A SKETCH of American literature would be incomplete if it did not include at least a brief statement of the excellent work done by the historians. During the last seventy-five years a marvelous change has taken place in the methods of historical writing. Histories have ceased to

be as dry as dust, and are written with a view to entertain as well as to instruct.

Jared Sparks [1789-1866], who may be called the father of American history, was born on a Connecticut farm in 1789, and in his early manhood was farmer, miller, carpenter, and country pedagogue. Graduating from Harvard in 1815, he entered the ministry and preached for several years. In 1824 he became the editor of the North American Review, discharging his editorial duties with credit until 1831, when he was honored by a call to the chair of history, recently established at Harvard. After ten years of efficient service he became president of the university.

Sparks wrote a Life of Gouverneur Morris in 1832, but it was not until the appearance of The Life and Writings of George Washington that the public became aware of the new methods of historical research which Sparks had adopted. In writing his histories Sparks consulted all the original documents and state papers which he could find, both in this country and in Europe. No longer was it possible in America to follow the old historical method which dispensed with original investigation. Sparks excelled in the matter of collecting and arranging materials, but he lacked the literary style which many of his successors possessed in a high degree. He was also the editor of the Works of Benjamin Franklin, with a Life of the Author,

and the general editor of the Library of American Biography, in twenty-five volumes.

George Bancroft [1800-1891]. While Jared Sparks deserves to be regarded as the founder of modern historical methods in America, it is to George Bancroft that we turn for our first eminent historian. He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, October 3, 1800. Having graduated from Harvard, with honors, at the age of seventeen, he went to Göttingen for post-graduate study, securing his degree of Ph.D. in three years. Two more years were spent in Europe, studying and traveling, at the end of which time Bancroft returned to America one of the most thoroughly trained scholars of his day. He was one of the founders of the "Round Hill" school for boys at Northampton, where he tried his hand at preparing boys for college. Later he was Secretary of the Navy under President Polk, being instrumental in the establishment of the Naval Academy at Annapolis. He was also our diplomatic representative in England and Germany.

Bancroft issued a small volume of poetry in 1823, but his monumental work is his History of the United States, in twelve volumes. The first volume made its appearance in 1834, and just a half century later the work was completed. The history treats of the period from the discovery of America to 1789. Seldom have

so much time and labor been devoted to one piece of historical research. The author was granted unusual opportunities for consulting original documents, and he is said to have collected a working library of twelve thousand volumes. The utmost pains were taken, and his history is the result of a thorough and conscientious effort on his part to describe the events as they actually occurred. Bancroft, however, was too patriotic to be strictly impartial; he eulogizes too much, but in a calm, severe style. He does not indulge in vivid word paintings such as are to be found in the volumes of Prescott or of Parkman. His style is interesting, because of his enthusiasm. There are no footnotes in his volumes, for he sifts the facts and offers them as his own, but his statements are generally found to be based on good authority.

William Hickling Prescott [1796-1859]. Seldom has a writer succeeded under more trying circumstances than Prescott, who was born at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1796, eight years before Hawthorne. While he was a junior at Harvard, a crust of bread carelessly thrown by another student blinded him in one eye and seriously affected the sight of the other. It was with the utmost difficulty that he carried on his literary work with the aid of a secretary. He could use his eyesight for only a few minutes each day, and in a darkened room,

but he exhibited under these circumstances an admirable spirit of resignation. He chose the broad subject of history for his life's work, and then later decided upon his particular field. His first work, Ferdinand and Isabella, appeared in 1837 after a ten years' preparation, The Conquest of Mexico in 1843, The Conquest of Peru in 1847. His History of Philip II was left unfinished at his death in 1859. Prescott broke entirely new ground in his work on Mexico and Peru and his pages are as readable as any romance. He is very graphic and picturesque in his descriptions, and the literary form of his histories is excellent. His statements are based upon European documents, as he did not visit the scene of his writings. His deductions are usually correct and his authorities are given in footnotes. His work throughout is affected by his own personality, which was unusually wholesome. He is at times rhetorical in style, but he never deviates from the facts for the mere purpose of telling a good story. Prescott's histories, while not so popular as they once were, deserve to be placed side by side with those of Motley, Bancroft, and Parkman.

John Lothrop Motley [1814-1877], one of the very greatest of American historians, was born near Boston in 1814; attended Bancroft's "Round Hill" school; entered Harvard College at thirteen; a brilliant but careless student; studied two years