Chapter XVIII: Part 18

“It has not been granted to many historians to devote half a
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and, let us add, to be willing and wise enough, to revise and
rewrite in an honored old age the work of a whole lifetime.”--_New
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condensation of the text amounts to something over one third of the
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of the text. On the whole, our examination of the first volume
leads us to believe that the thought of the historian loses nothing
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and in economy of time and money.”--_The Independent (New York)._

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=HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES=, from the Revolution to
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SCOPE OF THE WORK.--_In the course of this narrative much is written of wars, conspiracies, and rebellions; of Presidents, of Congresses, of embassies, of treaties, of the ambition of political leaders, and of the rise of great parties in the nation. Yet the history of the people is the chief theme. At every stage of the splendid progress which separates the America of Washington and Adams from the America in which we live, it has been the author’s purpose to describe the dress, the occupations, the amusements, the literary canons of the times; to note the changes of manners and morals; to trace the growth of that humane spirit which abolished punishment for debt, and reformed the discipline of prisons and of jails; to recount the manifold improvements which, in a thousand ways, have multiplied the conveniences of life and ministered to the happiness of our race; to describe the rise and progress of that long series of mechanical inventions and discoveries which is now the admiration of the world, and our just pride and boast; to tell how, under the benign influence of liberty and peace, there sprang up, in the course of a single century, a prosperity unparalleled in the annals of human affairs._

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work is worthy of the indefatigable industry and unceasing
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“To recount the marvelous progress of the American people, to
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defects.”--_New York Herald._

“Mr. McMaster at once shows his grasp of the various themes and his
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history. His style is clear and vigorous, if not always condensed.
He has the faculty of felicitous comparison and contrast in a
marked degree. Mr. McMaster has produced one of the most spirited
of histories, a book which will be widely read, and the
entertaining quality of which is conspicuous beyond that of any
work of its kind.”--_Boston Gazette._

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] This and the succeeding selection from the works of Prescott are included by kind permission of Messrs. Lippincott & Co.

[2] This and other selections from the works of Motley are included by kind permission of Messrs. Harper & Brothers.

[3] Miltiades claimed descent from Æacus, the fabled son of Jupiter, father of Peleus and Telamon, and grandfather of Achilles and Ajax the Greater, the chiefs of the Greek heroes before Troy.--G. T. F.

[4] Peisistratos was the tyrant of Athens, the overthrow of whose family, about 510 B.C., laid the foundation of the Athenian democracy.--G. T. F.

[5] The leadership in a league or confederation, as to-day it may be said Prussia possesses the “hegemony” of Germany.--G. T. F.

[6] Jugurtha was a Numidian prince, who at one time served in the Roman armies. He afterward usurped the Numidian kingdom in Africa, and, after a tedious war, was subjugated by the Romans, brought to Rome, and starved in his dungeon.--G. T. F.

[7] Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (Minor), the final destroyer of Carthage.--G. T. F.

[8] A Roman magistrate, inferior to consul, appointed to rule a province.--G. T. F.

[9] The war against Jugurtha.

[10] This kingdom was situated in Asia Minor, on the southern and eastern shores of the Euxine (Black) Sea, between Bithynia and Armenia. With the first-named region it constituted the extreme north-western portion of what is now Asiatic Turkey.--G. T. F.

[11] The office charged with financial administration. A military prætor was at the head of the pay and commissary department.--G. T. F.

[12] Publius Cornelius Cinna, consul from 86 B.C. to 83.--G. T. F.

[13] Gallio was the proconsul of Achaia, and the elder brother of the philosopher Seneca. The Apostle Paul was brought before his judgment-seat by the Jews, and he thus answered: “If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you. But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters.” Acts 18: 14, 15. The name has become a synonym for the attitude of philosophical indifference. (G.F.F.)

[14] The legal fiction of the republic and of its governmental machinery was carefully perpetuated by Augustus and his successors in the empire until the destruction of the Western Empire. Public acts were in the name of the “senate and people of Rome.” The same pious fraud continued in the Empire of the East till the reign of Justinian.--G. T. F.

[15] This historian was one of the most bitter and bigoted of the writers under the new Christian epoch; and his partisanship was pursued with an acrimony unworthy of the great cause in which he was retained.--G. T. F.

[16] The Emperor Julian was succeeded by Jovian, one of his generals, who was at once proclaimed by the troops. Before, however, he could march to Constantinople he died from a fit of indigestion, or of poison. Valentinian, a general of Pannonian ancestry distinguished for his military skill and courage, was then proclaimed.--G. T. F.

[17] Theodosius, though justly provoked by the contumacy of the people of Antioch in casting down and destroying his statues, consulted pride rather than justice in the severe measures which he at first proposed, which would have depopulated Antioch, confiscated its wealth, and destroyed its rank as a capital. The punishment of Thessalonica, on the other hand, though cruel and excessive, was prompted by a cause more adequate. A favorite general, Botheric, was brutally assassinated by the turbulent populace in a circus riot. The wrath of the outraged emperor was only satiated by a promiscuous massacre of from seven to fifteen thousand people.--G. T. F.

[18] The characters mentioned by Sir William Temple, the author alluded to, are Belisarius, Ætius, John Hunniades, Gonsalvo of Cordova, Scanderbeg, Alexander Duke of Parma, and the Prince of Orange.

[19] Gibbon, while recognizing the correct orthography of the name Mohammed, prefers to use the then popular substitute of “Mahomet,” as that by which the Arabian prophet was almost universally known.--G. T. F.

[20] The sister of Svein had fled to Olaf’s court for protection against a detested marriage, whereon Olaf had become enamored of and married the fair fugitive. As Queen Sigrid had formerly been jilted by Olaf his marriage had been a sore blow to her.--G. T. F.

[21] Derived from an old Italian word meaning astuteness or shrewdness.--G. T. F.

[22] Froissart’s “Chronicles.”

[23] The reader scarcely needs to be informed that, in the time of Gibbon, the British East India Company was the practical maister of Hindostan.

[24] Philip II, king of Spain.--G. T. F.

[25] A noted Protestant general, to whom Wallenstein had been opposed in more than one campaign.

[26] Ferdinand of Austria, the head of the Catholic League of Germany and Spain, by whom the Thirty Years’ War was inaugurated.--G. T. F.

[27] The time of life selected by Macaulay for this picture was just prior to William’s accession to the English throne.--G. T. F.

[28] Father of Charles James Fox, whose picture is given by Lecky in another sketch.--G. T. F.

[29] King of Spain.