The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-06 00:00:00

MAY 6, 1847.

MAGAZINES—(CONTINUED.)
BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY.
The present number of Bentley opens with a Biogra-
phical Sketch of the Career (illustrated by a portrait) of
William Hickling Prescott, the most learned and most
trustworthy of American historians. The career of
Mr. Prescott is one of the most curious and most
interesting illustrations of the pursuit of knowledge
under difficulties that to ordinary men would have
appeared insuperable that_has ever neon published. Mr.
Prescott had not to overcome the difficulties which beset
the poor scholar. His position in life has always been
that of a man of independence. his father was a judge,
and William Hickling Prescott was educated at
Harvard university, and afterwards travelled all
Europe. his aspirations had always been to become a
great historian, and the subject which he selected for his
first performance was the reign of Ferdinand and Isa-
bella, the sovereigns under whose auspices the existence
of the continent of America was first revealed to Europe;
the age of Columbus, and Ferdinand and Isabella, of
Cardinal Ximenes, the prototype of Talley rand, and of a
gran Capitan Gonzalvo de Cordova, the prototype of
Wellington. the soldier-statesman—

" Mr. Alexander 11. Everett was the American Minister
at the Court of Spain when Mr. Prescott decided upon the
choice of his subject, and through his aid and that of two
other American gentlemen residing at the time in the Pe •
ninsula, he succeeded in obtaining whatever was known to
exist, that could not be supplied by the public and
private libraries of Boston. Among the works thus pro-
cured were some brought to light by the researches of recent
Spanish scholars, in the peculiar freedom of inquiry they
have enjoyed, which gave him great advantage over previous
historians. In his preface he refers particularly to Llorente's
History of the Inquisition, the analysis of the political
institutions of the kingdom by such writers as Marina,
Sempere, and Campmany ; the version of the Spanish-
Arab Chronicles by Conde, the collections of Navarrette, and
the illustrations of the reign of Isabella, by Clemencin, the
secretary of the Royal Academy of History ; besides which
he succeeded in obtaining various contemporary manuscripts,
covering the whole ground of the narrative, none of which
bad been printed, and some of which were but little known
to Spanish scholars. When these literary treasures reached
him, Mr. Prescott was not able to read even the title-pages
of the volumes."
He had lost one eye by accident in his early youth, and
had by study soxtrained the nerve of the other, that he
was all but completely blind. He at first despaired, but
" He determined to try whether he could make the ears
do the work of the eyes. He taught his reader, unacquainted
-tanguagii- but hie owo, to pronounce -the Spanirsh,
though not exactly in the accent of the Court of Madrid.
He read at a slow and stumbling pace, while the historian
listened with painful attention. Practice at length made the
work easier for both, though the reader never understood a
word of his author. In this way they ploughed along pa-
tiently through seven Spanish quartos. He found at last
that he could go over about two-thirds as much in an hour
as he could when read to in English. The experiment iwas
made, and he became convinced of the practicability of sub-
stituting the ear for the eye. He was overjoyed, for his
library was no longer to consist of sealed.volumes. He now
obtained the services of a secretary acquainted with the dif-
ferent ancient and modern languages. Still there were many
impediments to overcome. His eye, however, gradually im-
proved, and he could use it by daylight (never again in the
evening) a few hours; though this was not till after some
years, and then with repeated intervals of weeks and some-
times months of debility. Many a chapter, and some of the
severest in Ferdinand and Isabella were written almost
wholly with the aid of the eyes of his secretary. His modus
operandi was necessarily [peculiar. He selected first, all the
authorities in the different languages that could bear on the
topic to be discussed. He then listened to the reading of
these one after another, dictating very copious notes on each.
When the survey was completed, a large pile of notes was
amassed, which were read to him over and over again, until
the whole had been embraced by his mind, when they were
fused down into the consecutive contents of a chapter. When
the subject was complex, and not pure narrative, requiring a
great variety of reference, and sifting of contradictory autho-
rities, the work must have been very difficult ; but it strength-
ened memory, kept his faculties wide awake, and taught him
to generalize; for the little details slipped through the holes
in the memory. His labour did not end with this process:
he found it as difficult to write as to read, and procured
in London a large writing case for the blind. This he
could use in the dark as well as in the light. The charac-
ters, indeed, might pass for hieroglyphics, but they were de-
cyphered by his secretary, and transferred by him to a le-
gible form in a fair copy. Yet I have heard him say his hair
sometimes stood on end at the woful blunders and miscon-
ceptions of the original, which every now and then escaping
detection, found their way into the first proof of the printer.
Amid such difficulties was the composition of the history of
Ferdinand and Isabella heroically completed at the end of
something less than ten years from its commencement. He
remembered that Johnson says that Milton gave up his His-
tory of England because it was scarcely possible to write
history with the eyes of others ; and was stimulated in the
midst of his embarrassments to overcome them. Well might
he feel a proud satisfaction in conquering the obstacles of
nature. Mr. Prestcott had four copies of the History first
printed for himself, and had so little confidence in its mime
diate success, that he had thought of postponing the publi-
cation till after his death, but his father told him, " the man
who writes a book which he is afraid to publish is a coward."
This decided him. The work was published in the begin-
.

ring of 1833. Its reception in his own country, and in al
parts of Europe, was such as to repay him, if anything
could, for the long nights of toil by which it had been pro-
duced. On its publication in London, it was praised in the
Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews, and in the leading jour-
nals, and has since gone through four editions and twelve
in the United States ! It was translated into Spanish, Ger-
man, and Italian; it was everywhere recognised at once as
a great history. The voice of posterity was anticipated; by
the unanimous judgment of the learned it was admitted
without probation into the circle of immortal works."
This history of the composition of this immortal work
is to the full as marvellous as the deeds which are
therein recorded. Columbus and his patrons overcame
what were to all appearance superhuman obstacles—
their historian has done the same. His " History of the
Conquest of Mexico" followed, and was equally well re-
ceived, and he is now engaged in the composition of the
History of Philip li. "In Private Life" concludes his
biography, Mr. Griswold—
" I may be permitted to add to this account, that no man
is more admired and beloved than Mr. Prescott. He is not
more remarkable for his abilities and acquirements than for
his amiability, simplicity, and high-bred courtesy. Ile is
one of those men who are a blessing as well as an honour to
the community in which they live."
We have, in this number, an additional chapter of
"Captain Spike," the scene of which opens in the Island
of the Dry Tortugas, where Jack Tier and Rose,
and Mrs. Budd and Biddy have been left by Swash,
when she escaped from Uncle Sam's cruiser. Our
reader's will recollect the mysterious disappearance of
Mulford from on board the Swash during the chace.
The handsome mate had taken advantage of the explo-
sion of a shell to escape, under cover of the smoke, from
the Swash into the Mexican schooner's boat,
while towing astern, to cut the painter, and to
paddle her to the island. There, with the assist-
ance of Jack Tier, he gets the Mexican schooner fit
for sea, and with Jack Tier, Mrs. Budd, Rose, and Biddy,
embarks for King \Vest. On their voyage thither they
encounter a gale which nearly throws the schooner on
her beam-ends, and its that position we leave her and her
crew. Albert Smith contributes a facetious account of a
go-a-head day with Barnum " the Governor" of General
is
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and then to inuendo, that Catherine de Medicis was a
retail instead of a wholesale murderess, seeing that her
object was only to assassinate Ct. ligni, and that the
tiger spirit of the Parisian mob is alone answerable for
the wholesale massacre which followed. But the learned
Doctor forgets to mention that orders were given to
perpetuate a similar massacre on the same day in every
town in France—he forgets that glorious answer of the
Mayor of Bordeaux, " Your Majesty has in this city
many a loyal subject, but no assassin," and while forced
to confess that the Pope expressed his approval of the
massacre, and ordered rejoicing; therefore he says, that
the massacre Could not be considered as the act of the
Roman Catholics, because the Pope was a fool. That
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in this. The other articles of Bentley are excellent.

PRICE SD.

'others seem of trivial importance—who is in horrors at
the prayers being said, and not sung ; and who cannot
conceive that the Deity can be worshipped in a church
unless the altar was at the east end—as if there was a
portion of the building where the Almighty was not.
" Thoughts on the Pleasures and Amusements of the
Agricultural Poor" follows, in some degree the prevail-
ing bias, although it laments—and in so doing we cor-
dially agree with it—the want of pleasing recreations
for the humbler classes, it more deeply bewails the non-
observance of holidays and festivals. We would gladly
see greater attention paid to the happine:s and comforts
of the agricultural and manufacturing poor, to their
nnocent amusements, and social enjoyments, although
little solicitous as to whether they observed fastsand
" Civil and Religious Liberty," written in the same
spirit, is a sneer against those who are independent
enough to think for themselves, to desire that every man
may be at liberty to worship his Creator in the manner
he deems most fitting, and who refuse to submit to the
ipse dixit of any man or body of men. Thank God,
religious liberty has progressed, is progressing, and will
progress, despite such puny attacks. The nation in ge-
neral has discovered that it means something more than
the sagacious writer understands, when he states that it
is " the liberty to be of no religion at all, and to abuse
as bigots and illiberal those who do not think like our-
selves." The remainder of the number consists of short
reviews and the usual university intelligence, which con-
tains, inter alia, the second report of proceedings in the
Observatory relating to the new planet Neptune.