126 CONNECTICUT’S INFLUENCE 
qualities, we were modestly unconscious of the fact 
that some of our early worthies were personages as 
interesting and memorable as their brethren who 
fought the Lord’s battles under Cromwell. In those 
days when our great historian, Francis Parkman, pub- 
lished his first work, the fascinating book which de- 
scribed the conspiracy of Pontiac, the greater part of 
the first edition lay for years untouched on the pub- 
lishers’ shelves, and one of the author’s friends said to 
him: “ Parkman, why don’t you take some European 
subject, —something that people will be interested 
in? Why don’t you write about the times of Michael 
Angelo, or the Wars of the Roses, or the age of 
Louis XIV.? Nobody cares to read about what hap- 
pened out here in the woods a hundred years ago.” 
Parkman’s reply was like Luther’s on a greater occa- 
sion, “I do what I do because I cannot do other- 
wise.” That was, of course, the answer of the inspired 
man marked out by destiny for a needed work. 
An incident which occurred in my own experience 
more than twenty years ago has not yet lost for me its 
ludicrous flavour. A gentleman in a small New 
England town was asked if some lectures of mine on 
“ America’s Place in History” would be likely to find 
a good audience there. He reflected for a moment, 
then shook his head gravely. “ The subject,” said he, 
“is one which would interest very few people.” In the 
state of mind thus indicated there is something so bewil- 
dering that I believe I have not yet recovered from it. 
During the past twenty years, however, the interest 
in American history has been at once increasing and 
growing enlightened. Every year finds a greater 
number of people directing their attention to the 
