d painted for us with a
very Flemish nicety of detail their manners and customs, but had
forgotten to round his skeleton of a nation with the passions that
animated every stage of its development. It remained for Motley, with
all the quick sympathies of an American heart, to rouse our affections
and to command our reverence for a people so unfortunate and so brave.
It was reserved for him to teach us that William of Orange was not less
a martyr to the truth than Huss or Latimer.

It was no common scholar who so worthily finished this task. It was not
enough that the intellectual integrity of oar historian was
unquestioned, his judgment mature, his knowledge vast and comprehensive.
During the years of preparation he had become thoroughly cosmopolite;
all the _petty_ prejudices of country and blood had been swept away
before the advancing dignity of a reason that became daily more truly
and completely the master of itself. All the thousand minute refinements
of an extensive and intimate association with the commanding and courtly
minds of the age fitted him to cope more successfully with the spirit of
subtle intrigue, the fox-like sagacity, the wolfish rapacity, the cruel
lack of diplomatic honor, and the illimitable and terrible intolerance
that distinguished in so wonderful a degree the historical era of
Motley's choice. He came with all the zeal of a true lover of liberty,
himself republican, as earth's most cultured sons have been in every
age, in thought, habit, and sentiment, to trace for the future and for
us the records of a people who were willing to suffer a master, but who
revolted from a tyrant; who, with a rare but unappreciated and too nice
honor, strove to keep to the yoke that their forefathers had worn, only
asking from their ruler the respect and consideration due the faithful
servants of his crown, who were no longer the abject slaves of a
monarchy, and yet, through an inveterate habit of servitude, were
scarcely prepared for the independence of a republic. How nobly he has
fulfilled his mission, the hearty applause of two nations sufficiently
testifies.

To the wide, comprehensive vision of Motley, history appears in its true
light as a science, demanding the assistance of other sciences to the
due and harmonious development of all its parts. It relies not more upon
the correctness of the recorder's authorities and the profoundness of
his researches in the mere region of the events and mutual relation