The Arkansaw traveler., 1889-04-06
cause was nimbly balanced in the marts of trade and his modest, gentlemanly bearing in argument and triumph. His heart was pure; his hands un- soiled by intrigue, were


 soiled by intrigue, were
 "whts cloud that floats and fades in air; White as the whtest lily a
 Somewhere, in hIs own interesting journal the poet LongfellOw enthusiastically proclaims Mot ley at the age of two-and- thirty, to be ga hand some fellow" Admiring English friends fancied strong likeness to Lord Byron. The historian's personal quill portraits of British contemporaries of both sexes, are we'll drawn. His estimates of ! Lincoln, Grant, Farragut and other rapidly made American idols are, in the main, correct. The let ters that reveal the and his nobleness are those he never intended to reach type. Yet admitted to these sacred condolences, we see a proud, affec- tionate, mother-fond son, lover husband, and father whose joys and sorrows are his children's keen concern. His parents and his wife preceded him into the dark valley. Friends, who had been valued counsellors passed with these dear ones to solve my stery that lies beyond the grave. Ten derly he writes to Holmes at the end of January lls77:
 1 "Our establishment in Seamore Place is broken up and the house. endeared to me by the saddest memories of my lite, is sold, and is believe soon | to be pulled down to make room on its site and that of the adjoining house for a very large one. am rather pleased with this idea than with that of seeing others, perhaps acquaintances, living in what was her last home on earth"
 These letters cover wide range of topics, incl dents and notabilites. Fresh. vigorous and free of all dscourteous references they hold the reader by a floral chain. As character analyst, Motley excels. yield to impulse and here frame his pho- tograph of Lord Henry Brougham:
 "The whole visage is wild and bizarre, and slightly cemical but not stern or forbdding. Like his tongue and his mind, it is eminently Scotch, sharp, caustic, rugged, thistleish The top of the head is as fiat as if it had been finished with a plane The brain chamber is as spacious as is often allotted to any one mortal and as the world knows, the owner has furnished it very thoroughly. The face Is large massive scanned all over with the deep furrows of age and thought and toll the nose is fantastic and incredible in shape. There is much humor and benevoence about the lines of the mouth His manner is warm, eager, earnest, cordial"
 Quite common are similar freaks of Motley's eye- camera He wrote of the people who attracted his notice exactly as he saw them. His descriptions lose no force because they are unstudied.
 To many private and public libraries, near and far, there will be genuine acquisition when the two volumes of John Lothrop Motley's correspond ence are bought and shelved It seems to have been task of reverent gladness with George Will liam Curtis to edit the letters of man at once grand and picturesque. Of his noble literary brother, Mr. Curtis says in reviewing this work:
 "He was quick and sensitive observer and the mental activity, the instinct of research and thor oughness which distinguish the scholar are con- stantly obvious in his correspondence. . . After the lapse of the intervening years it is delightful to turn these pages and to once more, and more intimately than betore the brilliant and buoy ant youth, the ardent student of liberty, the eloquent and fascinating and renowned historian of one of its noblest achievements, the diplomatist, the favori.e of the most accomplished and refined society"
 
 With this estimate, as final quotation, leave the record. Motley's last "God bless you !" was writ ten to his eldest daughter, May IT, 1877. Twelve days afterward the end came suddenly, st King