,
who have borne a part in the wonderful drama involving men and events
enacted in this country during the century now drawing to a close, had
given us their sincere personal impressions in autobiographic form. Such
narratives, in proportion as they are truthful, are far more trustworthy
than history written long after the event by authors who were neither
observers nor participants in the scenes which they describe.

Among American biographies which will help the reader to gain a tolerably
wide acquaintance with the men and affairs of the past century in this
country, are the series of Lives of American Statesmen, of which thirty
volumes have been published. These include Washington, the Adamses,
Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, Jay, Madison, Marshall, Monroe, Henry,
Gallatin, Morris, Randolph, Jackson, Van Buren, Webster, Clay, Calhoun,
Cass, Benton, Seward, Lincoln, Chase, Stevens, and Sumner. While these
Memoirs are of very unequal merit, they are sufficiently instructive to
be valuable to all students of our national history.

Another very useful series is that of American Men of Letters, edited by
Charles Dudley Warner, in fifteen volumes, which already includes
Franklin, Bryant, Cooper, Irving, Noah Webster, Simms, Poe, Emerson,
Ripley, Margaret Fuller, Willis, Thoreau, Taylor, and Curtis.

In the department of history, the best books for learners are not always
the most famous. Any mere synopsis of universal history is necessarily
dry reading, but for a constant help in reference, guiding one to the
best original sources, under each country, and with very readable
extracts from the best writers treating on each period, the late work of
J. N. Larned, "History for Ready Reference," five volumes, will be found
invaluable. Brewer's Historic Note Book, in a single volume, answers many
historic queries in a single glance at the alphabet. For the History of
the United States, either John Fiske's or Eggleston's is an excellent
compend, while for the fullest treatment, Bancroft's covers the period
from the discovery of America up to the adoption of the constitution in
1789, in a style at once full, classical, and picturesque. For
continuations, McMaster's History of the People of the United States
covers the period from 1789 to 1824, and is being continued. James
Schouler has written a History of the United States from 1789 to 1861, in
five volumes, while J. F. Rhodes ably covers the years 1850 to the Civil
War with a mu