rom the day of his inauguration
through all the years of revolt, bloodshed, and horror which marked
his reign. He saw that this rebellion of the Hollanders meant less
the discontent of a people with their king than the growth of a great
idea, the idea that civil and religious liberty is the right of all
men and nations. To Motley's mind the struggle seemed like some old
battle between giants and Titans. Unlike other historians, who looked
over the world for a subject, rejecting first one and then another,
Motley's subject took possession of him and would not be rejected. His
work was born, as a great poem or picture is born, from a glimpse of
things hidden from other eyes.

But at once he discovered that Prescott had already in contemplation a
history of Philip II. This was a severe blow to all his hopes. But he
resolved to see Prescott, lay the matter before him, and abide by his
decision, feeling that the master of history, who was the author of
the _Conquest of Mexico_ and the _Conquest of Peru_, would be the best
adviser of a young and unknown writer.

Prescott received the idea with the most generous kindness, advised
Motley to undertake the work, and placed at his disposal all the
material which he himself had collected for his own enterprise.

After several years the book appeared in 1856, under the title _The
Rise of the Dutch Republic_.

To write this book Motley dwelt for years in the world of three
hundred years ago, when the whole of Europe was shaken by the new
Protestantism, when Raleigh and Drake were sailing the Atlantic and
adding the shores of the new world to English dominion, the French
settling Canada and the Mississippi Valley, Spain sending her mission
priests to California, and the Huguenots establishing themselves in
Florida. Thus the foundations of the American Republic were being
laid, while Philip was striving to overthrow the freedom of the
Netherlands.

Leaving the nineteenth century as far behind him as he could, Motley
established himself successively at Berlin, Dresden, The Hague, and
Brussels, in order to consult the libraries and archives of state
which contained documents relating to the revolt of the Netherlands
against Philip II. In speaking of his work in the libraries of
Brussels, he says that at this time only dead men were his familiar
friends, and that he was at home in any country, and he calls himself
a worm feeding on musty mulberry leaves out of which he was to spin