436 FRANCIS PARKMAN. 



woods, — a fancy which soon gained full control over the course of 

 the literary pursuits to which he was also addicted." In 1840 he 

 entered Harvard College. Here, he writes, "before the end of the 

 Sophomore year my various schemes had crystallized into a plan of 

 writing the story of what was then known as the ' Old French War,' 



— that is, the war that ended in the conquest of Canada, — for here, 

 as it seemed to me, the forest drama was more stirring and the forest 

 stage more thronged with appropriate actors than in any other passage 

 of our history." — This was about 1842. — "It was not till some 

 years later," he goes on, " that I enlarged the plan to include the 

 whole course of the American conflict between France and England, 

 or, in other words, the history of the American forest ; for this was 

 the light in which I regarded it. My theme fascinated me, and I was 

 haunted with wilderness images day and night." 



The purpose thus conceived he always adhered to. In carrying it 

 out, however, he met and surmounted obstacles that to almost any 

 other man would have been fatal. In the Proceedings of the Massa- 

 chusetts Historical Society for November, 1893,* is printed the char- 

 acteristically impersonal autobiographic fragment from which my quo- 

 tations are taken. Written with no purpose of confession, but rather 

 as a pathological document of possible value to the future, it may best 

 not be quoted in detail ; it is accessible to whoever cares to read. 

 With the calmness of a scientific narrative, it tells the story of an 

 obscure, almost unique malady — physical, mental, nervous, by turns 



— which pursued him from early youth to the end. Among the first 

 specific symptoms was a weakness of sight, which persisted throughout 

 life, and which rapidly grew so serious that, years afterwards, he notes 

 with satisfaction that he can at length permit himself to read, on the 

 average, five minutes at one time. At intervals, one of which ex- 

 tended through four years, he found himself unable to bear the 

 slightest mental concentration. Another trouble was a difficulty of 

 the knees, which occasionally crippled him; and his temperament was 

 remarkable for physical activity. In the earlier stages of his trouble 

 he had striven to conquer it by physical exercise. This resulted in a 

 muscular power which even his prolonged illness never destroyed. An 

 athletic boy, who knew him in his sixty-ninth year, lately expressed 

 an admiring hope that he might some day grow strong enough to pull 

 a boat like Mr. Parkman. With a moral strength only shadowed 

 by this lasting strength of muscle, he adhered to his youthful purpose 

 through this whole lifetime of suffering. 



* Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, Second Series, Vol. VIII. pp. 350-360. 



