And the biography before us reveals that inner life of struggle and conquest which, while Mr. Prescott was living, was known only to his most intimate friends.  We see here how resolutely and steadily he contended, not only against defective sight and indifferent health, but also against the love of ease and the seductions of indolence.  We see with what strenuous effort his literary honors were won, as well as with what gentleness they were worn.  And thus the work has a distinct moral value, and is full of encouragement to those who, under similar or inferior disabilities, have determined to make the choice of Hercules, and prefer a life of labor to a life of pleasure.  And this moral lesson is conveyed in a most winning and engaging way.  The interest of the narrative is kept up to the end with the freshness of a well-constructed work of fiction.  It is an interest not derived from stirring adventures, for Mr. Prescott’s life was very uneventful, but from its happy portraiture of those delightful qualities of mind and character of which his life was a revelation.  Though it tells of constant struggle and not a little suffering, the tone of the book is genial, sunny, and cheerful, as was the temperament of the historian himself.  For it is a remarkable fact that Mr. Prescott’s bodily infirmities never had any effect in making his mind or his character morbid.  His spiritual nature was eminently healthy.  His leading intellectual trait was sound good sense and the power of seeing men and things as they were.  He had no whims, no paradoxes, no prejudices.  His histories reflect the aggregate judgment of mankind upon the personages he describes and the events he narrates, without extravagance or overstatement in any direction.  And it was the same with his character, as shown in daily life; it was frank, generous, cordial, and manly.  No man was less querulous, less irritable, less exacting than he.  His social nature was warm; discriminating, but not fastidious.  He liked men for the good there was in them, and his taste in friendship was wide and catholic.  He was rich in friends, and this book proves how just a title to such wealth he could show.  We shall be surprised, if this biography does not attain a popularity as wide and as enduring as that enjoyed by any of Mr. Prescott’s historical works.  It is largely made up of extracts from his letters and private journals, which are full of the playful humor, the ready sympathy, the sunny temper, the kindly judgment of men and things, which made the historian so dear to his friends and so popular among his acquaintances.

We cannot dismiss this book without saying a word or two in praise of its externals.  Handsome books are, happily, no longer so rare a product of the American press as to require heralding when they do appear, but this is so beautiful a specimen of the art of book-manufacturing that it deserves special commendation.  The type, paper, press-work, and illustrations are all admirable, and the whole is a result not easily to be surpassed in any part of the world.