HENRY CHARLES LEA. xxi 



in constructing his books. A third critic copied and developed these 

 suggestions, till, according to the well-known process of the growth 

 of a legend, it has been stated in a French journal that much of 

 ^Ir. Lea's work was done for him by assistants, that he kept a 

 card catalogue of quotations and references, and that his work 

 w^as largely a mosaic made by putting together these materials 

 gathered by others.' Nothing could be more absurdly untrue. No 

 scholar ever worked more absolutely independently than he, few 

 ever worked more completely alone. He never employed a secretary 

 or clerk, never dictated a letter. Just as his library was collected 

 according to his own judgment, just as the material for his writing 

 was collected by himself, so his books were written from his own brain 

 and by his own hand in the most literal sense of the word. He 

 never spared himself labor in his writing. When his " History of 

 the Inquisition of Spain " was ready for the press it bade fair to 

 occupy six large volumes. After serious thought ^Ir. Lea decided 

 that this was too long, and notwithstanding his eighty years of age 

 and a pressing realization of the possibility that death might over- 

 take him with the work of half a lifetime incomplete, he quietly 

 set himself to the task of rewriting the six thousand pages with his 

 own pen in shorter form, and within a year completed his task, 

 reducing it from the six volumes to four. Surely this was a high 

 instance of courage and the simple dignity of the scholar. No haste 

 to appear before the public, no pretense, no boasting, no complaint; 

 simply a sincere and loyal recognition of the claims of scholarship, 

 and a willingness to grapple with all the difficulties of his subject, 

 whatever form they might take. 



Those who are familiar with Mr. Lea's methods of work know 

 how he accomplished so much. Day after day, month after month, 

 year after year, he labored constantly, usually six or more hours a 

 day, with intense and concentrated yet alert and interested applica- 

 tion. He often expressed his joy in the combat with a student's 

 difficulties, his pleasure in labor, his satisfaction in achievement. 

 Although his health was by no means constantly good, yet for sixty- 

 five years he did not spend the whole of any one day in bed. During 

 many years of his later life he sat down regularly to his desk at 

 two or three o'clock in the afternoon and worked until dinner time. 



