HENRY CHARLES LEA. xxiii 



and wrote with a directness that would have been impossible if he 

 had paid more attention to current writings and discussions in his 

 field. He seldom asked or obtained either information or ideas 

 from other scholars. But this arose from no sense of separation, 

 depreciation or jealousy. It was simply the result of his lifelong 

 habits of work. He had chosen his field for himself, tilled it in 

 his own way and reaped its harvest with the labor of his own hands. 



He had much pleasant correspondence with prominent European 

 and American scholars. He was always ready to talk freely to his 

 visitors and, so far as he took the time to read recent works, cor- 

 dially praised many of them. He closed his address as President 

 of the American Historical Association in December, 1903, with 

 the following words of appreciative recognition of the work of 

 younger men : " As one of the last survivors of a past generation, 

 whose career is rapidly nearing its end, in bidding you farewell I 

 may perhaps be permitted to express the gratification with which, 

 during nearly half a century, I have watched the development of 

 historical work among us in the adoption of scientific methods. 

 Year after year I have marked with growing pleasure the evidence 

 of thorough and earnest research on the part of a constantly increas- 

 ing circle of well-trained scholars, who have no cause to shun com- 

 parison with those of the older hemisphere. In such hands the 

 future of the American school of history is safe, and we can look 

 forward with assurance to the honored position which it will assume 

 in the literature of the world."" 



The deepest impression made by a survey of the career of ^Nlr. 

 Lea as an historian is an overwhelming sense of the impoverishment 

 of the world of scholarship now that he has gone from it. Doubt- 

 less the careful, systematic, scientific study of the past will go on ; 

 science is continuous and progressive, history will more and more 

 be studied and written as he has studied and written it. Doubtless 

 others will rise up in his place to continue his work. Confidence in the 

 future of historical investigation could not be expressed more strongly 

 than he himself has expressed it in the words I have just quoted. And 

 yet the broad outlook, the massive acquirements, the trained capacity, 

 the patient industry, the indomitable perseverance, the sustained in- 

 terest, the alert and ardent mind of this great scholar, — how can we 



