Francis Parkman 259 



Atlantic.&quot; A considerable portion of this material 

 was in manuscript, and involved much tedious ex 

 ploration and the employment of trained copyists. 

 It was necessary to study carefully the catalogues 

 of many European libraries, and to open correspond 

 ence with such scholars and public officials in both 

 hemispheres as might be able to point to the where 

 abouts of fresh sources of information. Work of 

 this sort, as one bit of clue leads to another, is ca 

 pable of arousing the emotion of pursuit to a very 

 high degree ; and I believe the effect of it upon 

 Parkman s health must have been good, in spite 

 of, or rather because of, its difficulties. The 

 chase was carried on until his manuscript trea 

 sures had been brought to an extraordinary de 

 gree of completeness. These made his library 

 quite remarkable. In printed books it was far less 

 rich. He had not the tastes of a bibliophile, and 

 did not feel it necessary, as Freeman did, to own 

 all the books he used. His library of printed 

 books, which at his death went to Harvard Univer 

 sity, was a very small one for a scholar, about 

 twenty-five hundred volumes, including more or 

 less of Greek and Latin literature and theology 

 inherited from his father. His manuscripts, as I 

 have already mentioned, went to the library of 

 the Massachusetts Historical Society. 



