the continent of
Europe, whose people speak a different language. This shows
how perfectly state rights and state freedom are preserved
in spite of our National union, how little the power at the
centre interferes with the important things that affect the
character of a people. Why is it that little Delaware remains
Delaware in spite of Pennsylvania, and little Rhode Island
remains Rhode Island notwithstanding her neighbor Massachusetts?

What makes the meadow flower its bloom unfold?
Because the lovely little flower is free
Down to its roots, and in that freedom bold.
And so the grandeur of the forest tree
Comes, not from casting in a formal mould,
But from its own divine vitality.

"But Mr. Bancroft is more fortunate than Gibbon. Gibbon wrote
of decline, of decay, of dissolution, and death; of the days,
to use his own words, 'when giants were becoming pigmies.'
Bancroft tells the story of birth, and growth, and youth,
and life. His name is to be inseparably associated with a
great and interesting period in the world's history; with
what in the proud imagination of his countrymen must ever
be the greatest and most interesting of all periods, when
pigmy villages were becoming giant States. I am sure that
it is a delight to this assembly of distinguished scholars,
assembled near his birthplace, to send him, at the completion
of his great work, and of his eightieth year, their cordial
salutation."

I went to see Mr. Bancroft on the evening of the last Sunday
in December, 1890. He was sitting in his library up stairs.
He received me in his usual emphatic manner, taking both my
hands and saying, "My dear friend, how glad I am to see you!"
He was alone. He evidently knew me when I went in, and inquired
about Worcester, as he commonly did, and expressed his amazement
at its remarkable growth.

I stayed with him about twenty or thirty minutes. The topics
of our conversation were, I believe, suggested by me, and
the whole conversation was one which gave evidence of full
understanding on his part of what we were talking about. It
was not merely an old man's memory of the past, but the fresh
and vigorous thought on new topics which were suggested to
him in the course of the conversation. I think he exhibited
a quickness and vigor of thought and intelligence and spoke
with a beauty of diction that no man I know could have surpassed.

I asked him if he could account for the interest in historical
s