Edward Augustus Freeman 271 



portant portion of the world's history to which no 

 one before had even begun to do justice. Its ad- 

 mirable philosophical spirit is matched by its keen 

 critical insight and its minute and exhaustive con- 

 trol of all sources of information. Its narrative, 

 moreover, is full of human interest. Yet it never 

 became a popular book. It was hard to make 

 people believe that the Achaian League could be 

 interesting, and in order to realize the philosophi- 

 cal value of the whole story most readers would 

 need to have the later portions of it set before 

 their eyes. 



But this noble work, in some respects the grand- 

 est of the author's conceptions, was never com- 

 pleted. The first volume was all that ever was 

 published. For this fact I have sometimes heard 

 Americans offer a grotesque explanation. The vol- 

 ume published in 1863, in the middle of our Civil 

 War, bore the title " History of Federal Govern- 

 ment, from the Foundation of the Achaian League 

 to the Disruption of the United States." This title 

 gave offence in America. It was too hastily taken 

 to indicate that the author wished well to the 

 Southern Confederacy, and regarded its independ- 

 ence as an accomplished fact. There can be no 

 doubt that the title was ill chosen ; but to suppose, 

 as some people did, that chagrin at the success of 



