2 9 o RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



the libraries ; better still, it is in the memories of all. 

 I do not wish to dwell on its literary merits, not be- 

 cause there is any lack of good to be said of it, but 

 because I fear I should not say it sufficiently well. 

 Besides, it is not a speech that I am now making, and 

 if I stop to mark with a word what seems to me the 

 special note of his talent, it is because it is at the same 

 time that of his character. 



" Each historian has his peculiarity. M. Michelet 

 has poetry. Every moment his imagination opens 

 wide views over new horizons, through which the 

 mind roams in amazement. Augustin Thierry, an 

 enthusiastic scholar, of a race of writers who called 

 back to life a world that had passed away, is above all 

 things a painter in clear lines, with an incomparable 

 gift of colour. The history of Guizot, like that of Mignet, 

 is a system, philosophical in the one, political in the 

 other, showing in the movement of the facts their 

 sequence, their consequences, and their causes. Thiers 

 excels in recounting events, in bringing situations 

 clearly before us, in elucidating the most special and 

 most obscure questions. His ruling quality is clear- 

 ness. That of Henri Martin is justice. 



"And this love of justice which is in his mind 

 comes from the love of country which is in his heart. 

 Although a man with convictions, even a party man, 

 absolute in his faith, invariable in his conduct, he puts 

 aside all passion when he enters into history. A 

 sympathising witness of all our glories, he withholds 



