The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-31

sons at least two centuries old 1t must not,
however, be imagined that there is in Pres
ootts manner an affected search after sim
plicity, that he has fallen into the error Of
taking for his model the simple language Of
our ancient chroniclers. Prescott had too great
and too simple talent to delight in such pro-
ceedipgs. Joinville and Froissart might have
been in their time historians of the first rank:
the readers of our day do not the less
require more substantial food than their
inmitable prattling. Prescott knew this
well, and he excels in mixing in Just pro-
portion general considerations with the
recital of facts; but whatever he does, aud
whenever he appears for moment to wander
far from his subject by rising above it, every
where and always he remains the historian
nothing but the historian. To narrate is
always Prescott's chief business, to narrate
with intelligence and gravity, without pueri-
| lity and without affectaton, but to narrate,
however, that is to say, to give life to the
persons and things of the past by taking plea
| sure unreservedly in the spectacle of human
activity. Ifsometimss he set off his recital by
foreign ornaments; if by some graceful oompa-
! rison, by some poetic similitude, he colors the
! gravity of his style-it is always with perfect
proportion, with an exquisite sobriety, which
takes nothing from the severe harmony of the
! whole. ...
In the beginning of the year 1853 the first
three volumes of the Life of Philip the Second,
the only ones which have seen the day, had
| already appeared. OF all Prescott's works,
this history is certainly the least known. For
! our part, we should not hesitate, however, to
class it with the History of the Conquest Of
J Mexico. If it has not obtained in America and
elsewhere more popularity, it is because it has
remained unfinished. 1t was not to be given to
Prescott to pursue further this great under
taking. For some time vigilant eye could
have foreseen by the gradual decay of his
organs his approaching end. He could no
longer, as he had done for long
time, sit down and work under the
shade of group of trees near Pep
perel, and known in the country by the
name of the Fairies Grove, where he came to
enjoy the last fine days of that season that is
called in America the Indian summer. Already
his eufeebed eyes no longer permitted him to
discern the outlines of the beautiful country
he had so long contemplated. Soon he was
forced to confne his walk to a solitary turn
around an old cherry tree quite near the house,
following out the ground under his feet, as
the charmed Bonivard followed out the soil Of
the dungeon of Chillon. AT the same time he
felt the symptoms of a new infrmity. He lost
by degrees the sense of hearing and he per-
| ceived it with terror. Can one imagine what
a trial deafness would have been for him He
would have probably known this last and cruel
sffliction, if he had remained longer on earth.
One cannot then pity him, that sudden stroke
removed him before his hour.
In the beginning of 1858 he had received the
first shock of formidable malady which, to
Judge from the words uttered by him as soon
as he felt the attack, had nothing unforeseen
for him. Struck by slight attack of apo
plexy, he murmured in an indistinct voice to
his wife, who was leaning over him, "My
poor friend, | am very sorry for you that this
misfortune should happen so soon." He
escaped the peril, however, and the entire re-
1 q, j Al
hope that the danger was at least ad journed.
The last lines found written in his journal ex-
press confidence in the future and gratitude
towards God; but his friends were less conf
dent than he, and experience was only too
soon to verify their fears. The 9th of Janu-
ary, 1859, he was suddenly struck at the mo-
ment he was entering his study; and some
his children, the favorite sister who
had been the companion and conf
dant of his early years, by his old friend,
Mr.. Mcknor, who had run to his bedside.
he yielded his last breath. To die in the
midst of those he loved was one of the things
he most wished for. In his will was found the
expression of singular wish. He asked
earnestly that, before being carried to his last
resting-place, his body might be left some
hours in the study where he had passed the
rleasantest hours of his life. His last wish
was relgiously fulfilled. The same day his
Co1hn was carried to the church, and lowered
into the vault where his parents were sleeping,
and the little girl he had so tenderly loved in
the midst of the sobs of his friends, and the
general emotion of an assemblage which ex-
ceeded in number all that it is possible to
imagine. Many people who had seen Prescott
once or twice in their lite, or who knew him
only by name, had followed to the end the
funeral procession. Sadness was painted on
every face, and it was easy to see, adds the
faithful biographer to whom the last word
should belong here, 'that every one had suf-
fered a great loss and that benefcent as
well as brilliant, light had just been extin-
gushed by the hand of DEATH"
Prescott has been preceded very few years
in the tomb by another writer not less illus
triOus, not less tried, and who has sought like
him in the joys of labor an alienation for the
most cruel bodily sutferings; we mean Au-
gustin Thierry. His name is sometimes met
with in Prescotts biography; but there is NO
need to find it there, in order that one &
thoughts should be directed to him every
moment. How many points, indeed, were
there i'll common IN the destiny and in the
nature of these two men Both have had to
exhibit an almost equal energy, in order to
triumph over obstacles which their common
infrmity opposed to the strength of their will.
Both devoted themselves, Prescott for the in
digenOus populations of Mexico Thierry for
those of Great Britain, to celebrate, one mi ght
almost say to sing, the misfortunes of two
proud and generous races, both crushed under
the barbaIism OF conquest. Both writers have
known how to color with the reflections of q
brilliant imagination the most obscure episodes
of an almost unknown history. In one of the
ino thcf ha haa EIa,,