Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern . kys name, with animportant introduction from his hand. Thismaiden book had much of the promise ofhis later writing in its face. Without read-ing into it what is not there, it is easy todivine that the writers predilection was forhistory rather than for biography, for causesand relations rather than for mere events, and for history as literature, not as a catalogue or grouping of thingsexactly verified. Moreover, in this early book we have that warmhumanity which has been the dominant note of Mr. Leckys literarywork, and which has pro
Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern . kys name, with animportant introduction from his hand. Thismaiden book had much of the promise ofhis later writing in its face. Without read-ing into it what is not there, it is easy todivine that the writers predilection was forhistory rather than for biography, for causesand relations rather than for mere events, and for history as literature, not as a catalogue or grouping of thingsexactly verified. Moreover, in this early book we have that warmhumanity which has been the dominant note of Mr. Leckys literarywork, and which has proved quite as attractive as his streaming andpellucid style. The years from 1861 to 1865 must have been exceedingly labori-ous, including as they did the preparation for the ^ Historj of theRise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe,* two largevolumes full of such matter as must have required a vast amountof careful study and research for its separation from the innumerable^documents in which it was imbedded. Without a sign of BucklesXV—559. W. E. H. Lecky 8930 WILLIAM EDWARD HARTPOLE LECKY wanton display of his authorities, both text and notes revealed a mar-velous patience and persistency in the search for even the smallestfarthing candle that might shed a ray of light upon his theme. Theonly deduction from this aspect of the work was the comparativelylimited extent of the demand made on German sources, which wereno doubt incomparably rich. No historical work since Buckles < His-tory of Civilization in Europe^ (1857) had attracted so much attention,nor has any from its publication in 1865 until now. It was likeBuckles book in the clarity though not in the quality of its style;and also like it in a more important sense, in that it was a historyafter the manner of Montesquieus * Spirit of Laws ^ and Voltaires * Essay on Manners.^ It was a philosophic history, not an was moreover the work of a historical essayist rather than a his-torian. The subj
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