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.
Mr Prescott was born at Salem, Massachusetts, May 4, 1796. His father, a lawyer of rising reputation, then thirty-four years of age, removed his family to Boston in 1808. At the age of fifteen William entered Harvard College. While engaged in a boyish frolic one day during his junior year a large hard piece of bread, thrown probably at random, struck full in his left eye, forever depriving him of its use. Pursuing his studies with his wonted cheerfulness, he graduated in 1814, and entered upon the study of law in his father’s office. In 1815 a rheumatic inflammation settled in his right eye, now his sole dependence, causing him much pain and anxiety. A change of climate having been determined upon, he embarked for the Azores, on a visit to his grandfather Hickling, then United States consul at Saint Michael. There he remained about six months, confined the greater part of the time to a dark room. In April 1816 he embarked for London, crossed to Paris, made the usual Italian tour, and the following year, his eye becoming worse, he returned