home. But hope for the restoration of his sight still lingered, and the marvellous buoyancy of his spirits never deserted him. A devoted sister cheered the long hours of his solitude by readings from his favorite authors. A literary venture made at this time in a contribution to the North American Review failed; his manuscript was returned, and his sister, alone in the secret, was enjoined to silence.
Leaving his darkened chamber and mingling again with society, of which he was ever a bright ornament, he became attached to a daughter of Thomas C. Amory, a Boston merchant, whom he married on his twenty-fourth birthday.
Mr Prescott now abandoned the hope of the entire restoration of his eye.
If by restrictions of diet and dieting and by persistent open-air exercise he might preserve a partial use of the organ he would rest content. And thus he passed the remainder of his life.
At times he was in almost total darkness, but ordinarily he could read and revise his manuscripts; for the purpose of writing, however, he was obliged to use a noctograph.
Possessing strong literary tastes, and an aversion to law, Mr Prescott determined upon literature as a pursuit, and in 1826, with the aid of a secretary, he began a systematic course of reading for a history of Ferdinand and Isabella. For three years and a half he pursued this preparatory labor; in 1829 he began writing, publishing the work in 1837. Ten of the best years of his life Mr Prescott claims to have devoted to this book; and for the use of the stereotype-plates, which Mr Prescott supplied at his own cost, and the right to publish twelve hundred and fifty copies, the American Stationers’ Company agreed to pay the sum of one thousand dollars. But money was not the author’s object.