of the unparalleled audacity of the author of the "History of
Ferdinand and Isabella" in actually exercising his own judgment with
regard to the credibility of the Spanish chroniclers, after so high an
authority had pronounced against them! However, we are not yet prepared
to abandon our own belief in Mr. Prescott's "good faith." We really
believe that he was guilty of no intentional disrespect towards the Hon.
Lewis Cass. It is possible that he may never have seen the article in
question. Contributors to periodicals are sometimes sadly neglectful of
the most brilliant performances of their _confreres_. We doubt whether
the "Autocrat" has ever read with proper attention any of our own
modest, but not, we hope, inelegant effusions.

Mr. Wilson is not without a suspicion that the world may be slow to
surrender its confidence in the veracity and accuracy of a writer
whose works have already stood the test of many a severe and critical
examination. When this idea breaks upon his mind, he manages to lash
himself into a state of considerable excitement. He foresees the
difficulty of convincing "those who take an array of great names for
the foundation of their belief, and those who judge a work only by the
elegance with which its periods are strung together. And, besides these
two,"--meaning, we presume, not two men, but two classes of men,--"we
have to encounter also the opposition of _savans_--men who live and
judge the outside world through the medium of books alone. These hold as
of no account, all but Greece and Rome," [the proof-reader is requested
not to disturb Mr. Wilson's punctuation,] "and receive no idea of
antiquity that does not come through them. For any, then, too wise to
learn or too thoughtless to inquire, this chapter is not designed....
Many there are," [how many, we wonder,] "who have dealt in Spanish
romances, supposing them to be history; and these are slow to abandon
their delusions. At enormous expense they have gathered volumes of
authorities; will they readily admit them to be cheats and counterfeits?
They grudge the time too they have spent in their perusal; and are loth,
as well they may be, to lose it. But individual loss and injury _is_"
[the proof-reader will please not to interfere with Mr. Wilson's
grammar] "perhaps inevitable in the search after truth. Men cannot
be held down to the theories of barbarism. These must give way to
knowledge, _or the intelligent, as in Roman Catholic countries, b