together the dispersed
fragments of colonial and revolutionary days, and made the writing of
history untroublesome for authors who, in "slippered ease" and
comfortable libraries, availed themselves of his labor, and
patronizingly patted him on the head. These are the silk-worms of
literature, whose glory is spun from the digested leaves of other men's
culture. It was his habit, when allusions were made to such
appropriations, to find sufficient reward in his own diligence, and to
comfort himself for this "way of the world" by a patient shrug and a
pinch of snuff.[3] Irving, in his advanced life, could never have
written his Washington, had not Sparks organized his twelve volumes of
materials, and analysed them in the biography. That work must be
_studied_, in order to be appreciated in relation to Mr. Sparks's
literary merit: it is a mine of editorial tact and industry, displaying
the mathematical spirit of the author in its method and organization,
in its lucid statements, and in his sagacious perception of the value
of what was retained and the worthlessness of what was rejected, so
that Washington is self-shown to the hereafter by what he thought, and
wrote, and did. The commendation bestowed on Mr. Sparks, in the
masterly eulogium of Mr. Haven before the American Antiquarian Society,
may be taken as a wise and exact definition of his labors in the field
of History: "Not that Mr. Sparks," said he, "limited himself to the
preparation and preservation of history _in bulk_; for he was equally
able in narrative, in criticism, and in controversy,--he was an
essayist as well as a compiler; but the last was his _forte_, his
peculiar field of usefulness and eminence, where, it may be said, he
reigns supreme."

This estimate of Mr. Sparks by his friend does not classify him with
the annalist and chronicler who build up a fleshless skeleton of facts
and dates. Nothing could be less just to the subject or the
commentator. Imagination was not a predominant quality of Mr. Sparks's
mind. Its cool precision so curbed the exercise of the ideal faculty
that it was unjustly subdued if not absolutely stifled; and thus we do
not always discern in him that creative power, so rarely found combined
with sagacity in gathering and marshalling details, which, while it
apprehends the true relation of men and circumstances, masses the
historic groups with picturesque effect, delineates character with
intuitive insight, gives soul to the moving