ark behind them.

Something of this we recognize in Motley; but none of Botta's tendency
to proverbial sayings, bitter with a sarcasm that wounds most deeply its
creator; as, 'To believe that abstract principle will prevail over full
purses is the folly of a madman.' Neither do we find in Motley the
occasional terse conciseness of Botta,--little epics enclosed in a short
sentence. 'Napoleon had redeemed France; but he had created Italy.' But
the Italian can not be impartial. Just he is, but it is the accident of
his political position, not the deference paid by the historian to his
art. He writes of an age from whose injustice he has suffered, of a
country whose miseries he has shared, of a people whose brother he is.
And here Motley stands second only to Thucydides among historians. In
the Greek, impartiality was almost divine, for he wrote in the very
smoke of the conflict, wrote as if with his dripping lance upon rocks
dyed with the blood of his countrymen. With Motley impartiality is the
product of a nature strictly noble, that aims through its art not only
to delight the present, but to instruct the future, and which bases its
doctrines of right and wrong upon the principles that govern universal
nature. The temper of Thucydides is lofty and even; though never genial,
he is always calm and accessible; though often sublime, he is never
pathetic; too grand to be sarcastic, he is also too proud to be selfish.

Motley, if lacking the great and admirable element of sublimity, which
Longinus extols, compensates for it by the animation and variety of his
style, which changes, as does his mood, with his subject. He enters with
all the vigor of his manhood into the spirit of the scenes which he
sketches. He describes a character, and his strokes are bold, quick,
decided; he follows the intricacies of political intrigue, and his
movement is slow, continuous, wary, while it still remains firm,
confident, and successful. He can administer the finances with Escovedo,
while his wide, keen intelligence, undismayed, masters at a glance the
wily policy of Alexander of the '_fel Gesicht_.' No modern historian has
given more comprehensive sketches of character. No quality escapes his
vigilance; he yields every faculty the consideration which is its due.
The portraits of Alva, of Navarre, of Farnese, of Orange, of Don John of
Austria, are so many colossal statues, that seem to unite in themselves
all the possible features and characte