a common kettle, and eaten out of an earthen bowl.</p> + +<p>One need not, however, lend himself to so complete a disillusionment as +Mr. Morgan in this paper seeks to thrust upon us. Still more recent +investigations, such as those of Brinton, McGee, and Bandelier, have +restored some of the prestige which Cortés and his followers attached to +the early Mexicans. While the Aztecs were very far from possessing a +monarchical form of government, and while their society was constituted +far differently from that of any European community, and while they are +to be studied simply<a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a> as one division of the Red Indian race, they were +scarcely so primitive as Mr. Morgan would have us think. They differed +from their more northern kindred not, to be sure, in kind, but very +greatly in degree. Though we have to substitute the communal-house for +the palace, the war-chief for the king, and the tribal organisation for +the feudal system, there still remains a great and interesting people, +fully organised, rich, warlike, and highly skilled in their own arts. In +architecture, weaving, gold and silver work, and pottery, they achieved +artistic wonders. Their instinct for the decorative produced results +which justified the admiration of their conquerors. Their capital, +though it was not the immense city which the Spaniards saw, teeming with +a vast population, was, nevertheless, an imposing collection of +mansions, great and small, whose snowy whiteness, standing out against +the greenery and diversified by glimpses of water, might well impress +the imagination of European strangers. If the communal-houses lacked the +"golden cupolas" of Disraeli's Oriental fancy, neither were they the +"mud huts" which Wilson tells of. If Montezuma was not precisely an +occidental Charles the Fifth, neither is he to be regarded as an earlier +Sitting Bull.</p> + +<p>So far, then, as we have to modify Prescott's chapters which describe +the Mexico of Cortés, this modification consists largely in a mere +change of terminology. Following the Spanish records, he has accurately +reproduced just what the Spaniards saw, or thought they saw, in old +Tenochtitlan. He has looked at all things through their eyes; and such +errors as he made were the same errors which they had made while they +were<a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> standing in the great <i>pueblo</i> which was to them the scene of so +much suffering and of so great a final triumph. When Prescott wrote, +there lived no man who could have gainsaid him. His story represents the +most accurate information which was then attainable. As Mr. Thorpe has +well expressed it: "No historian is responsible for not using +undiscovered evidence. Prescott wrote from the archives of Europe ... +from the European side. If one cares to know how the Old World first +understood the New, he will read Prescott." Even Morgan, who goes +further in his destructive criticism than any other authoritative +writer, admits that Prescott and his sources "may be trusted in whatever +relates to the acts of the Spaniards, and to the acts and personal +characteristics of the Indians; in whatever relates to their weapons, +implements and utensils, fabrics, food and raiment, and things of a +similar character." Only in what relates to their government, social +relations, and plan of life does the narrative need to be in part +rewritten. It is but fair to note that Prescott himself, in his +preliminary chapters on the Aztecs, is far from dogmatising. His +statements are made with a distinct reserve, and he acknowledges alike +the difficulty of the subject and his doubts as to the finality of what +he tells. Even in his descriptive passages, he is solicitous lest the +warm imagination of the Spanish chroniclers may have led them to throw +too high a light on what they saw. Thus, after ending his account of +Montezuma's household and the Aztec "court," drawn from the pages of +Bernal Diaz, Toribio, and Oviedo, he qualifies its gorgeousness in the +following sentence:<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a><a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Such is the picture of Montezuma's domestic establishment and way +of living as delineated by the Conquerors and their immediate +followers, who had the best means of information; too highly +coloured, it may be, by the proneness to exaggerate which was +natural to those who first witnessed a spectacle so striking to the +imagination, so new and unexpected."</p></div> + +<p>And in a foot-note on the same page he expressly warns the student of +history against the fanciful chapters of the Spaniards who wrote a +generation later, comparing their accounts with the stories in the +<i>Arabian Nights</i>.</p> + +<p>Putting aside, then, the single topic of Aztec ethnology and tribal +organisation, it remains to see how far the rest of Prescott's history +of the Conquest has stood the test of recent criticism. Here one finds +himself on firmer ground, and it may be asserted with entire confidence +that Prescott's accuracy cannot be impeached in aught that is essential +to the truth of history. His careful use of his authorities, and his +excellent judgment in checking the evidence of one by the evidence of +another, remain unquestioned. In one respect alone has fault been found +with him. His desire to avail himself of every possible aid caused him +to procure, often with great difficulty and at great expense, documents, +or copies of documents, which had hitherto been inaccessible to the +investigator. So far he was acting in the spirit of the truly scientific +scholar. But sometimes the very rarity of these new sources led him to +attach an undue value to them. Here and there he has followed them as +against the more accessible authorities, even when the latter were +altogether trustworthy. In this we find<a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a> something of the passion of the +collector; and now and then in minor matters it has led him into +error.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> Thus, in certain passages relating to the voyage of Cortés +from Havana, Prescott has misstated the course followed by the pilot, as +again with regard to the expedition from Santiago de Cuba<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a>; and he +errs because he has followed a manuscript copy of Juan Diaz, overlooking +the obviously correct and consistent accounts of Bernal Diaz and other +standard chroniclers. There are similar though equally unimportant slips +elsewhere in his narrative, arising from the same cause. None of them, +however, affects the essential accuracy of his text. His masterpiece +stands to-day still fundamentally unshaken, a faithful and brilliant +panorama of a wonderful episode in history. Those who are inclined to +question its veracity do so, not because they can give substantial +reasons for their doubt, but because, perhaps, of the romantic colouring +which Prescott has infused into his whole narrative, because it is as +entertaining as a novel, and because he had the art to transmute the +acquisitions of laborious research into an enduring monument of pure +literature.<a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX<br /><br /> +<small>"THE CONQUEST OF PERU"—"PHILIP II."</small></h2> + +<p class="nind">T<small>HE</small> <i>Conquest of Peru</i> was, for the most part, written more rapidly than +any other of Prescott's histories. Much of the material necessary for it +had been acquired during his earlier studies, and with this material he +had been long familiar when he began to write. The book was, indeed, as +he himself described it, a pendant to the <i>Conquest of Mexico</i>. Had the +latter work not been written, it is likely that the <i>Conquest of Peru</i> +would be now accepted as the most popular of Prescott's works. +Unfortunately, it is always subjected to a comparison with the other and +greater book, and therefore, relatively, it suffers. In the first place, +when so compared, it resembles an imperfect replica of the <i>Mexico</i> +rather than an independent history. The theme is, in its nature, the +same, and so it lacks the charm of novelty. The exploits of Pizarro do +not merely recall to the modern reader the adventurous achievements of +Cortés, but, as a matter of fact, they were actually inspired by them. +Thus, Pizarro's march from the coast over the Andes closely resembles +the march of Cortés over the Cordilleras. His seizure of the Inca, +Atahualpa, was undoubtedly suggested to him by the seizure of Montezuma. +The massacre of the Peruvians in Caxamarca reads like a reminiscence of +the massacre of the Aztecs by Alvarado<a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a> in Mexico. The fighting, if +fighting it may be called, presents the same features as are found in +the battles of Cortés. So far as there is any difference in the two +narratives, this difference is not in favour of the later book. If +Pizarro bears a likeness to Cortés, the likeness is but superficial. His +soul is the soul of Cortés <i>habitans in sicco</i>. There is none of the +frankness of the conqueror of Mexico, none of his chivalry, little of +his bluff good comradeship. Pizarro rather impresses one as +mean-spirited, avaricious, and cruel, so that we hold lightly his +undoubted courage, his persistency, and his endurance. Moreover, the +Peruvians are too feeble as antagonists to make the record of their +resistance an exciting one. They lack the ferocity of the Aztec +character, and when they are slaughtered by the white men, the tale is +far more pitiful than stirring. Even Prescott's art cannot make us feel +that there is anything romantic in the conquest and butchery of a flock +of sheep. The outrages perpetrated upon an effeminate people by their +Spanish masters form a long and dreary record of robbery and rape and it +is inevitably monotonous.</p> + +<p>Another fundamental defect in the subject which Prescott chose was +thoroughly appreciated by him. "Its great defect," he wrote in 1845, "is +want of unity. A connected tissue of adventures ... but not the especial +interest that belongs to the <i>Iliad</i> and to the <i>Conquest of Mexico</i>." +In another memorandum (made in 1846) he calls his subject "second +rate,—quarrels of banditti over their spoils." This criticism is +absolutely just, and it well explains the inferiority of the story of +Peru when we contrast it with the book which went before. Up to the +capture of the Inca<a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a> there is no lack of unity; but after that, the +stream of narration filters away in different directions, like some +river which grows broader and shallower until at last in a multitude of +little streams it disappears in dry and sandy soil. The fault is not the +fault of the writer. It is inherent in the subject. Nowhere has Prescott +written with greater skill. It is only that no display of literary art +can give dignity and distinction to that which in itself is unheroic and +sometimes even sordid. The one passage which stands out from all the +rest is that which sets before us the famous incident at Panama, when +Pizarro, at the head of his little band of followers, mutinous, +famished, and half-naked, still boldly scorns all thought of a return.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Drawing his sword he traced a line with it on the sand from East +to West. Then, turning towards the South, 'Friends and comrades!' +he said, 'on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching +storm, desertion, and death; on this side ease and pleasure. There +lies Peru with its riches; here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, +each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian. For my part, I go to +the South.' So saying, he stepped across the line."</p></div> + +<p>Here is an heroic event told with that simplicity which means +effectiveness. This is the one page in the <i>Peru</i> where the narrator +makes us thrill with a sense of what, in its way, verges upon moral +sublimity.</p> + +<p>As to the historical value of the book, it stands in much the same +category as the <i>Conquest of Mexico</i>. All that relates to the actual +history of the Conquest is told with the same accurate regard for the +original authorities which Prescott always showed, and for this part of +the narrative, the original authorities are<a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a> worthy of credence. The +preliminary chapters on Peruvian antiquities are less satisfactory even +than the corresponding portions of the other book. Prescott found them +very hard to write. He was conscious that the subject was a formidable +one. He did the best he could and all that any one could possibly have +done at the time in which he wrote. Even now, after the elaborate +explorations and researches of Bandelier, Markham, Baessler, Cunow, and +others, the social and political relations of the Peruvians are little +understood. Much has been learned of their art and of the monuments +which they have left behind; but of their institutional history the +records still remain obscure. The modern student, however, discovers +many indications that they, too, like the Aztecs, were of the Red Race, +and that their government was based upon the clan system; so that even +the Inca himself, like the Mexican war-chief, was merely the elected +executive of a council of the gentes. Here, as in Mexico, the Spaniards +carelessly described in terms of Europe the institutions which they +found, and made no serious attempt to understand them. Even the account +of the Peruvian religion which Prescott gives, in accordance with the +statements of the early Catholic missionaries, needs considerable +modification.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> + +<p>The Spanish chroniclers whom Prescott followed describe the Peruvians as +united under a great monarchy,—an "empire,"—the head of which, the +Inca, was an hereditary and absolute ruler, whose person was sacred in +that he was divine and the sole giver of law. The system was, therefore, +a theocratic one, with the chief priest appointed by the Inca. There was +a<a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a> nobility, but the great offices of state were filled by the members +of the imperial family. The rule of the Inca extended over a vast +territory, and of it he was the supreme lord, having his wives from +among the Virgins of the Sun, the fifteen hundred beautiful maidens who +abode in the Palace of the Sun in Cuzco. Over the wonderful system of +roads which intersected the empire, the couriers of the Inca passed back +and forth with the commands of their master, to which all gave heed. The +Peruvian religion was strongly monotheistic in that it recognised the +unity, and preëminence of a supreme deity.</p> + +<p>Recent investigation has left practically nothing of this interesting +fiction which has been repeated by hundreds of writers with every +possible magnificence of detail. There was no "empire" of Peru. The +Indians of the coast governed themselves, though they sometimes paid +tribute to the Cuzco Indians. There was, however, no homogeneous +nationality. In the valley of Cuzco there was a tribe known as the Inca, +perhaps seventy thousand souls in all, who were locally divided into +twelve clans, each having its own government, and dwelling in its own +village or ward; for it was a combination of these twelve villages which +made up the whole settlement collectively styled Cuzco. A council of the +twelve clans chose a war-chief whom some of the other tribes called +"Inca," but who was not so called by his own people. He was not an +hereditary chief; he could be deposed; he had no especial sanctity. The +Virgins of the Sun were something very different from virgins. The road +system of the Peruvians really constituted no system at all. The nobles +were not nobles. The religion was not<a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a> monotheistic, but embodied the +worship not only of sun, moon, and stars, but of rocks, mountains, stone +idols, and a variety of fetishes. Metal-work, pottery, weaving, and +building were the chief arts of the Peruvians; but in them all, +quaintness, utility, and permanence were more conspicuous than +beauty.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></p> + +<p>Disregarding, however, all questions of Peruvian archĉology, we may +accept the judgment passed upon the <i>Conquest of Peru</i> by one of the +most eminent of modern investigators, Sir Clements Markham, who, as a +young man, knew Prescott well, and to whom the reading of this book +proved to be an inspiration in his chosen field. Long after Prescott's +death, and speaking with the fuller knowledge of the subject which he +had acquired, he declared of the Peru: "It deservedly stands in the +first rank as a judicious history of the Conquest."</p> + +<p>The <i>History of the Reign of Philip II.</i> remains an unfinished work. Its +subject, of course, provokes a comparison with the two brilliant +histories by Motley,—<i>The Rise of the Dutch Republic and The History of +the United Netherlands</i>. The interest in this comparison lies in the +view which each of the historians has taken of the gloomy Philip. The +contrasted temperaments of the two writers are well indicated in a +letter which Motley sent to Prescott after the first volume of <i>Philip +II.</i> had appeared. He wrote:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I can vouch for its extraordinary accuracy both of narration and +of portrait-painting. You do not look at people<a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a> or events from my +point of view, but I am, therefore, a better witness to your +fairness and clearness of delineation and statement. You have by +nature the judicial mind which is the <i>costume de rigueur</i> of all +historians.... I haven't the least of it—I am always in a passion +when I write and so shall be accused, very justly perhaps, of the +qualities for which Byron commended Mitford, 'wrath and +partiality.'"</p></div> + +<p>The two men, indeed, approached their subject in very different fashion. +In Motley, rigidly scientific though he was, there are always a touch of +emotion, a love of liberty, a hatred of oppression. He once wrote to his +father that it gratified him "to pitch into the Duke of Alva and Philip +II. to my heart's content." Prescott, on the other hand, was more +detached, partly because he was by nature tolerant and calm; and it may +be also because his protracted Spanish studies had given him +unconsciously the Spanish point of view. He even came at last to adopt +this theory himself, and he wrote of it in a humorous way. Thus to Lady +Lyell, he declared:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"If I should go to heaven ... I shall find many acquaintances +there, and some of them very respectable, of the olden time.... +Don't you think I should have a kindly greeting from good Isabella? +Even Bloody Mary, I think, will smile on me; for I love the old +Spanish stock, the house of Trastamara. But there is one that I am +sure will owe me a grudge, and that is the very man I have been +making two good volumes upon. With all my good nature, I can't wash +him even into the darkest French grey. He is black and all +black.... Is it not charitable to give Philip a place in heaven?"</p></div> + +<p>Again, he styles Philip one "who may be considered as to other Catholics +what a Puseyite is to other Protestants." And elsewhere he confesses to +"a sneaking fondness for Philip." It was very like him, this hesitation<a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a> +to condemn; and it recalls a memorandum which he made while writing his +<i>Peru</i>: "never call hard names à la Southey." Hence in a letter of his +to Motley, who had sent him a copy of the <i>Dutch Republic</i>,—a letter +which forms an interesting complement to Motley's note to him, he +wrote:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"You have laid it on Philip rather hard. Indeed, you have whittled +him down to such an imperceptible point that there is hardly enough +of him left to hang a newspaper paragraph on, much less five or six +volumes of solid history as I propose to do. But then, you make it +up with your own hero, William of Orange, and I comfort myself with +the reflection that you are looking through a pair of Dutch +spectacles after all."</p></div> + +<p>Prescott's <i>Philip II</i>. raised no such questions of accuracy as followed +upon the publications of the Mexican and Peruvian histories. As in the +case of the <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, the sources were unimpeachable, +first-hand, and contained the more intimate revelations of incident and +motive. There were no archĉological problems to be solved, no obscure +racial puzzles to perplex the investigator. The reign of Philip had +simply to be interpreted in the light of the revelations which Philip +himself and his contemporaries left behind them—often in papers which +were never meant for more than two pairs of eyes. How complete are these +revelations, one may learn from a striking passage written by Motley, +who speaks in it of the abundant stores of knowledge which lie at the +disposal of the modern student of history.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"To him who has the patience and industry, many mysteries are thus +revealed, which no political sagacity or critical acumen could have +divined. He leans over the shoulder of Philip the Second at his +writing-table, as the King spells<a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a> patiently out, with cipher-key +in hand, the most concealed hieroglyphics of Parma, or Guise, or +Mendoza.... He enters the cabinet of the deeply pondering +Burghleigh, and takes from the most private drawer the memoranda +which record that minister's unutterable doubtings; he pulls from +the dressing-gown folds of the stealthy, soft-gliding Walsingham +the last secret which he has picked from the Emperor's pigeon-holes +or the Pope's pocket.... He sits invisible at the most secret +councils of the Nassaus and Barneveldt and Buys, or pores with +Farnese over coming victories and vast schemes of universal +conquest; he reads the latest bit of scandal, the minutest +characteristic of King or minister, chronicled by his gossiping +Venetians for the edification of the Forty."<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p></div> + +<p>All this material and more was in Prescott's hands, and he made full use +of it. His narrative, moreover, was told in a style which was easy and +unstudied, less glowing than in the <i>Mexico</i>, but even better fitted for +the telling of events which were so pregnant with good and ill to +succeeding generations. In the pages of <i>Philip II.</i> we have neither the +somewhat formal student who wrote of Ferdinand and Isabella, nor the +romanticist whose imagination was kindled by the reports of Cortés. +Rather do we find one who has at last reached the highest levels of +historical writing, and who with perfect poise develops a noble theme in +a noble way. The only criticism which has ever been brought against the +book has come from those who, like Thoreau, regard literary finish as a +defect in historical composition. The author of Walden seemed, indeed, +to single out Prescott for special animadversion in this respect, and +his rather rasping sentences contain the only jarring notes that were +sounded by any contemporary of the historian.<a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a> Thoreau, writing of the +colonial historians of Massachusetts, such as Josselyn, remarked with a +sort of perverse appreciation: "They give you one piece of nature at any +rate, and that is themselves, smacking their lips like a +coach-whip,—none of those emasculated modern histories, such as +Prescott's, cursed with a style."</p> + +<p>If style be really a curse to an historian, then Prescott remained under +its ban to the very last. As a bit of vivid writing his description of +the battle of Lepanto was much admired, and Irving thought it the best +thing in the book. A bit of it may be quoted by way of showing that +Prescott in his later years lost nothing of his vivacity or of his +fondness for battle-scenes.</p> + +<p>First we see the Turkish armament moving up to battle against the allied +fleets:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The galleys spread out, as usual with the Turks, in the form of a +regular half-moon, covering a wider extent of surface than the +combined fleets, which they somewhat exceeded in number. They +presented, indeed, as they drew nearer, a magnificent array, with +their gilded and gaudily-painted prows, and their myriads of +pennons and streamers fluttering gayly in the breeze; while the +rays of the morning sun glanced on the polished scimitars of +Damascus, and on the superb aigrettes of jewels which sparkled in +the turbans of the Ottoman chiefs.... The distance between the two +fleets was now rapidly diminishing. At this solemn moment a +death-like silence reigned throughout the armament of the +confederates. Men seemed to hold their breath, as if absorbed in +the expectation of some great catastrophe. The day was magnificent. +A light breeze, still adverse to the Turks, played on the waters, +somewhat fretted by the contrary winds. It was nearly noon; and as +the sun, mounting through a cloudless sky, rose to the zenith, he +seemed to<a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> pause, as if to look down on the beautiful scene, where +the multitude of galleys moving over the water, showed like a +holiday spectacle rather than a preparation for mortal combat."</p></div> + +<p>Then we have the two fleets in the thick of combat:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The Pacha opened at once on his enemy a terrible fire of cannon +and musketry. It was returned with equal spirit and much more +effect; for the Turks were observed to shoot over the heads of +their adversaries. The Moslem galley was unprovided with the +defences which protected the sides of the Spanish vessels; and the +troops, crowded together on the lofty prow, presented an easy mark +to their enemy's balls. But though numbers of them fell at every +discharge, their places were soon supplied by those in reserve. +They were enabled, therefore, to keep up an incessant fire, which +wasted the strength of the Spaniards; and, as both Christian and +Mussulman fought with indomitable spirit, it seemed doubtful to +which side victory would incline....</p> + +<p>"Thus the fight raged along the whole extent of the entrance to the +Gulf of Lepanto. The volumes of vapour rolling heavily over the +waters effectually shut out from sight whatever was passing at any +considerable distance, unless when a fresher breeze dispelled the +smoke for a moment, or the flashes of the heavy guns threw a +transient gleam on the dark canopy of battle. If the eye of the +spectator could have penetrated the cloud of smoke that enveloped +the combatants, and have embraced the whole scene at a glance, he +would have perceived them broken up into small detachments, +separately engaged one with another, independently of the rest, and +indeed ignorant of all that was doing in other quarters. The +contest exhibited few of those large combinations and skilful +manœuvres to be expected in a great naval encounter. It was +rather an assemblage of petty actions, resembling those on land. +The galleys, grappling together, presented a level arena, on which +soldier and galley-slave fought hand to hand, and the fate of the +engagement was generally decided by boarding. As in most +hand-to-hand contests, there was an enormous waste of life.<a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a> The +decks were loaded with corpses, Christian and Moslem lying +promiscuously together in the embrace of death. Instances are +recorded where every man on board was slain or wounded. It was a +ghastly spectacle, where blood flowed in rivulets down the sides of +the vessels, staining the waters of the Gulf for miles around.</p> + +<p>"It seemed as if a hurricane had swept over the sea and covered it +with the wreck of the noble armaments which a moment before were so +proudly riding on its bosom. Little had they now to remind one of +their late magnificent array, with their hulls battered, their +masts and spars gone or splintered by the shot, their canvas cut +into shreds and floating wildly on the breeze, while thousands of +wounded and drowning men were clinging to the floating fragments +and calling piteously for help."</p></div> + +<p>Had Prescott lived, his history of Philip II. would have been extended +to a greater length than any of his other books—probably to six volumes +instead of the three which are all that he ever finished. It is likely, +too, that this book would have constituted his surest claim to high rank +as an historian. He came to the writing of it with a mind stored with +the accumulations of twenty years of patient, conscientious study. He +had lost none of his charm as a writer, while he had acquired +laboriously that special knowledge and training which are needed in one +who would be a master of historical research. <i>Philip II.</i> shows on +every page the skill with which information drawn from multifarious +sources can be massed and marshalled by one who is not only documented +but who has thoroughly assimilated everything of value which his +documents contain. No better evidence of Prescott's thoroughness is +needed than the tribute which was paid to him by Motley, who had +diligently gleaned in the same field. He said; "I am astonished at your<a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a> +omniscience. Nothing seems to escape you. Many a little trait of +character, scrap of intelligence, or dab of scene-painting which I had +kept in my most private pocket, thinking I had fished it out of unsunned +depths, I find already in your possession."<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p> + +<p>And we may well join with Motley in his expression of regret that so +solid a piece of historical composition should remain unfinished. +Writing from Rome to Mr. William Amory soon after Prescott's death, +Motley said:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I feel inexpressibly disappointed ... that the noble and crowning +monument of his life, for which he had laid such massive +foundations, and the structure of which had been carried forward in +such a grand and masterly manner, must remain uncompleted, like the +unfinished peristyle of some stately and beautiful temple on which +the night of time has suddenly descended."<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p></div> + +<p><a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X<br /><br /> +<small>PRESCOTT'S RANK AS AN HISTORIAN</small></h2> + +<p class="nind">I<small>N</small> forming an estimate of Prescott's rank among American writers of +history, one's thought inevitably associates him with certain of his +contemporaries. The Spanish subjects which he made his own invite a +direct comparison with Irving. His study of the sombre Philip compels us +to think at once of Motley. The broadly general theme of his first three +books—the extension of European domination over the New World—brings +him into a direct relation to Francis Parkman.</p> + +<p>The comparison with Irving is more immediately suggested by the fact +that had Prescott not entered the field precisely when he did, the story +of Cortés and of the Mexican conquest would have been written by Irving. +How fortunate was the chance which gave the task to Prescott must be +obvious to all who are familiar with the writings of both men. It has +been said that in Irving's hands literature would have profited at the +expense of history; but even this is too much of a concession, Irving, +even as a stylist, was never at his best in serious historical +composition. His was not the spirit which gladly undertakes a work <i>de +longue haleine</i>, nor was his genial, humorous nature suited to the +gravity of such an undertaking. His fame had been won, and fairly won, +in quite another field,—a field in which his personal charm, his mellow +though far from deep philosophy of life, and his often<a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a> whimsical +enjoyment of his own world could find spontaneous and individual +expression. The labour of research, the comparison of authorities, the +long months of hard reading and steady note-taking, were not congenial +to his nature. He moved less freely in the heavy armour of the historian +than in the easy-fitting modern garb of the essayist and story-teller. +The best that one can say of the style of his <i>Granada</i>, his <i>Columbus</i>, +and his <i>Washington</i> is that it is smooth, well-worded, and correct. It +shows little of the real distinction which we find in many of his +shorter papers,—in that on Westminster Abbey, for example, and on +English opinion of America; while the peculiar flavour which makes his +account of Little Britain so delightful is wholly absent.</p> + +<p>On the purely historical side, the two men are in wholly different +classes. Irving resembled Livy in his use of the authorities. Such +sources as were ready to his hand and easy to consult, he used with +conscientious care; but those that were farther afield, and for the +mastery of which both time and labour were demanded, he let alone. Thus, +his history of Columbus was prepared in something less than two years, +in which period both his preliminary studies and the actual composition +were completed. Yet this book was the one over which he took the +greatest pains, and for which he made his only serious attempt at +something like original investigation. His <i>Mahomet</i> was confessedly +written at second hand; while in his <i>Washington</i> he followed in the +main such records and already published works as were convenient. In the +<i>Granada</i> he only plays with history, and ascribes the main portion of +the narrative to a mythical ecclesiastic,<a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a> "the worthy Fray Antonio +Agapida," in whose lineaments we may not infrequently detect a strong +family resemblance to the no less worthy Diedrich Knickerbocker. In the +letter which Irving wrote to Prescott, relinquishing to him the subject +of Cortés, he lets us see quite plainly the very moderate amount of +reading which he had been doing.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> He had dipped into Solis, Bernal +Diaz, and Herrera, using them, so he said, "as guide-books." Upon the +basis of this reading he had sketched out the entire narrative, and had +fallen to work upon the actual history with the intention of "working +up" other material as he went along. When we compare these easy-going +methods with the scientific thoroughness of Prescott, his ransacking, by +agents, of every important library in Europe, his great collection of +original documents, the many years which he gave to the study of them, +and the conscientious judgment with which he weighed and balanced them, +we cannot fail to see how much the world has gained by Irving's act of +generous self-abnegation. It is only fair to add that he himself, at the +time when Prescott wrote to him, was beginning to doubt whether he had +not undertaken a task unsuited to his inclinations and beyond his +powers. "Ever since I have been meddling with the theme," he said, "its +grandeur and magnificence had been growing upon me, and I had felt more +and more doubtful whether I should be able to treat it +<i>conscientiously</i>,—that is to say, with the extensive research and +thorough investigation which it merited."</p> + +<p>Professor Jameson hazards the conjecture<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> that Irving's<a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a> real +importance in the development of American historiography is not at all +to be discerned in the serious works which have just been mentioned, but +rather in his quaintly humorous picture of New York under the Dutch, +contained in the pretended narration of Diedrich Knickerbocker, and +published as early as 1809. There can be no doubt that, as Professor +Jameson says, this book did much to excite both interest and curiosity +concerning the Dutch régime. "Very likely the great amount of work which +the state government did for the historical illustration of the Dutch +period, through the researches of Mr. Brodhead in foreign archives, had +this unhistorical little book as one of its principal causes." Here, +indeed, is only one more illustration of the fact that the work which +one does in his natural vein and in his own way is certain not only to +be his best, but to exercise a genuine influence in spheres which at the +time were quite beyond the writer's consciousness.</p> + +<p>Something has already been said concerning Prescott in his relationship +to Motley as an historian. A brief but more explicit comparison may be +added here. The diligence and zeal of the investigator both men shared +on even terms. The only advantage which Motley possessed was the +opportunity, denied to Prescott, of prosecuting his own researches, of +discovering his own materials, and of visiting and living in the very +places of which he had to write, instead of working largely through the +eyes and brains of other men. This was a very real advantage; for the +inspiration of the search and of the scenes themselves gave a keen +stimulus to the ambition of the scholar and a glow to<a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a> the imagination +of the writer. One attaches less importance to Motley's academic +training; for while it was broader than that of Prescott, and comprised +the valuable teaching which was given him in the two great universities +of Berlin and Göttingen, we cannot truthfully assert that Prescott's +equipment was inferior to that of his contemporary. Indeed, <i>Ferdinand</i> +and <i>Isabella</i> and <i>Philip II.</i> can better stand the test of searching +criticism than Motley's <i>Dutch Republic</i>.</p> + +<p>Motley is, indeed, the most "literary" of all the so-called "literary +historians". In the glow and fervour of his narrative he is unsurpassed. +He feels all the passion of the times whereof he writes, and he makes +the reader feel it too. He has, moreover, a power of drawing character +which Prescott seldom shows and which, when he shows it, he shows in +less degree. Motley writes with the magnetism of a great pleader and +with something also of the imagination of a poet. Unlike Prescott, he +understands the philosophy of history and delves beneath the surface to +search out and reveal the hidden causes of events. Yet first and last +and all the time, he is a partisan. He is pleading for a cause far more +than he is seeking for impartial truth. In this respect he resembles +Mommsen, whose <i>Römische Geschichte</i> is likewise in its later books a +splendid piece of partisanship. Motley is an American and a Protestant, +and therefore he is eloquent for liberty and harsh toward what he views +as superstition. William the Silent is his hero just as Cĉsar is +Mommsen's, and he hates tyranny as Mommsen hated the insolence of the +Roman <i>Junkerthum</i>. This vivid feeling springing from intensity of +conviction makes both books true masterpieces, nor to the critical +scholar<a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a> does it greatly lessen their value as historical compositions. +Yet in each, one has continually to check the writer, to modify his +statements, and to make allowance for his very individual point of view. +In reading Prescott, on the other hand, nothing of the sort is +necessary. He is free from the passion of politics, his judgment is +impartial, and those who read him feel, as an eminent scholar has +remarked, that they are listening to a wise and learned judge rather +than to a skilful advocate. Even in the sphere of characterisation, +Prescott is more sound than Motley, even though he be not half so +forceful. Re-reading many of the portraits which the latter has drawn +for us in glowing colours, the student of human nature will perceive +that they are quite impossible. Take, for instance Motley's Philip and +compare it with the Philip whom Prescott has described for us. The +former is not a man at all. He is either a devil, or a lunatic, or it +may be a blend of each. Indeed, Motley himself in conversation used to +describe him as a devil, though he once remarked, "He is not my head +devil." Everywhere Philip is depicted in the same sable hues, without a +touch of light to relieve the blackness of his character. On the other +hand, Prescott shows us one who, with all his cruelty, his hypocrisy, +and his superstition, is still quite comprehensible because, after all, +he remains a human being. Prescott discovers and records in him some +qualities of which Motley in his sweeping condemnation takes no heed. We +see a Philip scrupulously faithful to his duty as he understands it, +bearing toil and loneliness, patient to his secretaries, gracious to his +petitioners, whom he tries to set at ease, generous in his patronage of +art, and putting aside all his<a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a> coldness and reserve while watching the +progress of his favourite architects and builders. These things and +others like them count perhaps for very little in one sense; yet in +another they bring out the fact that Prescott viewed his subject in the +clear light of historic truth rather than in the glare of fiery +prejudice.</p> + +<p>There are some who would rate Parkman above Prescott. They speak of him +as more truly an American historian because the topic which he +chose—the development of New France—has a direct bearing upon the +national history of the United States. This, however, is at once to +limit the word "American" in a thoroughly unreasonable way, and also to +allow the choice of theme to prejudice one's judgment of the manner in +which that theme is treated. Parkman, to be sure, has merits of his own, +some of which are less discernible in Prescott. For picturesqueness, as +for accuracy, both men are on a level. There is a greater freshness of +feeling in Parkman, a sort of open air effect, which is redolent of his +actual experience of the great plains and the far Western mountains in +the days which he passed among the Indian tribes. This cannot be +expected of one whose physical infirmities confined him to the limits of +his library. But, on the other hand, Prescott chose a broader field, and +he made that field more thoroughly his own. These two—Prescott and +Parkman—must take rank not far apart. Between them, they have divided, +so to speak, the early history of the American Continent in the sphere +which lies beyond the bounds of purely Anglo-Saxon conquest.</p> + +<p>Disciples of the dismal school of history often yield a very grudging +tribute to the enduring merit of what<a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a> Prescott patiently achieved. Yet +in their own field he met them upon equal terms and need not fear +comparison. Though self-trained as an historical investigator, his +mastery of his authorities has hardly been excelled by those whose merit +is found solely in their gift for delving. The evidence of his +thoroughness, his judgment, and his critical faculty is to be seen in +the documentary treasures of his foot-notes. He did not, like Mommsen, +write a brilliant narrative and leave the reader without the ready means +of verifying what he wrote. He has, to use his own words, "suffered the +scaffolding to remain after the building has been completed." Those who +sneer at his array of testimony are none the less unable to impeach it. +Though historical science has in many respects made great advances since +his death, his work still stands essentially unshaken. He had the +historical conscience in a rare degree; one feels his fairness and is +willing to accept his judgment. If he seems to lack a special gift for +philosophical analysis, the plan and scope of his histories did not +contemplate a subjective treatment. What he meant to do, he did, and he +did it with a combination of historical exactness and literary artistry +such as no other American at least, has yet exhibited. Without the +humour of Irving, or the fire of Motley, or the intimate touch of +Parkman, he is superior to all three in poise and judgment and +distinction; so that on the whole one may accept the dictum of a +distinguished scholar<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> who, in summing up the merits which we +recognise in Prescott, declares them to be so conspicuous and so +abounding as to place him at the head of all American historians.</p> + +<p><a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> + +<p class="cb"><a href="#a">A</a>, +<a href="#b">B</a>, +<a href="#c">C</a>, +<a href="#d">D</a>, +<a href="#e">E</a>, +<a href="#f">F</a>, +<a href="#g">G</a>, +<a href="#h">H</a>, +<a href="#i">I</a>, +<a href="#j">J</a>, +<a href="#k">K</a>, +<a href="#l">L</a>, +<a href="#m">M</a>, +<a href="#n">N</a>, +<a href="#o">O</a>, +<a href="#p">P</a>, +<a href="#q">Q</a>, +<a href="#r">R</a>, +<a href="#s">S</a>, +<a href="#t">T</a>, +<a href="#v">V</a>, +<a href="#w">W</a>, +<a href="#x">X</a>, +</p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="a" id="a"></a>A</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Academy, Royal Spanish, <a href="#page_076">76</a>, <a href="#page_080">80</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Adair, James, <a href="#page_146">146</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Adams, Dr. C. K., quoted, <a href="#page_180">180</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Adams, John Quincy, library of, <a href="#page_020">20</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">absence in Europe, <a href="#page_020">20</a>, <a href="#page_023">23</a>, <a href="#page_037">37</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">professor at Harvard, <a href="#page_023">23</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Minister to England, <a href="#page_037">37</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Adams, Sir William, <a href="#page_037">37</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Albert, Prince, <a href="#page_105">105</a>, <a href="#page_106">106</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Amory, Thomas C., <a href="#page_043">43</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Amory, William, letter to, <a href="#page_172">172</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Athenĉum, Boston, <a href="#page_019">19</a>, <a href="#page_020">20</a>, <a href="#page_021">21</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Aztecs, <a href="#page_076">76</a>, <a href="#page_082">82</a>, <a href="#page_136">136</a>, <a href="#page_143">143</a>, <a href="#page_144">144</a>, <a href="#page_146">146</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">as viewed by Wilson, <a href="#page_147">147-151</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Morgan's view of, <a href="#page_152">152-155</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">later opinions regarding, <a href="#page_155">155-156</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="b" id="b"></a>B</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bancroft, George, <a href="#page_010">10</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">letters to, <a href="#page_048">48</a>, <a href="#page_114">114</a>, <a href="#page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">reviews <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, <a href="#page_069">69</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">honour conferred on, <a href="#page_086">86</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_087">87</a>; estimate of, <a href="#page_122">122</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bancroft, H. H., quoted, <a href="#page_153">153</a>, <a href="#page_159">159</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bandelier, A. F., <a href="#page_155">155</a>, <a href="#page_163">163</a>, <a href="#page_165">165</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_136">136</a>, <a href="#page_153">153</a>, <a href="#page_154">154</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bentley, Richard, <a href="#page_069">69</a>, <a href="#page_080">80</a>, <a href="#page_085">85</a>, <a href="#page_112">112</a>, <a href="#page_116">116</a>, <a href="#page_117">117</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bradford, Governor William, <a href="#page_008">8</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Brougham, Lord, Prescott's description of, <a href="#page_107">107</a>, <a href="#page_108">108</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Brown, Charles Brockden, novels of, <a href="#page_005">5</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Life of</i>, <a href="#page_065">65</a>, <a href="#page_112">112</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bunsen, Baron, <a href="#page_107">107</a>, <a href="#page_108">108</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Byron, Lord, Prescott's estimate of, <a href="#page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">as exponent of romanticism, <a href="#page_122">122</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_166">166</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="c" id="c"></a>C</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Calderon de La Barca, Señor, <a href="#page_076">76</a>, <a href="#page_091">91</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Carlisle, Lord, Prescott's friendship with, <a href="#page_088">88</a>, <a href="#page_091">91</a>, <a href="#page_104">104</a>, <a href="#page_105">105</a>, <a href="#page_106">106</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Carlyle, Thomas, Prescott's comment on, <a href="#page_114">114</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Channing, W. E., <a href="#page_028">28</a>, <a href="#page_107">107</a>, <a href="#page_124">124</a>, <a href="#page_126">126</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Charles V.</i>, <i>History of</i>, <a href="#page_117">117</a>, <a href="#page_118">118</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Circourt, Comte Adolphe de, <a href="#page_071">71</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Club-Room</i>, edited by Prescott, <a href="#page_042">42</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cogswell, J. G., <a href="#page_074">74</a>, <a href="#page_075">75</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Condé, <i>History of the Arabs in Spain</i>, <a href="#page_065">65</a>, <a href="#page_130">130</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cooper, Sir Astley, <a href="#page_037">37</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cortés, Hernan, <a href="#page_134">134</a>, <a href="#page_135">135</a>, <a href="#page_155">155</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_136">136</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">attack on Cholulans, <a href="#page_137">137</a>, <a href="#page_138">138</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">retreat from Mexico, <a href="#page_141">141</a>, <a href="#page_142">142</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">character</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">of, <a href="#page_143">143</a>, <a href="#page_144">144</a>, <a href="#page_147">147</a>, <a href="#page_151">151</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">compared with Pizarro, <a href="#page_160">160</a>, <a href="#page_161">161</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cashing, Caleb, <a href="#page_088">88</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="d" id="d"></a>D</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dante, Prescott's admiration for, <a href="#page_046">46</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Daudet, Alphonse, <a href="#page_086">86</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dexter, Franklin, <a href="#page_042">42</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Diaz, Bernal, <a href="#page_146">146</a>, <a href="#page_159">159</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_144">144</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dickens, Charles, entertained by Prescott, <a href="#page_091">91</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">preferred by him to Thackeray, <a href="#page_115">115</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dumas, Alexandre, <a href="#page_115">115</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dunham, Dr. S.P., <a href="#page_070">70</a>, <a href="#page_126">126</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="e" id="e"></a>E</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Edwards, Jonathan, <a href="#page_007">7</a>, <a href="#page_009">9</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">English, James, Prescott's secretary, <a href="#page_058">58</a>, <a href="#page_059">59</a>, <a href="#page_060">60</a>, <a href="#page_061">61</a>, <a href="#page_063">63</a>, <a href="#page_064">64</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Everett, A. H., <a href="#page_077">77</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Everett, Edward, <a href="#page_025">25</a>, <a href="#page_106">106</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="f" id="f"></a>F</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Farre, Dr., <a href="#page_037">37</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, beginnings of, <a href="#page_052">52</a>, <a href="#page_061">61</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">progress, <a href="#page_062">62-65</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">completion and publication, <a href="#page_066">66-71</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">success of, <a href="#page_069">69-71</a>, <a href="#page_077">77</a>, <a href="#page_079">79</a>, <a href="#page_095">95</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">style of, <a href="#page_121">121</a>, <a href="#page_127">127</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">historical accuracy, <a href="#page_129">129</a>, <a href="#page_130">130</a>, <a href="#page_131">131</a>, <a href="#page_132">132</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ford, Richard, criticises <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, <a href="#page_070">70</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his ridicule of Prescott's style, <a href="#page_124">124-126</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Prescott's reply, <a href="#page_127">127</a>, <a href="#page_128">128</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_129">129</a>, <a href="#page_130">130</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Franklin, Benjamin, <a href="#page_005">5</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">style of, <a href="#page_129">129</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="g" id="g"></a>G</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gardiner, Rev. Dr. John S., <a href="#page_018">18</a>, <a href="#page_019">19</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gardiner, William, <a href="#page_020">20</a>, <a href="#page_021">21</a>, <a href="#page_022">22</a>, <a href="#page_040">40</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gayangos, Don Pascual de, reviews <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, <a href="#page_070">70</a>, <a href="#page_132">132</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">aids Prescott, <a href="#page_076">76</a>, <a href="#page_077">77</a>, <a href="#page_101">101</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Grenville, Thomas, quoted, <a href="#page_142">142</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Guatemozin, character of, <a href="#page_143">143</a>, <a href="#page_144">144</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">successor of Montezuma, <a href="#page_135">135</a>, <a href="#page_154">154</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Guizot, M., reviews <i>Philip II.</i>, <a href="#page_116">116</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="h" id="h"></a>H</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hale, Edward Everett, quoted, <a href="#page_077">77</a>, <a href="#page_078">78</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hallam, Henry, praises <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, <a href="#page_071">71</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Prescott's acquaintance with, <a href="#page_108">108</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Harper Brothers, publish <i>Conquest of Mexico</i>, <a href="#page_079">79</a>, <a href="#page_080">80</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">publish <i>Conquest of Peru</i>, <a href="#page_084">84</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Prescott's generosity to, <a href="#page_116">116</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Harvard College, faculty of, in 1811, <a href="#page_022">22</a>, <a href="#page_023">23</a>, <a href="#page_025">25</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">entrance examinations, <a href="#page_024">24</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">curriculum, <a href="#page_024">24</a>, <a href="#page_025">25</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">methods, <a href="#page_025">25</a>, <a href="#page_026">26</a>, <a href="#page_033">33</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">confers degree upon Prescott, <a href="#page_080">80</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hickling, Thomas, <a href="#page_015">15</a>, <a href="#page_035">35</a>, <a href="#page_036">36</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Higginson, Mehitable, <a href="#page_016">16</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Higginson, T. W., <a href="#page_113">113</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hughes, Thomas, quoted, <a href="#page_055">55</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Humboldt, Baron Alexander von, <a href="#page_081">81</a>, <a href="#page_101">101</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="i" id="i"></a>I</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Irving, Washington, characteristics of, <a href="#page_005">5</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_057">57</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">correspondence regarding <i>Conquest of Mexico</i>, <a href="#page_074">74-77</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">praised by Prescott, <a href="#page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">compared to Goldsmith, <a href="#page_122">122</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">style of, <a href="#page_124">124</a>, <a href="#page_129">129</a>; his <i>Columbus</i> criticised by Prescott, <a href="#page_134">134</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">comment on <i>Philip II.</i>, <a href="#page_169">169</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">compared with Prescott, <a href="#page_173">173-175</a>, <a href="#page_180">180</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="j" id="j"></a>J</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Jackson, Dr. James, <a href="#page_031">31</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Jameson, Prof. J. F., quoted, 3 <i>n.</i>, 54 <i>n.</i>, <a href="#page_176">176</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Jeffrey, Lord, <a href="#page_108">108</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Johnson, Dr. Samuel, quoted, <a href="#page_054">54</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">style of, <a href="#page_122">122</a>, <a href="#page_129">129</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="k" id="k"></a>K</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Kirk, John Foster, Prescott's secretary, <a href="#page_087">87</a>, <a href="#page_119">119</a>, <a href="#page_136">136</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Kirkland, Rev. Dr. John Thornton, <a href="#page_022">22</a>, <a href="#page_023">23</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Knapp, Jacob Newman, <a href="#page_016">16</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="l" id="l"></a>L</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">La Bruyère, quoted, <a href="#page_111">111</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lafitau, Père, <a href="#page_145">145</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lawrence, Abbott, <a href="#page_103">103</a>, <a href="#page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">memoir of, <a href="#page_118">118</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lawrence, James, <a href="#page_097">97</a>, <a href="#page_103">103</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lembke, Dr. J. B., Prescott's agent in Spain, <a href="#page_077">77</a>, <a href="#page_100">100</a>, <a href="#page_101">101</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Linzee, Hannah, <a href="#page_043">43</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Longfellow, Henry W., Prescott's admiration for, <a href="#page_113">113</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lowell, James Russell, <a href="#page_012">12</a>, <a href="#page_023">23</a>, <a href="#page_103">103</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lyell, Lady, entertained by Prescott, <a href="#page_091">91</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">letter to, <a href="#page_115">115</a>, <a href="#page_166">166</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lyell, Sir Charles, <a href="#page_091">91</a>, <a href="#page_103">103</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lynn, Prescott's house at, <a href="#page_097">97</a>, <a href="#page_098">98</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="m" id="m"></a>M</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Macaulay, Lord, anecdotes of, <a href="#page_108">108</a>, <a href="#page_109">109</a>; style of, <a href="#page_117">117</a>, <a href="#page_133">133</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Marina, <a href="#page_144">144</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Markham, Sir Clements, judgment of Prescott's <i>Peru</i>, <a href="#page_165">165</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Massachusetts Historical Society, <a href="#page_057">57</a>, <a href="#page_086">86</a>, <a href="#page_120">120</a>, <a href="#page_142">142</a>, <a href="#page_172">172</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mather, Cotton, his <i>Magnalia</i>, <a href="#page_008">8</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Mexico</i>, <i>Conquest of</i>, preparations for, <a href="#page_072">72-77</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">four years of work on, <a href="#page_078">78-79</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">publication and success of, <a href="#page_079">79-81</a>, <a href="#page_095">95</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">estimate of, <a href="#page_133">133-159</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Middle States, literature in the, <a href="#page_004">4-6</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Middleton, Arthur, <a href="#page_026">26</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">aids Prescott in Spain, <a href="#page_077">77</a>, <a href="#page_100">100</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mommsen, Theodor, as a partisan compared with Motley, <a href="#page_177">177</a>, <a href="#page_178">178</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">compared with Prescott, <a href="#page_180">180</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Montezuma, described by Prescott, <a href="#page_139">139</a>, <a href="#page_143">143</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Spaniards' view of, <a href="#page_153">153-156</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Morgan, Lewis Henry, Indian researches of, <a href="#page_152">152</a>, <a href="#page_153">153</a>, <a href="#page_155">155</a>, <a href="#page_156">156</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_157">157</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Motley, J. L., quoted, <a href="#page_089">89</a>, <a href="#page_165">165</a>, <a href="#page_166">166</a>, <a href="#page_167">167</a>, <a href="#page_168">168</a>, <a href="#page_171">171</a>, <a href="#page_172">172</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">compared with Prescott, <a href="#page_176">176-179</a>, <a href="#page_180">180</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="n" id="n"></a>N</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nahant, Prescott's cottage at, <a href="#page_091">91</a>, <a href="#page_096">96</a>, <a href="#page_097">97</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Navarrete, M. F., <a href="#page_076">76</a>, <a href="#page_080">80</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">New England, literature in, <a href="#page_006">6-10</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">historians of, <a href="#page_010">10-12</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Noctograph, description of, <a href="#page_057">57</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Northumberland, Duke of, entertains Prescott, <a href="#page_110">110</a>, <a href="#page_111">111</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="o" id="o"></a>O</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ogden, Rollo, quoted, <a href="#page_093">93</a>, <a href="#page_172">172</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Oxford University, <a href="#page_088">88</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">confers degree on Prescott, <a href="#page_106">106</a>, <a href="#page_107">107</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="p" id="p"></a>P</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Parkman, Francis, style of, <a href="#page_133">133</a>, <a href="#page_145">145</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">compared with Prescott, <a href="#page_179">179</a>, <a href="#page_180">180</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Parr, Dr. Samuel, <a href="#page_018">18</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Parsons, Theophilus, <a href="#page_042">42</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_089">89</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Peabody, Dr. A. P., <i>Harvard Reminiscences</i>, 22 <i>n.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Peel, Sir Robert, <a href="#page_104">104</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Peirce, Benjamin, <a href="#page_025">25</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pepperell, Prescott's home at, <a href="#page_096">96</a>, <a href="#page_097">97</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Peru</i>, <i>Conquest of</i>, memorising of parts of, <a href="#page_059">59</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">composition and publication, <a href="#page_081">81</a>, <a href="#page_082">82</a>, <a href="#page_084">84</a>, <a href="#page_085">85</a>, <a href="#page_095">95</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">estimate of, <a href="#page_160">160-165</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Peruvians, <a href="#page_163">163-165</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Phi Beta Kappa, <a href="#page_034">34</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Philip II.</i>, Prescott's memorising of parts, <a href="#page_059">59</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">obstacles in way, <a href="#page_099">99-100</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">preparations for, <a href="#page_101">101</a>, <a href="#page_102">102</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">two volumes completed, <a href="#page_115">115</a>, <a href="#page_116">116</a>, <a href="#page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">third volume, <a href="#page_119">119</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">estimate of, <a href="#page_165">165-172</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">compared with <i>Dutch Republic</i>, <a href="#page_177">177</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pickering, John, memoir of, <a href="#page_086">86</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pizarro, Francisco, <a href="#page_160">160</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">character of, <a href="#page_161">161</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_162">162</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Poe, Edgar Allan, <a href="#page_004">4</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Prescott, Catherine Hickling, parentage and character, <a href="#page_015">15</a>, <a href="#page_016">16</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">rearing of son, <a href="#page_016">16</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Prescott, Colonel William, <a href="#page_013">13</a>, <a href="#page_014">14</a>, <a href="#page_043">43</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Prescott, John, <a href="#page_018">18</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Prescott, Oliver, <a href="#page_014">14</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Prescott, Susan Amory, <a href="#page_050">50</a>, <a href="#page_093">93</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">marriage to Prescott, <a href="#page_042">42</a>, <a href="#page_043">43</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">character, <a href="#page_043">43</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">letters to, <a href="#page_104">104</a>, <a href="#page_105">105</a>, <a href="#page_111">111</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Prescott, William, birth and career, <a href="#page_014">14</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">characteristics of, <a href="#page_015">15</a>, <a href="#page_082">82</a>, <a href="#page_083">83</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">home, <a href="#page_014">14</a>, <a href="#page_015">15</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">illness of, <a href="#page_017">17</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">removal to Boston, <a href="#page_017">17</a>, <a href="#page_018">18</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_067">67</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">death, <a href="#page_082">82</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Prescott</span>, William Hickling, literary importance of, <a href="#page_012">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">birth of, <a href="#page_015">15</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his first teachers, <a href="#page_016">16</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">traits as a boy, <a href="#page_016">16</a>, <a href="#page_017">17</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">prepares for college, <a href="#page_018">18</a>, <a href="#page_019">19</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his tastes in reading, <a href="#page_019">19</a>, <a href="#page_020">20</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">amusements, <a href="#page_020">20</a>, <a href="#page_021">21</a>, <a href="#page_022">22</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">candidate for Harvard, <a href="#page_022">22</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">letter to father about examination, <a href="#page_025">25</a>, <a href="#page_026">26</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">enters college, <a href="#page_027">27</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his studies and ideals, <a href="#page_027">27</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">love of pleasure, <a href="#page_028">28</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">laxity of conduct, <a href="#page_028">28</a>, <a href="#page_029">29</a>, <a href="#page_030">30</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">accident, <a href="#page_031">31</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">loss of eye, <a href="#page_031">31</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">effect on character, <a href="#page_032">32</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">magnanimity, <a href="#page_032">32</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">returns to college, <a href="#page_032">32</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">dislike for mathematics, <a href="#page_033">33</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">commencement poem, <a href="#page_033">33</a>, <a href="#page_034">34</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">election to Phi Beta Kappa, <a href="#page_034">34</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">studies law, <a href="#page_034">34</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">second illness and temporary blindness, <a href="#page_034">34</a>, <a href="#page_035">35</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">sails for Azores, <a href="#page_035">35</a>, <a href="#page_036">36</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">third illness, <a href="#page_036">36</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">first visit to London, <a href="#page_036">36</a>, <a href="#page_037">37</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">visits Paris and Italy, <a href="#page_037">37</a>, <a href="#page_038">38</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">returns to England, <a href="#page_038">38</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">sails for home, <a href="#page_038">38</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">anxiety regarding career, <a href="#page_039">39</a>, <a href="#page_040">40</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">vicarious reading, <a href="#page_040">40</a>, <a href="#page_041">41</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">first attempts at composition, <a href="#page_041">41</a>, <a href="#page_042">42</a>, <a href="#page_046">46</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">marriage, <a href="#page_042">42</a>, <a href="#page_043">43</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">resolves to become a man of letters, <a href="#page_044">44</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">studies languages, <a href="#page_045">45</a>, <a href="#page_046">46</a>, <a href="#page_047">47</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">interest in Spanish, <a href="#page_047">47</a>, <a href="#page_048">48</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">drift toward historical composition, <a href="#page_049">49</a>, <a href="#page_050">50</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">perplexity in choosing subject, <a href="#page_050">50</a>, <a href="#page_051">51</a>, <a href="#page_052">52</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">decides upon <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, <a href="#page_052">52</a>, <a href="#page_053">53</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">difficulties of task, <a href="#page_054">54</a>, <a href="#page_055">55</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">time of preparation and composition, <a href="#page_055">55</a>, <a href="#page_056">56</a>, <a href="#page_062">62</a>, <a href="#page_066">66</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his methods, of work, <a href="#page_056">56</a>, <a href="#page_057">57</a>, <a href="#page_058">58</a>, <a href="#page_059">59</a>, <a href="#page_061">61</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his memory, <a href="#page_033">33</a>, <a href="#page_057">57</a>, <a href="#page_058">58</a>, <a href="#page_059">59</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his mode of life, <a href="#page_059">59</a>, <a href="#page_060">60</a>, <a href="#page_061">61</a>, <a href="#page_062">62</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">death of daughter, <a href="#page_062">62</a>, <a href="#page_063">63</a>, <a href="#page_073">73</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">contributes to periodicals, <a href="#page_064">64</a>, <a href="#page_065">65</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">completes <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, <a href="#page_066">66</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">search for publisher, <a href="#page_066">66</a>, <a href="#page_067">67</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">terms of contract, <a href="#page_067">67</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">success of book, <a href="#page_068">68</a>, <a href="#page_069">69</a>, <a href="#page_070">70</a>, <a href="#page_071">71</a>, <a href="#page_072">72</a>, <a href="#page_095">95</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">criticisms, <a href="#page_069">69</a>, <a href="#page_070">70</a>, <a href="#page_071">71</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">theological studies and beliefs, <a href="#page_073">73</a>, <a href="#page_074">74</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">begins Mexican researches, <a href="#page_074">74</a>, <a href="#page_075">75</a>, <a href="#page_076">76</a>, <a href="#page_077">77</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">correspondence with Irving, <a href="#page_075">75</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">writes <i>Conquest of Mexico</i>, <a href="#page_078">78</a>, <a href="#page_079">79</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">contract with the Harpers, <a href="#page_079">79</a>, <a href="#page_080">80</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">honours conferred upon, <a href="#page_080">80</a>, <a href="#page_081">81</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">writes <i>Conquest of Peru</i>, <a href="#page_081">81</a>, <a href="#page_082">82</a>, <a href="#page_084">84</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">reception of book, <a href="#page_085">85</a>, <a href="#page_086">86</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">death of father, <a href="#page_082">82</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">opinion of American critics, <a href="#page_085">85</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">period of inactivity, <a href="#page_083">83</a>, <a href="#page_086">86</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">political views, <a href="#page_089">89</a>, <a href="#page_090">90</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">entertainment of friends, <a href="#page_091">91</a>, <a href="#page_092">92</a>, <a href="#page_093">93</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his boyish ways, <a href="#page_093">93</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his tactlessness, <a href="#page_093">93</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his Yankeeisms, <a href="#page_094">94</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">preparations for <i>Philip</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>II.</i>, <a href="#page_099">99</a>, <a href="#page_100">100</a>, <a href="#page_101">101</a>, <a href="#page_102">102</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his Boston residence, <a href="#page_083">83</a>, <a href="#page_096">96</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">the homestead at Pepperell, <a href="#page_096">96</a>, <a href="#page_097">97</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his cottage at Nahant, <a href="#page_096">96</a>, <a href="#page_097">97</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">cottage at Lynn, <a href="#page_097">97</a>, <a href="#page_098">98</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">third visit to England, <a href="#page_094">94</a>, <a href="#page_102">102-111</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">presented at court, <a href="#page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his sensibility, <a href="#page_110">110</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">at zenith of his fame, <a href="#page_111">111</a>, <a href="#page_112">112</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his opinions of contemporary writers, <a href="#page_112">112</a>, <a href="#page_113">113</a>, <a href="#page_114">114</a>, <a href="#page_115">115</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">completes two volumes of <i>Philip II.</i>, <a href="#page_115">115</a>, <a href="#page_116">116</a>, <a href="#page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">rewrites conclusion of Robertson's <i>Charles V.</i>, <a href="#page_117">117</a>, <a href="#page_118">118</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">health fails, <a href="#page_118">118</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">completes third volume of <i>Philip II.</i>, <a href="#page_119">119</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">death, <a href="#page_119">119</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his burial, <a href="#page_119">119</a>, <a href="#page_120">120</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">style and accuracy of <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, <a href="#page_121">121-131</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">criticised by Ford, <a href="#page_124">124</a>, <a href="#page_125">125</a>, <a href="#page_126">126</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">his place as an historian, <a href="#page_173">173-181</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="q" id="q"></a>Q</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Quincy, Josiah, <a href="#page_007">7</a>, <a href="#page_025">25</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="r" id="r"></a>R</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Raumer, Friedrich von, <a href="#page_081">81</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Review</i>, <i>Edinburgh</i>, notices of Prescott's books, <a href="#page_070">70</a>, <a href="#page_076">76</a>, <a href="#page_085">85</a>, <a href="#page_116">116</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Review</i>, <i>English Quarterly</i>, <a href="#page_046">46</a>, <a href="#page_070">70</a>, <a href="#page_085">85</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Review, North American</i>, Prescott's contributions to, <a href="#page_041">41</a>, <a href="#page_046">46</a>, <a href="#page_064">64</a>, <a href="#page_065">65</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">its notices of Prescott's books, <a href="#page_062">62</a>, <a href="#page_069">69</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Robertson, William, <a href="#page_117">117</a>, <a href="#page_146">146</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Rogers, Samuel, <a href="#page_108">108</a>, <a href="#page_109">109</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="s" id="s"></a>S</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Scott, General Winfield, <a href="#page_090">90</a>, <a href="#page_091">91</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Scott, Sir Walter, <a href="#page_006">6</a>, <a href="#page_086">86</a>, <a href="#page_108">108</a>, <a href="#page_122">122</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">a favourite of Prescott's, <a href="#page_041">41</a>, <a href="#page_115">115</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_129">129</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Shepherd, Dr. W.R. 100 <i>n.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Simancas, archives at, <a href="#page_099">99</a>, <a href="#page_100">100</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Southern States, literature in the, <a href="#page_002">2-4</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Southey, Robert, <a href="#page_020">20</a>, <a href="#page_067">67</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">praises <i>Ferdinand and Isabella</i>, <a href="#page_071">71</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_107">107</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sparks, Jared, <a href="#page_012">12</a>, <a href="#page_042">42</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">estimate of, <a href="#page_009">9</a>, <a href="#page_010">10</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">encourages Prescott, <a href="#page_046">46</a>, <a href="#page_065">65</a>, <a href="#page_068">68</a>, <a href="#page_088">88</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Stith, Dr. W., quoted, <a href="#page_003">3</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Story, Judge Joseph, <a href="#page_025">25</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sumner, Charles, Prescott's friendship with, <a href="#page_088">88</a>, <a href="#page_089">89</a>, <a href="#page_090">90</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="t" id="t"></a>T</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Talleyrand, quoted, <a href="#page_011">11</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thackeray, W. M., <a href="#page_043">43</a>, <a href="#page_086">86</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">entertained by Prescott, <a href="#page_091">91</a>, <a href="#page_114">114</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">tribute to Prescott, <a href="#page_114">114</a>, <a href="#page_115">115</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thierry, Augustin, <a href="#page_054">54</a>, <a href="#page_086">86</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thoreau, Henry D., quoted, <a href="#page_168">168</a>, <a href="#page_169">169</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ticknor, George, <a href="#page_025">25</a>, <a href="#page_094">94</a>, <a href="#page_111">111</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">quoted, <a href="#page_019">19</a>, <a href="#page_022">22</a>, <a href="#page_026">26</a>, <a href="#page_028">28</a>, <a href="#page_043">43</a>, <a href="#page_048">48</a>, <a href="#page_071">71</a>, <a href="#page_084">84</a>, <a href="#page_103">103</a>, <a href="#page_127">127</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">letters to, <a href="#page_046">46</a>, <a href="#page_069">69</a>, <a href="#page_070">70</a>, <a href="#page_107">107</a>, <a href="#page_117">117</a>, <a href="#page_118">118</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">reads to Prescott, <a href="#page_047">47</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tocqueville, Alexis de, <a href="#page_011">11</a>, <a href="#page_071">71</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="v" id="v"></a>V</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Victoria, Queen, <a href="#page_105">105</a>, <a href="#page_106">106</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="w" id="w"></a>W</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ware, John, <a href="#page_042">42</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wars, Napoleonic, <a href="#page_021">21</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wellington, Duke of, <a href="#page_021">21</a>, <a href="#page_104">104</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wendell, Prof. Barrett, <a href="#page_005">5</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wilson, J. Grant, quoted, 91 n.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wilson, Robert A., criticises Prescott's <i>Conquest of Mexico</i>, <a href="#page_147">147</a>, <a href="#page_148">148</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">reply to, <a href="#page_149">149-151</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><a name="x" id="x"></a>X</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Xenophon, Prescott compared with, <a href="#page_142">142</a>, <a href="#page_143">143</a>.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="c">ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS<br /> +Edited by JOHN MORLEY<br /> +Cloth. 12mo. Price, 40 cents, each</p> + +<p><b>ADDISON.</b> By W. J. Courthope.</p> + +<p><b>BACON.</b> By R. W. Church.</p> + +<p><b>BENTLEY.</b> By Prof. Jebb.</p> + +<p><b>BUNYAN.</b> By J. A. Froude.</p> + +<p><b>BURKE.</b> By John Morley.</p> + +<p><b>BURNS.</b> By Principal Shairp.</p> + +<p><b>BYRON.</b> By Prof. Nichol.</p> + +<p><b>CARLYLE.</b> By Prof. Nichol.</p> + +<p><b>CHAUCER.</b> By Prof. A. W. Ward.</p> + +<p><b>COLERIDGE.</b> By H. D. Traill.</p> + +<p><b>COWPER.</b> By Goldwin Smith.</p> + +<p><b>DEFOE.</b> By W. Minto.</p> + +<p><b>DE QUINCEY.</b> By Prof. Masson.</p> + +<p><b>DICKENS.</b> By A. W. Ward.</p> + +<p><b>DRYDEN.</b> By G. Saintsbury.</p> + +<p><b>FIELDING.</b> By Austin Dobson.</p> + +<p><b>GIBBON.</b> By J. Cotter Morison.</p> + +<p><b>GOLDSMITH.</b> By William Black.</p> + +<p><b>GRAY.</b> By Edmund Gosse.</p> + +<p><b>JOHNSON.</b> By Leslie Stephen.</p> + +<p><b>HUME.</b> By T. H. Huxley.</p> + +<p><b>KEATS.</b> By Sidney Colvin.</p> + +<p><b>LAMB.</b> By Alfred Ainger.</p> + +<p><b>LANDOR.</b> By Sidney Colvin.</p> + +<p><b>LOCKE.</b> By Prof. Fowler.</p> + +<p><b>MACAULAY.</b> By J. Cotter Morison.</p> + +<p><b>MILTON.</b> By Mark Pattison.</p> + +<p><b>POPE.</b> By Leslie Stephen.</p> + +<p><b>SCOTT.</b> By R. H. Hutton.</p> + +<p><b>SHELLEY.</b> By J. A. Symonds.</p> + +<p><b>SHERIDAN.</b> By Mrs. Oliphant.</p> + +<p><b>SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.</b> By J. A. Symonds.</p> + +<p><b>SOUTHEY.</b> By Prof. Dowden.</p> + +<p><b>SPENSER.</b> By R. W. Church.</p> + +<p><b>STERNE.</b> By H. D. Traill.</p> + +<p><b>SWIFT.</b> By Leslie Stephen.</p> + +<p><b>THACKERAY.</b> By A. Trollope.</p> + +<p><b>WORDSWORTH.</b> By F. W. H. Myers.</p> + +<p class="c">NEW VOLUMES<br /> +Cloth. 12mo. Price, 75 cents net</p> + +<p><b>GEORGE ELIOT.</b> By Leslie Stephen.</p> + +<p><b>WILLIAM HAZLITT.</b> By Augustine Birrell.</p> + +<p><b>MATTHEW ARNOLD.</b> By Herbert W. Paul.</p> + +<p><b>JOHN RUSKIN.</b> By Frederic Harrison.</p> + +<p><b>JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.</b> By Thomas W. Higginson.</p> + +<p><b>ALFRED TENNYSON.</b> By Alfred Lyall.</p> + +<p><b>SAMUEL RICHARDSON.</b> By Austin Dobson.</p> + +<p><b>ROBERT BROWNING.</b> By G. K. Chesterton.</p> + +<p><b>CRABBE.</b> By Alfred Ainger.</p> + +<p><b>FANNY BURNEY.</b> By Austin Dobson.</p> + +<p><b>JEREMY TAYLOR.</b> By Edmund Gosse.</p> + +<p><b>ROSSETTI.</b> By Arthur C. Benson.</p> + +<p><b>MARIA EDGEWORTH.</b> By the Hon. Emily Lawless.</p> + +<p><b>HOBBES.</b> By Leslie Stephen.</p> + +<p><b>ADAM SMITH.</b> By Francis W. Hirst.</p> + +<p><b>THOMAS MOORE.</b> By Stephen Gwynn.</p> + +<p><b>SYDNEY SMITH.</b> By George W. E. Russell.</p> + +<p><b>WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.</b> By William A. Bradley.</p> + +<p><b>WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT.</b> By Harry Thurston Peck.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="c">ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS<br /> +EDITED BY<br /> +JOHN MORLEY<br /> +THREE BIOGRAPHIES IN EACH VOLUME<br /> + +——<br /> +Cloth. 12mo. Price, $1.00, each<br /> +—— +</p> + +<p><b>CHAUCER.</b> By Adolphus William Ward.</p> + +<p><b>SPENSER.</b> BY R. W. Church.</p> + +<p><b>DRYDEN.</b> By George Saintsbury.</p> + +<p><b>MILTON.</b> By Mark Pattison, B.D.</p> + +<p><b>GOLDSMITH.</b> By William Black.</p> + +<p><b>COWPER.</b> By Goldwin Smith.</p> + +<p><b>BYRON.</b> By John Nichol.</p> + +<p><b>SHELLEY.</b> By John Addington Symonds.</p> + +<p><b>KEATS.</b> By Sidney Colvin, M.A.</p> + +<p><b>WORDSWORTH.</b> By F. W. H. Myers.</p> + +<p><b>SOUTHEY.</b> By Edward Dowden.</p> + +<p><b>LANDOR.</b> By Sidney Colvin, M.A.</p> + +<p><b>LAMB.</b> By Alfred Ainger.</p> + +<p><b>ADDISON.</b> By W. J. Courthope.</p> + +<p><b>SWIFT.</b> By Leslie Stephen.</p> + +<p><b>SCOTT.</b> By Richard H. Hutton.</p> + +<p><b>BURNS.</b> By Principal Shairp.</p> + +<p><b>COLERIDGE.</b> By H. D. Traill.</p> + +<p><b>HUME.</b> By T. H. Huxley, F.R.S.</p> + +<p><b>LOCKE.</b> By Thomas Fowler.</p> + +<p><b>BURKE.</b> By John Morley.</p> + +<p><b>FIELDING.</b> By Austin Dobson.</p> + +<p><b>THACKERAY.</b> By Anthony Trollope.</p> + +<p><b>DICKENS.</b> By Adolphus William Ward.</p> + +<p><b>GIBBON.</b> By J. Cotter Morison.</p> + +<p><b>CARLYLE.</b> By John Nichol.</p> + +<p><b>MACAULAY.</b> By J. Cotter Morison.</p> + +<p><b>SIDNEY.</b> By J. A. Symonds.</p> + +<p><b>DE QUINCEY.</b> By David Masson.</p> + +<p><b>SHERIDAN.</b> By Mrs. Oliphant.</p> + +<p><b>POPE.</b> By Leslie Stephen.</p> + +<p><b>JOHNSON.</b> By Leslie Stephen.</p> + +<p><b>GRAY.</b> By Edmund Gosse.</p> + +<p><b>BACON.</b> By R. W. Church.</p> + +<p><b>BUNYAN.</b> By J. A. Froude.</p> + +<p><b>BENTLEY.</b> By R. C. Jebb.</p> + +<p class="c">PUBLISHED BY<br /> +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br /> +66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h2>FOOTNOTES:</h2> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Quoted by Jameson: <i>Historical Writing in America</i>, p. 72, +Boston, 1891.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> This house was long ago demolished. Its site is now +occupied by Plummer Hall, containing a public library.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> A very interesting appreciation of President Kirkland is +given by Dr. A. P. Peabody in his <i>Harvard Reminiscences</i> (Boston, +1888).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> John Quincy Adams was titularly Professor of Rhetoric, but +he had been absent for several years on a diplomatic mission in Europe.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The first number appeared in February, 1820; the last in +July of the same year.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Her mother had been Miss Hannah Linzee, whose father, +Captain Linzee, of the British sloop-of-war <i>Falcon</i>, had tried by heavy +cannonading to dislodge Colonel William Prescott from the redoubt at +Bunker Hill. The swords of the two had been handed down in their +respective families, and now found a peaceful resting-place in young +Prescott's "den," where they hung crossed upon the wall above his +books.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Professor Jameson mentions two other contemporary +instances,—Karl Szaynocha and Prescott's Florentine correspondent, the +Marquis Gino Capponi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Prescott owned two noctographs, but did nearly all of his +writing with one, keeping the other in reserve in case the first should +suffer accident. One of these two implements is preserved in the +Massachusetts Historical Society.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See<a href="#CHAPTER_VII"> ch. vii.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Life of Irving</i>, 111. p. 133 (New York, 1863).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Lembke was a German, the author of a work on early Spanish +history, and a member of the Spanish Historical Academy. Prescott +mentions him in his letter to Irving. "This learned Theban happens to be +in Madrid for the nonce, pursuing some investigations of his own, and he +has taken charge of mine, like a true German, inspecting everything and +selecting just what has reference to my subject. In this way he has been +employed with four copyists since July, and has amassed a quantity of +unpublished documents. He has already sent off two boxes to Cadiz."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Hale, <i>Memories of a Hundred Years</i>, ii. pp. 71, 72 (New +York, 1902).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> In place of Navarrete, deceased. Prescott received +eighteen ballots out of the twenty that were cast.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Wilson, <i>Thackeray in America</i>, i. pp. 16, 17 (New York, +1904).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Meaning, of course, that he took more wine than was good +for his eye.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> See <a href="#page_116">p. 116.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> For an interesting account of Simancas and the archives, +see a paper by Dr. W. R. Shepherd, in the <i>Reports of the American +Historical Association for 1903</i> (Washington, 1905).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> The father of Mr. James Lawrence, who afterward married +Prescott's daughter Elizabeth. See <a href="#page_097">p. 97</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Alluding to the fact that he always shed tears at the +opera.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> The English title of this book was <i>Critical and +Historical Essays</i>. It contained twelve papers and also the life of +Charles Brockden Brown already mentioned (p. 65). The American edition +bore the title <i>Biographical and Critical Miscellanies</i>. It has been +several times reprinted, the last issue appearing in Philadelphia in +1882.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>Infra</i>, p. 134.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> November 1, 1838.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Nearly seven thousand copies of this book had been taken +up before the end of the following three years.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> p. 268.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> p. 285.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Supra</i>, p. 65.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> iii. pp. 199-204.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> In the <i>British Quarterly Review</i>, lxiv (1839).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Don Pascual de Gayangos.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> i. pp. 364-369. Ed. by Kirk (Philadelphia, 1873).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> For a revision of Prescott's narrative here in its light +of later research, see Bandelier, <i>The Gilded Man</i>, pp. 258-281 (New +York, 1893).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> ii. p. 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> ii. pp. 379-380.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Everett, Memorial Address, delivered before the +Massachusetts Historical Society (1859).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> ii. p. 157.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>Mujer entremetida y desembuelta</i> (Diaz).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> i. p. 294.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>Mœurs des Sauvages Américains Comparées aux Mœurs +des Premiers Temps</i> (Paris, 1723). Lafitau had lived as a missionary +among the Iroquois for five years, after which he returned to France and +spent the rest of his life in teaching and writing.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> <i>The History of the American Indians</i> (London, 1775).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> H<i>istoria Natural y Moral de las Indias</i> (Seville, 1590).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Philadelphia, 1859.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, iii, pp. 518-525 and pp. 633-645.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> New York, 1851.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <i>North American Review</i>, cxxii, pp. 265-308 (1876).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>The Romantic School of American Archĉology.</i> A paper read +before the New York Historical Society, February 3, 1885 (New York, +1885).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Bandelier, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> ii. p. 125.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> "Though remarkably fair and judicious in the main, Mr. +Prescott's partiality for a certain class of his material is evident. To +the copies from the Spanish archives, most of which have been since +published with hundreds of others equally or more valuable, he seemed to +attach an importance proportionate to their cost. Thus, throughout his +entire work, these papers are paraded to the exclusion of the more +reliable, but more accessible standard authorities."—H. H. Bancroft, +<i>History of Mexico</i>, i. p. 7, <i>Note</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> i. pp. 222, 224.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Brinton, <i>Myths of the New World</i>, p. 52 (Philadelphia, +1868).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> See the section by Markham on "The Inca Civilisation in +Peru," in Winsor, <i>A Narrative and Critical History of America</i>, vol. i. +(Boston, 1889); and an interesting summary of the results of eleven +years researches by Bandelier in a paper entitled "The Truth about Inca +Civilisation," published in H<i>arper's Magazine</i> for March, 1905.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Motley, <i>History of the United Netherlands</i>, i. p. 54.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Quoted by Ogden, <i>Prescott</i>, p. 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Cited by R. C. Winthrop, address before the Massachusetts +Historical Society, June 14, 1877.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Letter of January 18, 1839.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> <i>Historical Writing in America</i>, pp. 97-98.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Dr. C. K. Adams.</p></div> + +</div> +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's William Hickling Prescott, by Harry Thurston Peck + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT *** + +***** This file should be named 39084-h.htm or 39084-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/0/8/39084/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/39084-h/images/cover.jpg b/39084-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b8e1ae3 --- /dev/null +++ b/39084-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/39084-h/images/cover_lg.jpg b/39084-h/images/cover_lg.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0128e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/39084-h/images/cover_lg.jpg diff --git a/39084.txt b/39084.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ed7899 --- /dev/null +++ b/39084.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6320 @@ +Project Gutenberg's William Hickling Prescott, by Harry Thurston Peck + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: William Hickling Prescott + +Author: Harry Thurston Peck + +Release Date: March 9, 2012 [EBook #39084] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + +_ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS_ + +_PRESCOTT_ + +[Illustration: image of the book's cover] + + + + +_ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS_ + +WILLIAM HICKLING +PRESCOTT + +BY +HARRY THURSTON PECK + +New York +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY +LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. + +1905 + +_All rights reserved_ + +COPYRIGHT, 1905, +BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1905. + +Norwood Press +J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. +Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + + +To +WILLIAM ARCHIBALD DUNNING +_AMICITIAE CAUSA_ + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE + + +For the purely biographical portion of this book an especial +acknowledgment of obligation is due to the valuable collection of +Prescott's letters and memoranda made by his friend George Ticknor, and +published in 1864 as part of Ticknor's _Life of W. H. Prescott_. All +other available sources, however, have been explored, and are +specifically mentioned either in the text or in the footnotes. + +H. T. P. + +COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, +March 1, 1905. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + + PAGE + +THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIANS 1 + +CHAPTER II + +EARLY YEARS 13 + +CHAPTER III + +THE CHOICE OF A CAREER 39 + +CHAPTER IV + +SUCCESS 54 + +CHAPTER V + +IN MID CAREER 72 + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LAST TEN YEARS 99 + +CHAPTER VII + +"FERDINAND AND ISABELLA"--PRESCOTT'S STYLE 121 + +CHAPTER VIII + +"THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO" AS LITERATURE AND AS +HISTORY 133 + +CHAPTER IX + +"THE CONQUEST OF PERU"--"PHILIP II." 160 + +CHAPTER X + +PRESCOTT'S RANK AS AN HISTORIAN 173 + +INDEX 181 + + + + +_PRESCOTT_ + + + + +WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIANS + + +Throughout the first few decades of the nineteenth century, the United +States, though forming a political entity, were in everything but name +divided into three separate nations, each one of which was quite unlike +the other two. This difference sprang partly from the character of the +population in each, partly from divergent tendencies in American +colonial development, and partly from conditions which were the result +of both these causes. The culture-history, therefore, of each of the +three sections exhibits, naturally enough, a distinct and definite phase +of intellectual activity, which is reflected very clearly in the records +of American literature. + +In the Southern States, just as in the Southern colonies out of which +they grew, the population was homogeneous and of English stock. Almost +the sole occupation of the people was agriculture, while the tone of +society was markedly aristocratic, as was to be expected from a +community dominated by great landowners who were also the masters of +many slaves. These landowners, living on their estates rather than in +towns and cities, caring nothing for commerce or for manufactures, +separated from one another by great distances, and cherishing the +intensely conservative traditions of that England which saw the last of +the reigning Stuarts, were inevitably destined to intellectual +stagnation. The management of their plantations, the pleasures of the +chase, and the exercise of a splendid though half-barbaric hospitality, +satisfied the ideals which they had inherited from their Tory ancestors. +Horses and hounds, a full-blooded conviviality, and the exercise of a +semi-feudal power, occupied their minds and sufficiently diverted them. +Such an atmosphere was distinctly unfavourable to the development of a +love of letters and of learning. The Southern gentleman regarded the +general diffusion of education as a menace to his class; while for +himself he thought it more or less unnecessary. He gained a practical +knowledge of affairs by virtue of his position. As for culture, he had +upon the shelves of his library, where also were displayed his weapons +and the trophies of the chase, a few hundred volumes of the standard +essayists, poets, and dramatists of a century before. If he seldom read +them and never added to them, they at least implied a recognition of +polite learning and such a degree of literary taste as befitted a +Virginian or Carolinian gentleman. But, practically, English literature +had for him come to an end with Addison and Steele and Pope and their +contemporaries. The South stood still in the domain of letters and +education. Not that there were lacking men who cherished the ambition to +make for themselves a name in literature. There were many such, among +whom Gayarre, Beverly, and Byrd deserve an honourable remembrance; but +their surroundings were unfavourable, and denied to them that +intelligent appreciation which inspires the man of letters to press on +to fresh achievement. An interesting example is found in the abortive +history of Virginia undertaken by Dr. William Stith, who was President +of William and Mary College, and who possessed not only scholarship but +the gift of literary expression. The work which he began, however, was +left unfinished, because of an utter lack of interest on the part of the +public for whom it had been undertaken. Dr. Stith's own quaint comment +throws a light upon contemporary conditions. He had laboured diligently +in collecting documents which represented original sources of +information; yet, when he came to publish the first and only volume of +his history, he omitted many of them, giving as his reason:-- + + "I perceive, to my no small Surprise and Mortification, that some + of my Countrymen (and those too, Persons of high Fortune and + Distinction) seemed to be much alarmed, and to grudge, that a + complete History of their own Country would run to more than one + Volume, and cost them above half a Pistole. I was, therefore, + obliged to restrain my Hand, ... for fear of enhancing the Price, + to the immense Charge and irreparable Damage of such generous and + publick-spirited Gentlemen."[1] + +The Southern universities were meagrely attended; and though the sons of +wealthy planters might sometimes be sent to Oxford or, more usually, to +Princeton or to Yale, the discipline thus acquired made no general +impression upon the class to which they belonged. In fact, the +intellectual energy of the South found its only continuous and powerful +expression in the field of politics. To government and statesmanship +its leading minds gave much attention, for only thus could they retain +in national affairs the supremacy which they arrogated to themselves and +which was necessary to preserve their peculiar institution. Hence, there +were to be found among the leaders of the Southern people a few +political philosophers like Jefferson, a larger number of political +casuists like Calhoun, and a swarm of political rhetoricians like +Patrick Henry, Hayne, Legare, and Yancey. But beyond the limits of +political life the South was intellectually sterile. So narrowing and so +hostile to liberal culture were its social conditions that even to this +day it has not produced a single man of letters who can be truthfully +described as eminent, unless the name of Edgar Allan Poe be cited as an +exception whose very brilliance serves only to prove and emphasise the +rule. + +In the Middle States, on the other hand, a very different condition of +things existed. Here the population was never homogeneous. The English +Royalists and the Dutch in New York, the English Quakers and the Germans +in Pennsylvania and the Swedes in Delaware, made inevitable, from the +very first, a cosmopolitanism that favoured variety of interests, with a +resulting breadth of view and liberality of thought. Manufactures +flourished and foreign commerce was extensively pursued, insuring +diversity of occupation. The two chief cities of the nation were here, +and not far distant from each other. Wealth was not unevenly +distributed, and though the patroon system had created in New York a +landed gentry, this class was small, and its influence was only one of +many. Comfort was general, religious freedom was unchallenged, +education was widely and generally diffused. The large urban population +created an atmosphere of urbanity. Even in colonial times, New York and +Philadelphia were the least provincial of American towns. They attracted +to themselves, not only the most interesting people from the other +sections, but also many a European wanderer, who found there most of the +essential graces of life, with little or none of that combined austerity +and rawness which elsewhere either disgusted or amused him. We need not +wonder, then, if it was in the Middle States that American literature +really found its birth, or if the forms which it there assumed were +those which are touched by wit and grace and imagination. Franklin, +frozen and repelled by what he thought the bigotry of Boston, sought +very early in his life the more congenial atmosphere of Philadelphia, +where he found a public for his copious writings, which, if not +precisely literature, were, at any rate, examples of strong, idiomatic +English, conveying the shrewd philosophy of an original mind. Charles +Brockden Brown first blazed the way in American fiction with six novels, +amid whose turgid sentences and strange imaginings one may here and +there detect a touch of genuine power and a striving after form. +Washington Irving, with his genial humour and well-bred ease, was the +very embodiment of the spirit of New York. Even Professor Barrett +Wendell, whose critical bias is wholly in favour of New England, +declares that Irving was the first of American men of letters, as he was +certainly the first American writer to win a hearing outside of his own +country. And to these we may add still others,--Freneau, from whom both +Scott and Campbell borrowed; Cooper, with his stirring sea-tales and +stories of Indian adventure; and Bryant, whose early verses were thought +to be too good to have been written by an American. And there were also +Drake and Halleck and Woodworth and Paine, some of whose poetry still +continues to be read and quoted. The mention of them serves as a +reminder that American literature in the nineteenth century, like +English literature in the fourteenth, found its origin where wealth, +prosperity, and a degree of social elegance made possible an +appreciation of belles-lettres. + +Far different was it in New England. There, as in the South, the +population was homogeneous and English. But it was a Puritan population, +of which the environment and the conditions of its life retarded, and at +the same time deeply influenced, the evolution of its literature. One +perceives a striking parallel between the early history of the people of +New England and that of the people of ancient Rome. Each was forced to +wrest a living from a rugged soil. Each dwelt in constant danger from +formidable enemies. The Roman was ready at every moment to draw his +sword for battle with Faliscans, Samnites, or Etruscans. The New +Englander carried his musket with him even to the house of prayer, +fearing the attack of Pequots or Narragansetts. The exploits of such +half-mythical Roman heroes as Camillus and Cincinnatus find their +analogue in the achievements credited to Miles Standish and the doughty +Captain Church. Early Rome knew little of the older and more polished +civilisation of Greece. New England was separated by vast distances from +the richer life of Europe. In Rome, as in New England, religion was +linked closely with all the forms of government; and it was a religion +which appealed more strongly to men's sense of duty and to their fears, +than to their softer feelings. The Roman gods needed as much +propitiation as did the God of Jonathan Edwards. When a great calamity +befell the Roman people, they saw in it the wrath of their divinities +precisely as the true New Englander was taught to view it as a +"providence." In both commonwealths, education of an elementary sort was +deemed essential; but it was long before it reached the level of +illumination. + +Like influences yield like results. The Roman character, as moulded in +the Republic's early years, was one of sternness and efficiency. It +lacked gayety, warmth, and flexibility. And the New England character +resembled it in all of these respects. The historic worthies of Old Rome +would have been very much at ease in early Massachusetts. Cato the +Censor could have hobnobbed with old Josiah Quincy, for they were +temperamentally as like as two peas. It is only the Romans of the Empire +who would have felt out of place in a New England environment. Horace +might conceivably have found a smiling _angulus terrarum_ somewhere on +the lower Hudson, but he would have pined away beside the Nashua; while +to Ovid, Beacon Street would have seemed as ghastly as the frozen slopes +of Tomi. And when we compare the native period of Roman literature with +the early years of New England's literary history, the parallel becomes +more striking still. In New England, as in Rome, beneath all the forms +of a self-governing and republican State, there existed a genuine +aristocracy whose prestige was based on public service of some sort; +and in New England, as in Rome, public service had in it a theocratic +element. In civil life, the most honourable occupation for a free +citizen was to share in this public service. Hence, the disciplines +which had a direct relation to government were the only civic +disciplines to be held in high consideration. Such an attitude +profoundly affected the earliest attempts at literature. The two +literary or semi-literary pursuits which have a close relation to +statesmanship are oratory and history--oratory, which is the statesman's +instrument, and history, which is in part the record of his +achievements. Therefore, at Rome, a line of native orators arose before +a native poet won a hearing, and therefore, too, the annalists and +chroniclers precede the dramatists. + +In New England it was much the same. Almost from the founding of the +Massachusetts Bay Colony, there were men among the colonists who wrote +down with diffusive dulness the records of whatever they had seen and +suffered. Governor William Bradford composed a history of New England; +and Thomas Prince, minister of the Old South Church, compiled another +work of like title, described by its author as told "in the Form of +Annals." Hutchinson prepared a history of Massachusetts Bay; and many +others had collected local traditions, which seemed to them of great +moment, and had preserved them in books, or else in manuscripts which +were long afterwards to be published by zealous antiquarians. Cotton +Mather's curious _Magnalia_, printed in 1700, was intended by its author +to be history, though strictly speaking it is theological and is clogged +with inappropriate learning,--Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. The parallel +between early Rome and early Massachusetts breaks down, however, when we +consider the natural temperament of the two peoples as distinct from +that which external circumstances cultivated in them. Underneath the +sternness and severity which were the fruits of Puritanism, there +existed in the New England character a touch of spirituality, of +idealism, and of imagination such as were always foreign to the Romans. +Under the repression of a grim theocracy, New England idealism still +found its necessary outlet in more than one strange form. We can trace +it in the hot religious eloquence of Edwards even better than in the +imitative poetry of Mrs. Bradstreet. It is to be found even in such +strange panics as that which shrieked for the slaying of the Salem +"witches." Time alone was needed to bring tolerance and intellectual +freedom, and with them a freer choice of literary themes and moods. The +New England temper remained, and still remains, a serious one; yet +ultimately it was to find expression in forms no longer harsh and rigid, +but modelled upon the finer lines of truth and beauty. + +The development was a gradual one. The New England spirit still exacted +sober subjects of its writers. And so the first evolution of New England +literature took place along the path of historical composition. The +subjects were still local or, at the most, national; but there was a +steady drift away from the annalistic method to one which partook of +conscious art. In the writings of Jared Sparks there is seen imperfectly +the scientific spirit, entirely self-developed and self-trained. His +laborious collections of historical material, and his dry but accurate +biographies, mark a distinct advance beyond his predecessors. Here, at +least, are historical scholarship and, in the main, a conscientious +scrupulosity in documentation. It is true that Sparks was charged, and +not quite unjustly, with garbling some of the material which he +preserved; yet, on the whole, one sees in him the founder of a school of +American historians. What he wrote was history, if it was not +literature. George Bancroft, his contemporary, wrote history, and was +believed for a time to have written it in literary form. To-day his six +huge volumes, which occupied him fifty years in writing, and which bring +the reader only to the inauguration of Washington, make but slight +appeal to a cultivated taste. The work is at once too ponderous and too +rhetorical. Still, in its way, it marks another step. + +Up to this time, however, American historians were writing only for a +restricted public. They had not won a hearing beyond the country whose +early history they told. Their themes possessed as yet no interest for +foreign nations, where the feeble American Republic was little known and +little noticed. The republican experiment was still a doubtful one, and +there was nothing in the somewhat paltry incidents of its early years to +rivet the attention of the other hemisphere. "America" was a convenient +term to denote an indefinite expanse of territory somewhere beyond seas. +A London bishop could write to a clergyman in New York and ask him for +details about the work of a missionary in Newfoundland without +suspecting the request to be absurd. The British War Office could +believe the river Bronx a mighty stream, the crossing of which was full +of strategic possibilities. As for the American people, they interested +Europe about as much as did the Boers in the days of the early treks. +Even so acute an observer as Talleyrand, after visiting the United +States, carried away with him only a general impression of rusticity and +bad manners. When Napoleon asked him what he thought of the Americans, +he summed up his opinion with a shrug: _Sire, ce sont des fiers cochons +et des cochons fiers_. Tocqueville alone seems to have viewed the +nascent nation with the eye of prescience. For the rest, petty +skirmishes with Indians, a few farmers defending a rustic bridge, and a +somewhat discordant gathering of planters, country lawyers, and +drab-clad tradesmen held few suggestions of the picturesque and, to most +minds, little that was significant to the student of politics and +institutional history. + +There were, however, other themes, American in a larger sense, which +contained within themselves all the elements of the romantic, while they +closely linked the ambitions of old Europe with the fortunes and the +future of the New World. The narration of these might well appeal to +that interest which the more sober annals of England in America wholly +failed to rouse. There was the story of New France, which had for its +background a setting of savage nature, while in the foreground was +fought out the struggle between Englishmen and Frenchmen, at grips in a +feud perpetuated through the centuries. There was the story of Spanish +conquest in the south,--a true romance of chivalry, which had not yet +been told in all its richness of detail. To choose a subject of this +sort, and to develop it in a fitting way, was to write at once for the +Old World and the New. The task demanded scholarship, and presented +formidable difficulties. The chief sources of information were to be +found in foreign lands. To secure them needed wealth. To compare and +analyse and sift them demanded critical judgment of a high order. And +something more was needed,--a capacity for artistic presentation. When +both these gifts were found united in a single mind, historical writing +in New England had passed beyond the confines of its early crudeness and +had reached the stage where it claimed rank as lasting literature. +Rightly viewed, the name of William Hickling Prescott is something more +than a mere landmark in the field of historical composition. It +signalises the beginning of a richer growth in New England letters,--the +coming of a time when the barriers of a Puritan scholasticism were +broken down. Prescott is not merely the continuator of Sparks. He is the +precursor of Hawthorne and Parkman and Lowell. He takes high rank among +American historians; but he is enrolled as well in a still more +illustrious group by virtue of his literary fame. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +EARLY YEARS + + +To the native-born New Englander the name of Prescott has, for more than +a century, possessed associations that give to it the stamp of genuine +distinction. Those who have borne it have belonged of right to the true +patriciate of their Commonwealth. The Prescotts were from the first a +fighting race, and their men were also men of mind; and, according to +the times in which they lived, they displayed one or the other +characteristic in a very marked degree. The pioneer among them on +American soil was John Prescott, a burly Puritan soldier who had fought +under Cromwell, and who loved danger for its own sake. He came from +Lancashire to Massachusetts about twenty years after the landing of the +_Mayflower_, and at once pushed off into the unbroken wilderness to mark +out a large plantation for himself in what is now the town of Lancaster. +A half-verified tradition describes him as having brought with him a +coat of mail and a steel helmet, glittering in which he often terrified +marauding Indians who ventured near his lands. His son and grandson and +his three great-grandsons all served as officers in the military forces +of Massachusetts; and among the last was Colonel William Prescott, who +commanded the American troops at Bunker Hill. Later, he served under the +eye of Washington, who personally commended him after the battle of +Long Island; and he took part in the defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga--a +success which brought the arms of France to the support of the American +cause. + +In times of peace as well, the Prescotts were men of light and leading. +Their names are found upon the rolls of the Massachusetts General Court, +of the Governor's Council in colonial days, of the Continental Congress, +and of the State judiciary. One of them, Oliver Prescott, a brother of +the Revolutionary warrior, who had been bred as a physician, made some +elaborate researches on the subject of that curious drug, ergot, and +embodied his results in a paper of such value as to attract the notice +of the profession in Europe. It was translated into French and German, +and was included in the _Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales_--an +unusual compliment for an American of those days to receive. Most +eminent of all the Prescotts in civil life, however, before the +historian won his fame, was William Prescott,--the family names were +continually repeated,--whose career was remarkable for its distinction, +and whose character is significant because of its influence upon his +illustrious son. William Prescott was born in 1762, and, after a most +careful training, entered Harvard, from which he was graduated in 1783. +Admitted to the bar, he won high rank in his profession, twice receiving +and twice declining an appointment to the Supreme Court of the State. +His widely recognised ability brought him wealth, so that he lived in +liberal fashion, in a home whose generous appointments and cultivated +ease created an atmosphere that was rare indeed in those early days, +when narrow means and a crude provincialism combined to make New +England life unlovely. Prescott was not only an able lawyer, the worthy +compeer of Dexter, Otis, and Webster--he was a scholar by instinct, +widely read, thoughtful, and liberal-minded in the best sense of the +word. His intellectual conflicts with such professional antagonists as +have just been named gave him mental flexibility and a delightful +sanity; and though in temperament he was naturally of a serious turn, he +had both pungency and humour at his command. No more ideal father could +be imagined for a brilliant son; for he was affectionate, generous, and +sympathetic, with a knowledge of the world, and a happy absence of +Puritan austerity. He had, moreover, the very great good fortune to love +and marry a woman dowered with every quality that can fill a house with +sunshine. This was Catherine Hickling, the daughter of a prosperous +Boston merchant, afterward American consul in the Azores. As a girl, and +indeed all through her long and happy life, she was the very spirit of +healthful, normal womanhood,--full of an irrepressible and infectious +gayety, a miracle of buoyant life, charming in manner, unselfish, +helpful, and showing in her every act and thought the promptings of a +beautiful and spotless soul. + +It was of this admirably mated pair that William Hickling Prescott, +their second son, was born, at Salem, on the 4th of May, 1796. The elder +Prescott had not yet acquired the ample fortune which he afterward +possessed; yet even then his home was that of a man of easy +circumstances,--one of those big, comfortable, New England houses, +picturesquely situated amid historic surroundings.[2] Here young +Prescott spent the first twelve years of his life under his mother's +affectionate care, and here began his education, first at a sort of dame +school, kept by a kindly maiden lady, Miss Mehitable Higginson, and +then, from about the age of seven, under the more formal instruction of +an excellent teacher, Mr. Jacob Newman Knapp, quaintly known as "Master +Knapp." It was here that he began to reveal certain definite and very +significant traits of character. The record of them is interesting, for +it shows that, but for the accident which subsequently altered the whole +tenor of his life, he might have grown up into a far from admirable man, +even had he escaped moral shipwreck. Many of his natural traits, indeed, +were of the kind that need restraint to make them safe to their +possessor, and in these early years restraint was largely lacking in the +life of the young Prescott, who, it may frankly be admitted, was badly +spoiled. His father, preoccupied in his legal duties, left him in great +part to his mother's care, and his mother, who adored him for his +cleverness and good looks, could not bear to check him in the smallest +of his caprices. He was, indeed, peculiarly her own, since from her he +had inherited so much. By virtue of his natural gifts, he was, no doubt, +a most attractive boy. Handsome, like his father, he had his mother's +vivacity and high spirits almost in excess. Quick of mind, imaginative, +full of eager curiosity, and with a tenacious memory, it is no wonder +that her pride in him was great, and that her mothering heart went out +to him in unconscious recognition of a kindred temperament. But his +school companions, and even his elders, often found these ebullient +spirits of his by no means so delightful. The easy-going indulgence +which he met at home, and very likely also the recognised position of +his father in that small community, combined to make young Prescott +wilful and self-confident and something of an _enfant terrible_. He was +allowed to say precisely what he thought, and he did invariably say it +on all occasions and to persons of every age. In fact, he acquired a +somewhat unenviable reputation for rudeness, while his high spirits +prompted him to contrive all sorts of practical jokes--a form of humour +which seldom tends to make one popular. Moreover, though well-grown for +his age, he had a distaste for physical exertion, and took little or no +part in active outdoor games. Naturally, therefore, he was not +particularly liked by his school companions, while, on the other hand, +he attained no special rank in the schoolroom. Although he was quick at +learning, he contented himself with satisfying the minimum of what was +required--a trait that remained very characteristic of him for a long +time. Of course, there is no particular significance in the general +statement that a boy of twelve was rude, mischievous, physically +indolent, and averse to study. Yet in Prescott's case these qualities +were somewhat later developed at a critical period of his life, and +might have spoiled a naturally fine character had they not been +ultimately checked and controlled by the memorable accident which befell +him a few years afterward. + +In 1803, the elder Prescott suffered from a hemorrhage from the lungs +which compelled him for a time to give up many of his professional +activities. Five years after this he removed his home to Boston, where +the practice of his profession would be less burdensome, and where, as +it turned out, his income was very largely increased. The change was +fortunate both for him and for his son; since, in a larger community, +the boy came to be less impressed with his own importance, and also fell +under an influence far more stimulating than could ever have been +exerted by a village schoolmaster. The rector of Trinity Church in +Boston, the Rev. Dr. John S. Gardiner, was a gentleman of exceptional +cultivation. As a young man he had been well trained in England under +the learned Dr. Samuel Parr, a Latinist of the Ciceronian school. He +was, besides, a man possessing many genial and very human qualities, so +that all who knew him felt his personal fascination to a rare degree. He +had at one time been the master of a classical school in Boston and had +met with much success; but his clerical duties had obliged him to give +up this occupation. Thereafter, he taught only a small number of boys, +the sons of intimate friends in whom he took a special and personal +interest. His methods with them were not at all those of a typical +schoolmaster. He received his little classes in the library of his home, +and taught them, in a most informal fashion, English, Greek, and Latin. +He resembled, indeed, one of those ripe scholars of the Renaissance who +taught for the pure love of imparting knowledge. Much of his instruction +was conveyed orally rather than through the medium of text-books; and +his easy talk, flowing from a full mind, gave interest and richness to +his favourite subjects. Such teaching as this is always rare, and it was +peculiarly so in that age of formalism. To the privilege of Dr. +Gardiner's instruction, young Prescott was admitted, and from it he +derived not only a correct feeling for English style, but a genuine +love of classical study, which remained with him throughout his life. It +may be said here that he never at any time felt an interest in +mathematics or the natural sciences. His cast of mind was naturally +humanistic; and now, through the influence of an accomplished teacher, +he came to know the meaning and the beauty of the classical tradition. + +Under Gardiner, Prescott's indifference to study disappeared, and he +applied himself so well that he was rapidly advanced from elementary +reading to the study of authors so difficult as AEschylus. His +biographer, Mr. Ticknor, who was his fellow-pupil at this time, has left +us some interesting notes upon the subject of Prescott's literary +preferences. It appears that he enjoyed Sophocles, while Horace +"interested and excited him beyond his years." The pessimism of Juvenal +he disliked, and the crabbed verse of Persius he utterly refused to +read. Under private teachers he studied French, Italian, and Spanish,--a +rather unusual thing for boys at that time,--and he reluctantly acquired +what he regarded as the irreducible minimum of mathematics. It was +decided that he should be fitted to enter the Sophomore Class in +Harvard, and to this end he devoted his mental energies. Like most boys, +he worked hardest upon those studies which related to his college +examination, viewing others as more or less superfluous. He did, +however, a good deal of miscellaneous reading, opportunities for which +he found in the Boston Athenaeum. This institution had been opened but a +short time before, and its own collection of books, which to-day numbers +more than two hundred thousand, was rather meagre; but in it had been +deposited some ten thousand volumes, constituting the private library +of John Quincy Adams, who was then holding the post of American Minister +to Russia. At a time when book-shops were few, and when books were +imported from England with much difficulty and expense, these ten +thousand volumes seemed an enormous treasure-house of good reading. +Prescott browsed through the books after the fashion of a clever boy, +picking out what took his fancy and neglecting everything that seemed at +all uninteresting. Yet this omnivorous reading stimulated his love of +letters and gave to him a larger range of vision than at that time he +could probably have acquired in any other way. It is interesting to note +the fact that his preference was for old romances--the more extravagant +the better--and for tales of wild and lawless adventure. An especial +favourite with him was the romance of _Amadis de Gaule_, which he found +in Southey's somewhat pedestrian translation, and which appealed +intensely to Prescott's imagination and his love of the fantastic. + +His other occupations were decidedly significant. His most intimate +friend at this time was William Gardiner, his preceptor's son; and the +two boys were absolutely at one in their tastes and amusements. Both of +them were full of mischief, and both were irrepressibly boisterous, +playing all sorts of tricks at evening in the streets, firing off +pistols, and in general causing a good deal of annoyance to the sober +citizens of Boston. In this they were like any other healthy boys,--full +of animal spirits and looking for "fun" without any especial sense of +responsibility. Something else, however, is recorded of them which seems +to have a real importance, as revealing in Prescott, at least, some of +those mental characteristics which in his after life were to find +expression in his serious work. + +The period was one when the thoughts of all men were turned to the +Napoleonic wars. The French and English were at grips in Spain for the +possession of the Peninsula. Wellington had landed in Portugal and, +marching into Spain, had flung down the gage of battle, which was taken +up by Soult, Massena, and Victor, in the absence of their mighty chief. +The American newspapers were filled with long, though belated, accounts +of the brilliant fighting at Ciudad Rodrigo, Almeida, and Badajoz; and +these narratives fired the imagination of Prescott, whose eagerness his +companion found infectious, so that the two began to play at battles; +not after the usual fashion of boys, but in a manner recalling the +_Kriegspiel_ of the military schools of modern Germany. Pieces of paper +were carefully cut into shapes which would serve to designate the +difference between cavalry, infantry, and artillery; and with these bits +of paper the disposition and manoeuvring of armies were indicated, so +as to make clear, in a rough way, the tactics of the opposing +commanders. Not alone were the Napoleonic battles thus depicted, but +also the great contests of which the boys had read or heard at +school,--Thermopylae, Marathon, Leuctra, Cannae, and Pharsalus. Some +pieces of old armour, unearthed among the rubbish of the Athenaeum, +enabled the boys to mimic in their play the combats of Amadis and the +knights with whom he fought. + +Side by side with these amusements there was another which curiously +supplemented it. As Prescott and his friend went through the streets on +their way to school, they made a practice of inventing impromptu +stories, which they told each other in alternation. If the story was +unfinished when they arrived at school, it would be resumed on their way +home and continued until it reached its end. It was here that Prescott's +miscellaneous reading stood him in good stead. His mind was full of the +romances and histories that he had read; and his quick invention and +lively imagination enabled him to piece together the romantic bits which +he remembered, and to give them some sort of consistency and form. +Ticknor attaches little importance either to Prescott's interest in the +details of warfare or to this fondness of his for improvised narration. +Yet it is difficult not to see in both of them a definite bias; and we +may fairly hold that the boy's taste for battles, coupled with his love +of picturesque description, foreshadowed, even in these early years, the +qualities which were to bring him lasting fame. + +All these boyish amusements, however, came to an end when, in August, +1811, Prescott presented himself as a candidate for admission to +Harvard. Harvard was then under the presidency of the Rev. Dr. John +Thornton Kirkland, who had been installed in office the year before +Prescott entered college. President Kirkland was the first of Harvard's +really eminent presidents.[3] Under his rule there definitely began that +slow but steady evolution, which was, in the end, to transform the small +provincial college into a great and splendid university. Kirkland was an +earlier Eliot, and some of his views seemed as radical to his +colleagues as did those of Eliot in 1869. Lowell has said of him, +somewhat unjustly: "He was a man of genius, but of genius that evaded +utilisation." It is fairer to suppose that, if he did not accomplish all +that he desired and attempted, this was because the time was not yet +ripe for radical innovations. He did secure large benefactions to the +University, the creation of new professorships on endowed foundations, +and the establishment of three professional schools. President Kirkland, +in reality, stood between the old order and the new, with his face set +toward the future, but retaining still some of the best traditions of +the small college of the past. It is told of him that he knew every +student by name, and took a very genuine interest in all of them, +helping them in many quiet, tactful ways, so that more than one +distinguished man in later life declared that, but for the thoughtful +and unsolicited kindness of Dr. Kirkland, he would have been forced to +abandon his college life in debt and in despair. Kirkland was a man of +striking personal presence, and could assume a bearing of such +impressive dignity as to verge on the majestic, as when he officially +received Lafayette in front of University Hall and presented the +assembled students to the nation's guest. The faculty over which he +presided contained at that time no teacher of enduring reputation,[4] so +that whatever personal influence was exerted upon Prescott by his +instructors must have come chiefly from such intercourse as he had with +Dr. Kirkland. + +It is of interest to note just how much of an ordeal an entrance +examination at Harvard was at the time when Prescott came up as a +candidate for admission. The subjects were very few in number, and would +appear far from formidable to a modern Freshman. Dalzel's _Collectanea +Groea Minora_, the Greek Testament, Vergil, Sallust, and several +selected orations of Cicero represented, with the Greek and Latin +grammars, the classical requirements which constituted, indeed, almost +the entire test, since the only other subjects were arithmetic, "so for +as the rule of three," and a general knowledge of geography. The +curriculum of the College, while Prescott was a member of it, was meagre +enough when compared with what is offered at the present time. The +classical languages occupied most of the students' attention. Sallust, +Livy, Horace, and one of Cicero's rhetorical treatises made up the +principal work in Latin. Xenophon's _Anabasis_, Homer, and some +desultory selections from other authors were supposed to give a +sufficient knowledge of Greek literature. The Freshmen completed the +study of arithmetic, and the Sophomores did something in algebra and +geometry. Other subjects of study were rhetoric, declamation, a modicum +of history, and also logic, metaphysics, and ethics. The ecclesiastical +hold upon the College was seen in the inclusion of a lecture course on +"some topic of positive or controversial divinity," in an examination on +Doddridge's Lectures, in the reading of the Greek Testament, and in a +two years' course in Hebrew for Sophomores and Freshmen. Indeed, Hebrew +was regarded as so important that a "Hebrew part" was included in every +commencement programme until 1817--three years after Prescott's +graduation. In place of this language, however, while Prescott was in +college, students might substitute a course in French given by a tutor; +for as yet no regular chair of modern languages had been founded in the +University. The natural sciences received practically no attention, +although, in 1805, a chair of natural history had been endowed by +subscription. An old graduate of Harvard has recorded the fact that +chemistry in those days was regarded very much as we now look upon +alchemy; and that, on its practical side, it was held to be simply an +adjunct to the apothecary's profession. A few years later, and the +Harvard faculty contained such eminent men as Josiah Quincy, Judge +Joseph Story, Benjamin Peirce, the mathematician, George Ticknor, and +Edward Everett, and the opportunities for serious study were broadened +out immensely. But while Prescott was an undergraduate, the curriculum +had less variety and range than that of any well-equipped high school of +the present day. + +A letter written by Prescott on August 23d, the day after he had passed +through the ordeal of examination, is particularly interesting. It +gives, in the first place, a notion of the quaint simplicity which then +characterised the academic procedure of the oldest of American +universities; and it also brings us into rather intimate touch with +Prescott himself as a youth of fifteen. At that time a great deal of the +eighteenth-century formality survived in the intercourse between fathers +and their sons; and especially in the letters which passed between them +was there usually to be found a degree of stiffness and restraint both +in feeling and expression. Yet this letter of Prescott's might have +been written yesterday by an American youth of the present time, so easy +and assured is it, and indeed, for the most part, so mature. It might +have been written also to one of his own age, and there is something +deliciously naive in its revelation of Prescott's approbativeness. The +boy evidently thought very well of himself, and was not at all averse to +fishing for a casual compliment from others. The letter is given in full +by Ticknor, but what is here quoted contains all that is important:-- + + + "BOSTON, August 23rd. + + "DEAR FATHER:--I now write you a few lines to inform you of my + fate. Yesterday at eight o'clock I was ordered to the President's + and there, together with a Carolinian, Middleton, was examined for + Sophomore. When we were first ushered into their presence, they + looked like so many judges of the Inquisition. We were ordered down + into the parlour, almost frightened out of our wits, to be examined + by each separately; but we soon found them quite a pleasant sort of + chaps. The President sent us down a good dish of pears, and treated + us very much like gentlemen. It was not ended in the morning; but + we returned in the afternoon when Professor Ware [the Hollis + Professor of Divinity] examined us in Grotius' _De Veritate_. We + found him very good-natured; for I happened to ask him a question + in theology, which made him laugh so that he was obliged to cover + his face with his hand. At half past three our fate was decided and + we were declared 'Sophomores of Harvard University.' + + "As you would like to know how I appeared, I will give you the + conversation _verbatim_ with Mr. Frisbie when I went to see him + after the examination. I asked him,'Did I appear well in my + examination?' Answer. 'Yes.' Question. 'Did I appear _very_ well, + sir?' Answer. 'Why are you so particular, young man? Yes, you did + yourself a great deal of credit.' I feel today twenty pounds + lighter than I did yesterday.... Love to mother, whose affectionate + son I remain, + + "WM. HICKLING PRESCOTT." + + + +Prescott entered upon his college life in the autumn of this same year +(1811). We find that many of those traits which he had exhibited in his +early school days were now accentuated rather sharply. He was fond of +such studies as appealed to his instinctive tastes. English literature +and the literatures of Greece and Rome he studied willingly because he +liked them and not because he was ambitious to gain high rank in the +University. To this he was more or less indifferent, and, therefore, +gave as little attention as possible to such subjects as mathematics, +logic, the natural sciences, philosophy, and metaphysics, without which, +of course, he could not hope to win university honours. Nevertheless, he +disliked to be rated below the average of his companions, and, +therefore, he was careful not to fall beneath a certain rather moderate +standard of excellence. He seems, indeed, to have adopted the Horatian +_aurea mediocritas_ as his motto; and the easy-going, self-indulgent +philosophy of Horace he made for the time his own. In fact, the ideal +which he set before himself was the life of a gentleman in the +traditional English meaning of that word; and it was a gentleman's +education and nothing more which he desired to attain. To be socially +agreeable, courteous, and imbued with a liberal culture, seemed to him a +sufficient end for his ambition. His father was wealthy and generous. He +was himself extremely fond of the good things of life. He made friends +readily, and had a very large share of personal attractiveness. Under +the circumstances, it is not to be wondered at if his college life was +marked by a pleasant, well-bred hedonism rather than by the austerity of +the true New England temperament. The Prescotts as a family had some +time before slipped away from the clutch of Puritanism and had accepted +the mild and elastic creed of Channing, which, in its tolerant view of +life, had more than a passing likeness to Episcopalianism. Prescott was +still running over with youthful spirits, his position was an assured +one, his means were ample, and his love of pleasure very much in +evidence. We cannot wonder, then, if we find that in the early part of +his university career he slipped into a sort of life which was probably +less commendable than his cautious biographers are willing to admit. Mr. +Ticknor's very guarded intimations seem to imply in Prescott a +considerable laxity of conduct; and it is not unfair to read between the +lines of what he has written and there find unwilling but undeniable +testimony. Thus Ticknor remarks that Prescott "was always able to stop +short of what he deemed flagrant excesses and to keep within the limits, +though rather loose ones, which he had prescribed to himself. His +standard for the character of a gentleman varied, no doubt, at this +period, and sometimes was not so high on the score of morals as it +should have been." Prescott is also described as never having passed the +world's line of honour, but as having been willing to run exceedingly +close to it. "He pardoned himself too easily for his manifold neglect +and breaches of the compacts he had made with his conscience; but there +was repentance at the bottom of all." It is rather grudgingly admitted +also that "the early part of his college career, when for the first time +he left the too gentle restraints of his father's house, ... was the +most dangerous period of his life. Upon portions of it he afterwards +looked back with regret." There is a good deal of significance, +moreover, in some sentences which Prescott himself wrote, long +afterwards, of the temptations which assail a youth during those years +when he has attained to the independence of a man but while he is still +swayed by the irresponsibility of a boy. There seems to be in these +sentences a touch of personal reminiscence and regret:-- + + "The University, that little world of itself ... bounding the + visible horizon of the student like the walls of a monastery, still + leaves within him scope enough for all the sympathies and the + passions of manhood.... He meets with the same obstacles to success + as in the world, the same temptations to idleness, the same gilded + seductions, but without the same power of resistance. For in this + morning of life his passions are strongest; his animal nature is + more sensible to enjoyment; his reasoning faculties less vigorous + and mature. Happy the youth who in this stage of his existence is + so strong in his principles that he can pass through the ordeal + without faltering or failing, on whom the contact of bad + companionship has left no stain for future tears to wash away." + +Just how much is meant by this reluctant testimony can only be +conjectured. It is not unfair, however, to assume that, for a time, +Prescott's diversions were such as even a lenient moralist would think +it necessary to condemn. The fondness for wine, which remained with him +throughout his life, makes it likely that convival excess was one of his +undergraduate follies; while the flutter of a petticoat may at times +have stirred his senses. No doubt many a young man in his college days +has plunged far deeper into dissipation than ever Prescott did and has +emerged unscathed to lead a useful life. Yet in Prescott's case there +existed a peculiar danger. His future did not call upon him to face the +stern realities of a life of toil. He was assured of a fortune ample for +his needs, and therefore his easy-going, pleasure-loving disposition, +his boundless popularity, his handsome face, his exuberant spirits, and +his very moderate ambition might easily have combined to lead him down +the primrose path where intellect is enervated and moral fibre +irremediably sapped. + +One dwells upon this period of indolence and folly the more willingly, +because, after all, it reveals to us in Prescott those pardonable human +failings which only serve to make his character more comprehensible. +Prescott's eulogists have so studiously ignored his weaknesses as to +leave us with no clear-cut impression of the actual man. They have +unwisely smoothed away so much and have extenuated so much in their +halting and ambiguous phrases, as to create a picture of which the +outlines are far too faint. Apparently, they wish to draw the likeness +of a perfect being, and to that extent they have made the subject of +their encomiums appear unreal. One cannot understand how truly lovable +the actual Prescott was, without reconstructing him in such a way as to +let his faults appear beside his virtues. Moreover, an understanding of +the perils which at first beset him is needed in order to make clear the +profound importance of an incident which sharply called a halt to his +excesses and, by curbing his wilful nature, set his finer qualities in +the ascendant. It is only by remembering how far he might have fallen, +that we can view as a blessing in disguise the blow which Fate was soon +to deal him. + +In the second (Junior) year of his college life, he was dining one day +with the other undergraduates in the Commons Hall. During these meals, +so long as any college officers were present, decorum usually reigned; +but when the dons had left the room, the students frequently wound up by +what, in modern student phrase, would be described as "rough-house." +There were singing and shouting and frequently some boisterous +scuffling, such as is natural among a lot of healthy young barbarians. +On this particular occasion, as Prescott was leaving the hall, he heard +a sudden outbreak and looked around to learn its cause. Missiles were +flying about; and, just as he turned his head, a large hard crust of +bread struck him squarely in the open eye. The shock was great, +resembling a concussion of the brain, and Prescott fell unconscious. He +was taken to his father's house, where, on recovering consciousness, he +evinced extreme prostration, with nausea, a fluttering pulse, and all +the evidences of physical collapse. So weak was he that he could not +even sit upright in his bed. For several weeks unbroken rest was +ordered, so that nature, aided by a vigorous constitution, might repair +the injury which his system had sustained. When he returned to +Cambridge, the sight of the injured eye (the left one) was gone forever. +Oddly enough, in view of the severity of the blow, the organ was not +disfigured, and only through powerful lenses could even the slightest +difference be detected between it and the unhurt eye. Dr. James Jackson, +who attended Prescott at this time, described the case as one of +paralysis of the retina, for which no remedy was possible. This +accident, with the consequences which it entailed, was to have a +profound effect not only upon the whole of Prescott's subsequent +career, but upon his character as well. His affliction, indeed, is +inseparably associated with his work, and it must again and again be +referred to, both because it was continually in his thoughts and because +it makes the record of his literary achievement the more remarkable. +Incidentally, it afforded a revelation of one of Prescott's noblest +traits,--his magnanimity. He was well aware of the identity of the +person to whom he owed this physical calamity. Yet, knowing as he did +that the whole thing was in reality an accident, he let it be supposed +that he had no knowledge of the person and that the mishap had come +about in such a way that the responsibility for it could not be fixed. +As a matter of fact, the thing had been done unintentionally; yet this +cannot excuse its perpetrator for never expressing to Prescott his +regret and sympathy. Years afterwards, Prescott spoke of this man to +Ticknor in the kindest and most friendly fashion, and once he was able +to confer on him a signal favour, which he did most readily and with +sincere cordiality. + +Prescott returned to the University in a mood of seriousness, which +showed forth the qualities inherited from his father. Hitherto he had +been essentially his mother's son, with all her gayety and mirthfulness +and joy of life. Henceforth he was to exhibit more and more the strength +of will and power of application which had made his father so honoured +and so influential. Not that he let his grave misfortune cloud his +spirits. He had still the use of his uninjured eye, and he had recovered +from his temporary physical prostration; but he now went about his work +in a different spirit, and was resolved to win at least an honourable +rank for scholarship. In the classics and in English he studied hard, +and he overcame to some extent his aversion to philosophy and logic. +Mathematics, however, still remained the bane of his academic existence. +For a time he used to memorise word for word all the mathematical +demonstrations as he found them in the text-books, without the slightest +comprehension of what they meant; and his remarkable memory enabled him +to reproduce them in the class room, so that the professor of +mathematics imagined him to be a promising disciple. This fact does not +greatly redound to the acumen of the professor nor to the credit of his +class-room methods, and what followed gives a curious notion of the +easy-going system which then prevailed. Prescott found the continual +exertion of his memory a good deal of a bore. To his candid nature it +also savoured of deception. He, therefore, very frankly explained to the +professor the secret of his mathematical facility. He said that, if +required, he would continue to memorise the work, but that he knew it to +be for him nothing but a waste of time, and he asked, with much +_naivete_, that he might be allowed to use his leisure to better +advantage. This most ingenuous request must have amused the gentleman of +whom it was made; but it proved to be effectual. Prescott was required +to attend all the mathematical exercises conscientiously, but from that +day he was never called upon to recite. For the rest, his diligence in +those studies which he really liked won him the respect of the faculty +at large. At graduation he received as a commencement honour the +assignment of a Latin poem, which he duly declaimed to a crowded +audience in the old "meeting-house" at Cambridge, in August, 1814. This +poem was in Latin elegiacs, and was an apostrophe to Hope (_Ad Spem_), +of which, unfortunately, no copy has been preserved. At the same time, +Prescott was admitted to membership in the Phi Beta Kappa, from which a +single blackball was sufficient to exclude a candidate. His father +celebrated these double honours by giving an elaborate dinner, in a +pavilion, to more than five hundred of the family's acquaintances. + +Prescott had now to make his choice of a profession; for to a New +Englander of those days every man, however wealthy, was expected to have +a definite occupation. Very naturally he decided upon the law, and began +the study of it in his father's office, though it was evident enough +from the first that to his taste the tomes of Blackstone made no very +strong appeal. He loved rather to go back to his classical reading and +to enlarge his knowledge of modern literature. Indeed, his legal studies +were treated rather cavalierly, and it is certain that had he ever been +admitted to the bar, he would have found no pleasure in the routine of a +lawyer's practice. Fate once more intervened, though, as before, in an +unpleasant guise. In January, 1815, a painful inflammation appeared in +his right eye--the one that had not been injured. This inflammation +increased so rapidly as to leave Prescott for the time completely blind. +Nor was the disorder merely local. A fever set in with a high pulse and +a general disturbance of the system. Prescott's suffering was intense +for several days; and at the end of a week, when the local inflammation +had passed away, the retina of the right eye was found to be so +seriously affected as to threaten a permanent loss of sight. At the +same time, symptoms of acute rheumatism appeared in the knee-joints and +in the neck. For several months the patient's condition was pitiable. +Again and again there was a recurrence of the inflammation in the eye, +alternating with the rheumatic symptoms, so that for sixteen weeks +Prescott was unable to leave his room, which had to be darkened almost +into blackness. Medical skill availed very little, and no doubt the +copious blood-letting which was demanded by the practice of that time +served only to deplete the patient's strength. Through all these weary +months, however, Prescott bore his sufferings with indomitable courage, +and to those friends of his who groped their way through the darkness to +his bedside he was always cheerful, animated, and even gay, talking very +little of his personal affliction and showing a hearty interest in the +concerns of others. When autumn came it was decided that he should take +a sea voyage, partly to invigorate his constitution and partly to enable +him to consult the most eminent specialists of France and England. First +of all, however, he planned to visit his grandfather, Mr. Thomas +Hickling, who, as has been already mentioned, was American consul at the +island of St. Michael's in the Azores, where it was thought the mildness +of the climate might prove beneficial. + +Prescott set out, on September 26th of the same year (1815), in one of +the small sailing vessels which plied between Boston and the West +African islands. The voyage occupied twenty-two days, during which time +Prescott had a recurrence both of his rheumatic pains and of the +inflammatory condition of his eye. His discomfort was enhanced by the +wretchedness of his accommodations--a gloomy little cabin into which +water continually trickled from the deck, and in which the somewhat +fastidious youth was forced to live upon nauseous messes of rye pudding +sprinkled with coarse salt. Cockroaches and other vermin swarmed about +him; and it must have been with keen pleasure that he exchanged this +floating prison for the charming villa in the Azores, where his +grandfather had made his home in the midst of groves and gardens, +blooming with a semi-tropical vegetation. Mr. Hickling, during his long +residence at St. Michael's, had married a Portuguese lady for his second +wife, and his family received Prescott with unstinted cordiality. The +change from the bleak shores of New England to the laurels and myrtles +and roses of the Azores delighted Prescott, and so appealed to his sense +of beauty that he wrote home long and enthusiastic letters. But his +unstinted enjoyment of this Hesperian paradise lasted for little more +than two short weeks. He had landed on the 18th of October, and by +November 1st he had gone back to his old imprisonment in darkness, +living on a meagre diet and smarting under the blisters which were used +as a counter-irritant to the rheumatic inflammation. As usual, however, +his cheerfulness was unabated. He passed his time in singing, in +chatting with his friends, and in walking hundreds of miles around his +darkened room. He remained in this seclusion from November to February, +when his health once more improved; and two months later, on the 8th of +April, 1816, he took passage from St. Michael's for London. The sea +voyage and its attendant discomforts had their usual effect, and during +twenty-two out of the twenty-four days, to which his weary journey was +prolonged, he was confined to his cabin. + +On reaching London his case was very carefully diagnosed by three of the +most eminent English specialists, Dr. Farre, Sir William Adams, and Mr. +(afterward Sir) Astley Cooper. Their verdict was not encouraging, for +they decided that no local treatment of his eyes could be of any +particular advantage, and that the condition of the right eye would +always depend very largely upon the general condition of his system. +They prescribed for him, however, and he followed out their regimen with +conscientious scrupulosity. After a three months' stay in London, he +crossed the Channel and took up his abode in Paris. In England, owing to +his affliction, he had been able to do and see but little, because he +was forbidden to leave his room after nightfall, and of course he could +not visit the theatre or meet the many interesting persons to whom Mr. +John Quincy Adams, then American Minister to England, offered to present +him. Something he saw of the art collections of London, and he was +especially impressed by the Elgin Marbles and Raphael's cartoons. There +was a touch of pathos in the wistful way in which he paused in the +booksellers' shops and longingly turned over rare editions of the +classics which it was forbidden him to read. "When I look into a Greek +or Latin book," he wrote to his father, "I experience much the same +sensation as does one who looks on the face of a dead friend, and the +tears not infrequently steal into my eyes." In Paris he remained two +months, and passed the following winter in Italy, making a somewhat +extended tour, and visiting the most famous of the Italian cities in +company with an old schoolmate. Thence he returned to Paris, where once +more he had a grievous attack of his malady; and at last, in May of +1817, he again reached London, embarking not long after for the United +States. Before leaving England on this second visit, he had explored +Oxford and Cambridge, which interested him extremely, but which he was +glad to leave in order to be once more at home. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE CHOICE OF A CAREER + + +Prescott's return to his home brought him face to face with the +perplexing question of his future. During his two years of absence this +question must often have been forced upon his mind, especially during +those weary weeks when the darkness of his sick-room and the lack of any +mental diversion threw him in upon himself and left him often with his +own thoughts for company. Even to his optimistic temperament the future +may well have seemed a gloomy one. Half-blind and always dreading the +return of a painful malady, what was it possible for him to do in the +world whose stir and movement and boundless opportunity had so much +attracted him? Must he spend his years as a recluse, shut out from any +real share in the active duties of life? Little as he was wont to dwell +upon his own anxieties, he could not remain wholly silent concerning a +subject so vital to his happiness. In a letter to his father, written +from St. Michael's not long before he set out for London, he broached +very briefly a subject that must have been very often in his thoughts. + + "The most unpleasant of my reflections suggested by this late + inflammation are those arising from the probable necessity of + abandoning a profession congenial with my taste and recommended by + such favourable opportunities, and adopting one for which I am ill + qualified and have but little inclination. It is some consolation + that this latter alternative, should my eyes permit, will afford me + more leisure for the pursuit of my favourite studies. But on this + subject I shall consult my physician and will write you his + opinion." + +Apparently at this time he still cherished the hope of entering upon +some sort of a professional career, even though the practice of the law +were closed to him. But after the discouraging verdict of the London +specialists had been made known, he took a more despondent view. He +wrote:-- + + "As to the future, it is too evident I shall never be able to + pursue a profession. God knows how poorly I am qualified and how + little inclined to be a merchant. Indeed, I am sadly puzzled to + think how I shall succeed even in this without eyes." + +It was in this uncertain state of mind that he returned home in the late +summer of 1817. The warmth of the welcome which he received renewed his +buoyant spirits, even though he soon found himself again prostrated by a +recurrence of his now familiar trouble. His father had leased a +delightful house in the country for his occupancy; but the shade-trees +that surrounded it created a dampness which was unfavourable to a +rheumatic subject, and so Prescott soon returned to Boston. Here he +spent the winter in retirement, yet not in idleness. His love of books +and of good literature became the more intense in proportion as physical +activity was impossible; and he managed to get through a good many +books, thanks to the kindness of his sister and of his former school +companion, William Gardiner, both of whom devoted a part of each day to +reading aloud to Prescott,--Gardiner the classics, and Miss Prescott +the standard English authors in history, poetry, and belles-lettres in +general. These readings often occupied many consecutive hours, extending +at times far into the night; and they relieved Prescott's seclusion of +much of its irksomeness, while they stored his mind with interesting +topics of thought. It was, in reality, the continuation of a system of +vicarious reading which he had begun two years before in St. Michael's, +where he had managed, by the aid of another's eyes, to enjoy the +romances of Scott, which were then beginning to appear, and to renew his +acquaintance with Shakespeare, Homer, and the Greek and Roman +historians. + +From reading literature, it was a short step to attempting its +production. Pledging his sister to secrecy, Prescott composed and +dictated to her an essay which was sent anonymously to the _North +American Review_, then a literary fledgling of two years, but already +making its way to a position of authority. This little _ballon d'essai_ +met the fate of many such, for the manuscript was returned within a +fortnight. Prescott's only comment was, "There! I was a fool to send +it!" Yet the instinct to write was strong within him, and before very +long was again to urge him with compelling force to test his gift. But +meanwhile, finding that his life of quiet and seclusion did very little +for his eyes, he made up his mind that he might just as well go out into +the world more freely and mingle with the friends whose society he +missed so much. After a little cautious experimenting, which apparently +did no harm, he resumed the old life from which, for three years, he had +been self-banished. The effect upon him mentally was admirable, and he +was now safe from any possible danger of becoming morbidly +introspective from the narrowness of his environment. He went about +freely all through the year 1818, indulging in social pleasures with the +keenest zest. His bent for literature, however, asserted itself in the +foundation of a little society or club, whose members gathered +informally, from time to time, for the reading of papers and for genial +yet frank criticism of one another's productions. This club never +numbered more than twenty-four persons, but they were all cultivated +men, appreciative and yet discriminating, and the list of them contains +some names, such as those of Franklin Dexter, Theophilus Parsons, John +Ware, and Jared Sparks, which, like Prescott's own, belong to the record +of American letters. For their own amusement, they subsequently brought +out a little periodical called _The Club-Room_, of which four numbers in +all were published,[5] and to which Prescott, who acted as its editor, +made three contributions, one of them a sort of humorous editorial +article, very local in its interest, another a sentimental tale called +"The Vale of Allerid," and the third a ghost story called "Calais." They +were like thousands of such trifles which are written every year by +amateurs, and they exhibit no literary qualities which raise them above +the level of the commonplace. The sole importance of _The Club-Room's_ +brief existence lies in the fact that it possibly did something to lure +Prescott along the path that led to serious literary productiveness. + +One very important result of his return to social life was found in his +marriage, in 1820, to Miss Susan Amory, the daughter of Mr. Thomas C. +Amory, a leading merchant of Boston.[6] The bride was a very charming +girl, to whom her young husband was passionately devoted, and who filled +his life with a radiant happiness which delighted all who knew and loved +him. His naturally buoyant spirits rose to exuberance after his +engagement. He forgot his affliction. He let his reading go by the +board. He was, in fact, too happy for anything but happiness, and this +delight even inspired him to make a pun that is worth recording. +Prescott was an inveterate punster, and his puns were almost invariably +bad; but when his bachelor friends reproached him for his desertion of +them, he laughed and answered them with the Vergilian line,-- + + "_Omnia vincit amor et nos cedamus Amori_"-- + +a play upon words which Thackeray independently chanced upon many years +later in writing _Pendennis_, and _a propos_ of a very different Miss +Amory. It is of interest to recall the description given by Mr. Ticknor +of Prescott as he appeared at the time of his marriage (May 4, 1820) +and, indeed, very much as he remained down to the hour of his death. + + "My friend was one of the finest looking men I have ever seen; or, + if this should be deemed in some respects a strong expression, I + shall be fully justified ... in saying that he was one of the most + attractive. He was tall, well formed, manly in his bearing but + gentle, with light brown hair that was hardly changed or + diminished by years, with a clear complexion and a ruddy flash on + his cheek that kept for him to the last an appearance of + comparative youth, but above all with a smile that was the most + absolutely contagious I ever looked on.... Even in the last months + of his life when he was in some other respects not a little + changed, he appeared at least ten years younger than he really was. + And as for the gracious sunny smile that seemed to grow sweeter as + he grew older, it was not entirely obliterated even by the touch of + death." + +After Prescott had been married for about a year, the old question of a +life pursuit recurred and was considered by him seriously. Without any +very definite aim, yet with a half-unconscious intuition, he resolved to +store his mind with abundant reading, so that he might, at least in some +way, be fitted for the career of a man of letters. Hitherto, in the +desultory fashion of his boyhood, he had dipped into many authors, yet +he really knew nothing thoroughly and well. In the classics he was +perhaps best equipped; but of English literature his knowledge was +superficial because he had read only here and there, and rather for the +pleasure of the moment than for intellectual discipline. He had a slight +smattering of French, sufficient for the purposes of a traveller, but +nothing more. Of Italian, Spanish, and German he was wholly ignorant, +and with the literatures of these three languages he had never made even +the slightest acquaintance. Conning over in a reflective mood the sum +total of his acquisitions and defects, he came to the conclusion that he +would undertake what he called in a memorandum "a course of studies," +including "the principles of grammar and correct writing" and the +history of the North American Continent. He also resolved to devote one +hour a day to the Latin classics. Some six months after this, his +purpose had expanded, and he made a second resolution, which he recorded +in the following words:-- + + "I am now twenty-six years of age, nearly. By the time I am thirty, + God willing, I propose with what stock I have already on hand to be + a very well read English scholar; to be acquainted with the + classical and useful authors, prose and poetry, in Latin, French, + and Italian, and especially in history--I do not mean a critical or + profound acquaintance. The two following years I may hope to learn + German, and to have read the classical German writers; and the + translations, if my eye continues weak, of the Greek." + +To this memorandum he adds the comment that such a course of study would +be sufficient "for general discipline"--a remark which proves that he +had not as yet any definite plan in undertaking his self-ordered task. +For several years he devoted himself with great industry to the course +which he had marked out. He went back to the pages of Blair's Rhetoric +and to Lindley Murray's Grammar, and he read consecutively, making notes +as he read, the older masters of English prose style from Roger Ascham, +Sidney, Bacon, and Raleigh down to the authors of the eighteenth +century, and even later. In Latin he reviewed Tacitus, Livy, and Cicero. +His reading seems to have been directed less to the subject-matter than +to the understanding and appreciation of style as a revelation of the +writer's essential characteristics. It was, in fact, a study of +psychology quite as much as a study of literature. Passing on to French, +he found the literature of that language comparatively unsympathetic, +and he contrasted it unfavourably with the English. He derived some +pleasure from the prose of Montaigne and Bossuet, and from Corneille and +Moliere; but, on the whole, French poetry always seemed to him too rigid +in its formal classicism to be enjoyable. Side by side with his French +reading, he made the acquaintance of the early English ballad-poetry and +the old romances, and, in 1823, he took up Italian, which appealed to +him intensely, so that he read an extraordinary amount and made the most +voluminous notes upon every author that interested him, besides writing +long criticisms and argumentative letters to his friend Ticknor, full of +praises of Petrarch and Dante, and defending warmly the real existence +of Laura and the genuineness of Dante's passion for Beatrice. For Dante, +indeed, Prescott conceived a most enthusiastic admiration, which found +expression in many a letter to his friend. + +The immediate result of his Italian studies was the preparation of some +articles which were published in the _North American Review_--the first +on Italian narrative poetry (October, 1824). This was the beginning of a +series; since, nearly every year thereafter, some paper from his pen +appeared in that publication. One article on Italian poetry and romance +was originally offered to the English _Quarterly Review_ through Jared +Sparks, and was accepted by the editor; but Prescott, growing impatient +over the delay in its appearance, recalled the manuscript and gave it to +the _North American_. These essays of Prescott were not rated very +highly by their author, and we can accept his own estimate as, on the +whole, a just one. They are written in an urbane and agreeable manner, +but are wholly lacking in originality, insight, and vigour; while their +bits of learning strike the more modern reader as old fashioned, even if +not pedantic. This literary work, however, slight as may be its +intrinsic merit, was at least an apprenticeship in letters, and gave to +Prescott a useful training in the technique of composition. + +In 1824, something of great moment happened in the course of Prescott's +search for a life career. He had, in accordance with the resolution +already mentioned, taken up the study of German; but he found it not +only difficult but, to him, uninteresting. After several months he +became discouraged; and though he read on, he did so, as he himself has +recorded, with no method and with very little diligence or spirit. Just +at this time Mr. George Ticknor, who had been delivering a course of +lectures in Harvard on the subject of Spanish literature, read over some +of these lectures to Prescott, merely to amuse him and to divert his +mind. The immediate result was that Prescott resolved to give up his +German studies and to substitute a course in Spanish. On the first day +of December, 1824, he employed a teacher of that language, and commenced +a course of study which was to prove wonderfully fruitful, and which +ended only with his life. He seems to have begun the reading of Spanish +from the very moment that he took up the study of its grammar, and there +is an odd significance in a remark which he wrote down only a few days +after: "I snatch a fraction of the morning from the interesting treatise +of M. Josse on the Spanish language and from the _Conquista de Mexico_, +which, notwithstanding the time I have been upon it, I am far from +having conquered." The deadening effects of German upon his mind seem +to have endured for a while, since at Christmas time he was still +pursuing his studies with a certain listlessness; and he wrote to +Bancroft, the historian, a letter which contained one remark that is +very curious when we read it in the light of his subsequent career:-- + + "I am battling with the Spaniards this winter, but I have not the + heart for it as I had for the Italians. _I doubt whether there are + many valuable things that the key of knowledge will unlock in that + language._" + +Another month, however, found him filled with the joy of one who has at +last laid his hand upon that for which he has long been groping. He +expressed this feeling very vividly in a letter quoted by Mr. Ticknor:-- + + "Did you never, in learning a language, after groping about in the + dark for a long while, suddenly seem to turn an angle where the + light breaks upon you all at once? The knack seems to have come to + me within the last fortnight in the same manner as the art of + swimming comes to those who have been splashing about for months in + the water in vain." + +Spanish literature exercised upon his mind a peculiar charm, and he +boldly dashed into the writing of Spanish even from the first. Ticknor's +well-stored library supplied him with an abundance of books, and his own +comments upon the Castilian authors in whom he revelled were now written +not in English but in Spanish--naturally the Spanish of a beginner, yet +with a feeling for idiom which greatly surprised Ticknor. Even in after +years, Prescott never acquired a faultless Spanish diction; but he wrote +with clearness and fluency, so that his Spanish was very individual, +and, in this respect, not unlike the Latin of Politian or of Milton. + +Up to this time Prescott had been cultivating his mind and storing it +with knowledge without having formed any clear conception of what he was +to do with his intellectual accumulations. At first, when he formed a +plan of systematic study, his object had been only the modest one of +"general discipline," as he expressed it. As he went on, however, he +seems to have had an instinctive feeling that even without intention he +was moving toward a definite goal. Just what this was he did not know, +but none the less he was not without faith that it would ultimately be +revealed to him. Looking back over all the memoranda that he has left +behind, it is easy now to see that his drift had always been toward +historical investigation. His boyish tastes, already described, declared +his interest in the lives of men of action. His maturer preferences +pointed in the same direction. It has heretofore been noted that, in +1821, when he marked out for himself his first formal plan of study, he +included "the compendious history of North America" as one of the +subjects. While reading French he had dwelt especially upon the +chroniclers and historians from Froissart down. In Spanish he had been +greatly attracted by Mariana's _Historia de Espana_, which is still one +of the Castilian classics; and this work had led him to the perusal of +Mably's acute and philosophical _Etude de l'Histoire_. He himself long +afterward explained that still earlier than this he had been strongly +attracted to historical writing, especially after reading Gibbon's +_Autobiography_, which he came upon in 1820. Even then, he tells us, he +had proposed to himself to become an historian "in the best sense of the +term." About 1822 he jotted down the following in his private notes:-- + + "History has always been a favourite study with me and I have long + looked forward to it as a subject on which I was one day to + exercise my pen. It is not rash, in the dearth of well-written + American history, to entertain the hope of throwing light upon this + matter. This is my hope." + +Nevertheless, although his bent was so evidently for historical +composition, he had as yet received no impulse toward any especial +department of that field. In October, 1825, we find him making this +confession of his perplexity: "I have been so hesitating and reflecting +upon what I shall do, that I have in fact done nothing." And five days +later, he set down the following: "I have passed the last fortnight in +examination of a suitable subject for historical composition." In his +case there was no need for haste. He realised that historical research +demands maturity of mind. "I think," he said, "thirty-five years of age +full soon enough to put pen to paper." And again: "I care not how long a +time I take for it, provided I am diligent in all that time." + +It is clear from one of the passages just quoted, that his first thought +was to choose a distinctively American theme. This, however, he put +aside without any very serious consideration, although he had looked +into the material at hand and had commented upon its richness. His love +of Italian literature and of Italy drew him strongly to an Italian +theme, and for a while he thought of preparing a careful study of that +great movement which transformed the republic of ancient Rome into an +empire. Again, still with Italy in mind, he debated with himself the +preparation of a work on Italian literature,--a work (to use his own +words) "which, without giving a chronological and minute analysis of +authors, should exhibit in masses the most important periods, +revolutions, and characters in the history of Italian letters." Further +reflection, however, led him to reject this, partly because it would +involve so extensive and critical a knowledge of all periods of Italian +literature, and also because the subject was not new, having in a way +been lately treated by Sismondi. Prescott makes another and very +characteristic remark, which shows him to have been then as always the +man of letters as well as the historian, with a keen eye to what is +interesting. "Literary history," he says, "is not so amusing as civil." + +The choice of a Spanish subject had occurred to him in a casual way soon +after he had taken up the study of the Spanish language. In a letter +already quoted as having been written in December of 1825, he balances +such a theme with his project for a Roman one:-- + + "I have been hesitating between two topics for historical + investigation--Spanish history from the invasion of the Arabs to + the consolidation of the monarchy under Charles V., or a history of + the revolution of ancient Rome which converted the republic into an + empire.... I shall probably select the first as less difficult of + execution than the second." + +He also planned a collection of biographical sketches and criticisms, +but presently rejected that, as he did, a year later, the Roman subject; +and after having done so, the mists began to clear away and a great +purpose to take shape before his mental vision. On January 8, 1826, he +wrote a long memorandum which represents the focussing of his hitherto +vague mental strivings. + + "Cannot I contrive to embrace the _gist_ of the Spanish subject + without involving myself in the unwieldy barbarous records of a + thousand years? What new and interesting topic may be admitted--not + forced--into the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella? Can I not + indulge in a retrospective picture of the constitutions of Castile + and Aragon--of the Moorish dynasties and the causes of their decay + and dissolution? Then I have the Inquisition with its bloody + persecutions; the conquest of Granada, a brilliant passage; the + exploits of the Great Captain in Italy; ... the discovery of a new + world, my own country.... A biography will make me responsible for + a limited space only; will require much less reading; will offer + the deeper interest which always attaches to minute developments of + character, and the continuous, closely connected narratives. The + subject brings me to a point whence [modern] English history has + started, is untried ground, and in my opinion a rich one. The age + of Ferdinand is most important.... It is in every respect an + interesting and momentous period of history; the materials + authentic, ample. I will chew upon this matter and decide this + week." + +Long afterward (in 1847) Prescott pencilled upon this memorandum the +words: "This was the first germ of my conception of _Ferdinand and +Isabella_." On January 19th, after some further wavering, he wrote down +definitely: "I subscribe to the _History of the Reign of Ferdinand and +Isabella_." Opposite this note he made, in 1847, the brief but emphatic +comment,--"A fortunate choice." + +From this decision he never retreated, though at times he debated with +himself the wisdom of his choice. His apparent vacillation was due to a +return of the inflammation in his eye. For a little while this caused +him to shrink back from the difficulties of his Spanish subject, +involving as it did an immense amount of reading; and there came into +his head the project of writing an historical survey of English +literature. But on the whole he held fast to his original resolution, +and soon entered upon that elaborate preparation which was to give to +American literature a masterpiece. In his final selection of a theme we +can, indeed, discern the blending of several currents of reflection and +the combination of several of his earlier purposes. Though his book was +to treat of two Spanish sovereigns, it nevertheless related to a reign +whose greatest lustre was conferred upon it by an Italian and by the +discovery of the Western World. Thus Prescott's early predilection for +American history his love for Italy, and his new-born interest in Spain +were all united to stimulate him in the task upon which he had now +definitely entered. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SUCCESS + + +Dr. Johnson, in his rather unsympathetic life of Milton, declares that +it is impossible for a blind man to write history. Already, before +Prescott began historical composition, this dictum had been refuted by +the brilliant French historian, Augustin Thierry, whose scholarly study +of the Merovingian period was composed after he had wholly lost his +sight.[7] Moreover, Prescott was not wholly blind, for at times he could +make a cautious use of the right eye. Nevertheless, the task to which he +had set himself was sufficiently formidable to deter a less persistent +spirit. In the first place, all the original sources of information were +on the other side of the Atlantic. Nowhere in the United States was +there a public library such as even some of our smaller cities now +possess. Prescott himself, moreover, had at this time done comparatively +little special reading in the subject of which he proposed to write; and +the skilled assistance which he might easily have secured in Europe was +not to be had in the United States. Finally, though he was not blind in +the ordinary sense, he could not risk a total loss of sight by putting +upon his remaining eye the strain of continuous and fatiguing use. + +In spite of all these obstacles and discouragements, however, he began +his undertaking with a touch of that stoicism which, as Thomas Hughes +has somewhere said, makes the Anglo-Saxon find his keenest pleasure in +enduring and overcoming. Prescott had planned to devote a year to +preliminary studies before putting pen to paper. The work which he then +had in mind was intended by him to be largely one of compilation from +the works of foreign writers, to be of moderate size, with few +pretensions to originality, and to claim attention chiefly because the +subject was still a new one to English readers. He felt that he would be +accomplishing a great deal if he should read and thoroughly digest the +principal French, Spanish, and Italian historians--Mariana, Llorente, +Varillas, Flechier, and Sismondi--and give a well-balanced account of +Ferdinand and Isabella's reign based upon what these and a few other +scholarly authorities had written. But the zeal of the investigator soon +had him in its grip. Scarcely had the packages of books which he had +ordered from Madrid begun to reach his library than his project +broadened out immensely into a work of true creative scholarship. His +year of reading now appeared to him absurdly insufficient. It had, +indeed, already been badly broken into by one of his inflammatory +attacks; and his progress was hampered by the inadequate assistance +which he received. A reader, employed by him to read aloud the Spanish +books, performed the duty valiantly but without understanding a single +word of Spanish, very much as Milton's daughters read Greek and Hebrew +to their father. Thinking of his new and more ambitious conception of +his purpose and of the hindrances which beset him, Prescott wrote: +"Travelling at this lame gait, I may yet hope in five or six years to +reach the goal." As a matter of fact, it was three years and a half +before he wrote the opening sentence of his book. It was ten years +before he finished the last foot-note of the final chapter. It was +nearly twelve years before the book was given to the public. + +Some account of his manner of working may be of interest, and it is +convenient to describe it here once for all. In the second year, after +he had begun his preliminary studies, he secured the services of a Mr. +James English, a young Harvard graduate, who had some knowledge of the +modern languages. This gentleman devoted himself to Prescott's +interests, and henceforth a definite routine of study and composition +was established and was continued with other secretaries throughout +Prescott's life. Mr. English has left some interesting notes of his +experiences, which admit us to the library of the large house on Bedford +Street, where the two men worked so diligently together. It was a +spacious room in the back of the house, lined on two sides with books +which reached the ceiling. Against a third side was a large green +screen, toward which Prescott faced while seated at his table; while +behind him was an ample window, over which a series of pale blue muslin +shades could be drawn, thus regulating the illumination of the room +according to the state of Prescott's eye and the conditions of the +weather. At a second window sat Mr. English, ready to act either as +reader or as amanuensis when required. + +Allusion has been made from time to time to Prescott's written memoranda +and to his letters, which, indeed, were often very long and very +frequent. It must not be thought that in writing these he had to make +any use of his imperfect sight. The need of this had been obviated by an +invention which he had first heard of in London during his visit there +in 1816. It was a contrivance called "the noctograph," meant for the use +of the blind. A frame like that of a slate was crossed by sixteen +parallel wires fastened into the sides and holding down a sheet of +blackened paper like the carbon paper now used in typewriters and +copying-machines. Under this blackened paper was placed a sheet of plain +white note-paper. A person using the noctograph wrote with a sort of +stylus of ivory, agate, or some other hard substance upon the blackened +paper, which conveyed the impression to the white paper underneath. Of +course, the brass wires guided the writer's hand and kept the point of +the stylus somewhere near the line.[8] + +Of his noctograph Prescott made constant use. For composition he +employed it almost altogether, seldom or never dictating to a scribe. +Obviously, however, the instrument allowed no erasures or corrections to +be made, and the writer must go straight forward with his task; since to +go back and try to alter what had been once set down would make the +whole illegible. Hence arose the necessity of what Irving once described +as "pre-thinking,"--the determination not only of the content but of the +actual form of the sentence before it should be written down. In this +pre-thinking Prescott showed a power of memory and of visualisation +that was really wonderful. To carry in his mind the whole of what had +been read over to him in a session of several hours,--names, dates, +facts, authorities,--and then to shape his narrative, sentence by +sentence, before setting down a word, and, finally, to bear in mind the +whole structure of each succeeding paragraph and the form in which they +had been carefully built up--this was, indeed, an intellectual and +literary achievement of an unusual character. Of course, such a power as +this did not come of itself, but was slowly gained by persistent +practice and unwearied effort. His personal memoranda show this: "Think +closely," he writes, "gradually concentrating the circle of thought." +And again: "Think continuously and closely before taking up my pen. Make +corrections chiefly in my own mind." And still again: "Never take up my +pen until I have travelled over the subject so often that I can write +almost from memory." + +But in 1827, the time had not yet come for composition. He was hearing +books read to him and was taking copious notes. How copious these were, +his different secretaries have told; and besides, great masses of them +have been preserved as testimony to the minute and patient labour of the +man who made and used them. As his reader went on, Prescott would say, +"Mark that!" whenever anything seemed to him especially significant. +These marked passages were later copied out in a large clear hand for +future reference. When the time came, they would be read, studied, +compared, verified, and digested. Sometimes he spent as much as five +days in thus mastering the notes collected for a single chapter. Then at +least another day would be given to reflection and (probably) to +composition, while from five to nine days more might go to the actual +writing out of the text. This power of Prescott's increased with +constant exercise. Later, he was able to carry in his head the whole of +the first and second chapters of his _Conquest of Peru_ (nearly sixty +pages) before committing them to paper, and in preparing his last work, +_Philip II._, he composed and memorised the whole fifth, sixth, and +seventh chapters of Book II., amounting to seventy-two printed pages. + +Prescott had elaborated a system of his own for the regulation of his +daily life while he was working. This system was based upon the closest +observation, extending over years, of the physical effect upon him of +everything he did. The result was a regimen which represented his +customary mode of living. Rising early in the morning, he took outdoor +exercise, except during storms of exceptional severity. He rode well and +loved a spirited horse, though sometimes he got a fall from letting his +attention stray to his studies instead of keeping it on the temper of +his animal. But, in the coldest weather, on foot or in the saddle, he +covered several miles before breakfast, to which he always came back in +high spirits, having, as he expressed it, "wound himself up for the +day." After a very simple breakfast, he went at once to his library, +where, for an hour or so, he chatted with Mrs. Prescott or had her read +to him the newspapers or some popular book of the day. By ten o'clock, +serious work began with the arrival of his secretary, with whom he +worked diligently until one o'clock, for he seldom sat at his desk for +more than three consecutive hours. A brisk walk of a mile or two gave +him an appetite for dinner, which was served at three o'clock, an hour +which, in the year 1827, was not regarded as remarkable, at least in +Massachusetts. This was a time of relaxation, of chat and gossip and +family fun; and it was then that Prescott treated himself to the amount +of wine which he had decided to allow himself. His fondness for wine has +been already casually mentioned. To him the question of its use was so +important, that once, for two years and nine months, he recorded every +day the exact amount that he had drunk and the effect which it had had +upon his eye and upon his general health. A further indulgence which +followed after dinner was the smoking of a mild cigar while his wife +read or talked to him. Then, another walk or drive, a cup of tea at +five, and finally, two or more industrious hours with his secretary, +after which he came down to the library and enjoyed the society of his +family or of friends who happened in. + +This, it will be seen, was not the life of a recluse or of a Casaubon, +though it was a life regulated by a wise discretion. To adjust himself +to its routine, Prescott had to overcome many of his natural tendencies. +In the first place, he was, as has been already noted, of a somewhat +indolent disposition; and a steady grind, day after day and week after +week, was something which he had never known in school or college. Even +now in his maturity, and with the spurring of a steady purpose to urge +him on, he often faltered. His memoranda show now and then a touch of +self-accusation or regret. + + "I have worked lazily enough, or rather have been too busy to work + at all. Ended the old year very badly." + + "I find it as hard to get under way, as a crazy hulk that has been + boarded up for repairs." + +How thoroughly he conquered this repugnance to hard work is illustrated +by a pathetic incident which happened once when he was engaged upon a +bit of writing that interested him, but when he was prevented by +rheumatic pains from sitting upright. Prescott then placed his +noctograph upon the floor and lay down flat beside it, writing in this +attitude for many hours on nine consecutive days rather than give in. + +He tried some curious devices to penalise himself for laziness. He used +to persuade his friends to make bets with him that he would not complete +certain portions of writing within a given time. This sort of thing was +a good deal of a make-believe, for Prescott cared nothing about money +and had plenty of it at his disposal; and when his friends lost, he +never permitted them to pay. He did a like thing on a larger scale and +in a somewhat different way by giving a bond to his secretary, Mr. +English, binding himself to pay a thousand dollars if within one year +from September, 1828, Prescott should not have written two hundred and +fifty pages of _Ferdinand and Isabella_. This number of pages was +specified, because Prescott dreaded his own instability of purpose, and +felt that if he should once get so far as two hundred and fifty pages, +he would be certain to go on and finish the entire history. Other wagers +or bonds with Mr. English were made by Prescott from time to time, all +with the purpose of counteracting his own disposition to _far niente_. + +His settled mode of life also compelled him in some measure to give up +the delights of general social intercourse and the convivial pleasures +of which he was naturally fond. There were, indeed, times when he did +let his work go and enjoyed a return to a freer life, as when in the +country at Pepperell he romped and rollicked like a boy; or when in +Boston, he was present at some of the jolly little suppers given by his +friends and so much liked by him. But on the whole, neither his health +nor the arduous researches which he had undertaken allowed him often to +break the regularity of his way of living. Nothing, indeed, testifies +more strikingly to his naturally buoyant disposition than the fact that +years of unvarying routine were unable to make of Prescott a formalist +or to render him less charming as a social favourite. In his study he +was conspicuously the scholar, the investigator; elsewhere he was the +genial companion, full of fun and jest, telling stories and manifesting +that gift of personal attractiveness which compelled all within its +range to feel wholly and completely at their ease. No writer was ever +less given to literary posing. It is, indeed, an extraordinary fact that +although Prescott was occupied for ten whole years in preparing his +_Ferdinand and Isabella_, during all that time not more than three +persons outside of his own family knew that he was writing a book. His +friends supposed that his hours of seclusion were occupied in general +reading and study. Only when a formal announcement of the history was +made in the _North American Review_ in 1837, did even his familiar +associates begin to think of him as an author. + +The death of Prescott's little daughter, Catherine, in February, 1829, +did much to drive him to hard work as a relief from sorrow. She was his +first-born child, and when she died, she was a few months over four +years of age,--a winsome little creature, upon whom her father had +lavished an unstinted affection. She alone had the privilege of +interrupting him during his hours of work. Often she used to climb up to +his study and put an end to the most profound researches, greatly, it is +recorded, to the delight of his secretary, who thus got a little moment +of relief from the deciphering of almost undecipherable scrawls. Her +death was sudden, and the shock of it was therefore all the greater. +Years afterward, Prescott, in writing to a friend who had suffered a +like bereavement, disclosed the depths of his own anguish: "I can never +suffer again as I then did. It was my first heavy sorrow, and I suppose +we cannot twice feel so bitterly." His labour now took on the character +of a solace, and perhaps it was at this time that he formed the opinion +which he set down long after: "I am convinced that intellectual +occupation--steady, regular, literary occupation--is the true vocation +for me, indispensable to my happiness." + +And so his preparation for _Ferdinand and Isabella_ went on apace. +Prescott no longer thought it enough to master the historians who had +already written of this reign. He went back of them to the very +_Quellen_, having learned that the true historical investigator can +afford to slight no possible source of information,--that nothing, good, +bad, or indifferent, can safely be neglected. The packets which now +reached him from Spain and France grew bulkier and their contents more +diversified. Not merely modern tomes, not merely printed books were +there, but parchments in quaint and crabbed script, to be laboriously +deciphered by his secretary, with masses of black-letter and copies of +ancient archives, from which some precious fact or chance corroboration +might be drawn by inquisitive industry. The sifting out of all this +rubbish-heap went on with infinite patience, until at last his notes and +memoranda contained the substance of all that was essential. + +Prescott had given a bond to Mr. English pledging himself to complete by +September, 1829, two hundred and fifty printed pages of the book. Yet it +was actually not until this month had ended that the first line was +written. On October 6, 1829, after three months devoted to reviewing his +notes for the opening chapter, he took his noctograph and scrawled the +initial sentence. A whole month was consumed in finishing the chapter, +and two months more in writing out the second and the third. From this +time a sense of elation filled him, now that all his patient labour was +taking concrete form, and there was no more question of putting his task +aside. His progress might be, as he called it, "tortoise-like," but he +had felt the joy of creation; and the work went on, always with a firmer +grasp, a surer sense of form, and the clearer light which comes to an +artist as his first vague impressions begin under his hand to take on +actuality. There were times when, from illness, he had almost to cease +from writing; there were other times when he turned aside from his +special studies to accomplish some casual piece of literary work. But +these interruptions, while they delayed the accomplishment of his +purpose, did not break the current of his interest. + +The casual pieces of writing, to which allusion has just been made, were +oftenest contributions to the _North American Review_. One of them, +however, was somewhat more ambitious than a magazine article. It was a +life of Charles Brockden Brown, which Prescott undertook at the request +of Jared Sparks, who was editing a series of American biographies. This +was in 1834, and the book was written in two weeks at Nahant. It +certainly did nothing for Prescott's reputation. What is true of this is +true of everything that he wrote outside of his histories. In his +essays, and especially in his literary criticisms, he seemed devoid of +penetration and of a grasp upon the verities. His style, too, in all +such work was formal and inert. He often showed the extent of his +reading, but never an intimate feeling for character. He could not get +down to the very core of his subject and weigh and judge with the +freedom of an independent critic. His life of Brown will be found fully +to bear out this view. In it Prescott chooses to condone the worst of +Brown's defects, and he gives no intimation of the man's real power. +Prescott himself felt that he had been too eulogistic, whereas his +greatest fault was that the eulogy was misapplied. Sparks mildly +criticised the book for its excess of generalities and its lack of +concrete facts. + +How thoroughly Prescott prepared himself for the writing of his book +reviews may be seen in the fact that, having been asked for a notice of +Conde's _History of the Arabs in Spain_, he spent from three to four +months in preliminary reading, and then occupied nearly three months +more in writing out the article. In this particular case, however, he +felt that the paper represented too much labour to be sent to the _North +American_, and therefore it was set aside and ultimately made into a +chapter of his _Ferdinand and Isabella_. + +It was on the 25th of June, 1836, that his history was finished, and he +at once began to consider the question of its publication. Three years +before, he had had the text set up in type so far as it was then +completed; and as the work went on, this private printing continued +until, soon after he had reached the end, four copies of the book were +in his hands. These printed copies had been prepared for several +reasons. First of all, the sight of his labour thus taking concrete form +was a continual stimulus to him. He was still, so far as the public was +concerned, a young author, and he felt all of the young author's joy in +contemplating the printed pages of his first real book. In the second +place, he wished to make a number of final alterations and corrections; +and every writer of experience is aware that the last subtle touches can +be given to a book only when it is actually in type, for only then can +he see the workmanship as it really is, with its very soul exposed to +view, seen as the public will see it, divested of the partial nebulosity +which obscures the vision while it still remains in manuscript. Finally, +Prescott wished to have a printed copy for submission to the English +publishers. It was his earnest hope to have the book appear +simultaneously in England and America, since on the other side of the +Atlantic, rather than in the United States, were to be found the most +competent judges of its worth. + +But the search for an English publisher was at first unsuccessful. +Murray rejected it without even looking at it. The Longmans had it +carefully examined, but decided against accepting it. Prescott was hurt +by this rejection, the more so as he thought (quite incorrectly, as he +afterward discovered) that it was Southey who had advised the Longmans +not to publish it. The fact was that both of the firms just mentioned +had refused it because their lists were then too full to justify them in +undertaking a three-volume history. Prescott, for a time, experienced +some hesitation in bringing it out at all. He had written on the day of +its completion: "I should feel not only no desire, but a reluctance to +publish, and should probably keep it by me for emendations and +additions, were it not for the belief that the ground would be more or +less occupied in the meantime by abler writers." The allusion here is to +a history of the Spanish Arabs announced by Southey. But what really +spurred Prescott on to give his book to the world was a quiet remark of +his father's, in which there was something of a challenge and a taunt. +"The man," said he, "who writes a book which he is afraid to publish is +a coward." "Coward" was a name which no true Prescott could endure; and +so, after some months of negotiation and reflection, an arrangement was +made to have the history appear with the imprint of a newly founded +publishing house, the American Stationers' Company of Boston, with which +Prescott signed a contract in April, 1837. By the terms of this contract +Prescott was to furnish the plates and also the engravings for the book, +of which the company was to print 1250 copies and to have five years in +which to sell them--surely a very modest bargain. But Prescott cared +little for financial profits, nor was he wholly sanguine of the book's +success. On the day after signing the contract, he wrote: "I must +confess I feel some disquietude at the prospect of coming in full bodily +presence before the public." And somewhat earlier he had written with a +curious though genuine humility:-- + + "What do I expect from it, now it is done? And may it not be all in + vain and labour lost, after all? My expectations are not such, if I + know myself, as to expose me to any serious disappointment. I do + not flatter myself with the idea that I have achieved anything very + profound, or, on the other hand, that will be very popular. I know + myself too well to suppose the former for a moment. I know the + public too well, and the subject I have chosen, to expect the + latter. But I have made a book illustrating an unexplored and + important period, from authentic materials, obtained with much + difficulty, and probably in the possession of no one library, + public or private, in Europe. As a plain, veracious record of + facts, the work, therefore, till some one else shall be found to + make a better one, will fill up a gap in literature which, I should + hope, would give it a permanent value,--a value founded on its + utility, though bringing no great fame or gain to its author. + + "Come to the worst, and suppose the thing a dead failure, and the + book born only to be damned. Still, it will not be all in vain, + since it has encouraged me in forming systematic habits of + intellectual occupation, and proved to me that my greatest + happiness is to be the result of such. It is no little matter to be + possessed of this conviction from experience." + +But Prescott had received encouragement in his moods of doubt from Jared +Sparks, at that time one of the most scientific American students of +history. Sparks had read the book in one of the first printed copies, +and had written to Prescott, in February, 1837: "The book will be +successful--bought, read, and praised." And so finally, on Christmas Day +of 1837,--though dated 1838 upon the title-page,--the _History of the +Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella_ was first offered for sale. It was in +three volumes of about four hundred pages each, and was dedicated to his +father. + +Only five hundred copies of the book had been printed as a first +edition, and of these only a small number had been bound in readiness +for the day of publication. The demand for the book took both author and +publishers by surprise. This demand came, first of all, and naturally +enough, from Prescott's personal friends. One of these, a gentleman of +convivial habits, and by no means given to reading, rose early on +Christmas morning and waited outside of the bookshop in order to secure +the first copy sold. Literary Boston, which was also fashionable Boston, +adopted the book as its favourite New Year's present. The bookbinders +could not work fast enough to supply the demand, and in a few months the +whole of the 1250 copies, which it had been supposed would last for at +least five years, had been sold. Other parts of the country followed +Boston's lead. The book was praised by the newspapers and, after a +little interval, by the more serious reviews,--the _North American_, the +_Examiner_, and the _Democratic Review_, the last of which published an +elaborate appreciation by George Bancroft. + +Meanwhile, Prescott had succeeded in finding a London publisher; for in +May, Mr. Richard Bentley accepted the book, and it soon after appeared +in England. To the English criticisms Prescott naturally looked forward +with interest and something like anxiety. American approval he might +well ascribe to national bias if not to personal friendship. Therefore, +the uniformly favourable reviews in his own country could not be +accepted by him as definitely fixing the value of what he had +accomplished. In a letter to Ticknor, after recounting his first +success, he said:-- + + "'Poor fellow!'--I hear you exclaim by this time,--'his wits are + actually turned by this flurry in his native village,--the Yankee + Athens.' Not a whit, I assure you. Am I not writing to two dear + friends, to whom I can talk as freely and foolishly as to one of my + own household, and who, I am sure, will not misunderstand me? The + effect of all this--which a boy at Dr. Gardiner's school, I + remember, called _fungum popularitatem_--has been rather to depress + me, and S---- was saying yesterday, that she had never known me so + out of spirits as since the book has come out." + +What he wanted most was to read a thoroughly impartial estimate written +by some foreign scholar of distinction. He had not long to wait. In the +_Athenoeum_ there soon appeared a very eulogistic notice, written by +Dr. Dunham, an industrious student of Spanish and Portuguese history. +Then followed an admirably critical paper in the _Edinburgh Review_ by +Don Pascual de Gayangos, a distinguished Spanish writer living in +England. Highly important among the English criticisms was that which +was published in the _Quarterly Review_ of June, 1839, from the pen of +Richard Ford, a very accurate and critical Spanish scholar. Mr. Ford +approached the book with something of the _morgue_ of a true British +pundit when dealing with the work of an unknown American;[9] but, none +the less, his criticism, in spite of his reluctance to praise, gave +Prescott genuine pleasure. Ford found fault with some of the details of +_Ferdinand and Isabella_, yet he was obliged to admit both the sound +scholarship and literary merit of the book. On the Continent appeared +the most elaborate review of all in a series of five articles written +for the _Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve_, by the Comte Adolphe de +Circourt. The Comte was a friend of Lamartine (who called him _la +mappemonde vivante des connaissances humaines_) and also of Tocqueville +and Cavour. Few of his contemporaries possessed so minute a knowledge of +the subject which Prescott treated, and of the original sources of +information; and the favourably philosophical tone of the whole review +was a great compliment to an author hitherto unknown in Europe. Still +later, sincere and almost unqualified praise was given by Guizot in +France, and by Lockhart, Southey, Hallam, and Milman, in England. +Indeed, as Mr. Ticknor says, although these personages had never before +heard of Prescott, their spirit was almost as kindly as if it had been +due to personal friendship. The long years of discouragement, of +endurance, and of patient, arduous toil had at last borne abundant +fruit; and from the time of the appearance of _Ferdinand and Isabella_, +Prescott won and held an international reputation, and tasted to the +full the sweets of a deserved success. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +IN MID CAREER + + +After the publication of _Ferdinand and Isabella_, its author rested on +his oars, treating himself to social relaxation and enjoying thoroughly +the praise which came to him from every quarter. Of course he had no +intention of remaining idle long, but a new subject did not at once +present itself so clearly to him as to make his choice of it inevitable. +For about eighteen months, therefore, he took his ease. His +correspondence, however, shows that he was always thinking of a second +venture in the field of historical composition. His old bent for +literary history led him to consider the writing of a life of Moliere--a +book that should be agreeable and popular rather than profound. Yet +Spain still kept its hold on his imagination, and even before his +_Ferdinand and Isabella_ had won its sure success, he had written in a +letter to Ticknor the following paragraph:-- + + "My heart is set on a Spanish subject, could I compass the + materials: viz. the conquest of Mexico and the anterior + civilisation of the Mexicans--a beautiful prose epic, for which + rich virgin materials teem in Simancas and Madrid, and probably in + Mexico. I would give a couple of thousand dollars that they lay in + a certain attic in Bedford Street." + +This purpose lingered in his mind all through his holidays, which were, +indeed, not wholly given up to idleness, for he listened to a good deal +of general reading at this time, most of it by no means of a superficial +character. Ever since his little daughter's death, Prescott had felt a +peculiar interest in the subject of the immortality of the soul, and had +read all of the most serious treatises to be found upon that subject. He +had also gone carefully through the Gospels, weighing them with all the +acumen which he had brought to bear upon his Castilian chronicles. This +investigation, which he had begun with reference to the single question +of immortality, broadened out into an examination of the whole +evidential basis of orthodox Christianity. In this study he was aided by +his father, who brought to it the keen, impartial judgment of an able +lawyer. Of the conclusions at which he ultimately arrived, he was not +wont to talk except on rare occasions, and his cast of mind was always +reverential. He did, however, reject the doctrines of his Puritan +ancestors. He held fast to the authenticity of the Gospels, but he found +in these no evidence to support the tenets of Calvinism. + +Now, in his leisure time, he read over various works of a theological +character, and came to the general conclusion that "the study of +polemics or Biblical critics will tend neither to settle principles nor +clear up doubts, but rather to confuse the former and multiply the +latter." Prescott's whole religious creed was, in fact, summed up by +himself in these words: "To do well and act justly, to fear and to love +God, and to love our neighbour as ourselves--in these is the essence of +religion. For what we can believe, we are not responsible, supposing we +examine candidly and patiently. For what we do, we shall indeed be +accountable. The doctrines of the Saviour unfold the whole code of +morals by which our conduct should be regulated. Who, then, whatever +difficulties he may meet with in particular incidents and opinions +recorded in the Gospels, can hesitate to receive the great religious and +moral truths inculcated by the Saviour as the words of inspiration? I +cannot, certainly. On these, then, I will rest." + +In April, 1838, Prescott took the first step toward beginning a study of +the Mexican conquest. He wrote to Madrid in order to discover what +materials were available for his proposed researches. At the same time +he began collecting such books relating to Mexico as could be obtained +in London. Securing personal letters to scholars and officials in Mexico +itself, he wrote to them to enlist their interest in his new +undertaking. By the end of the year it became evident that the wealth of +material bearing upon the Conquest was very great, and a knowledge of +this fact roused in Prescott all the enthusiasm of an historical +investigator who has scented a new and promising trail. Only one thing +now stood in the way. This was an intimation to the effect that +Washington Irving had already planned a similar piece of work. This bit +of news was imparted to Prescott by Mr. J. G. Cogswell, who was then in +charge of the Astor Library in New York, and who was an intimate friend +of both Prescott and Irving. Mr. Cogswell told Prescott that Irving was +intending to write a history of the conquest of Mexico, as a sort of +sequel, or rather pendant, to his life of Columbus. Of course, under the +circumstances, Prescott felt that, in courtesy to one who was then the +most distinguished American man of letters, he could not proceed with +his undertaking so long as Mr. Irving was in the field. He therefore +wrote a long letter to Irving, detailing what he had already done toward +acquiring material, and to say that Mr. Cogswell had intimated that +Irving was willing to relinquish the subject in his favour. + + "I have learned from Mr. Cogswell that you had originally proposed + to treat the same subject, and that you requested him to say to me + that you should relinquish it in my favour. I cannot sufficiently + express to you my sense of your courtesy, which I can very well + appreciate, as I know the mortification it would have caused me if, + contrary to my expectations, I had found you on the ground.... I + fear the public will not feel so much pleased as myself by this + liberal conduct on your part, and I am not sure that I should have + a right in their eyes to avail myself of it. But I trust you will + think differently when I accept your proffered courtesy in the same + cordial spirit in which it was given." + +To this letter Irving made a long and courteous reply, not only assuring +Prescott that the subject would be willingly abandoned to him, but +offering to send him any books that might be useful and to render any +service in his power. The episode affords a beautiful instance of +literary and scholarly amenities. The sacrifice which Irving made in +giving up his theme was as fine as the manner of it was graceful. +Prescott never knew how much it meant to Irving, who had already not +only made some study of the subject, but had sketched out the +ground-plan of the first volume, and had been actually at work upon the +task of composition for a period of three months. But there was +something more in it than this. Writing to his nephew, Pierre Irving, +who was afterward his biographer, he disclosed his real feeling with +much frankness. + + "I doubt whether Mr. Prescott was aware of the extent of the + sacrifice I made. This was a favourite subject which had delighted + my imagination ever since I was a boy. I had brought home books + from Spain to aid me in it, and looked upon it as the pendant to my + Columbus. When I gave it up to him I, in a manner, gave him up my + bread; for I depended upon the profits of it to recruit my waning + finances. I had no other subject at hand to supply its place. I was + dismounted from my _cheval de bataille_ and have never been + completely mounted since. Had I accomplished that work my whole + pecuniary situation would have been altered."[10] + +There was no longer any obstacle in Prescott's way, and he set to work +with an interest which grew as the richness of the material revealed +itself. There came to him from Madrid, books, manuscripts, copies of +official documents, and all the _apparatus criticus_ which even the most +exacting scholar could require. The distinguished historian, Navarrete, +placed his entire collection of manuscripts relating to Mexico and Peru +at the disposal of his American _confrere_. The Spanish Academy let him +have copies of the collections made by Munoz and by Vargas y Ponce--a +matter of some five thousand pages. Prescott's friend, Senor Calderon, +who at this time was Spanish Minister to Mexico, aided him in gathering +materials relating to the early Aztec civilisation. Don Pascual de +Gayangos, who had written the favourable notice in the _Edinburgh +Review_, delved among the documents in the British Museum on behalf of +Prescott, and caused copies to be made of whatever seemed to bear upon +the Mexican conquest. A year or two later, he even sent to Prescott the +whole of his own collection of manuscripts. In Spain very valuable +assistance was given by Mr. A. H. Everett, at that time American +Minister to the Spanish court, and by his first Secretary of Legation, +the South Carolinian who had taken his entrance examination to Harvard +in Prescott's company, and who throughout his college life had been a +close and valued friend. A special agent, Dr. Lembke,[11] was also +employed, and he gave a good part of his time to rummaging among the +archives and libraries. Prescott's authorship of _Ferdinand and +Isabella_, however, was the real touchstone which opened all doors to +him, and enlisted in his service enthusiastic purveyors of material in +every quarter. In Spain especially, the prestige of his name was very +great; and more than one traveller from Boston received distinguished +courtesies in that country as being the _conciudadano_ of the American +historian. Mr. Edward Everett Hale, whose acquaintance with Prescott was +very slight, relates an experience which is quite illustrative:-- + + "I had gone there [to Madrid] to make some studies and collect some + books for the history of the Pacific, which, with a prophetic + instinct, I have always wanted to write. Different friends gave me + letters of introduction, and among others the gentlemen of the + Spanish Embassy here were very kind to me. They gave me four such + letters, and when I was in Madrid and when I was in Seville it + seemed as though every door flew open for me and every facility was + offered me. It was not until I was at home again that I came to + know the secret of these most diligent civilities. I still had one + of my Embassy letters which I had never presented. I read it for + the first time, to learn that I was the coadjutor and friend of the + great historian Prescott through all his life, that I was his + assistant through all his historical work, and, indeed, for these + reasons, no American was more worthy of the consideration of the + gentlemen in charge of the Spanish archives. It was certainly by no + fault of mine that an exaggeration so stupendous had found its way + to the Spanish Legation. Somebody had said, what was true, that + Prescott was always good to me, and that our friendship began when + he engaged me as his reader. And, what with translating this simple + story, what with people's listening rather carelessly and + remembering rather carelessly, by the time my letters were drafted + I had become a sort of 'double' of Mr. Prescott himself. I hope + that I shall never hear that I disgraced him."[12] + +Actual work upon the _Conquest_ began early in 1839, though not at first +with a degree of progress which was satisfactory to the investigator. By +May, however, he had warmed to his work. He went back to his old +rigorous regime, giving up again all social pleasures outside of his own +house, and spending in his library at least five hours each day. His +period of rest had done him good, and his eyesight was now better than +at any time since it first became impaired. After three months of +preliminary reading he was able to sketch out the plan of the entire +work, and on October 14, 1839, he began the actual task of composition. +He found the introduction extremely difficult to write, for it dealt +with the pre-historic period of Mexico, obscured as it was by the mist +of myth and by the contradictory assertions of conflicting authorities. +"The whole of that part of the story," wrote Prescott, "is in twilight, +and I fear I shall at least make only moonshine of it. I must hope that +it will be good moonshine. It will go hard with me, however, but that I +can fish something new out of my ocean of manuscripts." He had hoped to +dispose of his introduction in a hundred pages, and to finish it in six +months at the most. It actually extended to two hundred and fifty pages, +and the writing of it took nearly eighteen months. One interruption +occurred which he had not anticipated. The success of _Ferdinand and +Isabella_ had tempted an unscrupulous publisher to undertake an +abridgment of that book. To protect his own interests Prescott decided +to make an abridgment of his own, and thus to forestall the pirate. This +work disheartened and depressed him, but he finished it with great +celerity, only to find that the rival abridgment had been given up. A +brief stay upon the sea-coast put him once more into working condition, +and from that time he went on steadily with the _Conquest_, which he +completed on August 2, 1843, not quite four years from the time when he +began the actual composition. His weariness was lightened by the +confidence which he felt in his own success. He knew that he had +produced a masterpiece. + +Naturally, he now had no trouble in securing a publisher and in making +very advantageous terms for the production of the book. It was brought +out by the Harpers of New York, though, as before, Prescott himself +owned the plates. His contract allowed the Harpers to publish five +thousand copies for which they paid the author $7500, with the right of +publishing more copies if required within the period of one year and on +the same general terms. An English edition was simultaneously brought +out by Bentley in London, who purchased the foreign copyright for L650. +Three Spanish translations appeared soon after, one in Madrid in 1847 +and two in Mexico in 1844. A French translation was published in Paris, +by Didot in 1846, and a German translation, in Leipzig, by Brockhaus in +1845. A French reprint in English appeared in Paris soon after Bentley +placed the London edition upon the market. + +No historical work written by an American has ever been received with so +much enthusiasm alike in America and in Europe. Within a month, four +thousand copies were disposed of by the Harpers, and at the end of four +months the original edition of five thousand had been sold. The +reviewers were unanimous in its praise, and an avalanche of +congratulatory letters descended upon Prescott from admirers, known and +unknown, all over the civilised world. _Ferdinand and Isabella_ had +brought him reputation; the _Conquest of Mexico_ made him famous. +Honours came to him unsought. He was elected a member of the French +Institute[13] and of the Royal Society of Berlin. He had already +accepted membership in the Royal Spanish Academy of History at Madrid +and in the Royal Academy of Sciences in Naples. Harvard conferred upon +him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Perhaps nothing pleased him more, +however, than a personal letter from Humboldt, for whom Prescott had +long entertained a feeling of deep admiration. This eminent scholar, at +that time the President of the Royal Society of Berlin, in which body +Niebuhr, Von Raumer, and Ranke had been enrolled, wrote in French a +letter of which the following sentences form a part:-- + + "My satisfaction has been very great in studying line by line your + excellent work. One judges with severity, with perhaps a bias + towards injustice, when he has had a vivid impression of the + places, and when the study of ancient history with which I have + been occupied from preference has been pursued on the very soil + itself where a part of these great events took place. My severity, + sir, has been disarmed by the reading of your _Conquest of Mexico_. + You paint with success because you have _seen_ with the eyes of the + spirit and of the inner sense. It is a pleasure to me, a citizen of + Mexico, to have lived long enough to read you and to speak to you + of my appreciation of the kind expressions with which you have done + honour to my name.... Were I not wholly occupied with my _Cosmos_, + which I have had the imprudence to print, I should have wished to + translate your work into the language of my own country." + +While gathering the materials for the _Conquest of Mexico_, Prescott had +felt his way toward still another subject which his Mexican researches +naturally suggested. This was the conquest of Peru. Much of his Mexican +reading had borne directly upon this other theme, so that the labour of +preparation was greatly lightened. Moreover, by this time, he had +acquired both an accurate knowledge of sources and also great facility +in composition. Hence the only serious work which was necessary for him +to undertake as a preliminary to composition was the study of Peruvian +antiquities. This occupied him eight months, and proved to be far more +troublesome to him and much less satisfactory than the like +investigation which he had made with reference to the Aztecs. However, +after the work had been commenced it proceeded rapidly,--so rapidly, in +fact, as to cause him a feeling of half-comical dismay. He began to +write on the 12th of August, 1844, and completed his task on November 7, +1846. During its progress he made a note that he had written two +chapters, amounting in all to fifty-one printed pages, in four days, +adding the comment, "I never did up so much yarn in the same time. At +this rate Peru will not hold out six months. Can I finish it in a year? +Alas for the reader!" No doubt he might have finished it in a year had +certain interruptions not occurred. The first of these was the death of +his father, which took place on December 8th, not long after he had +begun the book. His brother Edward had died shortly before, and this +double affliction affected very deeply so sensitive a nature as +Prescott's. To his father, indeed, he owed more than he could ever +express. The two had been true comrades, and had treated one another +with an affectionate familiarity which, between father and son, was as +rare in those days as it was beautiful. Judge Prescott's generosity had +made it possible for the younger man to break through all the barriers +of physical infirmity, and not only to win fame but also the happiness +which comes from a creative activity. They understood each other very +well, and in many points they were much alike both in their friendliness +and in their habits of reserve. One little circumstance illustrates this +likeness rather curiously. Fond as both of them were of their fellows, +and cordial as they both were to all their friends, each wished at times +to be alone, and these times were when they walked or rode. Therefore, +each morning when the two men mounted their horses or when they set out +for a walk, they always parted company when they reached the road, one +turning to the right and the other to the left by a tacit understanding, +and neither ever thought of accompanying the other. Sometimes a friend +not knowing of this trait would join one of them to share the ride or +walk. Whenever such a thing as this took place, that particular route +would be abandoned the next day and another and a lonelier one selected. + +A further interruption came from the purchase of a house on Beacon +Street and the necessity of arranging to leave the old mansion on +Bedford Street. The new house was a fine one, overlooking the Mall and +the Common; and the new library, which was planned especially for +Prescott's needs, was much more commodious than the old one. But the +confusion and feeling of unsettlement attendant on the change distracted +Prescott more than it would have done a man less habituated to a +self-imposed routine. "A month of pandemonium," he wrote; "an +unfurnished house coming to order; a library without books; books +without time to open them." It took Prescott quite a while to resume his +methodical habits. His old-time indolence settled down upon him, and it +was some time before his literary momentum had been recovered. Moreover, +he presumed upon the fairly satisfactory condition of his eye and used +it to excess. The result was that his optic nerve was badly over-taxed, +"probably by manuscript digging," as he said. The strain was one from +which his eye never fully recovered; and from this time until the +completion of the _Peru_, he could use it in reading for only a few +minutes every day, sometimes perhaps for ten or fifteen, but never for +more than thirty. As this is the last time that we shall mention this +subject, it may be said that for all purposes of literary work Prescott +was soon afterward reduced to the position of one who was actually +blind. What had before been a merely stationary dimness of vision became +a slowly progressive decay of sight, or, to express it in medical +language, amblyopia had passed into amaurosis. He followed rigorously +his oculist's injunctions, but in the end he had to face the facts +unflinchingly; and a little later he recorded his determination to give +up all use of the eye for the future in his studies, and to be contented +with preserving it for the ordinary purposes of life. The necessity +disheartened him. "It takes the strength out of me," he said. +Nevertheless, neither this nor the fact that his general health was most +unsatisfactory, caused him to abandon work. He could not bring himself +to use what he called "the coward's word, 'impossible.'" And so, after a +little time, he went on as before, studying "by ear-work," and turning +off upon his noctograph from ten to fifteen pages every day. He +continued also his outdoor exercise, and, in fact, one of the +best-written chapters of the _Conquest of Peru_--the last one--was +composed while galloping through the woods at Pepperell. On November 7, +1846, the _Conquest of Peru_ was finished. Like the preceding history, +it was published by the Harper Brothers, who agreed to pay the author +one dollar per copy and to bring out a first edition of seventy-five +hundred copies. This, Mr. Ticknor says, was a more liberal arrangement +than had ever before been made with an historical writer in the United +States. The English copyright was purchased by Bentley for L800. + +Prescott's main anxiety about the reception which would be given to the +_Conquest of Peru_ was based upon his doubts as to its literary style. +Neither of his other books had been written so rapidly, and he feared +that he might incur the charge of over-fluency or even slovenliness. +Yet, as a matter of fact, the chorus of praise which greeted the two +volumes was as loud and as spontaneous as it had been over his _Mexico_. +Prescott now stood so firmly on his feet as to look at much of this +praise in a somewhat humorous light. The approbation of the _Edinburgh +Review_ no longer seemed to him the _summa laus_, though he valued it +more highly than the praise given him by American periodicals, of which +he wrote very shrewdly: + + "I don't know how it is, but our critics, though not pedantic, have + not the businesslike air, or the air of the man of the world, which + gives manliness and significance to criticism. Their satire, when + they attempt it--which cannot be often laid to their door--has + neither the fine edge of the _Edinburgh_ nor the sledgehammer + stroke of the _Quarterly_. They twaddle out their humour as if they + were afraid of its biting too hard, or else they deliver axioms + with a sort of smart, dapper conceit, like a little parson laying + down the law to his little people.... In England there is a far + greater number of men highly cultivated--whether in public life or + men of leisure--whose intimacy with affairs and with society, as + well as books, affords supplies of a high order for periodical + criticism." + +As for newspaper eulogies, he remarked: "I am certainly the cause of +some wit and much folly in others." His latest work, however, brought +him two new honours which he greatly prized,--an election to the Royal +English Society of Literature, and the other an invitation to membership +in the Royal Society of Antiquaries. The former honour he shared with +only one of his fellow-countrymen, Bancroft; the latter had heretofore +been given to no American. + +Prescott now indulged himself with a long period of "literary loafing," +as he described it, broken in upon only by the preparation of a short +memoir of John Pickering, the antiquarian and scholar, who had been one +of Prescott's most devoted friends. This memoir was undertaken at the +request of the Massachusetts Historical Society. It has no general +interest now, but is worthy of note as having been the only one of +Prescott's works which he dictated to an amanuensis. Prescott had an +aversion to writing in this way, although he had before him the example +of his blind contemporary, Thierry. Like Alphonse Daudet, he seems to +have felt that what is written by hand comes more directly from the +author's inner self, and that it represents most truly the tints and +half-tones of his personality. That this is only a fancy is seen clearly +enough from several striking instances which the history of literature +records. Scott dictated to Lockhart the whole of _The Bride of +Lammermoor_. Thackeray dictated a good part of _The Newcomes_ and all of +_Pendennis_, and even _Henry Esmond_, of which the artificial style +might well have made dictation difficult. Prescott, however, had his own +opinion on the subject, and, with the single exception which has just +been cited, he used his noctograph for composition down to the very end, +dictating only his correspondence to his secretary. + +His days of "literary loafing" allowed him to enjoy the pleasures of +friendship which during his periods of work were necessarily, to some +extent, intermitted. No man ever had more cordially devoted friends than +Prescott. He knew every one who was worth knowing, and every one was +attracted by the spontaneous charm of his manner and his invincible +kindliness. Never was a man more free from petulance or peevishness, +though these defects at times might well have been excused in one whose +health was such as his. He presented the anomaly of a dyspeptic who was +still an optimist and always amiable. Mr. John Foster Kirk, who was one +of his secretaries, wrote of him:-- + + "No annoyance, great or small, the most painful illness or the most + intolerable bore, could disturb his equanimity, or render him in + the least degree sullen, or fretful, or discourteous. He was always + gay, good-humoured, and manly. He carried his kindness of + disposition not only into his public, but into his private, + writings. In the hundreds of letters, many of them of the most + confidential character, treating freely of other authors and of a + great variety of persons, which I wrote at his dictation, not a + single unkind or harsh or sneering expression occurs. He was + totally free from the jealousy and envy so common among authors, + and was always eager in conversation, as in print, to point out the + merits of the great contemporary historians whom many men in his + position would have looked upon as rivals to be dreaded if not + detested." + +Bancroft the historian has added his testimony to the greatness of +Prescott's personal charm. + + "His countenance had something that brought to mind the 'beautiful + disdain' that hovers on that of the Apollo. But while he was + high-spirited, he was tender and gentle and humane. His voice was + like music and one could never hear enough of it. His cheerfulness + reached and animated all about him. He could indulge in playfulness + and could also speak earnestly and profoundly; but he knew not how + to be ungracious or pedantic." + +No wonder then that his friends were legion, comprising men and women of +the most different types. Dry and formal scholars such as Jared Sparks; +men of the world like Lord Carlisle; nice old ladies like Maria +Edgeworth and the octogenarian Miss Berry, Walpole's friend; women of +fashion like Lady Lyell, Lady Mary Labouchere, and the Duchess of +Sutherland; Spanish hidalgos like Calderon de la Barca; smooth +politicians like Caleb Cushing; and intense partisans like Charles +Sumner,--all agreed in their affectionate admiration for Prescott. His +friendship with Sumner was indeed quite notable, since no men could have +been more utterly unlike. Sumner was devoid of the slightest gleam of +humour, and his self-consciousness was extreme; yet Prescott sometimes +poked fun at him with impunity. Thus, writing to Sumner about his Phi +Beta Kappa oration (delivered in 1846), he said:-- + + "Last year you condemned wars _in toto_, making no exception even + for the wars of freedom. This year you condemn the _representation_ + of war, whether by the pencil or the pen. Marathon, Salamis, Bunker + Hill, the retreat from Moscow, Waterloo, great and small, are _all_ + to be blotted from memory equally with my own wild skirmishes of + barbarians and banditti. Lord deliver us! Where will you bring up? + If the stories are not to be painted or written, such records of + them as have been heedlessly made should by the same rule be + destroyed. I laugh; but I fear you will make the judicious grieve. + But fare thee well, dear Sumner. Whether thou deportest thyself + _sana mente_ or _mente insana_, believe me always truly yours." + +But Sumner's arrogance and egoism were always in abeyance where Prescott +was concerned, and even their lack of political sympathy never marred +the warmth of their intercourse. Prescott, in fact, cared very little +about contemporary politics. He had inherited from his fighting +ancestors a sturdy patriotism, but his loyalty was given to the whole +country and not to any faction or party. His cast of mind was +essentially conservative, and down to 1856 he would no doubt have called +himself an old-line Whig. He was always, however, averse to political +discussion which, indeed, led easily to personalities that were +offensive not only to Prescott's taste but to his amiable disposition. +His friend Parsons said of him: "He never sought or originated political +conversation, but he would not decline contributing his share to it; and +the contribution he made was always of good sense, of moderation, and of +forbearance." + +Prescott's detachment with regard to politics was partly due, no doubt, +to the nature of the life he led, which kept him isolated from the +bustle of the world about him; yet it was probably due still more to a +lack of combativeness in his nature. Motley once said of him that he +lacked the capacity for _saeva indignatio_. This remark was called forth +by Prescott's tolerant view of Philip II. of Spain, who was in Motley's +eyes little better than a monster. One might fairly, however, give it a +wider application, and we must regard it as an undeniable defect in +Prescott that nothing external could strike fire from him. Thus, when +his intimate friend Sumner had been brutally assaulted in the Senate +chamber by the Southern bully, Brooks, Prescott wrote to him: "You have +escaped the crown of martyrdom by a narrow chance, and have got all the +honours, which are almost as dangerous to one's head as a gutta-percha +cane." There is a tameness about this sentence which one would scarcely +notice had Sumner merely received a black eye, but which offends one's +sense of fitness when we recall that Sumner had been beaten into +insensibility, and that he never fully recovered from the attack. Again, +when, in 1854, Boston was all ablaze over the capture of a fugitive +slave, when the city was filled with troops and muskets were levelled at +the populace, Prescott merely remarked to an English correspondent: "It +is a disagreeable business." To be sure, he also said, "It made my blood +boil," but the general tone of the letter shows that his blood must have +boiled at a very low temperature. Nevertheless, he seems to have been +somewhat stirred by the exciting struggle which took place over Kansas +between the Free-Soil forces and the partisans of slavery. Hence, in +1856, he cast his vote for Fremont, the first Republican candidate for +the Presidency. But, as a rule, the politics of the sixteenth century +were his most serious concern, and in the very year in which he voted +for Fremont, he wrote: "I belong to the sixteenth century and am quite +out of place when I sleep elsewhere." It was this feeling which led him +to decline a tempting invitation to write a history of the modern +conquest of Mexico by the American army under General Scott. The offer +came to him in 1847; and both the theme itself and the terms in which +the offer was made might well have attracted one whose face was set less +resolutely toward the historic past. His comment was characteristic. "I +had rather not meddle with heroes who have not been under ground two +centuries at least." It is interesting to note that the subject which +Prescott then rejected has never been adequately treated; and that the +brilliant exploits of Scott in Mexico still await a worthy chronicler. + +It was natural that a writer so popular as Prescott should, in spite of +his methodical life, find his time encroached upon by those who wished +to meet him. He had an instinct for hospitality; and this made it the +more difficult for him to maintain that scholarly seclusion which had +been easy to him in the days of his comparative obscurity. His personal +friends were numerous, and there were many others who sought him out +because of his distinction. Many foreign visitors were entertained by +him, and these he received with genuine pleasure. Their number increased +as the years went by so that once in a single week he entertained, at +Pepperell, Senor Calderon, Stephens the Central American traveller, and +the British General Harlan from Afghanistan. Sir Charles Lyell, Lady +Lyell, Lord Carlisle, and Dickens were also visitors of his. It was as +the guest of Prescott that Thackeray ate his first dinner in +America.[14] Visitors of this sort, of course, he was very glad to see. +Not so much could be said of the strangers who forced themselves upon +him at Nahant, where swarms of summer idlers filled the hotels and +cottages, and with well-meaning but thoughtless interest sought out the +historian in the darkened parlour of his house. "I have lost a clear +month here by company," he wrote in 1840, "company which brings the +worst of all satieties; for the satiety from study brings the +consciousness of improvement. But this dissipation impairs health, +spirit, scholarship. Yet how can I escape it, tied like a bear to a +stake here?" + +Prescott's favourite form of social intercourse was found in little +dinners shared with a few chosen friends. These affairs he called +"cronyings," and in them he took much delight, even though they often +tempted him to an over-indulgence in tobacco and sometimes in wine.[15] +One rule, however, he seldom broke, and that was his resolve never to +linger after ten o'clock at any function, however pleasant. An old +friend of his has left an account of one especially convivial occasion +to which Prescott had invited a number of his friends. The dinner was +given at a restaurant, and the guests were mostly young men and fond of +good living. The affair went off so well that, as the hour of ten +approached, no one thought of leaving. Prescott began to fidget in his +chair and even to drop a hint or two, which passed unnoticed, for the +reason that Prescott's ten o'clock rule was quite unknown to his jovial +guests. At last, to the surprise of every one, he rose and made a little +speech to the company, in which he said that he was sorry to leave them, +but that he must return home. + + "But," he added, "I am sure you will be very soon in no condition + to miss me,--especially as I leave behind that excellent + representative"--pointing to a basket of uncorked bottles which + stood in a corner. "Then you know you are just as much at home in + this house as I am. You can call for what you like. Don't be + alarmed--I mean on _my_ account. I abandon to you, without reserve, + all my best wines, my credit with the house, and my reputation to + boot. Make free with them all, I beg of you--and if you don't go + home till morning, I wish you a merry night of it." + +It is to be hoped that Prescott was not quite accurately reported, and +that he did not speak that little sentence, "Don't be alarmed," which +may have been characteristic of a New Englander, but which certainly +would have induced a different sort of guests to leave the place at +once. If he did say it, however, it was somewhat in keeping with the +tactlessness which he occasionally showed. The habit of frank speech, +which had made him a nuisance as a boy, never quite left him, and he +frequently blurted out things which were of the sort that one would +rather leave unsaid. His wife would often nod and frown at him on these +occasions, and then he would always make the matter worse by asking her, +with the greatest innocence, what the matter was. Mr. Ogden records an +amusing instance of Prescott's _naivete_ during his last visit to +England. Conversing about Americanisms with an English lady of rank, she +criticised the American use of the word "snarl" in the sense of +disorder. "Why, surely," cried Prescott, "you would say that your +ladyship's hair is in a snarl!" Which, unfortunately, it was--a fact +that by no means soothed the lady's temper at being told so. There was a +certain boyishness about Prescott, however, which usually enabled him to +carry these things off without offence, because they were obviously so +natural and so unpremeditated. His boyishness took other forms which +were more generally pleasing. One evidence of it was his fondness for +such games as blindman's buff and puss-in-the-corner, in which he used +to engage with all the zest of a child, even after he had passed his +fiftieth year, and in which the whole household took part, together with +any distinguished foreigners who might be present. Another youthful +trait was his readiness to burst into song on all occasions, even in the +midst of his work. In fact, just before beginning any animated bit of +descriptive writing he would rouse himself up by shouting out some +ballad that had caught his fancy; so that strangers visiting his house +would often be amused when, from the grave historian's study, there came +forth the sonorous musical appeal, "O give me but my Arab steed!" +Boyish, too, was his racy talk, full of colloquialisms and bits of +Yankee dialect, with which also his personal correspondence was +peppered. Even though his rather prim biographer, Ticknor, has gone over +Prescott's letters with a fine-tooth comb, there still remain enough of +these Doric gems to make us wish that all of them had been retained. It +is interesting to find the author of so many volumes of stately and +ornate narration letting himself go in private life, and dropping into +such easy phrases as "whopper-jawed," "cotton to," "quiddle," "book up," +"crack up," "podder" (a favourite word of his), and "slosh." He retained +all of a young man's delight in his own convivial feats, and we find him +in one of his letters, after describing a rather prolonged and +complicated entertainment, asking gleefully, "Am I not a fast boy?" + +His Yankee phrases were the hall-mark of his Yankee nature. Old England, +with all its beauty of landscape and its exquisite finish, never drove +New England from his head or heart. Thus, on his third visit to England, +he wrote to his wife: "I came through the English garden,--lawns of +emerald green, winding streams, light arched bridges, long lines +stretching between hedges of hawthorn all flowering; rustic cottages, +lordly mansions, and sweeping woods--the whole landscape a miracle of +beauty." And then he adds: "I would have given something to see a ragged +fence, or an old stump, or a bit of rock, or even a stone as big as +one's fist, to show that man's hand had not been combing Nature's head +so vigorously. I felt I was not in my own dear, wild America." Prescott +was a true Yankee also in the carefulness of his attention to matters of +business. He did not value money for its own sake. His father had left +him a handsome competence. He spent freely both for himself and for his +friends; but none the less, he made the most minute notes of all his +publishing ventures and analysed the publishers' returns as carefully as +though he were a professional accountant. This was due in part, no +doubt, to a natural desire to measure the popularity of his books by the +standard of financial success. He certainly had no reason to be +dissatisfied. Up to the time of his death, of the _Ferdinand and +Isabella_ there had been sold in the United States and England nearly +eighteen thousand copies; of the _Conquest of Mexico_, twenty-four +thousand copies; and of the _Conquest of Peru_, seventeen thousand +copies--a total, for the three works, of nearly sixty thousand copies. +When we remember that each of these histories was in several volumes and +was expensively printed and bound, and that the reading public was much +smaller in those days than now, this is a very remarkable showing for +three serious historical works. Since his death, the sales have grown +greater with the increase of general readers and the lapse of the +American copyright Prescott made excellent terms with his publishers, as +has already been recorded, and if a decision of the House of Lords had +been favourable to his copyright in England, his literary gains in that +country would have been still larger.[16] + +His liking for New England country life led him to maintain in addition +to his Boston house, at 55 Beacon Street, two other places of residence. +One was at Nahant, then, as now, a very popular resort in summer. There +he had an unpretentious wooden cottage of two stories, with a broad +veranda about it, occupying an elevated position at the extremity of a +bold promontory which commanded a wide view of the sea. Nahant is famous +for its cool--almost too cool--sea-breeze, which even in August so +tempers the heat of the sun as to make a shaded spot almost +uncomfortably cold. This bracing air Prescott found admirably tonic, and +beneficial both to his eye and to his digestion, which was weak. On the +other hand, the dampness of the breeze affected unfavourably his +tendency to rheumatism, so that he seldom spent more than eight weeks of +the year upon the sea-shore. He found also that the reflection of the +sun from the water was a thing to be avoided. Therefore, he most +thoroughly enjoyed his other country place at Pepperell, where his +grandmother had lived. The plain little house, known as "The Highlands," +and shaded by great trees, seemed to him his truest home. Here, more +than elsewhere, he threw off his cares and gave himself up completely to +his drives and rides and walks and social pleasures. The country round +about was then well wooded, and Prescott delighted to gallop through the +forests and over the rich countryside, every inch of which had been +familiar to him since his boyhood days. He felt something of the +English landowner's pride in remembering that his modest estate had been +in the possession of his family for more than a century and a half--"An +uncommon event," he wrote, "among our locomotive people." Behind the +house was a lovely shaded walk with a distant view of Mount Monadnock; +and here Prescott often strolled while composing portions of his +histories before committing them to paper. Beyond the road stood a +picturesque cluster of oak trees, making a thick grove which he called +"the Fairy Grove," for in it he used to tell his children the stories +about elves and gnomes and fairies which delighted them so much. + +It was the death of his parents that led him in the last years of his +own life to abandon this home which he so dearly loved. The memories +which associated it with them were painful to him after they had gone. +He missed their faces and their happy converse, and so, in 1853, he +purchased a house on Lynn Bay, some five or six miles distant from his +cottage at Nahant. Here the sea-breeze was cool but never damp; while, +unlike Nahant, the place was surrounded by green meadow-land and +pleasant woods. This new house was much more luxurious than the cottages +at Nahant and Pepperell, and he spent at Lynn nearly all his summers +during his last five years. He added to the place, laying out its +grounds and tastefully decorating its interior, having in view not +merely his own comfort but that of his children and grandchildren, who +now began to gather about him. His daughter Elizabeth, who was married +in 1852 to Mr. James Lawrence of Boston, occupied a delightful country +house near by. + +One memorial of Prescott long remained here to recall alike the owner +of the place and the work to which his life had been devoted. This was a +large cherry tree, which afforded the only shade about the house when he +first took possession of it. The state of his eye made it impossible for +him to remain long in the sunshine; and so, in his hours of composition, +he paced around the circle of the shade afforded by this tree, carrying +in his hand a light umbrella, which he raised for a moment when he +passed that portion of the circle on which the sunlight fell. He thus +trod a deep path in the turf; and for years after his death the path +remained still visible,--a touching reminder to those friends of his who +saw it. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LAST TEN YEARS + + +While Prescott was still engaged in his Mexican and Peruvian researches, +and, in fact, even before he had undertaken them, another fascinating +subject had found lodgement in his mind. So far back as 1838, only a few +months after the publication of _Ferdinand and Isabella_, he had said: +"Should I succeed in my present collections, who knows what facilities I +may find for making one relative to Philip the Second's reign--a +fruitful theme if discussed under all its relations, civil and literary +as well as military." And again, in 1839, he reverted to the same +subject in his memoranda. Could he have been sure of obtaining access to +the manuscript and other sources, he might at that time have chosen this +theme in preference to the story of the Mexican conquest. He knew, +however, that nothing could be done unless he were able to make a free +use of the Spanish archives preserved at Simancas. To this ancient town, +at the suggestion of Cardinal Ximenes, the most precious historical +documents relating to Spanish history had been removed, in 1536, by +order of Charles V. The old castle of the Admiral of Castile had been +prepared to receive them, and there they still remained, as they do +to-day, filling some fifty large rooms and contained in some eighty +thousand packages. It has been estimated that fully thirty million +separate documents of various kinds are included in this remarkably rich +collection,--not only state papers of a formal character, but private +letters, secret reports, and the confidential correspondence of Spanish +ambassadors in foreign countries.[17] Such a treasure-house of +historical information scarcely exists elsewhere; and Prescott, +therefore, wrote to his friends in Madrid to learn whether he might hope +for access to this Spanish Vatican. In 1839, however, he made the +following memorandum: "By advices from Madrid this week, I learn that +the archives of Simancas are in so disorderly a state that it is next to +impossible to gather material for the reign of Philip II." His friend, +Arthur Middleton, cited to him the instance of a young scholar who had +been permitted to explore these collections for six months, and who had +found that the documents of a date prior to the year 1700 were "all +thrown together without order or index." Furthermore, Prescott's agent +in Spain, Dr. Lembke, had incurred the displeasure of the government, +which expelled him from the country. Prescott was, therefore, obliged +for the time to put aside the project of a history of Philip II., and he +turned instead to the study of the Mexican conquest. + +Nevertheless, with that quiet pertinacity which was one of his +conspicuous traits, he still kept the theme in mind, and let it be known +to his friends in Paris and London, as well as in Madrid and elsewhere, +that all materials bearing upon the career of Philip II. were much +desired by him. These friends responded very zealously to his wishes. In +Paris, M. Mignet and M. Ternaux-Compans allowed Dr. Lembke to have their +important manuscript collections copied. In London, Prescott's +correspondent and former reviewer, Don Pascual de Gayangos, searched the +documents in the British Museum and a very rich private collection owned +by Sir Thomas Philips. He also visited Brussels, where he found more +valuable material, and later, having been appointed Professor of Arabic +in the University of Madrid (1842), he used his influence on behalf of +Prescott with very great success. Many noble houses in Spain put at his +disposal their family memorials. The National Library and other public +institutions offered whatever they possessed in the way of books and +papers. Two years later, this indefatigable friend spent some weeks at +Simancas, where he unearthed many an interesting _trouvaille_. Even +these sources, however, were not the only ones which contributed to +Prescott's store of documents. Ferdinand Wolf in Vienna, and Humboldt +and Ranke in Berlin, also aided him, and secured additional material, +not only in Austria and Prussia, but in Tuscany. His collection grew +apace; so that, long before he was ready to take up the subject of +Philip II., he possessed over three hundred and seventy volumes bearing +directly upon the reign of that monarch, while his manuscript copies, +which he caused to be richly bound, came to number in the end some +thirty-eight huge folios. These occupied a position of special honour in +his library, and were playfully called by him his Seraglio. + +Thus, in 1847, when about to take up his fourth important work, he was +already richly documented. His health, however, was unsatisfactory. He +had now some ailments that had become chronic,--dyspepsia and a urethral +complication, which often caused him intense suffering. It was not until +July 29, 1849, that he began to write the first chapter of _Philip II._ +at Nahant. He makes the laconic note: "Heavy work, this starting. I have +been out of harness too long.... The business of fixing thought is +incredibly difficult." He continued writing at Pepperell, and at his +home in Boston, until he had regained a good deal of his old facility. +His physical strength, however, was waning, and he could no longer +continue to work with his former regularity and method. He lost flesh, +and was threatened for a while with deafness, the fear of which was +almost too much for even his inveterate cheerfulness. In February, 1850, +he wrote: "Increasing interest in the work is hardly to be expected, +considering it has to depend so much on the ear. As I shall have to +depend more and more on this one of my senses as I grow older, it is to +be hoped that Providence will spare me my hearing. It would be a fearful +thing to doubt it." His depression finally became so great that he +suspended for a time his labours and made a short visit to Washington, +where he was received with abundant hospitality. He was entertained by +President Taylor, by Sir Henry Bulwer, the British Minister, by Webster, +and by many other distinguished persons; but he became more and more +convinced that a complete change was necessary to restore his health and +spirits; and so, on May 22d of the same year, he sailed from New York +for Liverpool, where he arrived on the 3d of June. + +Prescott's stay in England was perhaps the most delightful episode in +his life. His biographer, Mr. Ticknor, speaks of it as "the most +brilliant visit ever made to England by an American citizen not clothed +with the prestige of official station." The assertion is quite true, +since the cordiality which Lowell met with in that country was, in part, +at any rate, due to his diplomatic rank, while General Grant was +essentially a political personage who was, besides, personally commended +to all foreign courts by his successor in office, President Hayes. But +Prescott, with no credentials save his reputation as a man of letters +and his own charming personality, enjoyed a welcome of boundless +cordiality. It was not merely that he was a literary celebrity and was +received everywhere by his brothers of the pen,--he became the fashion +and was unmistakably the lion of the season. From the moment when he +landed at Liverpool he found himself encircled by friends. The +attentions paid to him were never formal or perfunctory. He was admitted +to the homes of the greatest Englishmen, and was there made free of that +delightful hospitality which Englishmen reserve for the chosen few. No +sooner had he reached London than he was showered with cards of +invitation to the greatest houses, and with letters couched in terms of +personal friendship. Sir Charles Lyell, his old acquaintance, welcomed +him to London a few hours after his arrival. The American Minister, Mr. +Abbott Lawrence,[18] begged him to be present at a diplomatic dinner. In +company of the Lyells he was taken at once to an evening party where he +met Lord Palmerston, then Premier, and other members of the Ministry. +Lord Carlisle greeted him in a fashion strangely foreign to English +reserve, for he threw his arms around Prescott, making the historian +blush like a great girl. It would be tedious to recount the unbroken +series of brilliant entertainments at which Prescott was the guest of +honour. His letters written at this time from England are full of +interesting and often amusing bits of description, and they show that +even his exceptional social honours were very far from turning his head. +In fact, he viewed the whole thing as a diverting show, except when the +warmth of the personal welcome touched his heart. Through it all he was +the self-poised American, never losing his native sense of humour. He +made friends with Sir Robert Peel, who, at their first meeting, +addressed him in French, having taken him for the French dramatist M. +Scribe! He chatted often with the Duke of Wellington, and described him +in a comparison which makes one smile because it is so Yankee-like and +Bostonese. + + "In the crowd I saw an old gentleman, very nicely made up, stooping + a good deal, very much decorated with orders, and making his way + easily along, as all, young and old, seemed to treat him with + deference. It was the Duke--the old Iron Duke--and I thought myself + lucky in this opportunity of seeing him.... He paid me some pretty + compliments on which I grew vain at once, and I did my best to + repay him in coin that had no counterfeit in it. He is a striking + figure, reminding me a good deal of Colonel Perkins in his general + air." + +Prescott attended the races at Ascot with the American and Swedish +Ministers, was the guest of Sir Robert Peel, and was presented at +Court--a ceremony which he described to Mrs. Prescott in a very lively +letter. + + "I was at Lawrence's, at one, in my costume: a chapeau with gold + lace, blue coat, and white trousers, begilded with buttons and + metal,--a sword and patent leather boots. I was a figure indeed! + But I had enough to keep me in countenance. I spent an hour + yesterday with Lady M. getting instructions for demeaning myself. + The greatest danger was that I should be tripped up by my own + sword.... The company were at length permitted one by one to pass + into the presence chamber--a room with a throne and gorgeous canopy + at the farther end, before which stood the little Queen of the + mighty Isle and her Consort, surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting. + She was rather simply dressed, but he was in a Field Marshal's + uniform, and covered, I should think, with all the orders of + Europe. He is a good-looking person, but by no means so + good-looking as the portraits of him. The Queen is better-looking + than you might expect. I was presented by our Minister, according + to the directions of the Chamberlain, as the historian of Ferdinand + and Isabella, in due form--and made my profound obeisance to her + Majesty, who made a very dignified curtesy, as she made to some two + hundred others who were presented in like manner. I made the same + low bow to his Princeship to whom I was also presented, and so + bowed myself out of the royal circle, without my sword tripping up + the heels of my nobility.... Lord Carlisle ... said he had come to + the drawing-room to see how I got through the affair, which he + thought I did without any embarrassment. Indeed, to say truth, I + have been more embarrassed a hundred times in my life than I was + here. I don't know why; I suppose because I am getting old." + +Somewhat later, while Prescott was a guest at Castle Howard, where the +Queen was also entertained, he had something more to tell about her. + + "At eight we went to dinner all in full dress, but mourning for the + Duke of Cambridge; I, of course, for President Taylor! All wore + breeches or tight pantaloons. It was a brilliant show, I assure + you--that immense table with its fruits and flowers and lights + glancing over beautiful plate and in that superb gallery. I was as + near the Queen as at our own family table. She has a good appetite + and laughs merrily. She has fine eyes and teeth, but is short. She + was dressed in black silk and lace with the blue scarf of the Order + of the Garter across her bosom. Her only ornaments were of jet. The + Prince, who is certainly a handsome and very well made man, wore + the Garter with its brilliant buckle round his knee, a showy star + on his breast, and the collar of a foreign order round his neck. + + "In the evening we listened to some fine music and the Queen + examined the pictures. Odd enough the etiquette. Lady Carlisle, who + did the honours like a high-bred lady as she is, and the Duchess of + Sutherland, were the only ladies who talked with her Majesty. Lord + Carlisle, her host, was the only gentleman who did so unless she + addressed a person herself. No one can sit a moment when she + chooses to stand. She did me the honour to come and talk with + me--asking me about my coming here, my stay in the Castle, what I + was doing now in the historic way, how Everett was and where he + was--for ten minutes or so; and Prince Albert afterwards a long + while, talking about the houses and ruins in England, and the + churches in Belgium, and the pictures in the room, and I don't know + what. I found myself now and then trenching on the rules by + interrupting, etc.; but I contrived to make it up by a respectful + 'Your Royal Highness,' 'Your Majesty,' etc. I told the Queen of the + pleasure I had in finding myself in a land of friends instead of + foreigners--a sort of stereotype with me--and of my particular good + fortune in being under the roof with her. She is certainly very + much of a lady in her manner, with a sweet voice." + +At Oxford, Prescott was the guest of the Bishop, the well-known +Wilberforce, popularly known by his sobriquet of "Soapy Sam." The +University conferred upon the American historian the degree of D.C.L. in +spite of the fact that he was a Unitarian. This circumstance was known +and caused some slight difficulty, but possibly the degree given to +Everett, another Unitarian, some years before in spite of great +opposition, was regarded as having established a precedent; and Oxford +cherishes the cult of precedent. At the Bishop's house, however, +Prescott shocked a lady by telling her of his creed. He wrote to +Ticknor: "The term [Unitarian] is absolutely synonymous in a large party +here with Infidel, Jew, Mohammedan; worse even, because regarded as a +wolf in sheep's clothing." The lady, however, succeeded in giving +Prescott a shock in return; for when he happened to mention Dr. +Channing, she told him that she had never even heard the man's name--a +sort of ignorance which to a Bostonian was quite incomprehensible. + +Prescott's account of the university ceremonial is given in a letter to +Mr. Ticknor. + + "Lord Northampton and I were doctorised in due form. We were both + dressed in flaming red robes (it was the hottest day I have felt + here), and then marched out in solemn procession with the Faculty, + etc., in their black and red gowns through the public streets.... + We were marched up the aisle; Professor Phillimore made a long + Latin exposition of our merits, in which each of the adjectives + ended, as Southey said in reference to himself on a like occasion, + in _issimus_; and amidst the cheers of the audience we were + converted into Doctors." + +Prescott was much pleased with this Oxford degree, which rightly seemed +to him more significant than the like honours which had come to him from +various American colleges. "Now," said he, "I am a _real_ Doctor." + +In the same letter he gives a little picture of Lord Brougham during a +debate in the House of Lords. Brougham was denouncing Baron Bunsen for +his course in the Schleswig-Holstein affair,--Bunsen being in the House +at the time. + + "What will interest you is the assault made so brutally by Brougham + on your friend Bunsen. I was present and never saw anything so + coarse as his personalities. He said the individual [Bunsen] took + up the room of two ladies. Bunsen _is_ rather fat as also Madame + and his daughter--all of whom at last marched out of the gallery, + but not until eyes and glasses had been directed to the spot to + make out the unfortunate individuals, while Lord Brougham was + flying up and down, thumping the table with his fists and foaming + at the mouth till all his brother peers, including the old Duke, + were in convulsions of laughter. I dined with Bunsen and Madame the + same day at Ford's." + +Prescott met both Disraeli and Gladstone, and, among other more purely +literary men, Macaulay, Lockhart, Hallam, Thirlwall, Milman, and Rogers. +Of Macaulay he tells some interesting things. + + "I have met him several times, and breakfasted with him the other + morning. His memory for quotations and illustration is a + miracle--quite disconcerting. He comes to a talk like one specially + crammed. Yet you may start the topic. He told me he should be + delivered of twins on his next publication, which would not be till + '53.... Macaulay's first draught--very unlike Scott's--is + absolutely illegible from erasures and corrections.... He tells me + he has his moods for writing. When not in the vein, he does not + press it.... H---- told me that Lord Jeffrey once told him that, + having tripped up Macaulay in a quotation from _Paradise Lost_, two + days after, Macaulay came to him and said, 'You will not catch me + again in the _Paradise_.' At which Jeffrey opened the volume and + took him up in a great number of passages at random, in all of + which he went on correctly repeating the original. Was it not a + miraculous _tour d'esprit_? Macaulay does not hesitate to say now + that he thinks he could restore the first six or seven books of the + _Paradise_ in case they were lost." + +Still again, Prescott expresses his astonishment at Macaulay's memory. + + "Macaulay is the most of a miracle. His _tours_ in the way of + memory stagger belief.... His talk is like the laboured, but still + unintermitting, jerks of a pump. But it is anything but + wishy-washy. It keeps the mind, however, on too great a tension for + table-talk." + +Writing of Samuel Rogers, who was now a very old man, he records a +characteristic little anecdote. + + "I have seen Rogers several times, that is, all that is out of the + bedclothes. His talk is still _sauce piquante_. The best thing on + record of his late sayings is his reply to Lady----, who at a + dinner table, observing him speaking to a lady, said, 'I hope, Mr. + Rogers, you are not attacking me.' 'Attacking you!' he said, 'why, + my dear Lady----, I have been all my life defending you.' Wit could + go no further." + +Prescott was the guest of the Duke of Sutherland at Trentham and at +Stafford House. He was invited to Lord Lansdowne's, the Duke of +Northumberland's, the Duke of Argyle's, and to Lord Grey's, and he +describes himself in one letter as up to his ears in dances, dinners, +and breakfasts. This sort of life, with all its glitter and gayety, +suited Prescott wonderfully well, and his health improved daily. He +remarked, however: "It is a life which, were I an Englishman, I should +not desire a great deal of; two months at most; although I think, on the +whole, the knowledge of a very curious state of society and of so many +interesting and remarkable characters, well compensate the bore of a +voyage. Yet I am quite sure, having once had this experience, nothing +would ever induce me to repeat it, as I have heard you say it would not +pay." Some little personal notes and memoranda may also be quoted. + + "Everything is drawn into the vortex, and there they swim round and + round, so that you may revolve for weeks and not meet a familiar + face half a dozen times. Yet there is monotony in some things--that + everlasting turbot and shrimp sauce. I shall never abide a turbot + again." + + "Do you know, by the way, that I have become a courtier and affect + the royal presence? I wish you could see my gallant costume, + gold-laced coat, white inexpressibles, silk hose, gold-buckled + patent slippers, sword and chapeau. Am I not playing the fool as + well as my betters?" + + "A silly woman ... said when I told her it was thirty years since I + was here, 'Pooh! you are not more than thirty years old.' And on my + repeating it, she still insisted on the same flattering + ejaculation. The Bishop of London the other day with his amiable + family told me they had settled my age at forty.... So I am + convinced there has been some error in the calculation. Ask mother + how it is. They say here that gray hair, particularly whiskers, may + happen to anybody even under thirty. On the whole, I am satisfied + that I am the youngest of the family." + +Writing to his daughter from Alnwick Castle, the seat of the Duke of +Northumberland, Prescott gave a little instance of his own extreme +sensibility. A great number of children were being entertained by the +Duke and Duchess. + + "As they all joined in the beautiful anthem, 'God save the Queen,' + the melody of the little voices rose up so clear and simple in the + open courtyard that everybody was touched. Though I had nothing to + do with the anthem, some of my _opera tears_,[19] dear Lizzie, came + into my eyes, and did me great credit with some of the John and + Jennie Bulls by whom I was surrounded." + +When he left Alnwick:-- + + "My friendly hosts remonstrated on my departure, as they had + requested me to make them a long visit; and 'I never say what I do + not mean,' said the Duke, in an honest way. And when I thanked him + for his hospitable welcome, 'It is no more,' he said, 'than you + should meet in every house in England.' That was hearty." + +The letters written by Prescott while in Europe are marked also by +evidences of the beautiful affection which he cherished for his wife, of +whom he once said, many years after their marriage: "Contrary to the +assertion of La Bruyere--who somewhere says that the most fortunate +husband finds reason to regret his condition at least once in +twenty-four hours--I may truly say that I have found no such day in the +quarter of a century that Providence has spared us to each other." In +the letters written by him during this English visit, there remain, even +after the ruthless editing done by Ticknor, passages that are touching +in their unaffected tenderness. + +Thus, from London, June 14, 1850:-- + + "Why have I no letter on my table from home? I trust I shall find + one there this evening, or I shall, after all, have a heavy heart, + which is far from gay in this gayety." + +And the following from Antwerp, July 23, 1850:-- + + "Dear Susan, I never see anything beautiful in nature or art, or + hear heart-stirring music in the churches--the only place where + music does stir my heart--without thinking of you and wishing you + could be by my side, if only for a moment." + +When Prescott returned from this, his last visit to Europe, he found +himself at the very zenith of his fame. In every respect, his position +was most enviable. The union of critical approval with popular +applause--a thing which is so rare in the experience of authors--had +been fairly won by him. His books were accepted as authoritative, while +they were read by thousands who never looked into the pages of other +historians. Even a volume of miscellaneous essays[20] which he had +collected from his stray contributions to the _North American_, and +which had been published in England by Bentley in 1845, had succeeded +with the public on both sides of the Atlantic. He had the prestige of a +very flattering foreign recognition, and his friendships embraced some +of the best-known men and women in Great Britain and the United States. +It may seem odd that the letters and other writings of his +contemporaries seldom contain more than a mere casual mention of him; +but the explanation of this is to be found in the disposition of +Prescott himself. As a man, and in his social intercourse outside of his +own family, he was so thoroughly well-bred, so far from anything +resembling eccentricity, and so averse from literary pose, as to afford +no material for gossip or indeed for special comment. In this respect, +his life resembled his writings. There was in each a noticeable absence +of the piquant, or the sensational. He pleased by his manners as by his +pen; but he possessed no mannerisms such as are sometimes supposed to be +the hall-marks of originality. Hence, one finds no mass of striking +anecdotes collected and sent about by those who knew him; any more than +in his writing one chances upon startling strokes of style. + +Prescott, however, had his own very definite opinions concerning his +contemporaries, though they were always expressed in kindly words. To +Irving he was especially attracted because of a certain likeness of +temperament between them. His sensitive nature felt all the _nuances_ of +Irving's delicate style, especially when it was used for pathetic +effects. "You have read Irving's _Memoirs of Miss Davidson_," he once +wrote to Miss Ticknor. "Did you ever meet with any novel half so +touching? It is the most painful book I ever listened to. I hear it from +the children and we all cry over it together. What a little flower of +Paradise!" Yet he could accurately criticise his friend's +productions.[21] Longfellow was another of Prescott's associates, and +his ballads of the sea were favourites. Mr. T. W. Higginson quotes +Prescott as saying that _The Skeleton in Armor_ and _The Wreck of the +Hesperus_ were the best imaginative poetry since Coleridge. Of Byron he +wrote, in 1840, some sentences to a friend which condense very happily +the opinion that has finally come to be accepted. Indeed, Prescott shows +in his private letters a critical gift which one seldom finds in his +published essays--a judgment at once shrewd, clear-sighted, and +sensible. + + "I think one is apt to talk very extravagantly of his [Byron's] + poetry; for it is the poetry of passion and carries away the sober + judgment. It defies criticism from its very nature, being lawless, + independent of all rules, sometimes of grammar, and even of common + sense. When he means to be strong he is often affected, violent, + morbid.... But then there is, with all this smoke and fustian, a + deep sensibility to the sublime and beautiful in nature, a + wonderful melody, or rather harmony, of language, consisting ... in + a variety--the variety of nature--in which startling ruggedness is + relieved by soft and cultivated graces." + +Probably the most pungent bit of literary comment that Prescott ever +wrote is found in a letter of his addressed to Bancroft,[22] who had +sent him a copy of Carlyle's _French Revolution_. The clangour and fury +of this book could hardly fail to jar upon the nerves of so decorously +classical a writer as Prescott. + + "I return you Carlyle with my thanks. I have read as much of him as + I could stand. After a very candid desire to relish him, I must say + I do not at all. The French Revolution is a most lamentable comedy + and requires nothing but the simplest statement of facts to freeze + one's blood. To attempt to colour so highly what nature has already + over-coloured is, it appears to me, in very bad taste and produces + a grotesque and ludicrous effect.... Then such ridiculous + affectations of new-fangled words! Carlyle is ever a bungler in his + own business; for his creations or rather combinations are the most + discordant and awkward possible. As he runs altogether for dramatic + or rather picturesque effect, he is not to be challenged, I + suppose, for want of refined views. This forms no part of his plan. + His views, certainly, so far as I can estimate them, are trite + enough. And, in short, the whole thing ... both as to _forme_ and + to _fond_, is perfectly contemptible." + +Of Thackeray, Prescott saw quite a little during the novelist's visit to +America in 1852-1853, and several times entertained him. He did not +greatly care for the lectures on the English humorists, which, as +Thackeray confided to Prescott, caused America to "rain dollars." "I do +not think he made much of an impression as a critic, but the Thackeray +vein is rich in what is better than cold criticism." Thackeray on his +side expresses his admiration for Prescott in the opening sentences of +_The Virginians_, though without naming him:-- + + "On the library wall of one of the most famous writers of America, + there hang two crossed swords, which his relatives wore in the + great war of Independence. The one sword was gallantly drawn in the + service of the King; the other was the weapon of a brave and humane + republican soldier. The possessor of the harmless trophy has earned + for himself a name alike honoured in his ancestor's country and his + own, where genius like his has always a peaceful welcome." + +This little tribute pleased Prescott very much, and he wrote to Lady +Lyell asking her to get _The Virginians_ and read the passage, which, as +he says, "was very prettily done." On the whole, however, he seems to +have preferred Dickens to Thackeray, being deceived by the very +superficial cynicism affected by the latter. But in fiction, his prime +favourites were always Scott and Dumas, whose books he never tired of +hearing read. Thus, in mature age, the tastes of his boyhood continued +to declare themselves; and few days ever passed without an hour or two +devoted to the magic of romance. + +During the winter following his return from Europe, which he spent in +Boston, he found it difficult to settle down to work again, and not +until the autumn did he wholly resume his life of literary activity. +After doing so, however, he worked rapidly, so that the first volume of +_Philip II._ was completed in April, 1852. It was very well received, in +fact, as warmly as any of his earlier work, and the same was true of the +second volume, which appeared in 1854. Prescott himself said that he was +"a little nervous" about the success of the book, inasmuch as a long +interval had elapsed since the publication of his _Peru_, and he feared +lest the public might have lost its interest in him. The result, +however, showed that he need not have felt any apprehension. Within six +months after the second volume had been published, more than eight +thousand copies were sold in the United States, and probably an equal +number in England. Moreover, interest was revived in Prescott's +preceding histories, so that nearly thirty thousand volumes of them were +taken by the public within a year or two. There was the same favourable +consensus of critical opinion regarding _Philip II._, and it received +the honour of a notice from the pen of M. Guizot in the _Edinburgh +Review_. + +In bringing out this last work Prescott had changed his +publishers,--not, however, because of any disagreement with the Messrs. +Harper, with whom his relations had always been most satisfactory, and +of whom he always spoke in terms of high regard. But a Boston firm, +Messrs. Sampson, Phillips and Company, had made him an offer more +advantageous than the Harpers felt themselves justified in doing. In +another sense the change might have been fortunate for Prescott, +inasmuch as the warehouse of the Harpers was destroyed by fire in 1853. +In this fire were consumed several thousand copies of Prescott's earlier +books, for which payment had been already made. Prescott, however, with +his usual generosity, permitted the Harpers to print for their own +account as many copies as had been lost. In England his publishing +arrangements were somewhat less favourable than hitherto. When he had +made his earlier contracts with Bentley, it was supposed that the +English publisher could claim copyright in works written by a foreigner. +A decision of the House of Lords adverse to such a view had now been +rendered, and therefore Mr. Bentley could receive no advantage through +an arrangement with Prescott other than such as might come to him from +securing the advance sheets and from thus being first in the field. As a +matter of fact, _Philip II._ was brought out in four separate editions +in Great Britain. In Germany it was twice reprinted in the original and +once in a German translation. A French version was brought out in Paris +by Didot, and a Spanish one in Madrid. Prescott himself wrote:-- + + "I have received $17,000 for the _Philip_ and the other works the + last six months.... From the tone of the foreign journals and those + of my own country, it would seem that the work has found quite as + much favour as any of its predecessors, and the sales have been + much greater than any other of them in the same space of time." + +Later, writing to Bancroft, he said:-- + + "The book has gone off very well so far. Indeed, double the + quantity, I think, has been sold of any of my preceding works in + the same time. I have been lucky, too, in getting well on before + Macaulay has come thundering along the track with his hundred + horse-power." + +While engaged in the composition of _Philip II._, Prescott had +undertaken to write a continuation of Robertson's _History of Charles +V._ He had been asked to prepare an entirely new work upon the reign of +that monarch, but this seemed too arduous a task. He therefore rewrote +the conclusion of Robertson's book--a matter of some hundred and eighty +pages. This he began in the spring of 1855, and finished it during the +following year. It was published on December 8, 1856, on which day he +wrote to Ticknor: "My _Charles the Fifth_, or rather Robertson's with +my Continuation, made his bow to-day, like a strapping giant with a +little urchin holding on to the tail of his coat."[23] At about the same +time Prescott prepared a brief memoir of Mr. Abbott Lawrence, the father +of his daughter's husband. This was printed for private distribution. + +During the year which followed, Prescott's health began steadily to +fail. He suffered from violent pains in the head; so severe as to rob +him of sleep and to make work of any kind impossible. He still, however, +enjoyed intervals when he could laugh and jest in his old careless way, +and even at times indulge in the pleasant little dinners which he loved +to share with his most intimate friends. On February 4th, however, while +walking in the street, he was stricken down by an apoplectic seizure, +which solved the mystery of his severe headaches. When he recovered +consciousness his first words were, "My poor wife! I am so sorry for you +that this has come upon you so soon." The attack was a warning rather +than an instant summons. After a few days he was once more himself, +except that his enunciation never again became absolutely clear. Serious +work, of course, was out of the question. He listened to a good deal of +reading, chiefly fiction. He was put upon a very careful regimen in the +matter of diet, and wrote, with a touch of rueful amusement, of the +vegetarian meals to which he was restricted: "I have been obliged to +exchange my carnivorous propensities for those of a more innocent and +primitive nature, picking up my fare as our good parents did before the +Fall." Improving somewhat, he completed the third volume of _Philip +II._; not so fully as he had intended, but mainly putting together so +much of it as had already been prepared. The book was printed in April, +1858, and the supervision of the proof-sheets afforded him some +occupation, as did also the making of a few additional notes for a new +edition of the _Conquest of Mexico_. The summer of 1858 he spent in +Pepperell, returning to Boston in October, in the hope of once more +taking up his studies. He did, in fact, linger wistfully over his books +and manuscripts, but accomplished very little; for, soon after the New +Year, there came the end of all his labours. On January 27th, his health +was apparently in a satisfactory condition. He listened to his +secretary, Mr. Kirk, read from one of Sala's books of travel, and, in +order to settle a question which arose in the course of the reading, he +left the library to speak to his wife and sister. Leaving them a moment +later with a laugh, he went into an adjoining room, where presently he +was heard to groan. His secretary hurried to his side, and found him +quite unconscious. In the early afternoon he died, without knowing that +the end had come. + +Prescott had always dreaded the thought of being buried alive. His vivid +imagination had shown him the appalling horror of a living burial. Again +and again he had demanded of those nearest him that he should be +shielded from the possibility of such a fate. Therefore, when the +physicians had satisfied themselves that life had really left him, a +large vein was severed, to make assurance doubly sure. + +On the last day of January he was buried in the family tomb, in the +crypt of St. Paul's. Men and women of every rank and station were +present at the simple ceremony. The Legislature of the State had +adjourned so that its members might pay their tribute of respect to so +distinguished a citizen. The Historical Society was represented among +the mourners. His personal friends and those of humble station, whom he +had so often befriended, filled the body of the church. Before his +burial, his remains, in accordance with a wish of his that was well +known, had been carried to the room in which were his beloved books and +where so many imperishable pages had been written. There, as it were, he +lay in state. It is thus that one may best, in thought, take leave of +him, amid the memorials and records of a past which he had made to live +again. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +"FERDINAND AND ISABELLA"--PRESCOTT'S STYLE + + +The _History of Ferdinand and Isabella_ is best regarded as Prescott's +initiation into the writing of historical literature. It was a +_prolusio_, a preliminary trial of his powers, in some respects an +apprenticeship to the profession which he had decided to adopt. When he +began its composition he had published nothing but a few casual reviews. +He had neither acquired a style nor gained that self-confidence which +does so much to command success. No such work as this had as yet been +undertaken by an American. How far he could himself overcome the +peculiar difficulties which confronted him was quite uncertain. Whether +he had it in him to be at once a serious investigator and a maker of +literature, he did not know. Therefore, the _Ferdinand and Isabella_ +shows here and there an uncertainty of touch and a lack of assured +method such as were quite natural in one who had undertaken so ambitious +a task with so little technical experience. + +In the matter of style, Prescott had not yet emancipated himself from +that formalism which had been inherited from the eighteenth-century +writers, and which Americans, with the wonted conservatism of +provincials, retained long after Englishmen had begun to write with +naturalness and simplicity. Even in fiction this circumstance is +noticeable. At a time when Scott was thrilling the whole world of +English readers with his vivid romances, written hastily and often +carelessly, in a style which reflected his own individual nature, Cooper +was producing stories equally exciting, but told in phraseology almost +as stilted as that which we find in _Rasselas_. This was no less true in +poetry. The great romantic movement which in England found expression in +Byron and Shelley and the exquisitely irregular metres of Coleridge had +as yet awakened no true responsive echo on this side of the Atlantic. +Among the essay-writers and historians of America none had summoned up +the courage to shake off the Addisonian and Johnsonian fetters and to +move with free, unstudied ease. Irving was but a later Goldsmith, and +Bancroft a Yankee Gibbon. The papers which then appeared in the _North +American Review_, to whose pages Prescott himself was a regular +contributor, give ample evidence that the literary models of the time +were those of an earlier age,--an age in which dignity was supposed to +lie in ponderosity and to be incompatible with grace. + +Prescott's nature was not one that had the slightest sympathy with +pedantry. No more spontaneous spirit than his can be imagined. His +joyousness and gayety sometimes even tended toward the frivolous. Yet in +this first serious piece of historical writing, he imposed upon himself +the shackles of an earlier convention. Just because his mood prompted +him to write in an unstudied style, all the more did he feel it +necessary to repress his natural inclination. Therefore, in the text of +his history, we find continual evidence of the eighteenth century +literary manner,--the balanced sentence, the inevitable adjective, the +studied antithesis, and the elaborate parallel. Women are invariably +"females"; a gift is a "donative"; a marriage does not take place, but +"nuptials are solemnized"; a name is usually an "appellation"; a crown +"devolves" upon a successor; a poet "delivers his sentiments"; a king +"avails himself of indeterminateness"; and so on. A cumbrous sentence +like the following smacks of the sort of English that was soon to pass +away:-- + + "Fanaticism is so far subversive of the most established principles + of morality that under the dangerous maxim 'For the advancement of + the faith all means are lawful,' which Tasso has rightly, though + perhaps undesignedly, derived from the spirits of hell, it not only + excuses but enjoins the commission of the most revolting crime as a + sacred duty."[24] + +And the following:-- + + "Casiri's multifarious catalogue bears ample testimony to the + emulation with which not only men but even females of the highest + rank devoted themselves to letters; the latter contending publicly + for the prizes, not merely in eloquence and poetry, but in those + recondite studies which have usually been reserved for the other + sex."[25] + +The style of these sentences is essentially the style of the old _North +American Review_ and of eighteenth-century England. The particular +chapter from which the last quotation has been taken was, in fact, +originally prepared by Prescott for the _North American_, as already +mentioned,[26] and was only on second thought reserved for a chapter of +the history. + +The passion for parallel, which had existed among historical writers +ever since the time of Plutarch, was responsible for the elaborate +comparison which Prescott makes between Isabella and Elizabeth of +England.[27] It is worked out relentlessly--Isabella and Elizabeth in +their private lives, Isabella and Elizabeth in their characters, +Isabella and Elizabeth in the selection of their ministers of State, +Isabella and Elizabeth in their intellectual power, Isabella and +Elizabeth in their respective deaths. Prescott drags it all in; and it +affords evidence of the literary standards of his countrymen at the +time, that this laboured parallel was thought to be the very finest +thing in the whole book. + +If, however, Prescott maintained in the body of his text the rigid +lapidary dignity which he thought to be appropriate, his natural +liveliness found occasional expression in the numerous foot-notes, which +at times he wrote somewhat in the vein of his private letters from +Pepperell and Nahant. The contrast, therefore, between text and notes +was often thoroughly incongruous because so violent. This led his +English reviewer, Mr. Richard Ford,[28] to write some rather acrid +sentences that in their manner suggest the tone which, in our days, the +_Saturday Review_ has always taken with new authors, especially when +they happen to be American. Wrote Mr. Ford of Prescott:-- + + "His style is too often sesquipedalian and ornate; the stilty, + wordy, false taste of Dr. Channing without his depth of thought; + the sugar and sack of Washington Irving without the half-pennyworth + of bread--without his grace and polish of pure, grammatical, + careful Anglicism. We have many suspicions, indeed, from his + ordinary quotations, from what he calls in others 'the cheap + display of school-boy erudition,' and from sundry lurking sneers, + that he has not drunk deeply at the Pierian fountains, which taste + the purer the higher we track them to their source. These, the + only sure foundations of a pure and correct style, are absolutely + necessary to our Transatlantic brethren, who are unfortunately + deprived of the high standing example of an order of nobility, and + of a metropolis where local peculiarities evaporate. The elevated + tone of the classics is the only corrective for their unhappy + democracy. Moral feeling must of necessity be degraded wherever the + multitude are the sole dispensers of power and honour. All + candidates for the foul-breathed universal suffrage must lower + their appeal to base understandings and base motives. The authors + of the United States, independently of the deteriorating influence + of their institutions, can of all people the least afford to be + negligent. Far severed from the original spring of English + undefiled, they always run the risk of sinking into provincialisms, + into Patavinity,--both positive, in the use of obsolete words, and + the adoption of conventional village significations, which differ + from those retained by us,--as well as negative, in the omission of + those happy expressions which bear the fire-new stamp of the only + authorised mint. Instances occur constantly in these volumes where + the word is English, but English returned after many years' + transportation. We do not wish to be hypercritical, nor to strain + at gnats. If, however, the authors of the United States aspire to + be admitted _ad eundem_, they must write the English of the 'old + country,' which they will find it is much easier to forget and + corrupt than to improve. We cannot, however, afford space here for + a _florilegium Yankyense_. A professor from New York, newly + imported into England and introduced into real _good_ society, of + which previously he can only have formed an abstract idea, is no + bad illustration of Mr. Prescott's _over-done_ text. Like the + stranger in question, he is always on his best behaviour, prim, + prudish, and stiff-necky, afraid of self-committal, ceremonious, + remarkably dignified, supporting the honour of the United States, + and monstrously afraid of being laughed at. Some of these + travellers at last discover that bows and starch are not even the + husk of a gentleman; and so, on re-crossing the Atlantic, their + manner becomes like Mr. Prescott's _notes_; levity is mistaken for + ease, an un-'pertinent' familiarity for intimacy, second-rate + low-toned 'jocularities' (which make no one laugh but the retailer) + for the light, hair-trigger repartee, the brilliancy of high-bred + pleasantry. Mr. Prescott emulates Dr. Channing in his text, Dr. + Dunham and Mr. Joseph Miller in his notes. Judging from the facetiae + which, by his commending them as 'good,' have furnished a gauge to + measure his capacity for relishing humour, we are convinced that + his non-perception of wit is so genuine as to be organic. It is + perfectly allowable to rise occasionally from the ludicrous into + the serious, but to descend from history to the bathos of + balderdash is too bad--_risu inepto nihil ineptius_." + +This passage, which is an amusing example of an overflow of High Tory +bile, does not by any means fairly represent the general tone of Ford's +review. Prescott had here and there indulged himself in some of the +commonplaces of republicanism such as were usual in American writings of +that time; and these harmlessly trite political pedantries had rasped +the nerves of his British reviewer. To speak of "the empty decorations, +the stars and garters of an order of nobility," to mention "royal +perfidy," "royal dissimulation," "royal recompense of ingratitude," and +generally to intimate that "the people" were superior to royalty and +nobility, roused a spirit of antagonism in the mind of Mr. Ford. Several +of Prescott's semi-facetious notes dealt with rank and aristocracy in +something of the same hold-cheap tone, so that Ford was irritated into a +very personal retort. He wrote:-- + + "These pleasantries come with a bad grace from the son, as we learn + from a full-length dedication, of 'the _Honourable_ William + Prescott, _LL.D._' We really are ignorant of the exact value of + this titular potpourri in a _soi-disant_ land of equality, of these + noble and academic plumes, borrowed from the wing of a professedly + despised monarchy." + +Although Ford's characterisation of Prescott's style had some basis of +truth, it was, of course, grossly exaggerated. Throughout the whole of +the _Ferdinand and Isabella_, one is conscious of a strong tendency +toward simplicity of expression. Many passages are as easy and +unaffected as any that we find in an historical writer of to-day. +Reading the pages over now, one can see the true Prescott under all the +starch and stiffness which at the time he mistakenly regarded as +essential to the dignity of historical writing. In fact, as the work +progressed, the author gained something of that ease which comes from +practice, and wrote more and more simply and more after his own natural +manner. What is really lacking is sharpness of outline. The narrative is +somewhat too flowing. One misses, now and then, crispness of phrase and +force of characterisation. Prescott never wrote a sentence that can be +remembered. His strength lies in his _ensemble_, in the general effect, +and in the agreeable manner in which he carries us along with him from +the beginning to the end. This first book of his, from the point of view +of style, is "pleasant reading." Its movement is that of an ambling +palfrey, well broken to a lady's use. Nowhere have we the sensation of +the rush and thunder of a war-horse. + +Ford's strictures made Prescott wince, or, as Mr. Ticknor gently puts +it, "disturbed his equanimity." They caused him to consider the question +of his own style in the light of Ford's very slashing strictures. In +making this self-examination Prescott was perfectly candid with himself, +and he noted down the conclusions which he ultimately reached. + + "It seems to me the first and sometimes the second volume afford + examples of the use of words not so simple as might be; not + objectionable in themselves, but unless something is gained in the + way of strength or of colouring it is best to use the most simple, + _unnoticeable_ words to express ordinary things; _e.g._ 'to send' + is better than 'to transmit'; 'crown descended' better than + 'devolved'; 'guns fired' than 'guns discharged'; 'to name,' or + 'call,' than 'to nominate'; 'to read' than 'peruse'; 'the term,' or + 'name,' than 'appellation,' and so forth. It is better also not to + encumber the sentence with long, lumbering nouns; as,'the + relinquishment of,' instead of 'relinquishing'; 'the embellishment + and fortification of,' instead of 'embellishing and fortifying'; + and so forth. I can discern no other warrant for Master Ford's + criticism than the occasional use of these and similar words on + such commonplace matters as would make the simpler forms of + expression preferable. In my third volume, I do not find the + language open to much censure." + +He also came to the following sensible decision which very materially +improved his subsequent writing:-- + + "I will not hereafter vex myself with anxious thoughts about my + style when composing. It is formed. And if there be any ground for + the imputation that it is too formal, it will only be made worse in + this respect by extra solicitude. It is not the defect to which I + am predisposed. The best security against it is to write with less + elaboration--a pleasant recipe which conforms to my previous views. + This determination will save me trouble and time. Hereafter what I + print shall undergo no ordeal for the style's sake except only the + grammar." + +Some other remarks of his may be here recorded, though they really +amount to nothing more than the discovery of the old truth, _le style +c'est l'homme_. + + "A man's style to be worth anything should be the natural + expression of his mental character.... The best undoubtedly for + every writer is the form of expression best suited to his peculiar + turn of thinking, even at some hazard of violating the conventional + tone of the most chaste and careful writers. It is this alone which + can give full force to his thoughts. Franklin's style would have + borne more ornament--Washington Irving could have done with + less--Johnson and Gibbon might have had much less formality, and + Hume and Goldsmith have occasionally pointed their sentences with + more effect. But, if they had abandoned the natural suggestions of + their genius and aimed at the contrary, would they not in mending a + hole, as Scott says, have very likely made two?... Originality--the + originality of nature--compensates for a thousand minor + blemishes.... The best rule is to dispense with all rules except + those of grammar, and to consult the natural bent of one's genius." + +Thereafter Prescott held to his resolution so far as concerned the first +draft of what he wrote. He always, however, before publication, asked +his friends to read and criticise what he had written, and he used also +to employ readers to go over his pages with great minuteness, making +notes which he afterwards passed upon, rejecting most of the +suggestions, but nevertheless adopting a good many. + +From the point of view of historical accuracy, _Ferdinand and Isabella_ +is a solid piece of work. The original sources to which Prescott had +access were numerous and valuable. Discrepancies and contradictions he +sifted out with patience and true critical acumen. He overlooked +nothing, not even those "still-born manuscripts" whose writers recorded +their experiences for the pure pleasure of setting down the truth. Ford +very justly said, regarding Prescott's notes: "Of the accuracy of his +quotations and references we cannot speak too highly; they stamp a +guarantee on his narrative; they enable us to give a reason for our +faith; they furnish means of questioning and correcting the author +himself; they enable readers to follow up any particular subject suited +to their own idiosyncrasy." It is only in that part of the book which +relates to the Arab domination in Spain that Prescott's work is +unsatisfactory; and even there it represents a distinct advance upon his +predecessors, both French and Spanish. At the time when he wrote, it +would, indeed, have been impossible for him to secure greater accuracy; +because the Arabic manuscripts contained in the Escurial had not been +opened to the inspection of investigators; and, moreover, a knowledge of +the language in which they were written would have been essential to +their proper use. In default of these sources, Prescott gave too much +credence to Casiri, and especially to Conde's history which had appeared +not long before, but which had been hastily written, so that it +contained some serious misstatements and inconsistencies. Conde, +although he professed to have gone to the original records in Arabic, +had in reality got most of his information at second hand from Cardonne +and Marmol. Hence, Prescott's chapters on the Arabs in Spain, although +they appear to the general reader to represent exact and solid +knowledge, are in fact inaccurate in parts. In other respects, however, +the most modern historical scholarship has detected no serious flaws in +_Ferdinand and Isabella_. Such defects as the book possesses are +negative rather than positive, and they are really due to the author's +cast of mind. Prescott, was not, and he never became, a philosophical +historian. His gift was for synthesis rather than for analysis. He was +an industrious gatherer of facts, an impartial judge of evidence, a +sympathetic and accurate narrator of events. He could not, however, +firmly grasp the underlying causes of what he superficially, observed, +nor penetrate the very heart of things. His power of generalisation was +never strong. There is a certain lack also, especially in this first one +of his historical compositions, of a due appreciation of character. He +describes the great actors in his drama,--Ferdinand, Isabella, Columbus, +Ximenes, and Gonsalvo de Cordova,--and what he says of them is eminently +true; yet, somehow or other, he fails to make them live. They are +stately figures that move in a majestic way across one's field of +vision; yet it is their outward bearing and their visible acts that he +makes us know, rather than the interplay of motive and temperament which +impelled them. His taste, indeed, is decidedly for the splendid and the +spectacular. Kings, princes, nobles, warriors, and statesmen crowd his +pages. Perhaps they satisfied the starved imagination of the New +Englander, whose own life was lived amid surroundings antithetically +prosaic. Certain it is, that, in dwelling upon a memorable epoch, he +omitted all consideration of a stratum of society which underlay the +surface which alone he saw. A few more years, and the fifteenth-century +_picaro_, the common man, the trader, and the peasant were destined to +emerge from the humble position to which the usages of chivalry had +consigned them. The invention of gunpowder and the use of it in war soon +swept away the advantage which the knight in armour had possessed as +against the humble foot-soldier who followed him. The discovery of +America and the opening of new lands teeming with treasures for their +conquerors roused and stimulated the consciousness of the lower orders. +Before long, the man-at-arms, the musketeer, and the artilleryman +attained a consequence which the ordinary fighting man had never had +before. After these had gone forth as adventurers into the New World, +they brought back with them not only riches wrested from the helpless +natives whom they had subdued, but a spirit of freedom verging even upon +lawlessness, which leavened the whole stagnant life of Europe. Then, for +the first time, such as had been only pawns in the game of statesmanship +and war became factors to be anxiously considered. Even literature then +takes notice of them, and for the first time they begin to influence the +course of modern history. A philosophical historian, therefore, would +have looked beyond the _ricos hombres_, and would have revealed to us, +at least in part, the existence and the mode of life of that great mass +of swarming humanity with which the statesman and the feudal lord had +soon to reckon. + +As it was, however, Prescott saw the obvious rather than the recondite. +Within the field which he had marked out, his work was admirably done. +He delineated clearly and impartially the events of a splendid epoch +wherein the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united under two +far-seeing sovereigns, and wherein the power of Spanish feudalism was +broken, the prestige of France and Portugal brought low, the Moors +expelled, and Spain consolidated into one united kingdom from the +Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, while a new and unknown world was opened +for the expansion and enrichment of the old. He well deserved the praise +which a Spanish critic and scholar[29] gave him of having written in a +masterly manner one of the most successful historical productions of the +century in which he lived. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE "CONQUEST OF MEXICO" AS LITERATURE AND AS HISTORY + + +Regarded simply from the standpoint of literary criticism, the _Conquest +of Mexico_ is Prescott's masterpiece. More than that, it is one of the +most brilliant examples which the English language possesses of literary +art applied to historical narration. Its theme is one which contains all +the elements of the romantic,--the chivalrous daring which boldly +attempts the seemingly impossible, the struggle of the few against +overwhelming odds, the dauntless heroism which never quails in the +presence of defeat, desertion, defiance, or disaster, the spectacle of +the forces of one civilisation arrayed against those of another, the +white man striving for supremacy over the red man, and finally, the True +Faith in arms against a bloody form of paganism. In Prescott's treatment +of this theme we find displayed the conscious skill of the born artist +who subordinates everything to the dramatic development of the central +motive. The style is Prescott's at its best,--not terse and pointed like +Macaulay's, nor yet so intimately persuasive as that of Parkman, but +nevertheless free, flowing, and often stately--the fit instrument of +expression for a sensitive and noble mind. Finally, in this book +Prescott shows a power of depicting character that is far beyond his +wont, so that his heroes are not lay figures but living men. We need +not wonder, then, if the _Conquest of Mexico_ has held its own, as +literature, and if to-day it is as widely read and with the same +breathless interest as in the years when the world first felt the +fascination of so great a literary achievement. + +When we come to analyse the structure of the narrative, we find that one +secret of its effectiveness lies in its artistic unity. Prescott had +studied very carefully the manner in which Irving had written the story +of Columbus, and he learned a valuable lesson from the defects of his +contemporary. In a memorandum dated March 21, 1841, he set down some +very shrewd remarks. + + "Have been looking over Irving's _Columbus_ also. A beautiful + composition, but fatiguing as a whole to the reader. Why? The fault + is partly in the subject, partly in the manner of treating it. The + discovery of a new world ... is a magnificent theme in itself, full + of sublimity and interest. But it terminates with the discovery; + and, unfortunately, this is made before half of the first volume is + disposed of. All after that event is made up of little + details,--the sailing from one petty island to another, all + inhabited sailing from one petty island to another, all inhabited + by savages, and having the same general character. Nothing can be + more monotonous, and, of course, more likely to involve the writer + in barren repetition.... Irving should have abridged this part of + his story, and instead of four volumes, have brought it into + two.... The conquest of Mexico, though very inferior in the leading + idea which forms its basis to the story of Columbus, is, on the + whole, a far better subject; since the event is sufficiently grand, + and, as the catastrophe is deferred, the interest is kept up + through the whole. Indeed, the perilous adventures and crosses with + which the enterprise was attended, the desperate chances and + reverses and unexpected vicissitudes, all serve to keep the + interest alive. On my plan, I go on with Cortes to his death. But + I must take care not to make this tail-piece too long." + +This is a bit of very accurate criticism; and the plan which Prescott +formed was executed in a manner absolutely faultless. Never for a moment +is there a break in the continuity of its narrative. Never for a moment +do we lose sight of the central and inspiring figure of Cortes fighting +his way, as it were, single-handed against the intrigues of his own +countrymen, the half-heartedness of his followers, the obstacles of +nature, and the overwhelming forces of his Indian foes, to a superb and +almost incredible success. Everything in the narrative is subordinated +to this. Every event is made to bear directly upon the development of +this leading motive. The art of Prescott in this book is the art of a +great dramatist who keeps his eye and brain intent upon the true +catastrophe, in the light of which alone the other episodes possess +significance. To the general reader this supreme moment comes when +Cortes makes his second entry into Mexico, returning over "the black and +blasted environs," to avenge the horrors of the _noche triste_, and in +one last tremendous assault upon the capital to destroy forever the +power of the Aztecs and bring Guatemozin into the possession of his +conqueror. What follows after is almost superfluous to one who reads the +story for the pure enjoyment which it gives. It is like the last chapter +of some novels, appended to satisfy the curiosity of those who wish to +know "what happened after." In nothing has Prescott shown his literary +tact more admirably than in compressing this record of the aftermath of +Conquest within the limit of some hundred pages. + +The superiority of the _Conquest of Mexico_ to all the rest of +Prescott's works is sufficiently proved by one unquestioned fact. Though +we read his other books with pleasure and unflagging interest, the +_Conquest of Mexico_ alone stamps upon our minds the memory of certain +episodes which are told so vividly as never to be obliterated. We may +never open the book again; yet certain pages remain part and parcel of +our intellectual possessions. In them Prescott has risen to a height of +true greatness as a story-teller, and masterful word-painter. Of these, +for example, is the account of the burning of the ships,[30] when +Cortes, by destroying his fleet, cuts off from his wavering troops all +hope of a return home except as conquerors, and when, facing them, in +imminent peril of death at their hands, his manly eloquence so kindles +their imagination and stirs their fighting blood as to make them shout, +"To Mexico! To Mexico!" Another striking passage is that which tells of +what happened in Cholula, where the little army of Spaniards, after +being received with a show of cordial hospitality, learn that the +treacherous Aztecs have laid a plot for their extermination.[31] + + "That night was one of deep anxiety to the army. The ground they + stood on seemed loosening beneath their feet, and any moment might + be the one marked for their destruction. Their vigilant general + took all possible precautions for their safety, increasing the + number of sentinels, and posting his guns in such a manner as to + protect the approaches to the camp. His eyes, it may well be + believed, did not close during the night. Indeed, every Spaniard + lay down in his arms, and every horse stood saddled and bridled, + ready for instant service. But no assault was meditated by the + Indians, and the stillness of the hour was undisturbed except by + the occasional sounds heard in a populous city, even when buried in + slumber, and by the hoarse cries of the priests from the turrets of + the _teocallis_, proclaiming through their trumpets the watches of + the night."[32] + +Here is true literary art used to excite in the reader the same +fearfulness and apprehension which the Spaniards themselves experienced. +The last sentence has a peculiar and indescribable effect upon the +nerves, so that in the following chapter we feel something of the +exultation of the Castilian soldier when morning breaks, and Cortes +receives the Cholulan chiefs, astounds them by revealing that he knows +their plot, and then, before they can recover from their thunderstruck +amazement, orders a general attack upon the Indians who have stealthily +gathered to destroy the white men. The battle-scene which follows and of +which a part is quoted here, is unsurpassed by any other to be found in +modern history. + + "Cortes had placed his battery of heavy guns in a position that + commanded the avenues, and swept off the files of the assailants as + they rushed on. In the intervals between the discharges, which, in + the imperfect state of the science in that day, were much longer + than in ours, he forced back the press by charging with the horse + into the midst. The steeds, the guns, the weapons of the Spaniards, + were all new to the Cholulans. Notwithstanding the novelty of the + terrific spectacle, the flash of fire-arms mingling with the + deafening roar of the artillery as its thunders reverberated among + the buildings, the despairing Indians pushed on to take the places + of their fallen comrades. + + "While this fierce struggle was going forward, the Tlascalans, + hearing the concerted signal, had advanced with quick pace into the + city. They had bound, by order of Cortes, wreaths of sedge round + their heads, that they might the more surely be distinguished from + the Cholulans. Coming up in the very heat of the engagement, they + fell on the defenceless rear of the townsmen, who, trampled down + under the heels of the Castilian cavalry on one side, and galled by + their vindictive enemies on the other, could no longer maintain + their ground. They gave way, some taking refuge in the nearest + buildings, which, being partly of wood, were speedily set on fire. + Others fled to the temples. One strong party, with a number of + priests at its head, got possession of the great _teocalli_. There + was a vulgar tradition, already alluded to, that on removal of part + of the walls the god would send forth an inundation to overwhelm + his enemies. The superstitious Cholulans with great difficulty + succeeded in wrenching away some of the stones in the walls of the + edifice. But dust, not water, followed. Their false god deserted + them in the hour of need. In despair they flung themselves into the + wooden turrets that crowned the temple, and poured down stones, + javelins, and burning arrows on the Spaniards, as they climbed the + great staircase which, by a flight of one hundred and twenty steps, + scaled the face of the pyramid. But the fiery shower fell harmless + on the steel bonnets of the Christians, while they availed + themselves of the burning shafts to set fire to the wooden citadel, + which was speedily wrapt in flames. Still the garrison held out, + and though quarter, _it is said_, was offered, only one Cholulan + availed himself of it. The rest threw themselves headlong from the + parapet, or perished miserably in the flames. + + "All was now confusion and uproar in the fair city which had so + lately reposed in security and peace. The groans of the dying, the + frantic supplications of the vanquished for mercy, were mingled + with the loud battle-cries of the Spaniards as they rode down their + enemy, and with the shrill whistle of the Tlascalans, who gave full + scope to the long-cherished rancour of ancient rivalry. The tumult + was still further swelled by the incessant rattle of musketry and + the crash of falling timbers, which sent up a volume of flame that + outshone the ruddy light of morning, making altogether a hideous + confusion of sights and sounds that converted the Holy City into a + Pandemonium." + +This spirited description, which deserves comparison with Livy's picture +of the rout at Cannae, shows Prescott at his best. In it he has shaken +off every trace of formalism and of leisurely repose. His blood is up. +The short, nervous sentences, the hurry of the narrative, the rapid +onrush of events, rouse the reader and fill him with the true +battle-spirit. Of an entirely different _genre_ is the account of the +entrance of the Spanish army into Mexico as Montezuma's guest, and of +the splendid city which they beheld,--the broad streets coated with a +hard cement, the intersecting canals, the inner lake darkened by +thousands of canoes, the great market-places, the long vista of snowy +mansions, their inner porticoes embellished with porphyry and jasper, +and the fountains of crystal water leaping up and glittering in the +sunlight. Memorable, too, is the scene of the humiliation of Montezuma +when, having come as a friend to the quarters of the Spaniards, he is +fettered like a slave; and that other scene, no less painful, where the +fallen monarch appears upon the walls and begs his people to desist from +violence, only to be greeted with taunts and insults, and a shower of +stones. + +But most impressive of all and most unforgettable is the story of the +_noche triste_--the Spanish army and their Indian allies stealing +silently and at dead of night out of the city which but a short time +before they had entered with so brave a show. + + "The night was cloudy, and a drizzling rain, which fell without + intermission, added to the obscurity. The great square before the + palace was deserted, as, indeed, it had been since the fall of + Montezuma. Steadily, and as noiselessly as possible, the Spaniards + held their way along the great street of Tlacopan, which so lately + had resounded with the tumult of battle. All was now hushed in + silence; and they were only reminded of the past by the occasional + presence of some solitary corpse, or a dark heap of the slain, + which too plainly told where the strife had been hottest. As they + passed along the lanes and alleys which opened into the great + street, or looked down the canals, whose polished surface gleamed + with a sort of ebon lustre through the obscurity of night, they + easily fancied that they discerned the shadowy forms of their foe + lurking in ambush and ready to spring on them. But it was only + fancy; and the city slept undisturbed even by the prolonged echoes + of the tramp of the horses and the hoarse rumbling of the artillery + and baggage-trains. At length, a lighter space beyond the dusky + line of buildings showed the van of the army that it was emerging + on the open causeway. They might well have congratulated themselves + on having thus escaped the dangers of an assault in the city + itself, and that a brief time would place them in comparative + safety on the opposite shore. But the Mexicans were not all asleep. + + "As the Spaniards drew near the spot where the street opened on the + causeway, and were preparing to lay the portable bridge across the + uncovered breach, which now met their eyes, several Indian + sentinels, who had been stationed at this, as at the other + approaches to the city, took the alarm, and fled, rousing their + countrymen by their cries. The priests, keeping their night-watch + on the summit of the _teocallis_, instantly caught the tidings and + sounded their shells, while the huge drum in the desolate temple of + the war-god sent forth those solemn tones, which, heard only in + seasons of calamity, vibrated through every corner of the capital. + The Spaniards saw that no time was to be lost.... Before they had + time to defile across the narrow passage, a gathering sound was + heard, like that of a mighty forest agitated by the winds. It grew + louder and louder, while on the dark waters of the lake was heard a + plashing noise, as of many oars. Then came a few stones and arrows + striking at random among the hurrying troops. They fell every + moment faster and more furious, till they thickened into a terrible + tempest, while the very heavens were rent with the yells and + warcries of myriads of combatants, who seemed all at once to be + swarming over land and lake!" + +What reader of this passage can forget the ominous, melancholy note of +that great war drum? It is one of the most haunting things in all +literature--like the blood-stained hands of the guilty queen in +_Macbeth_, or the footprint on the sand in _Robinson Crusoe_, or the +chill, mirthless laughter of the madwoman in _Jane Eyre_. + +One other splendidly vital passage is that which recounts the last great +agony on the retreat from Mexico. The shattered remnants of the army of +Cortes are toiling slowly onward to the coast, faint with famine and +fatigue, deprived of the arms which in their flight they had thrown +away, and harassed by their dusky enemies, who hover about them, calling +out in tones of menace, "Hasten on! You will soon find yourselves where +you cannot escape!" + + "As the army was climbing the mountain steeps which shut in the + Valley of Otompan, the vedettes came in with the intelligence that + a powerful body was encamped on the other side, apparently awaiting + their approach. The intelligence was soon confirmed by their own + eyes, as they turned the crest of the sierra, and saw spread out, + below, a mighty host, filling up the whole depth of the valley, and + giving to it the appearance, from the white cotton mail of the + warriors, of being covered with snow.... As far as the eye could + reach, were to be seen shields and waving banners, fantastic + helmets, forests of shining spears, the bright feather-mail of the + chief, and the coarse cotton panoply of his follower, all mingled + together in wild confusion and tossing to and fro like the billows + of a troubled ocean. It was a sight to fill the stoutest heart + among the Christians with dismay, heightened by the previous + expectation of soon reaching the friendly land which was to + terminate their wearisome pilgrimage. Even Cortes, as he + contrasted the tremendous array before him with his own diminished + squadrons, wasted by disease and enfeebled by hunger and fatigue, + could not escape the conviction that his last hour had + arrived."[33] + +But it is not merely in vivid narration and description of events that +the _Conquest of Mexico_ attains so rare a degree of excellence. Here, +as nowhere else, has Prescott succeeded in delineating character. All +the chief actors of his great historic drama not only live and breathe, +but they are as distinctly differentiated as they must have been in +life. Cortes and his lieutenants are persons whom we actually come to +know in the pages of Prescott, just as in the pages of Xenophon we come +to know Clearchus and the adventurous generals who, like Cortes, made +their way into the heart of a great empire and faced barbarians in +battle. The comparison between Xenophon and Prescott is, indeed, a very +natural one, and it was made quite early after the appearance of the +_Ferdinand and Isabella_ by an English admirer, Mr. Thomas Grenville. +Calling upon this gentleman one day, Mr. Everett found him in his +library reading Xenophon's _Anabasis_ in the original Greek. Mr. Everett +made some casual remark upon the merits of that book, whereupon Mr. +Grenville holding up a volume of _Ferdinand and Isabella_ said, "Here is +one far superior."[34] + +Xenophon's character-drawing was done in his own way, briefly and in +dry-point; yet Clearchus, Proxenus, and Menon are not more subtly +distinguished from each other than are Cortes, Sandoval, and Alvarado. +Cortes is very real,--a bold, martial figure, the ideal man of action, +gallant in bearing and powerful of physique, tireless, confident, and +exerting a magnetic influence over all who come into his presence; +gifted also with a truly Spanish craft, and not without a touch of +Spanish cruelty. Sandoval is the true knight,--loyal, devoted to his +chief, wise, and worthy of all trust. Alvarado is the reckless +man-at-arms,--daring to desperation, hot-tempered, fickle, and +passionate, yet with all his faults a man to extort one's liking, even +as he compelled the Aztecs to admire him for his intrepidity and +frankness. Over against these three brilliant figures stands the +melancholy form of Montezuma, around whom, even from the first, one +feels gathering the darkness of his coming fate. He reminds one of some +hero of Greek tragedy, doomed to destruction and intensely conscious of +it, yet striving in vain against the decree of an inexorable destiny. +One recalls him as he is described when the head of a Spanish soldier +had been cut off and sent to him. + + "It was uncommonly large and covered with hair; and, as Montezuma + gazed on the ferocious features, rendered more horrible by death, + he seemed to read in them the dark lineaments of the destined + destroyers of his house. He turned from it with a shudder, and + commanded that it should be taken from the city, and not offered at + the shrine of any of his gods."[35] + +The contrast between this dreamy, superstitious, half-hearted, and +almost womanish prince and his successor Guatemozin is splendidly worked +out. Guatemozin's fierce patriotism, his hatred of the Spaniards, his +ferocity in battle, and his stubborn unwillingness to yield are +displayed with consummate art, yet in such a way as to win one's +sympathy for him without estranging it from those who conquered him. A +touch of sentiment is delicately infused into the whole narrative of the +Conquest by the manner in which Prescott has treated the relations of +Cortes and the Indian girl, Marina. Here we find interesting evidence of +Prescott's innate purity of mind and thought, for he undoubtedly +idealised this girl and suppressed, or at any rate passed over very +lightly, the truth which Bernal Diaz, on the other hand, sets forth with +the blunt coarseness of a foul-mouthed old soldier.[36] No one would +gather from Prescott's pages that Marina had been the mistress of other +men before Cortes. Nor do we get any hint from him that Cortes wearied +of her in the end, and thrust her off upon one of his captains whom he +made drunk in order to render him willing to go through the forms of +marriage with her. In Prescott's narrative she is lovely, graceful, +generous, and true; and the only hint that is given of her former life +is found in the statement that "she had her errors."[37] To his readers +she is, after a fashion, the heroine of the Conquest,--the tender, +affectionate companion of the Conqueror, sharing his dangers or averting +them, and not seldom mitigating by her influence the sternness of his +character. Another instance of Prescott's delicacy of mind is found in +the way in which he glides swiftly over the whole topic of the position +which women occupied among the Aztecs, although his Spanish sources were +brutally explicit on this point. There were some things, therefore, +from which Prescott shrank instinctively and in which he allowed his +sensitive modesty to soften and refine upon the truth. + +The mention of this circumstance leads one to consider the much-mooted +question as to how far the _Conquest of Mexico_ may be accepted as +veracious history. Is it history at all or is it, as some have said, +historical romance? Are we to classify it with such books as those of +Ranke and Parkman, whose brilliancy of style is wholly compatible with +scrupulous fidelity to historic fact, or must we think of it as verging +upon the category of romances built up around the material which history +affords--with books like _Ivanhoe_ and _Harold_ and _Salammbo_? In the +years immediately following its publication, Prescott's great work was +accepted as indubitably accurate. His imposing array of foot-notes, his +thorough acquaintance with the Spanish chronicles, and the unstinted +approval given to him by contemporary historians inspired in the public +an implicit faith. Then, here and there, a sceptic began to raise his +head, and to question, not the good faith of Prescott, but rather the +value of the very sources upon which Prescott's history had been built. +As a matter of fact, long before Prescott's time, the reports and +narratives of the conquerors had in parts been doubted. As early as the +eighteenth century Lafitau, the Jesuit missionary, in a treatise +published in 1723,[38] had discussed with great acuteness some questions +of American ethnology in a spirit of scientific criticism; and later in +the same century, James Adair had gathered valuable material in the same +department of knowledge.[39] Even earlier, the Spanish Jesuit, Jose de +Acosta, had published a treatise which exhibits traces of a critical +method.[40] Again, Robertson, in his _History of America_ (a book, by +the way, which Prescott had studied very carefully), shows an +independence of attitude and an acumen which find expression in a +definite disagreement with much that had been set down by the Spanish +chroniclers. Such criticism as these and other isolated writers had +brought to bear was directed against that part of the accepted tradition +which relates to the Aztec civilisation. Prescott, following the notices +of Las Casas, Herrera, Bernal Diaz, Oviedo, Cortes himself, and the +writer who is known as the _conquistador anonimo_, had simply weighed +the assertions of one as against those of another, striving to reconcile +their discrepancies of statement and following one rather than the +other, according to the apparent preponderance of probability. He did +not, however, perceive in these discrepancies the clue which might have +guided him, as it subsequently did others, to a clearer understanding of +the actual facts. Therefore, he has painted for us the Mexico of +Montezuma in gorgeous colours, seeing in it a great Empire, possessed of +a civilisation no less splendid than that of Western Europe, and +exhibiting a political and social system comparable with that which +Europeans knew. The magnificence and wealth of this fancied Empire gave, +indeed, the necessary background to his story of the Conquest. It was a +stage setting which raised the exploits of the conquerors to a lofty +and almost epic altitude. + +The first serious attempt directly to discredit the accuracy of this +description was made by an American writer, Mr. Robert A. Wilson. Wilson +was an enthusiastic amateur who took a particular interest in the +ethnology of the American Indians. He had travelled in Mexico. He knew +something of the Indians of our Western territory, and he had read the +Spanish chroniclers. The result of his observations was a thorough +disbelief in the traditional picture of Aztec civilisation. He, +therefore, set out to demolish it and to offer in its place a substitute +based upon such facts as he had gathered and such theories as he had +formed. After publishing a preliminary treatise which attracted some +attention, he wrote a bulky volume entitled _A New History of the +Conquest of Mexico_.[41] In the introduction to this book he declares +that his visit to Mexico had shaken his belief "in those Spanish +historic romances upon which Mr. Prescott has founded his magnificent +tale of the conquest of Mexico." He adds that the despatches of Cortes +are the only valuable written authority, and that these consist of two +distinct parts,--first, "an accurate detail of adventures consistent +throughout with the topography of the region in which they occurred"; +and second, "a mass of foreign material, apparently borrowed from fables +of the Moorish era, for effect in Spain." "It was not in great battles, +but in a rapid succession of skirmishes, that he distinguished himself +and won the character ... of an adroit leader in Indian war." Wilson +endeavours to show, in the first place, that the Aztecs were simply a +branch of the American Indian race; that their manners and customs were +essentially those of the more northern tribes; that the origin of the +whole race was Phoenician; and that the Spanish account of early +Mexico is almost wholly fabulous. Writing of the different historians of +the Conquest, he mentions Prescott in the following words:-- + + "A more delicate duty remains,--to speak freely of an American + whose success in the field of literature has raised him to the + highest rank. His talents have not only immortalised himself--they + have added a new charm to the subject of his histories. He showed + his faith by the expenditure of a fortune at the commencement of + his enterprise, in the purchase of books and Mss. relating to + 'America of the Spaniards.' These were the materials out of which + he framed his two histories of the two aboriginal empires, Mexico + and Peru. At the time these works were written he could not have + had the remotest idea of the circumstances under which his Spanish + authorities had been produced, or of the external pressure that + gave them their peculiar form and character. He could hardly + understand that peculiar organisation of Spanish society through + which one set of opinions might be uniformly expressed in public, + while the intellectual classes in secret entertain entirely + opposite ones. He acted throughout in the most perfect good faith; + and if, on a subsequent scrutiny, his authorities have proved to be + the fabulous creations of Spanish-Arabian fancy, he is not in + fault. They were the standards when he made use of them--a + sufficient justification of his acts. 'This beautiful world we + inhabit,' said an East Indian philosopher, 'rests on the back of a + mighty elephant; the elephant stands on the back of a monster + turtle; the turtle rests upon a serpent; and the serpent on + nothing.' Thus stand the literary monuments Mr. Prescott has + constructed. They are castles resting upon a cloud which reflects + an eastern sunrise upon a western horizon." + +This book appeared in the year of Prescott's death, and he himself made +no published comment on it. A very sharp notice, however, was written +by some one who did not sign his name, but who was undoubtedly very near +to Prescott.[42] The writer of this notice had little difficulty in +showing that Wilson was a very slipshod investigator; that he was in +many respects ignorant of the very authorities whom he attempted to +refute; and that as a writer he was very crude indeed. Some portions of +this paper may be quoted, mainly because they sum up such of Mr. +Wilson's points as were in reality important. The first paragraph has +also a somewhat personal interest. + + "Directly and knowingly, as we shall hereafter show, he has availed + himself of Mr. Prescott's labours to an extent which demanded the + most ample 'acknowledgment.' No such acknowledgment is made. But we + beg to ask Mr. Wilson whether there were not other reasons why he + should have spoken of this eminent writer, if not with deference, + at least with respect. He himself informs us that 'most kindly + relations' existed between them. If we are not misinformed, Mr. + Wilson opened the correspondence by modestly requesting the loan of + Mr. Prescott's collection of works relating to Mexican history, for + the purpose of enabling him to write a refutation of the latter's + History of the Conquest. That the replies which he received were + courteous and kindly, we need hardly say. He was informed, that, + although the constant use made of the collection by its possessor + for the correction of his own work must prevent a full compliance + with this request, yet any particular books which he might + designate should be sent to him, and, if he were disposed to make a + visit to Boston, the fullest opportunities should be granted him + for the prosecution of his researches. This invitation Mr. Wilson + did not think fit to accept. Books which were got in readiness for + transmission to him he failed to send for. He had, in the meantime, + discovered that 'the American standpoint' did not require any + examination of 'authorities.' We regret that it should also have + rendered superfluous an acquaintance with the customs of civilised + society. The tone in which he speaks of his distinguished + predecessor is sometimes amusing from the conceit which it + displays, sometimes disgusting from its impudence and coarseness. + He concedes Mr. Prescott's good faith in the use of his materials. + It was only his ignorance and want of the proper qualifications + that prevented him from using them aright 'His non-acquaintance + with Indian character is much to be regretted.' Mr. Wilson himself + enjoys, as he tells us, the inestimable advantage of being the son + of an adopted member of the Iroquois tribe. Nay, 'his ancestors, + for several generations, dwelt near the Indian agency at Cherry + Valley, on Wilson's Patent, though in Cooperstown village was he + born.' We perceive the author's fondness for the inverted style in + composition,--acquired, perhaps, in the course of his long study of + aboriginal oratory. Even without such proofs, and without his own + assertion of the fact, it would not have been difficult, we think, + to conjecture his familiarity with the forms of speech common among + barbarous nations.... + + "Mr. Wilson ... has found, from his own observation,--the only + source of knowledge, if such it can be called, on which he is + willing to place much reliance,--that the Ojibways and Iroquois are + savages, and he rightly argues that their ancestors must have been + savages. From these premises, without any process of reasoning, he + leaps at once to the conclusion, that in no part of America could + the aboriginal inhabitants ever have lived in any other than a + savage state. Hence he tells us, that, in all statements regarding + them, everything 'must be rejected that is inconsistent with + well-established Indian traits.' The ancient Mexican empire was, + according to his showing, nothing more than one of those + confederacies of tribes with which the reader of early New England + history is perfectly familiar. The far-famed city of Mexico was 'an + Indian village of the first class,'--such, we may hope, as that + which the author saw on his visit to the Massasaugus, where, to his + immense astonishment, he found the people 'clothed, and in their + right minds.' The Aztecs, he argues, could not have built temples, + for the Iroquois do not build temples. The Aztecs could not have + been idolaters or offered up human sacrifices, for the Iroquois are + not idolaters and do not offer up human sacrifices. The Aztecs + could not have been addicted to cannibalism, for the Iroquois never + eat human flesh, unless driven to it by hunger. This is what Mr. + Wilson means by the 'American standpoint'; and those who adopt his + views may consider the whole question settled without any debate." +... + + "If, at Mr. Wilson's summons, we reject as improbable a series of + events supported by far stronger evidence than can be adduced for + the conquests of Alexander, the Crusades, or the Norman conquest of + England, what is it, we may ask, that he calls upon us to believe? + His scepticism, as so often happens, affords the measure of his + credulity. He contends that Cortes, the greatest Spaniard of the + sixteenth century, a man little acquainted with books, but endowed + with a gigantic genius and with all the qualities requisite for + success in warlike enterprises and an adventurous career, had his + brain so filled with the romances of chivalry, and so preoccupied + with reminiscences of the Spanish contests with the Moslems, that + he saw in the New World nothing but duplicates of those + contests,--that his heated imagination turned wigwams into palaces, + Indian villages into cities like Granada, swamps into lakes, a + tribe of savages into an empire of civilised men,--that, in the + midst of embarrassments and dangers which, even on Mr. Wilson's + showing, must have taxed all his faculties to the utmost, he + employed himself chiefly in coining lies with which to deceive his + imperial master and all the inhabitants of Christendom,--that, + although he had a host of powerful enemies among his countrymen, + enemies who were in a position to discover the truth, his + statements passed unchallenged and uncontradicted by them,--that + the numerous adventurers and explorers who followed in his track, + instead of exposing the falsity of his relations and descriptions, + found their interest in embellishing the narrative." + +Of course Wilson's book was unscientific to a degree, with its +Phoenician theories, its estimate of Spanish sources of information, +and its assorted ignorance of many things. Its author, had, however, +stumbled upon a bit of truth which no ridicule could shake, and which +proved fruitful in suggestion to a very different kind of investigator. +This was Mr. Lewis Henry Morgan, an important name in the history of +American ethnological study. As a young man Morgan had felt an interest +in the American Indian, which developed into a very unusual enthusiasm. +It led him ultimately to spend a long time among the Iroquois, studying +their tribal organisation and social phenomena. He embodied the +knowledge so obtained in a book entitled _The League of the +Iroquois_,[43] a truly epoch-making work, though the author himself was +at the time wholly unaware of its far-reaching importance. This book +described the forms of government, the social organisation, the manners +and the customs of the Iroquois, with great accuracy and thoroughness. +Seven years later, Morgan happened to fall in with a camp of Ojibway +Indians, and found to his astonishment that their tribal customs were +practically identical with those of the Iroquois. While this coincidence +was fresh in his mind, Morgan read Wilson's iconoclastic book on Mexico. +The suggestion made by Wilson that the Aztec civilisation was +essentially the same as that of the northern tribes of Red Indians did +much to crystallise the hypothesis which has now been definitely +established as a fact. + +Those who do not care to read a long series of monographs and several +large volumes in order to arrive at a knowledge of what recent +ethnologists hold as true of Ancient Mexico may find the essence of +accepted doctrine somewhat divertingly set forth in a paper written by +Mr. Morgan in criticism of H. H. Bancroft's _Native Races of the Pacific +States_. Mr. Morgan's paper is entitled "Montezuma's Dinner."[44] In it +the statement is briefly made that the Aztecs were simply one branch of +the same Red Race which extended all over the American Continent; that +their forms of government, their usages, and their occupations were not +in kind different from those of the Iroquois, the Ojibways, or any other +of the North American Indian tribes. These institutions and customs +found no analogues among civilised nations, and could not, in their day, +be explained in terms intelligible to contemporary Europeans. Hence, +when the Spaniards under Cortes discovered in Mexico a definite and +fully developed form of civilisation, instead of studying it on the +assumption that it might be different from their own, they described it, +as Mr. A. F. Bandelier has well said, "in terms of comparison selected +from types accessible to the limited knowledge of the times."[45] Thus, +they beheld in Montezuma an "emperor" surrounded by "kings," "princes," +"nobles," and "generals." His residence was to them an imperial palace. +His mode of life showed the magnificent and stately etiquette of a +European monarch, with lords-in-waiting, court jesters, pages, +secretaries, and household guards. In narrating all these things, the +first Spanish observers were wholly honest, although in their enthusiasm +they added many a touch of literary colour. Their records are +paralleled by those of the English explorers who, in New England, +thought they had found "kings" among the Pequods and Narragansetts, and +who, in Virginia, viewed Powhatan as an "emperor" and Pocahontas as a +"princess." That the Spaniards, like the English, wrote in ignorant good +faith, rather than with a desire to deceive, is shown by the fact that +they actually did record circumstances which even then, if critically +studied, would have shown the falsity of their general belief. Thus, as +Mr. Bandelier points out, the Spaniards tell of the Aztecs that they had +great wealth, reared great palaces, and acquired both scientific +knowledge and skill in art, while in mechanical appliances they remained +on the level of the savage, using stone and flint for tools and weapons, +making pottery without the potter's wheel, and weaving intricate +patterns with the hand-loom only. Equally inconsistent are the +statements that the Aztecs were mild, gentle, virtuous, and kind, and +yet that they sacrificed their prisoners with the most savage rites, +made war that they might secure more sacrificial victims, viewed +marriage as a barter, and regarded chastity as a restraint.[46] Still +further inconsistencies are to be found in the Spanish accounts of the +Aztec government. Montezuma, for instance, is picturesquely held to have +been an absolute ruler, one whose very name aroused awe and veneration +throughout the whole extent of his vast dominions; and yet it is +recorded that while still alive he was superseded by Guatemozin; and +even Acosta notes that there was a council without whose consent nothing +of importance could be done. In fact, under the solvent of Mr. Morgan's +criticism, the gorgeous Aztec empire of Cortes and Prescott shrinks to +very modest proportions. Montezuma is transformed from an hereditary +monarch into an elective war-chief. His dominions become a territory of +about the size of the state of Rhode Island. His capital appears as a +stronghold built amid marshes and surrounded by flat-roofed houses of +_adobe_; while his "palace" is a huge communal-house, built of stone and +lime, and inhabited by his gentile kindred, united in one household. The +magnificent feast which the Spaniards describe so lusciously,--the +throned king served by beautiful women and by stewards who knelt before +him without daring to lift their eyes, the dishes of gold and silver, +the red and black Cholulan jars filled with foaming chocolate, the +"ancient lords" attending at a distance, the orchestra of flutes, reeds, +horns, and kettle-drums, and the three thousand guards without--all this +is converted by Morgan into a sort of barbaric buffet-luncheon, with +Montezuma squatting on the floor, surrounded by his relatives in +breech-clouts, and eating a meal prepared in a common cook-house, +divided at a common kettle, and eaten out of an earthen bowl. + +One need not, however, lend himself to so complete a disillusionment as +Mr. Morgan in this paper seeks to thrust upon us. Still more recent +investigations, such as those of Brinton, McGee, and Bandelier, have +restored some of the prestige which Cortes and his followers attached to +the early Mexicans. While the Aztecs were very far from possessing a +monarchical form of government, and while their society was constituted +far differently from that of any European community, and while they are +to be studied simply as one division of the Red Indian race, they were +scarcely so primitive as Mr. Morgan would have us think. They differed +from their more northern kindred not, to be sure, in kind, but very +greatly in degree. Though we have to substitute the communal-house for +the palace, the war-chief for the king, and the tribal organisation for +the feudal system, there still remains a great and interesting people, +fully organised, rich, warlike, and highly skilled in their own arts. In +architecture, weaving, gold and silver work, and pottery, they achieved +artistic wonders. Their instinct for the decorative produced results +which justified the admiration of their conquerors. Their capital, +though it was not the immense city which the Spaniards saw, teeming with +a vast population, was, nevertheless, an imposing collection of +mansions, great and small, whose snowy whiteness, standing out against +the greenery and diversified by glimpses of water, might well impress +the imagination of European strangers. If the communal-houses lacked the +"golden cupolas" of Disraeli's Oriental fancy, neither were they the +"mud huts" which Wilson tells of. If Montezuma was not precisely an +occidental Charles the Fifth, neither is he to be regarded as an earlier +Sitting Bull. + +So far, then, as we have to modify Prescott's chapters which describe +the Mexico of Cortes, this modification consists largely in a mere +change of terminology. Following the Spanish records, he has accurately +reproduced just what the Spaniards saw, or thought they saw, in old +Tenochtitlan. He has looked at all things through their eyes; and such +errors as he made were the same errors which they had made while they +were standing in the great _pueblo_ which was to them the scene of so +much suffering and of so great a final triumph. When Prescott wrote, +there lived no man who could have gainsaid him. His story represents the +most accurate information which was then attainable. As Mr. Thorpe has +well expressed it: "No historian is responsible for not using +undiscovered evidence. Prescott wrote from the archives of Europe ... +from the European side. If one cares to know how the Old World first +understood the New, he will read Prescott." Even Morgan, who goes +further in his destructive criticism than any other authoritative +writer, admits that Prescott and his sources "may be trusted in whatever +relates to the acts of the Spaniards, and to the acts and personal +characteristics of the Indians; in whatever relates to their weapons, +implements and utensils, fabrics, food and raiment, and things of a +similar character." Only in what relates to their government, social +relations, and plan of life does the narrative need to be in part +rewritten. It is but fair to note that Prescott himself, in his +preliminary chapters on the Aztecs, is far from dogmatising. His +statements are made with a distinct reserve, and he acknowledges alike +the difficulty of the subject and his doubts as to the finality of what +he tells. Even in his descriptive passages, he is solicitous lest the +warm imagination of the Spanish chroniclers may have led them to throw +too high a light on what they saw. Thus, after ending his account of +Montezuma's household and the Aztec "court," drawn from the pages of +Bernal Diaz, Toribio, and Oviedo, he qualifies its gorgeousness in the +following sentence:[47] + + "Such is the picture of Montezuma's domestic establishment and way + of living as delineated by the Conquerors and their immediate + followers, who had the best means of information; too highly + coloured, it may be, by the proneness to exaggerate which was + natural to those who first witnessed a spectacle so striking to the + imagination, so new and unexpected." + +And in a foot-note on the same page he expressly warns the student of +history against the fanciful chapters of the Spaniards who wrote a +generation later, comparing their accounts with the stories in the +_Arabian Nights_. + +Putting aside, then, the single topic of Aztec ethnology and tribal +organisation, it remains to see how far the rest of Prescott's history +of the Conquest has stood the test of recent criticism. Here one finds +himself on firmer ground, and it may be asserted with entire confidence +that Prescott's accuracy cannot be impeached in aught that is essential +to the truth of history. His careful use of his authorities, and his +excellent judgment in checking the evidence of one by the evidence of +another, remain unquestioned. In one respect alone has fault been found +with him. His desire to avail himself of every possible aid caused him +to procure, often with great difficulty and at great expense, documents, +or copies of documents, which had hitherto been inaccessible to the +investigator. So far he was acting in the spirit of the truly scientific +scholar. But sometimes the very rarity of these new sources led him to +attach an undue value to them. Here and there he has followed them as +against the more accessible authorities, even when the latter were +altogether trustworthy. In this we find something of the passion of the +collector; and now and then in minor matters it has led him into +error.[48] Thus, in certain passages relating to the voyage of Cortes +from Havana, Prescott has misstated the course followed by the pilot, as +again with regard to the expedition from Santiago de Cuba[49]; and he +errs because he has followed a manuscript copy of Juan Diaz, overlooking +the obviously correct and consistent accounts of Bernal Diaz and other +standard chroniclers. There are similar though equally unimportant slips +elsewhere in his narrative, arising from the same cause. None of them, +however, affects the essential accuracy of his text. His masterpiece +stands to-day still fundamentally unshaken, a faithful and brilliant +panorama of a wonderful episode in history. Those who are inclined to +question its veracity do so, not because they can give substantial +reasons for their doubt, but because, perhaps, of the romantic colouring +which Prescott has infused into his whole narrative, because it is as +entertaining as a novel, and because he had the art to transmute the +acquisitions of laborious research into an enduring monument of pure +literature. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +"THE CONQUEST OF PERU"--"PHILIP II." + + +The _Conquest of Peru_ was, for the most part, written more rapidly than +any other of Prescott's histories. Much of the material necessary for it +had been acquired during his earlier studies, and with this material he +had been long familiar when he began to write. The book was, indeed, as +he himself described it, a pendant to the _Conquest of Mexico_. Had the +latter work not been written, it is likely that the _Conquest of Peru_ +would be now accepted as the most popular of Prescott's works. +Unfortunately, it is always subjected to a comparison with the other and +greater book, and therefore, relatively, it suffers. In the first place, +when so compared, it resembles an imperfect replica of the _Mexico_ +rather than an independent history. The theme is, in its nature, the +same, and so it lacks the charm of novelty. The exploits of Pizarro do +not merely recall to the modern reader the adventurous achievements of +Cortes, but, as a matter of fact, they were actually inspired by them. +Thus, Pizarro's march from the coast over the Andes closely resembles +the march of Cortes over the Cordilleras. His seizure of the Inca, +Atahualpa, was undoubtedly suggested to him by the seizure of Montezuma. +The massacre of the Peruvians in Caxamarca reads like a reminiscence of +the massacre of the Aztecs by Alvarado in Mexico. The fighting, if +fighting it may be called, presents the same features as are found in +the battles of Cortes. So far as there is any difference in the two +narratives, this difference is not in favour of the later book. If +Pizarro bears a likeness to Cortes, the likeness is but superficial. His +soul is the soul of Cortes _habitans in sicco_. There is none of the +frankness of the conqueror of Mexico, none of his chivalry, little of +his bluff good comradeship. Pizarro rather impresses one as +mean-spirited, avaricious, and cruel, so that we hold lightly his +undoubted courage, his persistency, and his endurance. Moreover, the +Peruvians are too feeble as antagonists to make the record of their +resistance an exciting one. They lack the ferocity of the Aztec +character, and when they are slaughtered by the white men, the tale is +far more pitiful than stirring. Even Prescott's art cannot make us feel +that there is anything romantic in the conquest and butchery of a flock +of sheep. The outrages perpetrated upon an effeminate people by their +Spanish masters form a long and dreary record of robbery and rape and it +is inevitably monotonous. + +Another fundamental defect in the subject which Prescott chose was +thoroughly appreciated by him. "Its great defect," he wrote in 1845, "is +want of unity. A connected tissue of adventures ... but not the especial +interest that belongs to the _Iliad_ and to the _Conquest of Mexico_." +In another memorandum (made in 1846) he calls his subject "second +rate,--quarrels of banditti over their spoils." This criticism is +absolutely just, and it well explains the inferiority of the story of +Peru when we contrast it with the book which went before. Up to the +capture of the Inca there is no lack of unity; but after that, the +stream of narration filters away in different directions, like some +river which grows broader and shallower until at last in a multitude of +little streams it disappears in dry and sandy soil. The fault is not the +fault of the writer. It is inherent in the subject. Nowhere has Prescott +written with greater skill. It is only that no display of literary art +can give dignity and distinction to that which in itself is unheroic and +sometimes even sordid. The one passage which stands out from all the +rest is that which sets before us the famous incident at Panama, when +Pizarro, at the head of his little band of followers, mutinous, +famished, and half-naked, still boldly scorns all thought of a return. + + "Drawing his sword he traced a line with it on the sand from East + to West. Then, turning towards the South, 'Friends and comrades!' + he said, 'on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching + storm, desertion, and death; on this side ease and pleasure. There + lies Peru with its riches; here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, + each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian. For my part, I go to + the South.' So saying, he stepped across the line." + +Here is an heroic event told with that simplicity which means +effectiveness. This is the one page in the _Peru_ where the narrator +makes us thrill with a sense of what, in its way, verges upon moral +sublimity. + +As to the historical value of the book, it stands in much the same +category as the _Conquest of Mexico_. All that relates to the actual +history of the Conquest is told with the same accurate regard for the +original authorities which Prescott always showed, and for this part of +the narrative, the original authorities are worthy of credence. The +preliminary chapters on Peruvian antiquities are less satisfactory even +than the corresponding portions of the other book. Prescott found them +very hard to write. He was conscious that the subject was a formidable +one. He did the best he could and all that any one could possibly have +done at the time in which he wrote. Even now, after the elaborate +explorations and researches of Bandelier, Markham, Baessler, Cunow, and +others, the social and political relations of the Peruvians are little +understood. Much has been learned of their art and of the monuments +which they have left behind; but of their institutional history the +records still remain obscure. The modern student, however, discovers +many indications that they, too, like the Aztecs, were of the Red Race, +and that their government was based upon the clan system; so that even +the Inca himself, like the Mexican war-chief, was merely the elected +executive of a council of the gentes. Here, as in Mexico, the Spaniards +carelessly described in terms of Europe the institutions which they +found, and made no serious attempt to understand them. Even the account +of the Peruvian religion which Prescott gives, in accordance with the +statements of the early Catholic missionaries, needs considerable +modification.[50] + +The Spanish chroniclers whom Prescott followed describe the Peruvians as +united under a great monarchy,--an "empire,"--the head of which, the +Inca, was an hereditary and absolute ruler, whose person was sacred in +that he was divine and the sole giver of law. The system was, therefore, +a theocratic one, with the chief priest appointed by the Inca. There was +a nobility, but the great offices of state were filled by the members +of the imperial family. The rule of the Inca extended over a vast +territory, and of it he was the supreme lord, having his wives from +among the Virgins of the Sun, the fifteen hundred beautiful maidens who +abode in the Palace of the Sun in Cuzco. Over the wonderful system of +roads which intersected the empire, the couriers of the Inca passed back +and forth with the commands of their master, to which all gave heed. The +Peruvian religion was strongly monotheistic in that it recognised the +unity, and preeminence of a supreme deity. + +Recent investigation has left practically nothing of this interesting +fiction which has been repeated by hundreds of writers with every +possible magnificence of detail. There was no "empire" of Peru. The +Indians of the coast governed themselves, though they sometimes paid +tribute to the Cuzco Indians. There was, however, no homogeneous +nationality. In the valley of Cuzco there was a tribe known as the Inca, +perhaps seventy thousand souls in all, who were locally divided into +twelve clans, each having its own government, and dwelling in its own +village or ward; for it was a combination of these twelve villages which +made up the whole settlement collectively styled Cuzco. A council of the +twelve clans chose a war-chief whom some of the other tribes called +"Inca," but who was not so called by his own people. He was not an +hereditary chief; he could be deposed; he had no especial sanctity. The +Virgins of the Sun were something very different from virgins. The road +system of the Peruvians really constituted no system at all. The nobles +were not nobles. The religion was not monotheistic, but embodied the +worship not only of sun, moon, and stars, but of rocks, mountains, stone +idols, and a variety of fetishes. Metal-work, pottery, weaving, and +building were the chief arts of the Peruvians; but in them all, +quaintness, utility, and permanence were more conspicuous than +beauty.[51] + +Disregarding, however, all questions of Peruvian archaeology, we may +accept the judgment passed upon the _Conquest of Peru_ by one of the +most eminent of modern investigators, Sir Clements Markham, who, as a +young man, knew Prescott well, and to whom the reading of this book +proved to be an inspiration in his chosen field. Long after Prescott's +death, and speaking with the fuller knowledge of the subject which he +had acquired, he declared of the Peru: "It deservedly stands in the +first rank as a judicious history of the Conquest." + +The _History of the Reign of Philip II._ remains an unfinished work. Its +subject, of course, provokes a comparison with the two brilliant +histories by Motley,--_The Rise of the Dutch Republic and The History of +the United Netherlands_. The interest in this comparison lies in the +view which each of the historians has taken of the gloomy Philip. The +contrasted temperaments of the two writers are well indicated in a +letter which Motley sent to Prescott after the first volume of _Philip +II._ had appeared. He wrote:-- + + "I can vouch for its extraordinary accuracy both of narration and + of portrait-painting. You do not look at people or events from my + point of view, but I am, therefore, a better witness to your + fairness and clearness of delineation and statement. You have by + nature the judicial mind which is the _costume de rigueur_ of all + historians.... I haven't the least of it--I am always in a passion + when I write and so shall be accused, very justly perhaps, of the + qualities for which Byron commended Mitford, 'wrath and + partiality.'" + +The two men, indeed, approached their subject in very different fashion. +In Motley, rigidly scientific though he was, there are always a touch of +emotion, a love of liberty, a hatred of oppression. He once wrote to his +father that it gratified him "to pitch into the Duke of Alva and Philip +II. to my heart's content." Prescott, on the other hand, was more +detached, partly because he was by nature tolerant and calm; and it may +be also because his protracted Spanish studies had given him +unconsciously the Spanish point of view. He even came at last to adopt +this theory himself, and he wrote of it in a humorous way. Thus to Lady +Lyell, he declared:-- + + "If I should go to heaven ... I shall find many acquaintances + there, and some of them very respectable, of the olden time.... + Don't you think I should have a kindly greeting from good Isabella? + Even Bloody Mary, I think, will smile on me; for I love the old + Spanish stock, the house of Trastamara. But there is one that I am + sure will owe me a grudge, and that is the very man I have been + making two good volumes upon. With all my good nature, I can't wash + him even into the darkest French grey. He is black and all + black.... Is it not charitable to give Philip a place in heaven?" + +Again, he styles Philip one "who may be considered as to other Catholics +what a Puseyite is to other Protestants." And elsewhere he confesses to +"a sneaking fondness for Philip." It was very like him, this hesitation +to condemn; and it recalls a memorandum which he made while writing his +_Peru_: "never call hard names a la Southey." Hence in a letter of his +to Motley, who had sent him a copy of the _Dutch Republic_,--a letter +which forms an interesting complement to Motley's note to him, he +wrote:-- + + "You have laid it on Philip rather hard. Indeed, you have whittled + him down to such an imperceptible point that there is hardly enough + of him left to hang a newspaper paragraph on, much less five or six + volumes of solid history as I propose to do. But then, you make it + up with your own hero, William of Orange, and I comfort myself with + the reflection that you are looking through a pair of Dutch + spectacles after all." + +Prescott's _Philip II_. raised no such questions of accuracy as followed +upon the publications of the Mexican and Peruvian histories. As in the +case of the _Ferdinand and Isabella_, the sources were unimpeachable, +first-hand, and contained the more intimate revelations of incident and +motive. There were no archaeological problems to be solved, no obscure +racial puzzles to perplex the investigator. The reign of Philip had +simply to be interpreted in the light of the revelations which Philip +himself and his contemporaries left behind them--often in papers which +were never meant for more than two pairs of eyes. How complete are these +revelations, one may learn from a striking passage written by Motley, +who speaks in it of the abundant stores of knowledge which lie at the +disposal of the modern student of history. + + "To him who has the patience and industry, many mysteries are thus + revealed, which no political sagacity or critical acumen could have + divined. He leans over the shoulder of Philip the Second at his + writing-table, as the King spells patiently out, with cipher-key + in hand, the most concealed hieroglyphics of Parma, or Guise, or + Mendoza.... He enters the cabinet of the deeply pondering + Burghleigh, and takes from the most private drawer the memoranda + which record that minister's unutterable doubtings; he pulls from + the dressing-gown folds of the stealthy, soft-gliding Walsingham + the last secret which he has picked from the Emperor's pigeon-holes + or the Pope's pocket.... He sits invisible at the most secret + councils of the Nassaus and Barneveldt and Buys, or pores with + Farnese over coming victories and vast schemes of universal + conquest; he reads the latest bit of scandal, the minutest + characteristic of King or minister, chronicled by his gossiping + Venetians for the edification of the Forty."[52] + +All this material and more was in Prescott's hands, and he made full use +of it. His narrative, moreover, was told in a style which was easy and +unstudied, less glowing than in the _Mexico_, but even better fitted for +the telling of events which were so pregnant with good and ill to +succeeding generations. In the pages of _Philip II._ we have neither the +somewhat formal student who wrote of Ferdinand and Isabella, nor the +romanticist whose imagination was kindled by the reports of Cortes. +Rather do we find one who has at last reached the highest levels of +historical writing, and who with perfect poise develops a noble theme in +a noble way. The only criticism which has ever been brought against the +book has come from those who, like Thoreau, regard literary finish as a +defect in historical composition. The author of Walden seemed, indeed, +to single out Prescott for special animadversion in this respect, and +his rather rasping sentences contain the only jarring notes that were +sounded by any contemporary of the historian. Thoreau, writing of the +colonial historians of Massachusetts, such as Josselyn, remarked with a +sort of perverse appreciation: "They give you one piece of nature at any +rate, and that is themselves, smacking their lips like a +coach-whip,--none of those emasculated modern histories, such as +Prescott's, cursed with a style." + +If style be really a curse to an historian, then Prescott remained under +its ban to the very last. As a bit of vivid writing his description of +the battle of Lepanto was much admired, and Irving thought it the best +thing in the book. A bit of it may be quoted by way of showing that +Prescott in his later years lost nothing of his vivacity or of his +fondness for battle-scenes. + +First we see the Turkish armament moving up to battle against the allied +fleets:-- + + "The galleys spread out, as usual with the Turks, in the form of a + regular half-moon, covering a wider extent of surface than the + combined fleets, which they somewhat exceeded in number. They + presented, indeed, as they drew nearer, a magnificent array, with + their gilded and gaudily-painted prows, and their myriads of + pennons and streamers fluttering gayly in the breeze; while the + rays of the morning sun glanced on the polished scimitars of + Damascus, and on the superb aigrettes of jewels which sparkled in + the turbans of the Ottoman chiefs.... The distance between the two + fleets was now rapidly diminishing. At this solemn moment a + death-like silence reigned throughout the armament of the + confederates. Men seemed to hold their breath, as if absorbed in + the expectation of some great catastrophe. The day was magnificent. + A light breeze, still adverse to the Turks, played on the waters, + somewhat fretted by the contrary winds. It was nearly noon; and as + the sun, mounting through a cloudless sky, rose to the zenith, he + seemed to pause, as if to look down on the beautiful scene, where + the multitude of galleys moving over the water, showed like a + holiday spectacle rather than a preparation for mortal combat." + +Then we have the two fleets in the thick of combat:-- + + "The Pacha opened at once on his enemy a terrible fire of cannon + and musketry. It was returned with equal spirit and much more + effect; for the Turks were observed to shoot over the heads of + their adversaries. The Moslem galley was unprovided with the + defences which protected the sides of the Spanish vessels; and the + troops, crowded together on the lofty prow, presented an easy mark + to their enemy's balls. But though numbers of them fell at every + discharge, their places were soon supplied by those in reserve. + They were enabled, therefore, to keep up an incessant fire, which + wasted the strength of the Spaniards; and, as both Christian and + Mussulman fought with indomitable spirit, it seemed doubtful to + which side victory would incline.... + + "Thus the fight raged along the whole extent of the entrance to the + Gulf of Lepanto. The volumes of vapour rolling heavily over the + waters effectually shut out from sight whatever was passing at any + considerable distance, unless when a fresher breeze dispelled the + smoke for a moment, or the flashes of the heavy guns threw a + transient gleam on the dark canopy of battle. If the eye of the + spectator could have penetrated the cloud of smoke that enveloped + the combatants, and have embraced the whole scene at a glance, he + would have perceived them broken up into small detachments, + separately engaged one with another, independently of the rest, and + indeed ignorant of all that was doing in other quarters. The + contest exhibited few of those large combinations and skilful + manoeuvres to be expected in a great naval encounter. It was + rather an assemblage of petty actions, resembling those on land. + The galleys, grappling together, presented a level arena, on which + soldier and galley-slave fought hand to hand, and the fate of the + engagement was generally decided by boarding. As in most + hand-to-hand contests, there was an enormous waste of life. The + decks were loaded with corpses, Christian and Moslem lying + promiscuously together in the embrace of death. Instances are + recorded where every man on board was slain or wounded. It was a + ghastly spectacle, where blood flowed in rivulets down the sides of + the vessels, staining the waters of the Gulf for miles around. + + "It seemed as if a hurricane had swept over the sea and covered it + with the wreck of the noble armaments which a moment before were so + proudly riding on its bosom. Little had they now to remind one of + their late magnificent array, with their hulls battered, their + masts and spars gone or splintered by the shot, their canvas cut + into shreds and floating wildly on the breeze, while thousands of + wounded and drowning men were clinging to the floating fragments + and calling piteously for help." + +Had Prescott lived, his history of Philip II. would have been extended +to a greater length than any of his other books--probably to six volumes +instead of the three which are all that he ever finished. It is likely, +too, that this book would have constituted his surest claim to high rank +as an historian. He came to the writing of it with a mind stored with +the accumulations of twenty years of patient, conscientious study. He +had lost none of his charm as a writer, while he had acquired +laboriously that special knowledge and training which are needed in one +who would be a master of historical research. _Philip II._ shows on +every page the skill with which information drawn from multifarious +sources can be massed and marshalled by one who is not only documented +but who has thoroughly assimilated everything of value which his +documents contain. No better evidence of Prescott's thoroughness is +needed than the tribute which was paid to him by Motley, who had +diligently gleaned in the same field. He said; "I am astonished at your +omniscience. Nothing seems to escape you. Many a little trait of +character, scrap of intelligence, or dab of scene-painting which I had +kept in my most private pocket, thinking I had fished it out of unsunned +depths, I find already in your possession."[53] + +And we may well join with Motley in his expression of regret that so +solid a piece of historical composition should remain unfinished. +Writing from Rome to Mr. William Amory soon after Prescott's death, +Motley said:-- + + "I feel inexpressibly disappointed ... that the noble and crowning + monument of his life, for which he had laid such massive + foundations, and the structure of which had been carried forward in + such a grand and masterly manner, must remain uncompleted, like the + unfinished peristyle of some stately and beautiful temple on which + the night of time has suddenly descended."[54] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +PRESCOTT'S RANK AS AN HISTORIAN + + +In forming an estimate of Prescott's rank among American writers of +history, one's thought inevitably associates him with certain of his +contemporaries. The Spanish subjects which he made his own invite a +direct comparison with Irving. His study of the sombre Philip compels us +to think at once of Motley. The broadly general theme of his first three +books--the extension of European domination over the New World--brings +him into a direct relation to Francis Parkman. + +The comparison with Irving is more immediately suggested by the fact +that had Prescott not entered the field precisely when he did, the story +of Cortes and of the Mexican conquest would have been written by Irving. +How fortunate was the chance which gave the task to Prescott must be +obvious to all who are familiar with the writings of both men. It has +been said that in Irving's hands literature would have profited at the +expense of history; but even this is too much of a concession, Irving, +even as a stylist, was never at his best in serious historical +composition. His was not the spirit which gladly undertakes a work _de +longue haleine_, nor was his genial, humorous nature suited to the +gravity of such an undertaking. His fame had been won, and fairly won, +in quite another field,--a field in which his personal charm, his mellow +though far from deep philosophy of life, and his often whimsical +enjoyment of his own world could find spontaneous and individual +expression. The labour of research, the comparison of authorities, the +long months of hard reading and steady note-taking, were not congenial +to his nature. He moved less freely in the heavy armour of the historian +than in the easy-fitting modern garb of the essayist and story-teller. +The best that one can say of the style of his _Granada_, his _Columbus_, +and his _Washington_ is that it is smooth, well-worded, and correct. It +shows little of the real distinction which we find in many of his +shorter papers,--in that on Westminster Abbey, for example, and on +English opinion of America; while the peculiar flavour which makes his +account of Little Britain so delightful is wholly absent. + +On the purely historical side, the two men are in wholly different +classes. Irving resembled Livy in his use of the authorities. Such +sources as were ready to his hand and easy to consult, he used with +conscientious care; but those that were farther afield, and for the +mastery of which both time and labour were demanded, he let alone. Thus, +his history of Columbus was prepared in something less than two years, +in which period both his preliminary studies and the actual composition +were completed. Yet this book was the one over which he took the +greatest pains, and for which he made his only serious attempt at +something like original investigation. His _Mahomet_ was confessedly +written at second hand; while in his _Washington_ he followed in the +main such records and already published works as were convenient. In the +_Granada_ he only plays with history, and ascribes the main portion of +the narrative to a mythical ecclesiastic, "the worthy Fray Antonio +Agapida," in whose lineaments we may not infrequently detect a strong +family resemblance to the no less worthy Diedrich Knickerbocker. In the +letter which Irving wrote to Prescott, relinquishing to him the subject +of Cortes, he lets us see quite plainly the very moderate amount of +reading which he had been doing.[55] He had dipped into Solis, Bernal +Diaz, and Herrera, using them, so he said, "as guide-books." Upon the +basis of this reading he had sketched out the entire narrative, and had +fallen to work upon the actual history with the intention of "working +up" other material as he went along. When we compare these easy-going +methods with the scientific thoroughness of Prescott, his ransacking, by +agents, of every important library in Europe, his great collection of +original documents, the many years which he gave to the study of them, +and the conscientious judgment with which he weighed and balanced them, +we cannot fail to see how much the world has gained by Irving's act of +generous self-abnegation. It is only fair to add that he himself, at the +time when Prescott wrote to him, was beginning to doubt whether he had +not undertaken a task unsuited to his inclinations and beyond his +powers. "Ever since I have been meddling with the theme," he said, "its +grandeur and magnificence had been growing upon me, and I had felt more +and more doubtful whether I should be able to treat it +_conscientiously_,--that is to say, with the extensive research and +thorough investigation which it merited." + +Professor Jameson hazards the conjecture[56] that Irving's real +importance in the development of American historiography is not at all +to be discerned in the serious works which have just been mentioned, but +rather in his quaintly humorous picture of New York under the Dutch, +contained in the pretended narration of Diedrich Knickerbocker, and +published as early as 1809. There can be no doubt that, as Professor +Jameson says, this book did much to excite both interest and curiosity +concerning the Dutch regime. "Very likely the great amount of work which +the state government did for the historical illustration of the Dutch +period, through the researches of Mr. Brodhead in foreign archives, had +this unhistorical little book as one of its principal causes." Here, +indeed, is only one more illustration of the fact that the work which +one does in his natural vein and in his own way is certain not only to +be his best, but to exercise a genuine influence in spheres which at the +time were quite beyond the writer's consciousness. + +Something has already been said concerning Prescott in his relationship +to Motley as an historian. A brief but more explicit comparison may be +added here. The diligence and zeal of the investigator both men shared +on even terms. The only advantage which Motley possessed was the +opportunity, denied to Prescott, of prosecuting his own researches, of +discovering his own materials, and of visiting and living in the very +places of which he had to write, instead of working largely through the +eyes and brains of other men. This was a very real advantage; for the +inspiration of the search and of the scenes themselves gave a keen +stimulus to the ambition of the scholar and a glow to the imagination +of the writer. One attaches less importance to Motley's academic +training; for while it was broader than that of Prescott, and comprised +the valuable teaching which was given him in the two great universities +of Berlin and Goettingen, we cannot truthfully assert that Prescott's +equipment was inferior to that of his contemporary. Indeed, _Ferdinand_ +and _Isabella_ and _Philip II._ can better stand the test of searching +criticism than Motley's _Dutch Republic_. + +Motley is, indeed, the most "literary" of all the so-called "literary +historians". In the glow and fervour of his narrative he is unsurpassed. +He feels all the passion of the times whereof he writes, and he makes +the reader feel it too. He has, moreover, a power of drawing character +which Prescott seldom shows and which, when he shows it, he shows in +less degree. Motley writes with the magnetism of a great pleader and +with something also of the imagination of a poet. Unlike Prescott, he +understands the philosophy of history and delves beneath the surface to +search out and reveal the hidden causes of events. Yet first and last +and all the time, he is a partisan. He is pleading for a cause far more +than he is seeking for impartial truth. In this respect he resembles +Mommsen, whose _Roemische Geschichte_ is likewise in its later books a +splendid piece of partisanship. Motley is an American and a Protestant, +and therefore he is eloquent for liberty and harsh toward what he views +as superstition. William the Silent is his hero just as Caesar is +Mommsen's, and he hates tyranny as Mommsen hated the insolence of the +Roman _Junkerthum_. This vivid feeling springing from intensity of +conviction makes both books true masterpieces, nor to the critical +scholar does it greatly lessen their value as historical compositions. +Yet in each, one has continually to check the writer, to modify his +statements, and to make allowance for his very individual point of view. +In reading Prescott, on the other hand, nothing of the sort is +necessary. He is free from the passion of politics, his judgment is +impartial, and those who read him feel, as an eminent scholar has +remarked, that they are listening to a wise and learned judge rather +than to a skilful advocate. Even in the sphere of characterisation, +Prescott is more sound than Motley, even though he be not half so +forceful. Re-reading many of the portraits which the latter has drawn +for us in glowing colours, the student of human nature will perceive +that they are quite impossible. Take, for instance Motley's Philip and +compare it with the Philip whom Prescott has described for us. The +former is not a man at all. He is either a devil, or a lunatic, or it +may be a blend of each. Indeed, Motley himself in conversation used to +describe him as a devil, though he once remarked, "He is not my head +devil." Everywhere Philip is depicted in the same sable hues, without a +touch of light to relieve the blackness of his character. On the other +hand, Prescott shows us one who, with all his cruelty, his hypocrisy, +and his superstition, is still quite comprehensible because, after all, +he remains a human being. Prescott discovers and records in him some +qualities of which Motley in his sweeping condemnation takes no heed. We +see a Philip scrupulously faithful to his duty as he understands it, +bearing toil and loneliness, patient to his secretaries, gracious to his +petitioners, whom he tries to set at ease, generous in his patronage of +art, and putting aside all his coldness and reserve while watching the +progress of his favourite architects and builders. These things and +others like them count perhaps for very little in one sense; yet in +another they bring out the fact that Prescott viewed his subject in the +clear light of historic truth rather than in the glare of fiery +prejudice. + +There are some who would rate Parkman above Prescott. They speak of him +as more truly an American historian because the topic which he +chose--the development of New France--has a direct bearing upon the +national history of the United States. This, however, is at once to +limit the word "American" in a thoroughly unreasonable way, and also to +allow the choice of theme to prejudice one's judgment of the manner in +which that theme is treated. Parkman, to be sure, has merits of his own, +some of which are less discernible in Prescott. For picturesqueness, as +for accuracy, both men are on a level. There is a greater freshness of +feeling in Parkman, a sort of open air effect, which is redolent of his +actual experience of the great plains and the far Western mountains in +the days which he passed among the Indian tribes. This cannot be +expected of one whose physical infirmities confined him to the limits of +his library. But, on the other hand, Prescott chose a broader field, and +he made that field more thoroughly his own. These two--Prescott and +Parkman--must take rank not far apart. Between them, they have divided, +so to speak, the early history of the American Continent in the sphere +which lies beyond the bounds of purely Anglo-Saxon conquest. + +Disciples of the dismal school of history often yield a very grudging +tribute to the enduring merit of what Prescott patiently achieved. Yet +in their own field he met them upon equal terms and need not fear +comparison. Though self-trained as an historical investigator, his +mastery of his authorities has hardly been excelled by those whose merit +is found solely in their gift for delving. The evidence of his +thoroughness, his judgment, and his critical faculty is to be seen in +the documentary treasures of his foot-notes. He did not, like Mommsen, +write a brilliant narrative and leave the reader without the ready means +of verifying what he wrote. He has, to use his own words, "suffered the +scaffolding to remain after the building has been completed." Those who +sneer at his array of testimony are none the less unable to impeach it. +Though historical science has in many respects made great advances since +his death, his work still stands essentially unshaken. He had the +historical conscience in a rare degree; one feels his fairness and is +willing to accept his judgment. If he seems to lack a special gift for +philosophical analysis, the plan and scope of his histories did not +contemplate a subjective treatment. What he meant to do, he did, and he +did it with a combination of historical exactness and literary artistry +such as no other American at least, has yet exhibited. Without the +humour of Irving, or the fire of Motley, or the intimate touch of +Parkman, he is superior to all three in poise and judgment and +distinction; so that on the whole one may accept the dictum of a +distinguished scholar[57] who, in summing up the merits which we +recognise in Prescott, declares them to be so conspicuous and so +abounding as to place him at the head of all American historians. + + + + +INDEX + + + A + + Academy, Royal Spanish, 76, 80. + + Adair, James, 146. + + Adams, Dr. C. K., quoted, 180. + + Adams, John Quincy, library of, 20; + absence in Europe, 20, 23, 37; + professor at Harvard, 23; + Minister to England, 37. + + Adams, Sir William, 37. + + Albert, Prince, 105, 106. + + Amory, Thomas C., 43. + + Amory, William, letter to, 172. + + Athenaeum, Boston, 19, 20, 21. + + Aztecs, 76, 82, 136, 143, 144, 146; + as viewed by Wilson, 147-151; + Morgan's view of, 152-155; + later opinions regarding, 155-156. + + + B + + Bancroft, George, 10; + letters to, 48, 114, 117; + reviews _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 69; + honour conferred on, 86; + quoted, 87; estimate of, 122. + + Bancroft, H. H., quoted, 153, 159. + + Bandelier, A. F., 155, 163, 165; + quoted, 136, 153, 154. + + Bentley, Richard, 69, 80, 85, 112, 116, 117. + + Bradford, Governor William, 8. + + Brougham, Lord, Prescott's description of, 107, 108. + + Brown, Charles Brockden, novels of, 5; + _Life of_, 65, 112. + + Bunsen, Baron, 107, 108. + + Byron, Lord, Prescott's estimate of, 113; + as exponent of romanticism, 122; + quoted, 166. + + + C + + Calderon de La Barca, Senor, 76, 91. + + Carlisle, Lord, Prescott's friendship with, 88, 91, 104, 105, 106. + + Carlyle, Thomas, Prescott's comment on, 114. + + Channing, W. E., 28, 107, 124, 126. + + _Charles V._, _History of_, 117, 118. + + Circourt, Comte Adolphe de, 71. + + _Club-Room_, edited by Prescott, 42. + + Cogswell, J. G., 74, 75. + + Conde, _History of the Arabs in Spain_, 65, 130. + + Cooper, Sir Astley, 37. + + Cortes, Hernan, 134, 135, 155; + quoted, 136; + attack on Cholulans, 137, 138; + retreat from Mexico, 141, 142; + character + of, 143, 144, 147, 151; + compared with Pizarro, 160, 161. + + Cashing, Caleb, 88. + + + D + + Dante, Prescott's admiration for, 46. + + Daudet, Alphonse, 86. + + Dexter, Franklin, 42. + + Diaz, Bernal, 146, 159; + quoted, 144. + + Dickens, Charles, entertained by Prescott, 91; + preferred by him to Thackeray, 115. + + Dumas, Alexandre, 115. + + Dunham, Dr. S.P., 70, 126. + + + E + + Edwards, Jonathan, 7, 9. + + English, James, Prescott's secretary, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64. + + Everett, A. H., 77. + + Everett, Edward, 25, 106. + + + F + + Farre, Dr., 37. + + _Ferdinand and Isabella_, beginnings of, 52, 61; + progress, 62-65; + completion and publication, 66-71; + success of, 69-71, 77, 79, 95; + style of, 121, 127; + historical accuracy, 129, 130, 131, 132. + + Ford, Richard, criticises _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 70; + his ridicule of Prescott's style, 124-126; + Prescott's reply, 127, 128; + quoted, 129, 130. + + Franklin, Benjamin, 5; + style of, 129. + + + G + + Gardiner, Rev. Dr. John S., 18, 19. + + Gardiner, William, 20, 21, 22, 40. + + Gayangos, Don Pascual de, reviews _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 70, 132; + aids Prescott, 76, 77, 101. + + Grenville, Thomas, quoted, 142. + + Guatemozin, character of, 143, 144; + successor of Montezuma, 135, 154. + + Guizot, M., reviews _Philip II._, 116. + + + H + + Hale, Edward Everett, quoted, 77, 78. + + Hallam, Henry, praises _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 71; + Prescott's acquaintance with, 108. + + Harper Brothers, publish _Conquest of Mexico_, 79, 80; + publish _Conquest of Peru_, 84; + Prescott's generosity to, 116. + + Harvard College, faculty of, in 1811, 22, 23, 25; + entrance examinations, 24; + curriculum, 24, 25; + methods, 25, 26, 33; + confers degree upon Prescott, 80. + + Hickling, Thomas, 15, 35, 36. + + Higginson, Mehitable, 16. + + Higginson, T. W., 113. + + Hughes, Thomas, quoted, 55. + + Humboldt, Baron Alexander von, 81, 101. + + + I + + Irving, Washington, characteristics of, 5; + quoted, 57; + correspondence regarding _Conquest of Mexico_, 74-77; + praised by Prescott, 113; + compared to Goldsmith, 122; + style of, 124, 129; his _Columbus_ criticised by Prescott, 134; + comment on _Philip II._, 169; + compared with Prescott, 173-175, 180. + + + J + + Jackson, Dr. James, 31. + + Jameson, Prof. J. F., quoted, 3 _n._, 54 _n._, 176. + + Jeffrey, Lord, 108. + + Johnson, Dr. Samuel, quoted, 54; + style of, 122, 129. + + + K + + Kirk, John Foster, Prescott's secretary, 87, 119, 136. + + Kirkland, Rev. Dr. John Thornton, 22, 23. + + Knapp, Jacob Newman, 16. + + + L + + La Bruyere, quoted, 111. + + Lafitau, Pere, 145. + + Lawrence, Abbott, 103, 105; + memoir of, 118. + + Lawrence, James, 97, 103. + + Lembke, Dr. J. B., Prescott's agent in Spain, 77, 100, 101. + + Linzee, Hannah, 43. + + Longfellow, Henry W., Prescott's admiration for, 113. + + Lowell, James Russell, 12, 23, 103. + + Lyell, Lady, entertained by Prescott, 91; + letter to, 115, 166. + + Lyell, Sir Charles, 91, 103. + + Lynn, Prescott's house at, 97, 98. + + + M + + Macaulay, Lord, anecdotes of, 108, 109; style of, 117, 133. + + Marina, 144. + + Markham, Sir Clements, judgment of Prescott's _Peru_, 165. + + Massachusetts Historical Society, 57, 86, 120, 142, 172. + + Mather, Cotton, his _Magnalia_, 8. + + _Mexico_, _Conquest of_, preparations for, 72-77; + four years of work on, 78-79; + publication and success of, 79-81, 95; + estimate of, 133-159. + + Middle States, literature in the, 4-6. + + Middleton, Arthur, 26; + aids Prescott in Spain, 77, 100. + + Mommsen, Theodor, as a partisan compared with Motley, 177, 178; + compared with Prescott, 180. + + Montezuma, described by Prescott, 139, 143; + Spaniards' view of, 153-156. + + Morgan, Lewis Henry, Indian researches of, 152, 153, 155, 156; + quoted, 157. + + Motley, J. L., quoted, 89, 165, 166, 167, 168, 171, 172; + compared with Prescott, 176-179, 180. + + + N + + Nahant, Prescott's cottage at, 91, 96, 97. + + Navarrete, M. F., 76, 80. + + New England, literature in, 6-10; + historians of, 10-12. + + Noctograph, description of, 57. + + Northumberland, Duke of, entertains Prescott, 110, 111. + + + O + + Ogden, Rollo, quoted, 93, 172. + + Oxford University, 88; + confers degree on Prescott, 106, 107. + + + P + + Parkman, Francis, style of, 133, 145; + compared with Prescott, 179, 180. + + Parr, Dr. Samuel, 18. + + Parsons, Theophilus, 42; + quoted, 89. + + Peabody, Dr. A. P., _Harvard Reminiscences_, 22 _n._ + + Peel, Sir Robert, 104. + + Peirce, Benjamin, 25. + + Pepperell, Prescott's home at, 96, 97. + + _Peru_, _Conquest of_, memorising of parts of, 59; + composition and publication, 81, 82, 84, 85, 95; + estimate of, 160-165. + + Peruvians, 163-165. + + Phi Beta Kappa, 34. + + _Philip II._, Prescott's memorising of parts, 59; + obstacles in way, 99-100; + preparations for, 101, 102; + two volumes completed, 115, 116, 117; + third volume, 119; + estimate of, 165-172; + compared with _Dutch Republic_, 177. + + Pickering, John, memoir of, 86. + + Pizarro, Francisco, 160; + character of, 161; + quoted, 162. + + Poe, Edgar Allan, 4. + + Prescott, Catherine Hickling, parentage and character, 15, 16; + rearing of son, 16. + + Prescott, Colonel William, 13, 14, 43. + + Prescott, John, 18. + + Prescott, Oliver, 14. + + Prescott, Susan Amory, 50, 93; + marriage to Prescott, 42, 43; + character, 43; + letters to, 104, 105, 111. + + Prescott, William, birth and career, 14; + characteristics of, 15, 82, 83; + home, 14, 15; + illness of, 17; + removal to Boston, 17, 18; + quoted, 67; + death, 82. + + PRESCOTT, William Hickling, literary importance of, 12; + birth of, 15; + his first teachers, 16; + traits as a boy, 16, 17; + prepares for college, 18, 19; + his tastes in reading, 19, 20; + amusements, 20, 21, 22; + candidate for Harvard, 22; + letter to father about examination, 25, 26; + enters college, 27; + his studies and ideals, 27; + love of pleasure, 28; + laxity of conduct, 28, 29, 30; + accident, 31; + loss of eye, 31; + effect on character, 32; + magnanimity, 32; + returns to college, 32; + dislike for mathematics, 33; + commencement poem, 33, 34; + election to Phi Beta Kappa, 34; + studies law, 34; + second illness and temporary blindness, 34, 35; + sails for Azores, 35, 36; + third illness, 36; + first visit to London, 36, 37; + visits Paris and Italy, 37, 38; + returns to England, 38; + sails for home, 38; + anxiety regarding career, 39, 40; + vicarious reading, 40, 41; + first attempts at composition, 41, 42, 46; + marriage, 42, 43; + resolves to become a man of letters, 44; + studies languages, 45, 46, 47; + interest in Spanish, 47, 48; + drift toward historical composition, 49, 50; + perplexity in choosing subject, 50, 51, 52; + decides upon _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 52, 53; + difficulties of task, 54, 55; + time of preparation and composition, 55, 56, 62, 66; + his methods, of work, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61; + his memory, 33, 57, 58, 59; + his mode of life, 59, 60, 61, 62; + death of daughter, 62, 63, 73; + contributes to periodicals, 64, 65; + completes _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 66; + search for publisher, 66, 67; + terms of contract, 67; + success of book, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 95; + criticisms, 69, 70, 71; + theological studies and beliefs, 73, 74; + begins Mexican researches, 74, 75, 76, 77; + correspondence with Irving, 75; + writes _Conquest of Mexico_, 78, 79; + contract with the Harpers, 79, 80; + honours conferred upon, 80, 81; + writes _Conquest of Peru_, 81, 82, 84; + reception of book, 85, 86; + death of father, 82; + opinion of American critics, 85; + period of inactivity, 83, 86; + political views, 89, 90; + entertainment of friends, 91, 92, 93; + his boyish ways, 93; + his tactlessness, 93; + his Yankeeisms, 94; + preparations for _Philip_ + _II._, 99, 100, 101, 102; + his Boston residence, 83, 96; + the homestead at Pepperell, 96, 97; + his cottage at Nahant, 96, 97; + cottage at Lynn, 97, 98; + third visit to England, 94, 102-111; + presented at court, 105; + his sensibility, 110; + at zenith of his fame, 111, 112; + his opinions of contemporary writers, 112, 113, 114, 115; + completes two volumes of _Philip II._, 115, 116, 117; + rewrites conclusion of Robertson's _Charles V._, 117, 118; + health fails, 118; + completes third volume of _Philip II._, 119; + death, 119; + his burial, 119, 120; + style and accuracy of _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 121-131; + criticised by Ford, 124, 125, 126; + his place as an historian, 173-181. + + + Q + + Quincy, Josiah, 7, 25. + + + R + + Raumer, Friedrich von, 81. + + _Review_, _Edinburgh_, notices of Prescott's books, 70, 76, 85, 116. + + _Review_, _English Quarterly_, 46, 70, 85. + + _Review, North American_, Prescott's contributions to, 41, 46, 64, 65; + its notices of Prescott's books, 62, 69. + + Robertson, William, 117, 146. + + Rogers, Samuel, 108, 109. + + + S + + Scott, General Winfield, 90, 91. + + Scott, Sir Walter, 6, 86, 108, 122; + a favourite of Prescott's, 41, 115; + quoted, 129. + + Shepherd, Dr. W.R. 100 _n._ + + Simancas, archives at, 99, 100. + + Southern States, literature in the, 2-4. + + Southey, Robert, 20, 67; + praises _Ferdinand and Isabella_, 71; + quoted, 107. + + Sparks, Jared, 12, 42; + estimate of, 9, 10; + encourages Prescott, 46, 65, 68, 88. + + Stith, Dr. W., quoted, 3. + + Story, Judge Joseph, 25. + + Sumner, Charles, Prescott's friendship with, 88, 89, 90. + + + T + + Talleyrand, quoted, 11. + + Thackeray, W. M., 43, 86; + entertained by Prescott, 91, 114; + tribute to Prescott, 114, 115. + + Thierry, Augustin, 54, 86. + + Thoreau, Henry D., quoted, 168, 169. + + Ticknor, George, 25, 94, 111; + quoted, 19, 22, 26, 28, 43, 48, 71, 84, 103, 127; + letters to, 46, 69, 70, 107, 117, 118; + reads to Prescott, 47. + + Tocqueville, Alexis de, 11, 71. + + + V + + Victoria, Queen, 105, 106. + + + W + + Ware, John, 42. + + Wars, Napoleonic, 21. + + Wellington, Duke of, 21, 104. + + Wendell, Prof. Barrett, 5. + + Wilson, J. Grant, quoted, 91 n. + + Wilson, Robert A., criticises Prescott's _Conquest of Mexico_, 147, 148; + reply to, 149-151. + + + X + + Xenophon, Prescott compared with, 142, 143. + + * * * * * + +ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS + +Edited by JOHN MORLEY + +Cloth. 12mo. Price, 40 cents, each + +=ADDISON.= By W. J. Courthope. + +=BACON.= By R. W. Church. + +=BENTLEY.= By Prof. Jebb. + +=BUNYAN.= By J. A. Froude. + +=BURKE.= By John Morley. + +=BURNS.= By Principal Shairp. + +=BYRON.= By Prof. Nichol. + +=CARLYLE.= By Prof. Nichol. + +=CHAUCER.= By Prof. A. W. Ward. + +=COLERIDGE.= By H. D. Traill. + +=COWPER.= By Goldwin Smith. + +=DEFOE.= By W. Minto. + +=DE QUINCEY.= By Prof. Masson. + +=DICKENS.= By A. W. Ward. + +=DRYDEN.= By G. Saintsbury. + +=FIELDING.= By Austin Dobson. + +=GIBBON.= By J. Cotter Morison. + +=GOLDSMITH.= By William Black. + +=GRAY.= By Edmund Gosse. + +=JOHNSON.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=HUME.= By T. H. Huxley. + +=KEATS.= By Sidney Colvin. + +=LAMB.= By Alfred Ainger. + +=LANDOR.= By Sidney Colvin. + +=LOCKE.= By Prof. Fowler. + +=MACAULAY.= By J. Cotter Morison. + +=MILTON.= By Mark Pattison. + +=POPE.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=SCOTT.= By R. H. Hutton. + +=SHELLEY.= By J. A. Symonds. + +=SHERIDAN.= By Mrs. Oliphant. + +=SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.= By J. A. Symonds. + +=SOUTHEY.= By Prof. Dowden. + +=SPENSER.= By R. W. Church. + +=STERNE.= By H. D. Traill. + +=SWIFT.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=THACKERAY.= By A. Trollope. + +=WORDSWORTH.= By F. W. H. Myers. + + +NEW VOLUMES + +Cloth. 12mo. Price, 75 cents net + +=GEORGE ELIOT.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=WILLIAM HAZLITT.= By Augustine Birrell. + +=MATTHEW ARNOLD.= By Herbert W. Paul. + +=JOHN RUSKIN.= By Frederic Harrison. + +=JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.= By Thomas W. Higginson. + +=ALFRED TENNYSON.= By Alfred Lyall. + +=SAMUEL RICHARDSON.= By Austin Dobson. + +=ROBERT BROWNING.= By G. K. Chesterton. + +=CRABBE.= By Alfred Ainger. + +=FANNY BURNEY.= By Austin Dobson. + +=JEREMY TAYLOR.= By Edmund Gosse. + +=ROSSETTI.= By Arthur C. Benson. + +=MARIA EDGEWORTH.= By the Hon. Emily Lawless. + +=HOBBES.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=ADAM SMITH.= By Francis W. Hirst. + +=THOMAS MOORE.= By Stephen Gwynn. + +=SYDNEY SMITH.= By George W. E. Russell. + +=WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.= By William A. Bradley. + +=WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT.= By Harry Thurston Peck. + + +ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS + +EDITED BY + +JOHN MORLEY + +THREE BIOGRAPHIES IN EACH VOLUME + +Cloth. 12mo. Price, $1.00, each + +=CHAUCER.= By Adolphus William Ward. + +=SPENSER.= BY R. W. Church. + +=DRYDEN.= By George Saintsbury. + +=MILTON.= By Mark Pattison, B.D. + +=GOLDSMITH.= By William Black. + +=COWPER.= By Goldwin Smith. + +=BYRON.= By John Nichol. + +=SHELLEY.= By John Addington Symonds. + +=KEATS.= By Sidney Colvin, M.A. + +=WORDSWORTH.= By F. W. H. Myers. + +=SOUTHEY.= By Edward Dowden. + +=LANDOR.= By Sidney Colvin, M.A. + +=LAMB.= By Alfred Ainger. + +=ADDISON.= By W. J. Courthope. + +=SWIFT.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=SCOTT.= By Richard H. Hutton. + +=BURNS.= By Principal Shairp. + +=COLERIDGE.= By H. D. Traill. + +=HUME.= By T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. + +=LOCKE.= By Thomas Fowler. + +=BURKE.= By John Morley. + +=FIELDING.= By Austin Dobson. + +=THACKERAY.= By Anthony Trollope. + +=DICKENS.= By Adolphus William Ward. + +=GIBBON.= By J. Cotter Morison. + +=CARLYLE.= By John Nichol. + +=MACAULAY.= By J. Cotter Morison. + +=SIDNEY.= By J. A. Symonds. + +=DE QUINCEY.= By David Masson. + +=SHERIDAN.= By Mrs. Oliphant. + +=POPE.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=JOHNSON.= By Leslie Stephen. + +=GRAY.= By Edmund Gosse. + +=BACON.= By R. W. Church. + +=BUNYAN.= By J. A. Froude. + +=BENTLEY.= By R. C. Jebb. + +PUBLISHED BY + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Quoted by Jameson: _Historical Writing in America_, p. 72, Boston, +1891. + +[2] This house was long ago demolished. Its site is now occupied by +Plummer Hall, containing a public library. + +[3] A very interesting appreciation of President Kirkland is given by +Dr. A. P. Peabody in his _Harvard Reminiscences_ (Boston, 1888). + +[4] John Quincy Adams was titularly Professor of Rhetoric, but he had +been absent for several years on a diplomatic mission in Europe. + +[5] The first number appeared in February, 1820; the last in July of the +same year. + +[6] Her mother had been Miss Hannah Linzee, whose father, Captain +Linzee, of the British sloop-of-war _Falcon_, had tried by heavy +cannonading to dislodge Colonel William Prescott from the redoubt at +Bunker Hill. The swords of the two had been handed down in their +respective families, and now found a peaceful resting-place in young +Prescott's "den," where they hung crossed upon the wall above his books. + +[7] Professor Jameson mentions two other contemporary instances,--Karl +Szaynocha and Prescott's Florentine correspondent, the Marquis Gino +Capponi. + +[8] Prescott owned two noctographs, but did nearly all of his writing +with one, keeping the other in reserve in case the first should suffer +accident. One of these two implements is preserved in the Massachusetts +Historical Society. + +[9] See ch. vii. + +[10] _Life of Irving_, 111. p. 133 (New York, 1863). + +[11] Lembke was a German, the author of a work on early Spanish history, +and a member of the Spanish Historical Academy. Prescott mentions him in +his letter to Irving. "This learned Theban happens to be in Madrid for +the nonce, pursuing some investigations of his own, and he has taken +charge of mine, like a true German, inspecting everything and selecting +just what has reference to my subject. In this way he has been employed +with four copyists since July, and has amassed a quantity of unpublished +documents. He has already sent off two boxes to Cadiz." + +[12] Hale, _Memories of a Hundred Years_, ii. pp. 71, 72 (New York, +1902). + +[13] In place of Navarrete, deceased. Prescott received eighteen ballots +out of the twenty that were cast. + +[14] Wilson, _Thackeray in America_, i. pp. 16, 17 (New York, 1904). + +[15] Meaning, of course, that he took more wine than was good for his +eye. + +[16] See p. 116. + +[17] For an interesting account of Simancas and the archives, see a +paper by Dr. W. R. Shepherd, in the _Reports of the American Historical +Association for 1903_ (Washington, 1905). + +[18] The father of Mr. James Lawrence, who afterward married Prescott's +daughter Elizabeth. See p. 97. + +[19] Alluding to the fact that he always shed tears at the opera. + +[20] The English title of this book was _Critical and Historical +Essays_. It contained twelve papers and also the life of Charles +Brockden Brown already mentioned (p. 65). The American edition bore the +title _Biographical and Critical Miscellanies_. It has been several +times reprinted, the last issue appearing in Philadelphia in 1882. + +[21] _Infra_, p. 134. + +[22] November 1, 1838. + +[23] Nearly seven thousand copies of this book had been taken up before +the end of the following three years. + +[24] p. 268. + +[25] p. 285. + +[26] _Supra_, p. 65. + +[27] iii. pp. 199-204. + +[28] In the _British Quarterly Review_, lxiv (1839). + +[29] Don Pascual de Gayangos. + +[30] i. pp. 364-369. Ed. by Kirk (Philadelphia, 1873). + +[31] For a revision of Prescott's narrative here in its light of later +research, see Bandelier, _The Gilded Man_, pp. 258-281 (New York, 1893). + +[32] ii. p. 20. + +[33] ii. pp. 379-380. + +[34] Everett, Memorial Address, delivered before the Massachusetts +Historical Society (1859). + +[35] ii. p. 157. + +[36] _Mujer entremetida y desembuelta_ (Diaz). + +[37] i. p. 294. + +[38] _Moeurs des Sauvages Americains Comparees aux Moeurs des +Premiers Temps_ (Paris, 1723). Lafitau had lived as a missionary among +the Iroquois for five years, after which he returned to France and spent +the rest of his life in teaching and writing. + +[39] _The History of the American Indians_ (London, 1775). + +[40] H_istoria Natural y Moral de las Indias_ (Seville, 1590). + +[41] Philadelphia, 1859. + +[42] _Atlantic Monthly_, iii, pp. 518-525 and pp. 633-645. + +[43] New York, 1851. + +[44] _North American Review_, cxxii, pp. 265-308 (1876). + +[45] _The Romantic School of American Archaeology._ A paper read before +the New York Historical Society, February 3, 1885 (New York, 1885). + +[46] Bandelier, _op. cit._, p. 8. + +[47] ii. p. 125. + +[48] "Though remarkably fair and judicious in the main, Mr. Prescott's +partiality for a certain class of his material is evident. To the copies +from the Spanish archives, most of which have been since published with +hundreds of others equally or more valuable, he seemed to attach an +importance proportionate to their cost. Thus, throughout his entire +work, these papers are paraded to the exclusion of the more reliable, +but more accessible standard authorities."--H. H. Bancroft, _History of +Mexico_, i. p. 7, _Note_. + +[49] i. pp. 222, 224. + +[50] Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 52 (Philadelphia, 1868). + +[51] See the section by Markham on "The Inca Civilisation in Peru," in +Winsor, _A Narrative and Critical History of America_, vol. i. (Boston, +1889); and an interesting summary of the results of eleven years +researches by Bandelier in a paper entitled "The Truth about Inca +Civilisation," published in H_arper's Magazine_ for March, 1905. + +[52] Motley, _History of the United Netherlands_, i. p. 54. + +[53] Quoted by Ogden, _Prescott_, p. 32. + +[54] Cited by R. C. Winthrop, address before the Massachusetts +Historical Society, June 14, 1877. + +[55] Letter of January 18, 1839. + +[56] _Historical Writing in America_, pp. 97-98. + +[57] Dr. C. K. Adams. + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's William Hickling Prescott, by Harry Thurston Peck + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT *** + +***** This file should be named 39084.txt or 39084.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/0/8/39084/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/39084.zip b/39084.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0aa6fe --- /dev/null +++ b/39084.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..32981b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #39084 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39084) |
