HENRY CHARLES LEA. xxxv 



lating the material for that succession of his historical works which 

 have made him famous as a historian, foremost in the world in the 

 subjects that he made his own. 



Preoccupied as he was, he gave freely of his time and money to 

 charities, public work and educational schemes. For years a direc- 

 tor of the Philadelphia Library, he gave it a large reading-room that 

 doubled its usefulness. A trustee of the University, he gave it the 

 laboratory of hygiene, and by his will made it the ultimate owner of 

 his splendid library, a collection of original historical works and 

 material for historical research that will attract earnest students for 

 all time. In his own busy life he always welcomed students to his 

 library, and its treasures were put freely at the disposal of all who 

 shared his own love of truth and the lessons to be learned by a dili- 

 gent and intelligent use of the real sources of history, the original 

 works and manuscript records gathered by him from foreign archives 

 and repositories. 



W'ithout the gift of oratory, or even a fondness or willingness 

 for public speaking, his contributions with his pen during an excep- 

 tionally long and active life, formed a solid gain to a sound system 

 of good government, and to a new light on complicated historical 

 questions, all with a lofty spirit, a love of truth, and a zeal to help 

 the world on in its upward progress. Impartial, unpartisan, in- 

 spired always and only by an unselfish aim, and without any personal 

 ambition or desire for fame, Mr. Lea was a citizen of whom his 

 native cit}' and country may well be proud. 



Honors came to him in the recognition from scholars and learned 

 institutions, and from the leaders of public thought at home and 

 abroad, but unaffected by them except as they furnished him an 

 assurance of the service that his arduous labors had rendered, he 

 retained the same simple truth-loving and truth-seeking spirit from 

 boyhood to the end of his useful and honored life. It is character- 

 istic of the man that oblivious to the steady growth of his fame as a 

 scholar, which was even more rapid abroad than at home, his work 

 continued steadfast and untiring. 



His strength and his life ended before he could complete the 

 '■ History of Witchcraft " in hand at the time of his death. ]\Iuch 

 original material was collected from various sources, and more came 



