not so much in its philosophical bearings as in its civico-ecclesiastical and institutional relations; where it becomes the spine of the social fabric, traversed and perforated with the nervous life-chords for all the members of the organism.  His education has been that of the highest ideal of New England,—­through books and men, through professional duties and public services, bringing him into relations with youth, with men and women, and with the forms and the routine work of civil and political administrations.  He has at his command the language of devotion, the rhetoric and logic of philosophy, and the technicalities of jurisprudence.  To his personal friends, and they are very many in every walk of life, it is a matter of grateful recognition that he escaped from a political arena whose conflicts were not congenial with his delicacy of taste or of conscience, in season to give the vigor of his best years to the composition of a work which will spread his fame to other lands and identify it forever with what is of most reverent and honored remembrance on his native soil.

The historian’s work, when done after the best pattern, involves a duty to his readers and a privilege for himself.  To them he is bound to present all the essential facts, authenticated, illustrated, and carefully disposed in their natural relations.  For himself, having done this, he is at liberty to construct his own theory, to follow his own philosophy, and to pronounce judicial decisions.  The highest exaction to be made of an historian, and the loftiest function which he could claim to exercise, are expressed in these two conditions.  The noble privilege and opportunity secured in the latter condition are the only adequate reward for the drudgery of the labor required in the former.  It would be foolish to raise a question whether it be more essential for an historian to be faithful in his narration or to be wise in his comments.  Only the statement we have made will serve to remind us how essential the philosophy of human nature is to throw life into a record of old annals.

The two books in our hands, where their specific themes are identical, substantially accord in their relation of facts,—­allowing for a few exceptional cases,—­but they differ widely in their philosophy.  Very much of the fresh interest which both of them will create in their respective subjects will be found in the collisions of their philosophy.

Dr. Palfrey had a favorable opportunity for undertaking to write anew the history of New England.  Those who have yet to acquaint themselves with that history say there was no occasion for this reiterated labor.  If such persons will merely read over his notes, without wasting any of their precious time upon his text, they will discover their mistake.  There are in those notes matters new even to adepts.  All the recent materials which have been lavishly contributed from public and private stores by public and private