152 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



rowinty honor for ourselves or our association from his own worth. Mr. 

 Prescott's fame has ah-eady gone, on its own wings, to wider reaches 

 and recesses in distance and space, than any tribute from any associa- 

 tion is hkely to reach. 



" He has done honorable and signal service to the world's literature, 

 and especially to American literature. "We cannot overestimate the 

 value of his service here. All that we can call our national literature, 

 leaving out of view works of merely local interest, has been gathered 

 during the years of Mr. Prescott's life, which was not a long one. With 

 the exception of the works of Franklin and Jonathan Edwards, every 

 book of American origin which foreigners would care much to read, 

 falls within this century. When the time came for us to begin, it was 

 well that we had master-builders to lay the foundations. Such a one 

 was Mr. Prescott. His many volumes — so faithfully wrought from 

 materials of prime value, gathered from wide research, at great cost, 

 sought at an opportune time, and furnished through rare impulses of 

 zeal and friendship by men in public and private stations aU over the 

 world, so happy to serve such a cause in such hands — are a noble 

 monument to his genius, to his industry, and to his systematic, perse- 

 vering, and enthusiastic devotion of time, heart, and life, under some 

 severe and depressing difficulties. We must not, however, exaggerate 

 those difficulties, nor forget his rare privileges. He himself occasion- 

 ally expressed regret, that where his works were best appreciated in 

 foreign journals, and in some quite near his home, he was represented 

 as wholly sightless, and as a hopeless, though very patient, invalid. 

 There was a sickly odor even in the praise which so overstated his 

 weakness of vision. He had rich and rare opportunities and facilities 

 for the work which he achieved. His true heart estimated them highly, 

 and so must we. They will not overshadow their results. He had a 

 finely organized nature, a placid temper, a home and parentage of the 

 most kindly and fostering and quickening spirit in all its sweet influ- 

 ences of gentleness and culture. His father was very wise, and very 

 good. His mother Avas all that, and saintly too. He had resources 

 from which to draw adequate means for every want. He had leisure 

 time to fill, an unprofessional life to occupy, and a just ambition to 

 crown with some fit end in existence. To him much was given. There 

 was a peculiar refinement and tenderness in his make, not womanly 

 either, but still manly, — a delicate grace of style and manner, which, 



