New-York tribune., 1921-11-06

~ <'ieH JoRHsoh bafne,t Professor OF
American History In Yaio University FIFTY
Volumes. richly illust rated. Published By
fhs fale Cniveraity pgess..
TE-$HE issue Of the final ten VOL
unles Of "1'he Chronicles Of
~ America Eve gears after the
inception Of TIE enterpriae,
marks the completion Of one of the
most ambitious. important and signifi-
cant works ever undertaken by any
university press. Various other such
institutions in this country have pro-
duced and ara producing numerous
books Of sterling merit, but they are
limited chiefly to subjects Of co,npar.
atlvaiy narrow, technical or ACADEMIC
Interest or to distlpctivcly educational
works, for use in schools and colleges
IN Eng land the Clarendon Press OF
Oxford has produced the monumental
oNford Dictionary Of the English Ian
guage, 4 work which will bs utilized
chiefly by Students and the Cambridge
University Press took over an edition
OF the Encyclopedias Britannica after
that work had been famous for a cen.
tury IN the hands OF other publishers,
Ihose two works are doubtless su-
pranle in their respective classes. Blu,
so Is this work OF the Yale University
Press equally supreme in its equally
important and distinguished class
while-without inyid.ousness it NAV bs
frankly snid-it outranks then, in the
vital respects Of popular appeal and
popular service.
We may indeed regard the work a.
ranking as high in literature in gen.
eral as it does in the special optpu.
OF university presses. America hap
not since Botta's day ard before been
-acklns in histories of genuine worth
and It's Dlbliography includes several
WHICH may advisedly be ranked in the
WcrIc's foremost class, But never be-
ore was an attempt made TO do wla,
is done with superlatiys excellence in
the Chronicles. Only two or tnree
purport TO cover with any degree OF
luiiness the entire story OF the United
States, including its colonial antece.
dents; ard these 90 so in the form of
4 more or less sustained aud coutin-
dous narrative, whether by single
author or a number OF coliabo ra tors
This, on the ether hand, treats the
august theme topic by topic, each OF
She nifty volumes being complete in
ITSELF and quite independen. OF the
others, while st the same time the
harmony of design and execution and
the completeness Of the general nara
tive are no less perfect than in the
former cases. The fabric is a mosaic
instead OF monolith, but there are no
crevlces among its members, and there
IS no clashing OF design or color;ng.
Conceptions of the purpose of history
nave greatly varied in different lands
and ages, bat after twenty three cen
tufIes and more the great cycle is corr
pleted, and We return to the standard
of the first great historian OF the world
and perhaps, ali circumstances duly COIL
sldered, the greatest the world has
known, For Herodotus os Halicarnas-
sus set the example for all time OF the
three basic rules OF perfect history,
The first is that there shall be pains
taking research, so far az possible into
original sources, in order TO obtain all
the FACTS and to obtain them accurate
ly. The second IS that there shall be
honest and authoritative slucidation
and Interpretation of the facts, SO that
their relation to each ether and their
bearing upon subsequent events she'll
oe easily and rightly understood. The
third ID that this presentation SHALL be
made in literary style pleasing to tae
taste and adapted ~, the eosn nprahension
OF the whole people, since the his
tory IS pre- minently the science
of all sciences with which the wAole
people should be accurately familier.
No other historian Of any age or in
any language ever fulfilled these prin-
eiplss more successfully than lterodo-
-us, while many very great writer's de-
parted far from one or more of them.
The singular splendor of Livy's diction
inds it's modern counterpart in the
spurDie patches" of Macauia, hut. rye