440 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters . 
ences — proved an admirable preparation. How well he paid for more 
than a score of years the educational debt due to his profession it is 
needless to say. Witnesses abound on every side. They agree that he 
gave much information, but that in a way which inspired more than it in¬ 
formed. It was a favorite maxim with Prof. Allen that “moral educa¬ 
tion cannot be absent from any living system, that the only foundation 
of thoroughness in study is that virtue which embraces a larger share of 
human duties within its definition than any other — faithfulness.” Ex¬ 
emplifying in himself the virtue he praised, he became an inspiration to 
many a student — filling him with a life-long delight in whatsoever 
things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, virtuous and praiseworthy. 
Seeing him always an eager learner, his pupils became themselves the 
more eager to learn. 
While faithful to all details of his instructional routine, Prof. Allen 
was a voluminous author. The bibliography of his writings, in his 
Memorial volume, fills thirty pages and comprises more than nine hun¬ 
dred articles. We do not wonder that the number is multitudinous, for 
many of the articles were brief, so much as at their diversified nature; 
titles are arranged under thirty specific heads, but some of them find 
their proper place only under yet another division styled Miscellaneous. 
Before we run our eyes over a tithe of the topics we feel that the author, 
who never wrote on a subject he had not investigated, was a multifarious 
scholar—a rare survival of what former generations called a poly- 
mathist. We are surprised that he, a recluse scholar, touched society at 
so many points. He treated of slave songs and the negro dialect, and of 
Latin grammar as well — now of Aristophanes and then of Uncle 
Remus — here of the snake dance in Arizona, and anon of a day with a 
Roman gentleman. He drew each change of many-colored life. 
After all, our feeling is that Prof. Allen was first, last and chiefly an 
historian. A great majority of his papers, whether in periodicals, or the 
Madison Literary Club or in our Academy, were historical. If he wrote 
upon Shakespeare his themes were the historical plays. If his theme 
was Novels, it was historical fiction. His twenty lectures in Johns Hop¬ 
kins University were historic. His editions of classics were mainly his¬ 
torical authors. Whatever the subject that came before him his view of 
it was historic. Every fact in his mind, if past, had made history; if 
present, was making history, and if future, was about to make history. 
Thus, through its relations, and thus only had any fact value for him. 
All were but parts of a stupendous whole. 
From Prof. Allen’s early sojourn in Rome as well as the nature of his 
academic and university teaching, Roman history became predominant 
in his thoughts, studies and writings. A hundred of his published ar¬ 
ticles on as many aspects of this vast department each shed some side 
light upon it. His editions of Caesar and Tacitus, with notes upon 
