midst of a number of literary projects, called forth in part by the success of the Storia, and by the different subjects which he had therein touched but lightly. Among these works was the Storia della California, issued at Venice two years after his death. It will be noticed in due order.
There can be no more fitting close to this volume on the conquest of Mexico than a tribute of esteem to William Hickling Prescott. I have noted in a previous volume his amiable weakness, incident to the times rather than to the man, of intensifying the character of prominent personages so as to present the good better and the bad worse than they truly were, in order to render his narrative stronger and more interesting than it would be otherwise; but this is nothing as compared with his general fairness, united with a magnificent style and philosophic flow of thought. I have noted some inaccuracies and contradictions in his history, but these are nothing as compared with his general care and correctness as a writer. I have mentioned material which he lacked, but this is nothing as compared with the great mass of fresh evidence which he brought to enrich his subject. Words fail to express my admiration of the man, the scholar, the author. Apart from the din and dust of ordinary life, he lived as one in the world but not of it, pure of mind, gentle of heart, and surpassingly eloquent.