The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-09-17
PRESCOTT, THE HISTORIAN.

The July number of the Massachusetts,
Teacher contains very interesting article. from
the pen of Rev. George L. Ellis, upon Mr.. Pres
colt and his histories. In this article Mr.. Ellis
introduces friendly and communicative letter
from Mr.. Prescott, explaining the origin and
extent of the difficulties under which it is well
known he has labored in the composition of his
histories. 1t is, says the Bosto7, Journal, a
pleasantly-relsted tale of faithful pursuit of
knowledge under difficulties:
l suppose you are awe re that, when in col
lege, l received an injury in one eve, which de.
prived me of the use of it for reading and wri-
ting. An injudicious use Of the other eve, On
which the burden of my studies vas now wholly
thrown, brought on rheumatic inflammation,
which deprived me entirely of sight for some
weeks. When this was restored. the eve re-
manned IN too irritable state TO be employed
in reading for several years. / consequently
abandoned the study of the law, upon which /
had entered and, as a man must find some
thing to do, determined 10 devote myself Ia
letters, in which independent career l could
regulate my own habits W h reference to what
my sight might enable me 10 accomplish.
had early conceive. a strong passion for
historical writing, to VIII, !, perhaps, the read
ing OF Gibbons auto5io8 ,phy contributed not
a little. proposed to ma - myself historian
IN the best sense of the te n, and hoped to pro-
duce something which pssterity would not will
ingly let die. In a memorandum book, as far
back as the year 1919, I,fnd the desire init.
mated and | proposed to devote ten wears of
my life to the study of ancient and modern
literatures-chiehy the latter-and to give ten
years more to some historical work. l have
had the good fortune to accomplish this design
pretty nearly within the limits assigned. In
the Christmas of 1887, my first work, The HIS
tory Of Ferdinand and Isabella, was given tc
| the public.
During my preliminary studies in the field
of general literature, my eyes gradually &C
quired so much strength, that / was enabled to
use them many hours of the day. The result
of my studies at this time was in the habit OF
giving, in the form of essays in the public Jour.
nails, chiefly in the North american, from which
a number, quite large enough, have been trans
| terred to a separate volume of miscelanies.
Having settled on a subject for a particular
history, lost no time in collecting the materi-
ais, for which l had peculiar advantages. But,
just before these materials arrived, my eye had
experienced so severe q strain, that enioyed
no use Of it again for reading for several years.
1t has, indeed, never since fully recovered its
strength, nor have / ever ventured to use it
again by candlelight. / well remember the
blank despair which / felt when my literary
treasures arrived from Spain, and saw the
mine of wealth lying around me, which / was
| forbidden to explore. determined to see what
| could be done with the eyes of another. | re
membered that johnson had said, in reference
to Milton, that the great poet had abandoned
his projected history of England, finding il
scarcely possible for man without eyes to
pursue historical work, requiring reference 10
various authorities. The remark piqued me
to make an attempt.
81 obtained the services of reader who
knew no language but his own. l taught him
to pronounce the Castilisn, in a manner suited
L suspect, much more to my ear than to that OF
Spanisrd and we began our wearisone Jour
| ney through Mariana's noble history. | cannot
even now call to mind, without a emile, the
tedious hours in which, seated under some old
trees in my country residence, we pursued our
slow and melancholy way over pages which
afforded no glimmeriug of light to him, and from
which the light came dimly struggling to me
through halfintellgible vocabulary. But in
few weeks the light became stronger, and l
was cheered by the consciousness of my own
Improvement; and when we had toiled our Way
through seven quartos, / found | could under
stand the book, when read, about two-thirds as
fast as ordinary English. My readers office
required the more patience; he had not even
this result to cheer him in his labor
l now felt that the great difficulty could be
| overcome and | obtained the services of a
| reader whose acquaintance with modern and
ancient tongues supplied, as far as it could be
supplied, the deficiency of eyesight on my part.
But, though in this way / could examine
various authorities, it was not easy to arrange
IN my mind the results Of my reading, drawn
from ,,,l, e.
10 do this, dictated copious notes as | went
along; and when l had read enough for a
| chapter-frOm thirty to forty, and sometimes
| fifty pages in length hau = mass of memo
randa in my own language, which would easily
bring before me, at one view, the fruits of my
researches. These notes were carefully read
to me; and while my recent studies were fresh
IN my recollection, | ran over the whole of my
intended chapter in my mind. This process
repeated at least half dozen times, 80 that
when finally put my pen to paper, it ran off
pretty glibly, for it was an effort of memory
rather than creation. This method had the
advantage of saving me from the perplexity of
frequently referring to the scattered passages
IN the originals, aud it enabled me to make
the corrections in my own mind which are usu-
ally made in the manuscript, and which, with
my mode of writing--as | shall explain-would
have much embarrassed me. Yet l must sd.
NIT that this method Of composition, when the
chapter was very long, was somewhat too heavy
strain on the memory to be al.ogether recon-
mended.
Writing presented me difficulty even
greater than reading. Thierry, the famous
blind historian of the Norman Conquest, ad-
vised me to cultivate dictatjon but l have
usually preferred substitute that ! found in
writing case made for the blind, which l pro-
cured in London forty years siLce. 1t is
simple apparatus, often described by me, for
the benefit of persons whose vision is imper-
feet. 1t consists of frame Of the size of
sheet of paper, traversed by brass wires, as
many as lines are wanted on the page, and
with sheet Of carbonated paper, such as is
used for getting duplicates, pasted on the reverse
side. With an ivory or agate stylus the writer
traces his characters between the wires on the
carbonated sheet, making indelible marks, which
he cannot see, on the white page below. This
treadmill operation has its defects; and have
repeatedly supposed / had accomplished q
good page and was proceeding in all the glow
of composition to go ahead, when found had
forgotten to insert sheet Of my writing paper
below that my labor had al been thrown
away, and that the leaf looked as blank as my
self. Notwithstanding these and other whimsi-
cal distresses of Ehe kind, have found my
writing-case my best friend in my lonely hours,
and with it have written nearly all that have
sent into the world the last forty years.
+" The manuscript thus written and decipher.
ed-for it was in the nature of hieroglyphics-
by my secretary, was then read to me for cor.
rection, and copied off in fair hand for the
printer. All this, it may be thought, was rather
a slow process, requiring the virtue IF patience
in all the parties concerned. But in time my
eyes improved again. Before l had finished
Ferdinand and Isabella l could use them
some hours every day. And thus they have
continued Ill within a few ueara thnnn sinh.