THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 881 



describes as " an intrinsic love of adventure." This love of adventure 

 doubtless had voice in all his after proceedings. The story of his army 

 life is tinctured with it. He knows " nothing in life more fascinating 

 than the nocturnal ascent of an unknown river leading far into an 

 enemy's country," or, again, " of going into a region where peril made 

 fascination." At any time, he says, by going into the outskirts at one 

 of his camps, one could have a skirmish which, he adds, was nothing 

 but fun. Such expressions as these betray the soldier rather than the 

 preacher, the lecturer, or the translator of Epictetus and the Sonnets 

 of Petrarch. 



At the outset of his appeal to the public through the press he seemed 

 disposed to make use of poetry rather than prose. Twenty titles are 

 given in the chronological list published by the Cambridge Public Li- 

 brary of publications in newspapers in the years 1846-1849 inclusive. 

 Of these fifteen are sonnets, poems, or hymns. Thereafter the poem is 

 the exception, but his " Outdoor Papers " are filled with the aroma of 

 woods and the fragrance of flowers. The cadence of their sentences is 

 so beautifully adjusted that they might almost pass for poems. He 

 seldom ventured into the land of fiction, and once only tried his hand 

 at a novel. A competent critic says that " his writings show a deep 

 love of nature, art, and humanity, and are marked by vigor of thought, 

 sincerity of feeling, and a grace and finish of style." 



In 1875 he published "Young Folks' History of the United States," 

 which had a marvellous success in this country, new editions appearing 

 from time to time thereafter, while in Europe the volume was trans- 

 lated into the French, German, and Italian tongues. He also engaged 

 in other historical work, and published in 1885 a "Larger History of 

 the United States "; in 1893 "English History for American Readers," 

 in collaboration with Professor Edward Channing ; and in 1905 a " His- 

 tory of the United States," in collaboration with Professor WiDiam 

 McDonald, this last being practically an enlarged edition of his "Larger 

 History of the United States." 



In Colonel Higginson's sketch of Theodore Parker's life he says, 

 " There may be some whose fame is so ill established that one shrinks 

 from speaking of them precisely as one saw them ; but this man's place 

 is secure, and that friend best praises him who paints him just as he 

 seemed." No better suggestion could be made to the biographer of 

 Colonel Higginson than the words which he himself uses concerning 

 the task set for the biographer of Theodore Parker. So far as the 

 person engaged in the memoir of Colonel Higginson is concerned, he is 

 relieved from the necessity of explanation or apology for Higginson's 

 resistance to constituted authorities by the frankness of the Colonel 



