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influence in special on the welfare of the nation, he does not appreciate. He tells the fact for the fact's sake. Hence there are no pages in the book, perhaps no sentences, which the reader turns back to read a second time, to see if the thought be true; here are the facts of history without the thought which belongs to the facts. It would be difficult to find a history in the English language of any note, so entirely destitute of philosophy. Accordingly, the work is dull and inanimate; the reading thereof tiresome and not profitable. Thus lacking philosophy, and having more of the spirit of chivalry than of humanity, it is impossible that he should write in the interest of mankind or judge men and their deeds by justice, by the immutable law of the universe. After long and patient study of his special theme, Mr. Prescott writes with the average sense of mankind, with their average of conscience, and his judgment, the average judgment of a trading town, is readily accepted by the average of men, and popular with them; but he writes as one with little sympathy for mankind, and seems to think that Spain belonged to Ferdinand and Isabella, that their power was a right and not a trust, and they not accountable for the guardianship which they exercised over their subjects. The style of the work is plain, unambitious, and easily intelligible. The language, the figures of speech, the logic, and the rhetoric are commonplace; like the judgment of the author, they indicate no originality, and do not bear the stamp. of his character. There is a certain mannerism about them, but it is not the mannerism of Mr. Prescott, only of the class of well-bred men. His metaphors, which usually mark the man, are commonplace and poor; rarely original or beautiful. Here

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are some examples: To "spread like wildfire; " to act "like desperate gamblers;" to run "like so many frighted deer;" to extend "like an army of locusts; to be "like a garden." He calls womankind "the sex;" not a very elegant or agreeable title. There is a slight tendency to excess in his use of epithets; sometimes he insinuates an opinion which he does not broadly assert, rhetorically understanding the truth. In his style there is little to attract, nothing to repel, nothing even to offend; he is never tawdry, seldom extravagant, never ill-natured. If he finds an author in error, he takes no pleasure in pointing out the mistake. Everywhere he displays the marks of a wellbred gentleman of letters; this is more than can be said of the reviewer we have alluded to before. After long study of this work we take leave of the author with an abiding impression of a careful scholar, diligent and laborious; an amiable man, who respects the feelings of his fellows, and would pass gently over their failings; a courteous and accomplished gentleman, who after long toil, has unexpectedly found that toil repaid with money and with honors, and wears the honors with the same modesty in which they have been

won.

V

PRESCOTT'S CONQUEST OF MEXICO

After Mr. Prescott had finished his History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella several important subjects seemed naturally to claim his attention; these were the Discovery of America, and the Reign of Charles V. But the first of these had already been described by the graceful pen of Mr. Irving, adorning what it touches; the second had been treated by Dr. Robertson in a work of great though declining celebrity, and rendered attractive by a pleasing style, which often conceals the superficiality of the author's research, the shallowness of his political philosophy, and the inhumanity of his conclusions. Few men would wish to enter the literary career and run the race with such distinguished rivals. A broader field yet remained, more interesting to the philosopher and the lover of mankind; namely, the Conquest and Colonization of America by the Spaniards. On this theme Mr. Prescott has written two independent works of wide popularity. Of the first of those we now propose to speak, only premising what we said before in respect to the office and duty of an historian.

The new world was discovered in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella; its islands and continents, though not for the first time, laid open to the eye of civilized Europe. The greater part of America was found to be thinly peopled by a single race of men, different in many respects from the inhabitants of the eastern hemisphere. A large part of the new world was in

habited by tribes, not only not civilized, but not even barbarous; the nations were eminently savage, though most of them were far removed from the lowest stage of human life, still represented by the Esquimaux, the New-Hollanders and the Bushmen of South Africa. The French, the English, and the Dutch, in their North American settlements, came in contact with the barbarous portion of the nations, who had a little agriculture, it is true, but subsisted chiefly on the spontaneous products of the forest and the flood. But some tribes had advanced far beyond this state, some had ceased to be barbarous. There was an indigenous and original civilization in America. Attempts have often been made to trace this civilization to the old world, to connect it now with the Tyrians, now with the Egyptians, and then with the Hebrews or roving Tartars. Sometimes the attempt has been guided by philology, which makes language the basis of comparison; sometimes by physiology, and scientific men have sought in the bodies of the red Americans to discover some trace of the stock they sprung from; sometimes by theology, which seeks the affinity indicated by kindred forms of religion. But commonly inquirers have started with the theological prejudice that all men are descended from the single primitive pair mentioned in the Hebrew myth, and have bent philology, physiology, and theology to conform to their gratuitous assumption. Hitherto these attempts have been in vain. Even the lamented Mr. Prichard,' who had this theological prejudice in the heroic degree, small for an English theologian, indeed, but great for a philosopher, as he certainly was, a prejudice which appears throughout his researches into the physical history of mankind,— fails to con

nect the American civilization with that of any other race. We therefore take it for granted, in the present stage of the inquiry, that it was original and indigenous. Geologists inform us that the western continent appears older than the eastern. If it be so, perhaps the American aborgines are the oldest race now in existence, and may look down on the bearded and pale Caucasians as upstarts in the world. If this be true, the red man has not advanced so rapidly in civilization as the white; this seems owing to the inferior organization of the former, and also to the absence of swine, sheep, horses, oxen, and large animals capable of being tamed, which in the eastern continent have so powerfully aided the progress of civilization. The man who would tame the sheep and the ox must tame also himself. The domestication of animals, those living machines of an earlier age, once promoted the progress of civilization as much as the invention of machinery at this day. The camel, the ship of the desert, and the steamboat, the ship of the sea, have each something to do in ferrying man out of barbarism.

After the discovery of America, the Spaniard soon came in contact with the more advanced tribes of red men, contended with and overcame them, partly in virtue of his superior development, but partly also through the aboriginal and organic superiority which marks the Caucasian race in all historical stages of their progress, and appears in every conflict with any kindred race. This indigenous American civilization had two centres, or mother-cities, mainly independent of one another, if not entirely so, Mexico and Peru. The chief seats thereof were soon reached by the Spaniards and conquered, the advanced tribes reduced to

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