274 A Century of Science 



the twenty-one years are comprised within a volume. 

 Finally, in summing up the results of the great 

 event, the last volume covers two centuries, and 

 leaves us in the reign of Edward I., the king who 

 did so much to make modern English history the 

 glorious tale that it has been. In finishing his 

 work upon these proportions, Freeman encoun- 

 tered many points in the reign of William Rufus 

 that needed fuller treatment, and so in 1882 he 

 published in two volumes the history of that reign 

 as a sequel to the "Norman Conquest." Taken 

 as a whole, the seven volumes give us such a mas- 

 terly philosophic analysis and such a picturesque 

 and vivid narrative of the history of England in 

 the eleventh century that it must be pronounced 

 the monumental work upon which Freeman's repu- 

 tation will chiefly rest. 



While these volumes were in course of publica- 

 tion, there was scarcely a year when its busy au- 

 thor, from his wealth of knowledge, did not bring 

 out some other book. Sometimes it was what men 

 count a slight affair, such as a textbook, albeit 

 the textbook is perhaps the hardest kind of book 

 to write well ; sometimes it was a brief monograph 

 or course of lectures ; sometimes a collection of 

 earlier writings. There was an " Old English His- 

 tory for Children" (1869), a " Short History of the 



