For the general history of England in the seventeenth century, there are two modern works which stand far above all others,—­Gardiner’s History of England, 10 vols., London, 1883-84; and Masson’s Life of Milton, narrated in connection with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of his Time, 6 vols., Cambridge, Eng., 1859-80.  These are books of truly colossal erudition, and written in a spirit of judicial fairness.  Mr. Gardiner’s ten volumes cover the forty years from the accession of James I. to the beginning of the Civil War, 1603-1643.  Mr. Gardiner has lately published the first two volumes of his history of the Civil War, and it is to be hoped that he will not stop until he reaches the accession of William and Mary.  Indeed, such books as his ought never to stop.  My friend and colleague, Prof.  Hosmer, tells me that Mr. Gardiner is a lineal descendant of Cromwell and Ireton.  His little book, The Puritan Revolution, in the “Epochs of History” series, is extremely useful, and along with it one should read Airy’s The English Restoration and Louis XIV., in the same series, New York, 1889.  The best biography of Cromwell is by Mr. Allanson Picton, London, 1882; see also Frederic Harrison’s Cromwell, London, 1888, an excellent little book.  Hosmer’s Young Sir Henry Vane, Boston, 1888, should be read in the same connection; and one should not forget Carlyle’s Cromwell.  See also Tulloch, English Puritanism and its Leaders, 1861, and Rational Theology and Christian Philosophy in England in the Seventeenth Century, 1872; Skeats, History of the Free Churches of England, London, 1868; Mountfield, The Church and Puritans, London, 1881.  Dexter’s Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, New York, 1880, is a work of monumental importance.

On the history of New England the best general works are Palfrey, History of New England, 4 vols., Boston, 1858-75; and Doyle, The English in America—­The Puritan Colonies, 2 vols., London, 1887.  In point of scholarship Dr. Palfrey’s work is of the highest order, and it is written in an interesting style.  Its only shortcoming is that it deals somewhat too leniently with the faults of the Puritan theocracy, and looks at things too exclusively from a Massachusetts point of view.  It is one of the best histories yet written in America.  Mr. Doyle’s work is admirably fair and impartial, and is based throughout upon a careful study of original documents.  The author is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and has apparently made American history his specialty.  His work on the Puritan colonies is one of a series which when completed will cover the whole story of English colonization in America.  I have looked in vain in his pages for any remark or allusion indicating that he has ever visited America, and am therefore inclined to think that he has not done so.  He now and then makes a slight error such as would not be likely to be made by a native of New England, but this is very seldom.  The accuracy and thoroughness of its research, its judicial temper, and its philosophical spirit make Mr. Doyle’s book in some respects the best that has been written about New England.