intercourse; it is, in short, under all those forms which make up the
interior of society that man is to be studied, if we would get the
true form and pressure of the age--if, in short, we would obtain clear
and correct ideas of the actual progress of civilization.

But these topics do not fall within the scope of the historian. He can
not find authentic materials for them. They belong to the novelist,
who, indeed, contrives his incidents and creates his characters, but
who, if true to his art, animates them with the same tastes,
sentiments, and motives of action which belong to the period of his
fiction. His portrait is not the less true because no individual has
sat for it. He has seized the physiognomy of the times. Who is there
that does not derive a more distinct idea of the state of society and
manners in Scotland from the "Waverley Novels" than from the best of
its historians? Of the condition of the Middle Ages from the single
romance of "Ivanhoe" than from the volumes of Hume or Hallam? In like
manner, the pencil of Cervantes has given a far more distinct and a
richer portraiture of life in Spain in the sixteenth century than can
be gathered from a library of monkish chronicles.

GEORGE BANCROFT

Born in Massachusetts in 1800; died in Washington in 1891;
graduated from Harvard in 1817; studied in Germany; taught
Greek in Harvard; established a private school at
Northampton in 1823; collector of the Port of Boston in
1838; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Massachusetts
in 1844; Secretary of the Navy in 1845; established the
Naval Academy at Annapolis; minister to England in 1846;
minister to Berlin in 1867; published his "History of the
United States" in 10 volumes in 1834-74.

THE FATE OF EVANGELINE'S COUNTRYMEN[70]

(1755)

They [the French inhabitants of Acadia] still counted in their
villages "eight thousand" souls, and the English not more than "three
thousand"; they stood in the way of "the progress of the settlement";
"by their non-compliance with the conditions of the treaty of Utrecht
they had forfeited their possessions to the crown"; after the
departure "of the fleet and troops, the province would not be in a
condition to drive them out." "Such a juncture as the present might
never occur"; so he [the chief justice, Belcher] advised "against
receiving any of the French inhabitants to take the oath," and for the
removal of "all" o