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HISTORICAL ESSAYS
BY
JAMES FORD RHODES, LL.D., D.Litt.AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FROM THE COMPROMISE OF 1850 TO THEFINAL RESTORATION OF HOME RULE AT THE SOUTH IN 1877
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY1909
 All rights reserved 
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Copyright, 1909,By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.Set up and electrotyped. Published December, 1909.Norwood PressJ. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
[p v]PREFACEIn offering to the public this volume of Essays, all but two of which have been read at various places ondifferent occasions, I am aware that there is some repetition in ideas and illustrations, but, as the dates of theirdelivery and previous publication are indicated, I am letting them stand substantially as they were written anddelivered.I am indebted to my son, Daniel P. Rhodes, for a literary revision of these Essays; and I have to thank theeditors of the
 Atlantic Monthly
, of 
 Scribner’s Magazine
, and of the
 Century Magazine
 for leave to reprint thearticles which have already appeared in their periodicals.Boston, November, 1909.[p vii]CONTENTSPAGEI.History1President’s Inaugural Address, American Historical Association, Boston, December 27, 1899; printed in the
 Atlantic Monthly
 of February, 1900.II.Concerning the Writing of History25Address delivered at the Meeting of the American Historical Association in Detroit, December, 1900.III.The Profession of Historian47Lecture read before the History Club of Harvard University, April 27, 1908, and at Yale, Columbia, andWestern Reserve Universities.IV.Newspapers as Historical Sources81[p iii]HISTORICAL ESSAYS BY JAMES FORD RHODES, LL.D., D.Litt.1
 
A Paper read before the American Historical Association in Washington on December 29, 1908; printed inthe
 Atlantic Monthly
 of May, 1909.V.Speech prepared for the Commencement Dinner at Harvard University, June 26, 1901. (Notdelivered)99VI.Edward Gibbon105Lecture read at Harvard University, April 6, 1908, and printed in
 Scribners Magazine
 of June, 1909.VII.Samuel Rawson Gardiner141A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the March Meeting of 1902, and printed in the
 Atlantic Monthly
 of May, 1902.VIII.William E. H. Lecky151A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the November Meeting of 1903.IX.Sir Spencer Walpole159A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the November Meeting of 1907.[p viii]X.John Richard Green169Address at a Gathering of Historians on June 5, 1909, to mark the Placing of a Tablet in the Inner Quadrangleof Jesus College, Oxford, to the Memory of John Richard Green.XI.Edward L. Pierce175A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the October Meeting of 1897.XII.Jacob D. Cox183A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the October Meeting of 1900.XIII.Edward Gaylord Bourne189A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the March Meeting of 1908.XIV.The Presidential Office201An Essay printed in
 Scribners Magazine
 of February, 1903.XV.A Review of President Hayess Administration243Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University,on October 8, 1908; printed in the
 Century Magazine
 for October, 1909.XVI.Edwin Lawrence Godkin265Lecture read at Harvard University, April 13, 1908; printed in the
 Atlantic Monthly
 for September, 1908.XVII.Who Burned Columbia?299A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the November Meeting of 1901, and printed inthe
 American Historical Review
 of April, 1902.XVIII.A New Estimate of Cromwell315A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society at the January Meeting of 1898, and printed in the
 Atlantic Monthly
 of June, 1898.Index325[p ix]HISTORYPresidents Inaugural Address, American Historical Association, Boston, December 27, 1899; printed in the
 Atlantic Monthly
 of February, 1900.The Project Gutenberg eBook of Historical Essays, by James Ford Rhodes[p vii]CONTENTS2
 
[p1]HISTORICAL ESSAYSHISTORY1My theme is history. It is an old subject, which has been discoursed about since Herodotus, and I should bevain indeed if I flattered myself that I could say aught new concerning the methods of writing it, when this hasfor so long a period engaged the minds of so many gifted men. Yet to a sympathetic audience, to people wholove history, there is always the chance that a fresh treatment may present the commonplaces in somedifferent combination, and augment for the moment an interest which is perennial.Holding a brief for history as do I your representative, let me at once concede that it is not the highest form of intellectual endeavor; let us at once agree that it were better that all the histories ever written were burned thanfor the world to lose Homer and Shakespeare. Yet as it is generally true that an advocate rarely admitsanything without qualification, I should not be loyal to my client did I not urge that Shakespeare was historianas well as poet. We all prefer his Antony and Cleopatra and Julius Cæsar to the Lives in Norths Plutarchwhich furnished him his materials. The history is in substance as true as Plutarch, the dramatic force greater;the language is better than that of Sir Thomas North, who himself did a remarkable piece of work when hegave his country a [p2] classic by Englishing a French version of the stories of the Greek. It is true asMacaulay wrote, the historical plays of Shakespeare have superseded history. When we think of Henry V, it isof Prince Hal, the boon companion of Falstaff, who spent his youth in brawl and riot, and then became a soberand duty-loving king; and our idea of Richard III. is a deceitful, dissembling, cruel wretch who knew no touchof pity, a bloody tyrant who knew no law of God or man.The Achilles of Homer was a very living personage to Alexander. How happy he was, said the great general,when he visited Troy, “in having while he lived so faithful a friend, and when he was dead so famous a poet toproclaim his actions”! In our century, as more in consonance with society under the régime of contract, whenforce has largely given, pay to craft, we feel in greater sympathy with Ulysses; The one person I would liketo have met and talked with, Froude used to say, was Ulysses. How interesting it would be to have hisopinion on universal suffrage, and on a House of Parliament where Thersites is listened to as patiently as theking of men!We may also concede that, in the realm of intellectual endeavor, the natural and physical sciences should havethe precedence of history. The present is more important than the past, and those sciences which contribute toour comfort, place within the reach of the laborer and mechanic as common necessaries what would have beenthe highest luxury to the Roman emperor or to the king of the Middle Ages, contribute to health and thepreservation of life, and by the development of railroads make possible such a gathering as this,thesesciences, we cheerfully admit, outrank our modest enterprise, which, in the words of Herodotus, is topreserve from decay the remembrance [p3] of what men have done. It may be true, as a geologist once said,in extolling his study at the expense of the humanities, Rocks do not lie, although men do; yet, on the otherhand, the historic sense, which during our century has diffused itself widely, has invaded the domain of physical science. If you are unfortunate enough to be ill, and consult a doctor, he expatiates on the history of your disease. It was once my duty to attend the Commencement exercises of a technical school, when one of the graduates had a thesis on bridges. As he began by telling how they were built in Julius Cæsars time, andtracing at some length the development of the art during the period of the material prosperity of the RomanEmpire, he had little time and space left to consider their construction at the present day. One of the mostbrilliant surgeons I ever knew, the originator of a number of important surgical methods, who, being physicianas well, was remarkable in his expedients for saving life when called to counsel in grave and apparentlyhopeless cases, desired to write a book embodying his discoveries and devices, but said that the feeling wasstrong within him that he must begin his work with an account of medicine in Egypt, and trace itsdevelopment down to our own time. As he was a busy man in his profession, he lacked the leisure to make the[p1]HISTORICAL ESSAYS3

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