ts of thought have multiplied, it becomes necessary to draw
more strictly the line between the literature of knowledge and the
literature of power. Political history, in and of itself, scarcely
falls within the limits of this sketch, and yet it cannot be altogether
dismissed; for the historian's art at its highest demands imagination,
narrative skill, and a sense of unity and proportion in the selection
and arrangement of his facts, all of which are literary qualities. It
is significant that many of our best historians have begun authorship
in the domain of imaginative literature: Bancroft with an early volume
of poems; Motley with his historical romances _Merry Mount_ and
_Morton's Hope_; and Parkman with a novel, _Vassall Morton_. The
oldest of that modern group of writers that have given America an
honorable position in the historical literature of the world was
William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859.) Prescott chose for his theme
the history of the Spanish conquests in the New World, a subject full
of romantic incident and susceptible of that glowing and perhaps
slightly over gorgeous coloring which he laid on with a liberal hand.
His completed histories, in their order, are the _Reign of Ferdinand
and Isabella_, 1837; the _Conquest of Mexico_, 1843--a topic which
Irving had relinquished to him; and the _Conquest of Peru_, 1847.
Prescott was fortunate in being born to leisure and fortune, but he had
difficulties of {505} another kind to overcome. He was nearly blind,
and had to teach himself Spanish and look up authorities through the
help of others and to write with a noctograph or by amanuenses.

George Bancroft (1800- ) issued the first volume of his great _History
of the United States_ in 1834, and exactly half a century later the
final volume of the work, bringing the subject down to 1789. Bancroft
had studied at Goettingen and imbibed from the German historian Heeren
the scientific method of historical study. He had access to original
sources, in the nature of collections and state papers in the
governmental archives of Europe, of which no American had hitherto been
able to avail himself. His history in thoroughness of treatment leaves
nothing to be desired, and has become the standard authority on the
subject. As a literary performance merely, it is somewhat wanting in
flavor, Bancroft's manner being heavy and stiff when compared with
Motley's or Parkman's. The historian's services to his country have