678 JOHN FISKE. 



the opinion of others, all combined to secure the approval of a large 

 reading public, and thus earned for him the honorable title which has 

 been conferred upon him since his death, " Popularizer of useful knowl- 

 edge." — In its restricted application to the field of history, this 

 epithet was adopted by Colonel Higginson in some remarks before the 

 Massachusetts Historical Society in February, and was repeated by him 

 with emphatic recognition of the honor thereby intended to be conferred, 

 at the March meeting of the Academy. 



Fiske's whole life was, in the words of Mead, " a noble illustration 

 of resolute intellectual integrity." " Only another John Fiske," says 

 Professor Royce, " if such a being were possible — a man as widely read as 

 he was, and with a soul as sweetly humane in sentiment, as clear in vision, 

 as free from pettiness, as childlike in faith in what it had once accepted, 

 and yet as keen in critical intelligence regarding what it rejected as was 

 his soul — only such a man could estimate adequately Fiske's beneficent 

 life-work and his manifold mental accomplishments." 



In conclusion let me say, that in accepting the appointment to write 

 Mr. Fiske's memoir, I did so with the full consciousness of my unfitness 

 for the task, if knowledge of the subjects discussed in what the London 

 "Times" terms the bewildering variety of his publications, were to be 

 made the basis of one's qualifications. To find a memorialist up to this 

 standard might be difficult even in the Academy. It seemed to me, 

 therefore, that all that could be expected of any person would be to 

 throw upon the screen a composite picture, made up from contributions 

 by Fiske himself and by the various writers who have furnished biog- 

 raphies of his life and criticisms of his works. This is what I have 

 striven to do. 



Andrew McFarland Davis. 



