Thus we have no longer a wearisome compilation of events strung upon the thread of chronology, but a practical history of the most momentous epoch of modern times.  No hand has before pointed out so faithfully its great motive power or adjusted so nicely its apparent contradictions.  The structure is grand; it is the expression of a glorious faith.  In the accomplishment of so vast a design, Motley has won our warmest gratitude, while he has awakened our deepest sympathies.  Not alone to the learned, the scholarly, and the elegant, are these volumes addressed; their high-toned thought has met response in the people’s heart, and children bend with flushed faces over the high romance of the struggle that cost the lives of thousands, and recognize, perhaps dimly, the import of that great advance from the darkness of intolerance to the light of freedom, that was so well worth the treasure of blood with which it was bought.

And here we part with Motley the historian, only to clasp hands with Motley the patriot.  In the present tremendous struggle of people against progress, this fierce contest between labor and the lords, these last convulsions of the expiring giant of feudal aristocracy, whose monstrous conception dates far back among the Middle Ages, Motley has shown himself the true champion of the doctrines advocated in his histories.  His platform is still the same, but how changed the theatre of his action!  His letter to the London Times on the ’Causes of the American Civil War’ is a masterly exposition of facts, whose naked power is obscured by no useless displays of rhetoric.  Its tone is calm, dignified, confident; its statements are strongly maintained, its logic convincing.  All honor to the man who from his quiet researches in royal archives and busy deciphering of dusty MSS. turned to his country in her hour of need, and defended her where defence should have been superfluous, but was, unhappily, of small avail.  And still he works nobly for the dear old flag, and, intimately lie as he is with the first literati and politicians of Europe, it is not easy to measure his influence.  His purely literary habits forbid all suspicion of his disinterestedness, and will go far to commend him to the sympathies of the commanding intellects of the age.  Let us hope for the time when, with renewed faith in his mighty theories and still renewing love for his motherland, he shall return to the retirement which has already produced such noble fruits, and add works as worthy to our American classics.  Meanwhile, vive qui vince!

* * * * *

THE LESSON OF THE HOUR.

  Thou who for years hast watched the course of nature,
    What time the changing seasons swept their round,
  And, ’mid the play of every varying feature,
    New founts of pleasure for thyself hast found;
  Who, when dark clouds upon the mountain glooming,
    Threaten destruction to the smiling plain,
  Canst pierce the shadow and foresee the blooming
    Of budding blossoms brighter for the rain: