He visited this country in 1856, and spent the winter of 1856-57 in Boston, living with his family in a house in Boylston Place.  At this time I had the pleasure of meeting him often, and of seeing the changes which maturity, success, the opening of a great literary and social career, had wrought in his character and bearing.  He was in every way greatly improved; the interesting, impulsive youth had ripened into a noble manhood.  Dealing with great themes, his own mind had gained their dignity.  Accustomed to the company of dead statesmen and heroes, his own ideas had risen to a higher standard.  The flattery of society had added a new grace to his natural modesty.  He was now a citizen of the world by his reputation; the past was his province, in which he was recognized as a master; the idol’s pedestal was ready for him, but he betrayed no desire to show himself upon it.

XIII.

1858-1860.  AEt. 44-46.

Return to England.—­Social relations.—­Lady HARCOURT’S letter.

During the years spent in Europe in writing his first history, from 1851 to 1856, Mr. Motley had lived a life of great retirement and simplicity, devoting himself to his work and to the education of his children, to which last object he was always ready to give the most careful supervision.  He was as yet unknown beyond the circle of his friends, and he did not seek society.  In this quiet way he had passed the two years of residence in Dresden, the year divided between Brussels and the Hague, and a very tranquil year spent at Vevay on the Lake of Geneva.  His health at this time was tolerably good, except for nervous headaches, which frequently recurred and were of great severity.  His visit to England with his manuscript in search of a publisher has already been mentioned.

In 1858 he revisited England.  His fame as a successful author was there before him, and he naturally became the object of many attentions.  He now made many acquaintances who afterwards became his kind and valued friends.  Among those mentioned by his daughter, Lady Harcourt, are Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Carlisle, Lady William Russell, Lord and Lady Palmerston, Dean Milman, with many others.  The following winter was passed in Rome, among many English and American friends.

“In the course of the next summer,” his daughter writes to me, “we all went to England, and for the next two years, marked chiefly by the success of the ‘United Netherlands,’ our social life was most agreeable and most interesting.  He was in the fulness of his health and powers; his works had made him known in intellectual society, and I think his presence, on the other hand, increased their effects.  As no one knows better than you do, his belief in his own country and in its institutions at their best was so passionate and intense that it was a part of his nature, yet