10 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
own country or on the Continent with some event in history, or an 
anecdote of some great man ; and an imagination which made the 
events of long ago as real to him as if they were present, and put 
life into the dry names of history, so that to him they were no 
longer mere names, but beings of like passions with ourselves, a 
faculty without which, as Emerson taught us long ago, there can 
be no true historian or dramatist. He is best known by his Short 
History of the English People, the later editions of which contain 
corrections of certain inaccuracies found in the earlier ones, and 
whose lively descriptions and breadth of sympathy must make it 
for many years to come a popular book, though it may not realize 
for its author the ambitious hope of the Historian of the Pelopon- 
nesian War of being a Kryj/xa is aei 
Before attempting to write a complete History of England he 
made a special study of certain periods of it, and this is what has 
been done by Freeman and Eroude, the former of whom has told 
the story of Old English History in a delightful form for young 
people, and that of the Norman Conquest with remarkable patience 
and erudition ; while the latter has devoted even superior powers 
to the elucidation of the period from the accession of Wolsey to 
the death of Elizabeth. Time would fail me to do justice to the 
remarkable ability displayed in this great work, and the attempt is 
the less necessary, as you all of course have read it. But permit 
me to recommend to you his Julius Ccesar : a Sketch, which, more 
than any other work I know, enables one to grasp the life and 
times of the Great Dictator. 
The work of the historian is becoming every year more heavy, 
owing to the constant publication of fresh materials, such as the 
Calendars of State Papers, and the Chronicles and Memorials of 
Great Britain and Ireland, which are called the Kolls Series, 
because issued by authority of the Master of the Rolls, to which 
must be added the publications of the Eecord Commissioners. 
These together form in themselves a valuable library of reference, 
and are indispensable to the student of history. If, through the 
interest of the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, we should shortly receive 
from Government, as is possible, a grant of several volumes of this 
series, the question will have to be answered, Where shall we put 
them % Science and Art have now in this building halls capable 
to some extent of displaying their treasures. When shall Liter- 
ature enjoy among us a local habitation where she may display her 
