less than did Macaulay, but thus he speaks of his
government: "Step by step the government of the Commonwealth was
compelled ... to rule by means which every one of its members would have
condemned if they had been employed by Charles or Wentworth." Is it not
a triumph for the bookish man that in his estimate of Wentworth and Laud
he has with him the consensus of the historical scholars of England?

What a change there has been in English opinion of Cromwell in the last
half century! Unquestionably that is due to Carlyle more than to any
other one man, but there might have been a reaction from the conception
of the hero worshiper had it not been supported and somewhat modified by
so careful and impartial a student as Gardiner.

The alteration of sentiment toward Wentworth and Laud is principally due
to Gardiner, that toward Cromwell is due to him in part. These are two
of the striking results, but they are only two of many things we see
differently because of the single-minded devotion of this great
historian. We know the history in England from 1603 to 1656 better than
we do that of any other period of the world; and for this we are
indebted mainly to Samuel Rawson Gardiner.

[153] History of the Great Civil War, I, viii.

[154] History of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate, III, 27.

[155] History, I, v.

[156] _Ibid._, IX, viii.

[157] He was transferred to the roll of honorary members in October,
1896.

[158] History, I, 43.

[159] _Ibid._, VIII, 36.

[160] _Ibid._, 67.

[161] _Ibid._, 215.

[162] _Ibid._, IX, 229.

WILLIAM E. H. LECKY

A paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the November
meeting of 1903.

WILLIAM E. H. LECKY

Amazement was the feeling of the reading world on learning that the
author of the History of Rationalism was only twenty-seven, and the
writer of the History of European Morals only thirty-one. The sentiment
was that a prodigy of learning had appeared, and a perusal of these
works now renders comprehensible the contemporary astonishment. The
Morals (published in 1869) is the better book of the two, and, if I may
judge from my own personal experience, it may be read with delight when
young, and re-read with respect and advantage at an age when the
enthusiasms of youth have given way to the critical attitude of
experience. Grant all the critics say of it, that the reasoning by which
Lecky attempts to demolis