History of the United Netherlands, from the Death of William the Silent to the Synod of Dort. With a Full View of the English—­Dutch Struggle against Spain; and of the Origin and Destruction of the Spanish Armada.  By JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, LL.D., D.C.L.  New York:  Harper & Brothers.  Vols.  I. and II. 8vo.

These volumes bear the unmistakable mark, not merely of historical accuracy and research, but of historical genius; and the genius is not that of Thierry or Guizot, of Gibbon or Macaulay, but has a palpable individuality of its own.  They evince throughout a patient, persistent industry in investigating original documents, from the mere labor of which an Irish hod-carrier would shrink aghast, and thank the Virgin that, though born a drudge, he was not born to drudge in the bogs and morasses of unexplored domains of History; yet the genius and enthusiasm of the historian are so strong that he converts the drudgery into delight, and lives joyful, though “laborious days.”  There is not a page in these volumes which does not sparkle with evidences of an enjoyment far beyond any that the rich and pleasure-seeking idler can ever know; and while the materials are those of the barest and bleakest fact, the style of the narrative is that of the gayest, most genial, and most elastic spirit of romance.  We have read all the best fictions which have been published during the interval which has elapsed between the publication of the “History of the Dutch Republic” and that of the “History of the United Netherlands,” but we have read none which fairly exceeds, in what is called, in the slang of fifth-rate critics, “breathless interest,” this novel, but authentic memorial of a past heroic age.

The first requirement of an historian in the present century is original research,—­not merely research into rare printed books and pamphlets, but into unpublished and almost unknown manuscripts.  No sobriety of judgment, no sagacity of insight, no brilliancy of imagination can compensate for defective information.  The finest genius is degraded to the rank of a compiler, unless he sheds new light upon his subject by contributing new facts.  The severest requirements of the Baconian method of induction—­requirements which have been notoriously disregarded by men of science in the investigation of Nature—­remain in force as regards the students of history.  The powers of analysis, generalization, statement, and narrative in Macaulay’s historical essays were fully equal to any powers he displayed in the “History of England from the Reign of James II.”  No candid critic can deny that there is little in his “History” which, as far as regards essential facts and principles, had not been previously stated in a more sententious form in his Essays.  But we recollect the time when the same dignified scholars who are now insensible to his defects were blind to his merits, and with majestic dulness classed him among the inglorious company of superficial, untrustworthy, brilliant declaimers.