HENRY CHARLES LEA. xxv 



color and life into narration, together with those other attributes 

 which make up what we call " brilliancy of style." 



Let us consider Mr. Lea's intellect and the work which it pro- 

 duced with reference to the various attributes I have enumerated, 

 and let us begin with the form of his work and of those things 

 which belong to style and manner. 



That which is called literary excellence, /. c, the charms and 

 allurements of style, was never very much in Mr. Lea's mind and 

 was altogether subordinated to a consideration of the matter to be 

 dealt with. Whether it was that he did not think that his talents 

 lay in the purely literary direction or that he did not much care for 

 the graces of composition, reckoning merits of form as trifling com- 

 pared to merits of substance, he paid comparatively little regard to 

 the adornment of that which he had to say. In this respect he would 

 have satisfied — as indeed he anticipated — the canons of what is now 

 called the scientific treatment of history. But his writing had that 

 which is the greatest merit of style, perfect clearness, both in the 

 statement of facts and in the exposition of his views of the facts. 

 It was always plain, direct, intelligible, and with that he was content. 

 The facts were so interesting to him, and he felt that an exact state- 

 ment of them ought to be so interesting to all scholars, that he never 

 spent any time on decking them out with any rhetorical embellish- 

 ments. If his manner may be called level and business-like, it is 

 never dull, because the essential facts are carefully selected, words 

 are not wasted, the matter is so stated as to go straight home to the 

 reader's mind. 



Now let us return to those attributes of the historian which 

 relate to the substance of his work. 



His industry was above all praise. For fifty years he labored 

 incessantly on his researches, giving to them in earlier days all the 

 time that he could spare from his business and his public duties as a 

 good citizen, and in later days devoting to them practically all his 

 working time. When his health became comparatively weak, he so 

 arranged his life as to reserve all his forces for study and com- 

 position. Just so much open air exercise was taken as the interests 

 of health required, and every moment that could be given to the 

 library was given. 



