by their decided charm made professor known to a far larger audience than a professional teacher or writer upon such usually reaches is one of the brilliant scholars whose training has been broad and sufficient he is a was born in virginia on october th and educated first at college north and then at whence he was in he studied law at the university of virginia it in then went to university to study history and political economy holding a fellowship there he has occupied the chair of history at and university and since that of at he received in the appointment of upon that subject at university his began in with government his doctor s at a study in american politics which while by some attracted attention at home and abroad for its brilliancy of and freshness and independence of view in appeared the state an able text book on comparative history and administration for the series called of american history he wrote a book on division and in which the influences of the civil war and the subsequent process of recovery are traced from also dates an old by master and other political essays containing a delightful appreciation of adam smith and further papers developing the author s views upon political principles and forms the volume mere literature v displayed his ability as an in the wider sense upon calling for a literary handling an admirable sketch of washington clearly and his characteristics on the social and domestic side appeared in in the present tendency to adopt the scientific method in writing on politics and history and to the and parade of material scholars of professor s type are needed and welcome he not only in his writings upon the necessity and value of the literary method in such studies see the below but in his own person his meaning he is a student who makes past and present vivid by his interpretation of the raw stuff of facts and records the truth of the matter from mere literature and other essays by by permission of co � ive us the facts and nothing but the facts is the sharp of our age to its upon the face of it an eminently reasonable to tell the truth simply openly without is the first principle of all right dealing and have no license to be quit of it unquestionably they must tell us the truth or else get themselves among a very class of persons not often frankly named in polite society but the thing is by no means so easy as it looks the truth of history is a very complex and very matter it consists of things which are invisible as well as of things which are visible it is full of secret motives and of a chance of trivial and yet circumstances it is shot through with transient passions and broken here and there by what seem cruel accidents it cannot all be reduced to or newspaper or recorded statement and so it turns out when the actual test of experiment is made that the historian must have something more than a good conscience must be something more than a good man he must have an eye to see the truth and nothing but a very catholic imagination will serve to by his matter for him nothing less than keen and steady insight will n even illumination yield him the truth of what he looks upon even when he has seen the truth only half his work is done and that not the more difficult half he must then make others see it just as he does only when he has done that has he told the truth what an art of phrase and just selection must he have to take others into the light in which he stands their their ignorance their are to be overcome and driven in like a troop upon the truth the thing is infinitely difficult the skill and of it cannot be taught and so take another way which is easier they tell part of the truth � the part most to their taste or most suitable to their talents � and obtain readers to their liking among those of similar tastes and talents to their own we have our individual in history as in every other sort of literature and there are histories to every taste histories full of the details of personal biography histories that blaze with the of courts and with drum and trumpet and histories that run upon the but greater of the life of the people histories so and so lacking in mark or motive that they might have been set tip out of a dictionary without the of an author and histories so and violent in every judgment that no reader not of the historian s own party can stomach them histories of development and histories that speak only of politics those that tell nothing but what it is pleasant and interesting to know and those that tell nothing at all that one cares to remember one must be of a new and unheard of taste not to be suited among them all the trouble is after all that men do not invariably find the truth to their taste and will often deny it when they hear it and the historian has to do much more than keep his own eyes clear � he has also to catch and hold the eye of his reader tis a nice art as much intellectual as moral how shall he take the of his reader at unawares and get the facts down his throat along with the is there no way in which all the truth may be made to hold together in a narrative so strongly knit and so colored that no reader will have either the wish or the skill to tear its patterns and men will take it all and as it stands rather 