The sun., 1918-12-08

imagine thai comparatively few news
paper readers realized that the notice
recorded the death of one of the most
competent and scholarly historians which
this country has ever produced. His
name was known, il IS trlIc, to hundreds
OF visitors to the capital who had adj
mlred the superb Saint Gaudens memorial
to his wife in the Rock Creek Cemetery
the beautiful figure representing Grief,
but none of his writings contain any ap-
peal to popularity, SO their circulation
was limited, Notwithstanding the fact that
he devoted long life 10 historical and
literary pursuits. 4 story was recently
printed in the New York Times to the
effect that when the late President Angel
reproached him for having ceased to write
Mr.. Adams responded: my historical
writings have already cost me 100000. I
think | have done my share"
No family in America can boast more,
distinguished ancestry than the Adams
family. The father Of Henry Adams was
Charles Francis Adams, ST., our Minister
TO England during the civil war; his
grandfather was John Quincy Adams. the
sixth President of the United States. and
his great grandfather was John Adams.
second President. Charles Francis Adams.
DR., his older brother. was also a man Of
military, political and literary distinction.
In the war of secession he rose from the
rank of Il Lieutenant in the Union Army
To that of Colonel of cavalry; he was
the first Railroad Commissioner of Mac
sachusetts and an authority on railway
management; and he was the author of M
merous valuable monographs on historical
subjects. Best of all, he also left an auto
biography, which for brilliancy and pi-
quancy has only been equallcd bv the
book which is the subject of this article.
Life Was His Educator.
AS the title of his book indicates, Henry
Adams regarded his education and his life
as one and the same thing. Education. in
the largest sense, begins with a mans
birth and does not end until he dies. His
mother was a Brooks, and he was known
AT hrst as Henry Brooks Adams, but he
abandoned the use of the middle name
ms younger brother being named Brooks
Adams. Henry Adams was born in Bos-
ton In 1888, and was graduated at Har
ward College at the age of 20. While his
father was Minister TO England he acted
as his private secretary. After his return
from London he became assistant profes
cor of history at Harvard and also editor
OF the North american Rerieto for a ne
nod of SIX or seven years, until 1877,
when he removed 10 Washington, where
he resided during the rest of his life, de-
voting himself in a somewhat leisirely
way TO literary pursuits.
His first essay in biography was Life
Of Albert Gdildtin Uippincott, 1879, and
little later he contributed a spirited but
not overfriendly life of John Ramdolph Of
Roanoke TO the American Statesmen Sc
r1es (HoughtOn Mifflin, 1892. His most
elaborate, scholarly and valuable work,
however, is his History Of the United
States, in nine volumes, dealing with the
administrations of Jefferson and Madison
and covering the period of the War of
1872 (Scribners, 1SS9-9D. Wholly DIFF
ferent in style and spirit is Mont Saint
Michel and Chartres (Hougthon Miflin,
1904, study of the thirteenth century
in the light of modernism, his favorite
production among all his various writings.
A Modern Mediaevalist.
Speaking of himself, he says in the
present autobiography: "If history had q
rhapter with which he thought himself
familiar it was the twelfth and thirteenth
senturies." He regarded 1850 to 1850 as
The period of history in which man held
The highest idea of himself as unit in a
unified universe. He became convinced
by long study that he could use that CEN
Jury, expressed in Amiens Cathedral and
Ia uorkc IF Tbo,uoo Auu;noo oa Tho ,,,,;t