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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4727-0.txt b/4727-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c3d9d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/4727-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1384 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4727 *** +The Project Gutenberg Etext of the Memoir of John Lothrop Motley, v3 +by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. +#13 in our series by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your own disk, +thereby keeping an electronic path open for future readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. Do not change or edit it without written permission. +The words are carefully chosen to provide users with the information +they need to understand what they may and may not do with the etext. +To encourage this, we have moved most of the information to the end, + +JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. + +A MEMOIR + +By Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. + + +Volume III. + + + +XXII. + +1874. AEt. 60. + +"LIFE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD."--CRITICISMS.--GROEN VAN PRINSTERER. + +The full title of Mr. Motley's next and last work is "The Life and Death +of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland; with a View of the Primary +Causes and Movements of the Thirty Years' War." + +In point of fact this work is a history rather than a biography. It is +an interlude, a pause between the acts which were to fill out the +complete plan of the "Eighty Years' Tragedy," and of which the last act, +the Thirty Years' War, remains unwritten. The "Life of Barneveld" was +received as a fitting and worthy continuation of the series of +intellectual labor in which he was engaged. I will quote but two general +expressions of approval from the two best known British critical reviews. +In connection with his previous works, it forms, says "The London +Quarterly," "a fine and continuous story, of which the writer and the +nation celebrated by him have equal reason to be proud; a narrative which +will remain a prominent ornament of American genius, while it has +permanently enriched English literature on this as well as on the other +side of the Atlantic." + +"The Edinburgh Review" speaks no less warmly: "We can hardly give too +much appreciation to that subtile alchemy of the brain which has enabled +him to produce out of dull, crabbed, and often illegible state papers, +the vivid, graphic, and sparkling narrative which he has given to the +world." + +In a literary point of view, M. Groen van Prinsterer, whose elaborate +work has been already referred to, speaks of it as perhaps the most +classical of Motley's productions, but it is upon this work that the +force of his own and other Dutch criticisms has been chiefly expended. + +The key to this biographical history or historical biography may be found +in a few sentences from its opening chapter. + + "There have been few men at any period whose lives have been more + closely identical than his [Barneveld's] with a national history. + There have been few great men in any history whose names have become + less familiar to the world, and lived less in the mouths of + posterity. Yet there can be no doubt that if William the Silent was + the founder of the independence of the United Provinces, Barneveld + was the founder of the Commonwealth itself. . . . + + "Had that country of which he was so long the first citizen + maintained until our own day the same proportional position among + the empires of Christendom as it held in the seventeenth century, + the name of John of Barneveld would have perhaps been as familiar to + all men as it is at this moment to nearly every inhabitant of the + Netherlands. Even now political passion is almost as ready to flame + forth, either in ardent affection or enthusiastic hatred, as if two + centuries and a half had not elapsed since his death. His name is + so typical of a party, a polity, and a faith, so indelibly + associated with a great historical cataclysm, as to render it + difficult even for the grave, the conscientious, the learned, the + patriotic, of his own compatriots to speak of him with absolute + impartiality. + + "A foreigner who loves and admires all that is great and noble in + the history of that famous republic, and can have no hereditary bias + as to its ecclesiastical or political theories, may at least attempt + the task with comparative coldness, although conscious of inability + to do thorough justice to a most complex subject." + +With all Mr. Motley's efforts to be impartial, to which even his sternest +critics bear witness, he could not help becoming a partisan of the cause +which for him was that of religious liberty and progress, as against the +accepted formula of an old ecclesiastical organization. For the quarrel +which came near being a civil war, which convulsed the state, and cost +Barneveld his head, had its origin in a difference on certain points, and +more especially on a single point, of religious doctrine. + +As a great river may be traced back until its fountainhead is found in a +thread of water streaming from a cleft in the rocks, so a great national +movement may sometimes be followed until its starting-point is found in +the cell of a monk or the studies of a pair of wrangling professors. + +The religious quarrel of the Dutchmen in the seventeenth century reminds +us in some points of the strife between two parties in our own New +England, sometimes arraying the "church" on one side against the +"parish," or the general body of worshippers, on the other. The +portraits of Gomarus, the great orthodox champion, and Arminius, the head +and front of the "liberal theology" of his day, as given in the little +old quarto of Meursius, recall two ministerial types of countenance +familiar to those who remember the earlier years of our century. + +Under the name of "Remonstrants" and "Contra-Remonstrants,"--Arminians +and old-fashioned Calvinists, as we should say,--the adherents of the two +Leyden professors disputed the right to the possession of the churches, +and the claim to be considered as representing the national religion. Of +the seven United Provinces, two, Holland and Utrecht, were prevailingly +Arminian, and the other five Calvinistic. Barneveld, who, under the +title of Advocate, represented the province of Holland, the most +important of them all, claimed for each province a right to determine its +own state religion. Maurice the Stadholder, son of William the Silent, +the military chief of the republic, claimed the right for the States- +General. 'Cujus regio ejus religio' was then the accepted public +doctrine of Protestant nations. Thus the provincial and the general +governments were brought into conflict by their creeds, and the question +whether the republic was a confederation or a nation, the same question +which has been practically raised, and for the time at least settled, in +our own republic, was in some way to be decided. After various +disturbances and acts of violence by both parties, Maurice, representing +the States-General, pronounced for the Calvinists or Contra-Remonstrants, +and took possession of one of the great churches, as an assertion of his +authority. Barneveld, representing the Arminian or Remonstrant +provinces, levied a body of mercenary soldiers in several of the cities. +These were disbanded by Maurice, and afterwards by an act of the States- +General. Barneveld was apprehended, imprisoned, and executed, after an +examination which was in no proper sense a trial. Grotius, who was on +the Arminian side and involved in the inculpated proceedings, was also +arrested and imprisoned. His escape, by a stratagem successfully +repeated by a slave in our own times, may challenge comparison for its +romantic interest with any chapter of fiction. How his wife packed him +into the chest supposed to contain the folios of the great oriental +scholar Erpenius, how the soldiers wondered at its weight and questioned +whether it did not hold an Arminian, how the servant-maid, Elsje van +Houwening, quick-witted as Morgiana of the "Forty Thieves," parried their +questions and convoyed her master safely to the friendly place of +refuge,--all this must be read in the vivid narrative of the author. + +The questions involved were political, local, personal, and above all +religious. Here is the picture which Motley draws of the religious +quarrel as it divided the people:-- + + "In burghers' mansions, peasants' cottages, mechanics' back-parlors; + on board herring-smacks, canal-boats, and East Indiamen; in shops, + counting-rooms, farm-yards, guard-rooms, alehouses; on the exchange, + in the tennis court, on the mall; at banquets, at burials, + christenings, or bridals; wherever and whenever human creatures met + each other, there was ever to be found the fierce wrangle of + Remonstrant and Contra-Remonstrant, the hissing of red-hot + theological rhetoric, the pelting of hostile texts. The + blacksmith's iron cooled on the anvil, the tinker dropped a kettle + half mended, the broker left a bargain unclinched, the Scheveningen + fisherman in his wooden shoes forgot the cracks in his pinkie, while + each paused to hold high converse with friend or foe on fate, free- + will, or absolute foreknowledge; losing himself in wandering mazes + whence there was no issue. Province against province, city against + city, family against family; it was one vast scene of bickering, + denunciation, heart-burnings, mutual excommunication and hatred." + +The religious grounds of the quarrel which set these seventeenth-century +Dutchmen to cutting each other's throats were to be looked for in the +"Five Points" of the Arminians as arrayed against the "Seven Points" of +the Gomarites, or Contra-Remonstrants. The most important of the +differences which were to be settled by fratricide seem to have been +these:-- + +According to the Five Points, "God has from eternity resolved to choose +to eternal life those who through his grace believe in Jesus Christ," +etc. According to the Seven Points, "God in his election has not looked +at the belief and the repentance of the elect," etc. According to the +Five Points, all good deeds must be ascribed to God's grace in Christ, +but it does not work irresistibly. The language of the Seven Points +implies that the elect cannot resist God's eternal and unchangeable +design to give them faith and steadfastness, and that they can never +wholly and for always lose the true faith. The language of the Five +Points is unsettled as to the last proposition, but it was afterwards +maintained by the Remonstrant party that a true believer could, through +his own fault, fall away from God and lose faith. + +It must be remembered that these religious questions had an immediate +connection with politics. Independently of the conflict of jurisdiction, +in which they involved the parties to the two different creeds, it was +believed or pretended that the new doctrines of the Remonstrants led +towards Romanism, and were allied with designs which threatened the +independence of the country. "There are two factions in the land," said +Maurice, "that of Orange and that of Spain, and the two chiefs of the +Spanish faction are those political and priestly Arminians, Uytenbogaert +and Oldenbarneveld." + +The heads of the two religious and political parties were in such +hereditary, long-continued, and intimate relations up to the time when +one signed the other's death-warrant, that it was impossible to write the +life of one without also writing that of the other. For his biographer +John of Barneveld is the true patriot, the martyr, whose cause was that +of religious and political freedom. For him Maurice is the ambitious +soldier who hated his political rival, and never rested until this rival +was brought to the scaffold. + +The questions which agitated men's minds two centuries and a half ago +are not dead yet in the country where they produced such estrangement, +violence, and wrong. No stranger could take them up without encountering +hostile criticism from one party or the other. It may be and has been +conceded that Mr. Motley writes as a partisan,--a partisan of freedom in +politics and religion, as he understands freedom. This secures him the +antagonism of one class of critics. But these critics are themselves +partisans, and themselves open to the cross-fire of their antagonists. +M. Groen van Prinsterer, "the learned and distinguished" editor of the +"Archives et Correspondance" of the Orange and Nassau family, published a +considerable volume, before referred to, in which many of Motley's views +are strongly controverted. But he himself is far from being in accord +with "that eminent scholar," M. Bakhuyzen van den Brink, whose name, he +says, is celebrated enough to need no comment, or with M. Fruin, of whose +impartiality and erudition he himself speaks in the strongest terms. The +ground upon which he is attacked is thus stated in his own words:-- + +"People have often pretended to find in my writings the deplorable +influence of an extreme Calvinism. The Puritans of the seventeenth +century are my fellow-religionists. I am a sectarian and not an +historian." + +It is plain enough to any impartial reader that there are at least +plausible grounds for this accusation against Mr. Motley's critic. And +on a careful examination of the formidable volume, it becomes obvious +that Mr. Motley has presented a view of the events and the personages of +the stormy epoch with which he is dealing, which leaves a battle-ground +yet to be fought over by those who come after him. The dispute is not +and cannot be settled. + +The end of all religious discussion has come when one of the parties +claims that it is thinking or acting under immediate Divine guidance. +"It is God's affair, and his honor is touched," says William Lewis to +Prince Maurice. Mr. Motley's critic is not less confident in claiming +the Almighty as on the side of his own views. Let him state his own +ground of departure:-- + + "To show the difference, let me rather say the contrast, between the + point of view of Mr. Motley and my own, between the Unitarian and + the Evangelical belief. I am issue of CALVIN, child of the + Awakening (reveil). Faithful to the device of the Reformers: + Justification by faith alone, and the Word of God endures eternally. + I consider history from the point of view of Merle d'Aubigne, + Chalmers, Guizot. I desire to be disciple and witness of our Lord + and Saviour, Jesus Christ." + +He is therefore of necessity antagonistic to a writer whom he describes +in such words as these:-- + + "Mr. Motley is liberal and rationalist. + + "He becomes, in attacking the principle of the Reformation, the + passionate opponent of the Puritans and of Maurice, the ardent + apologist of Barnevelt and the Arminians. + + "It is understood, and he makes no mystery of it, that he inclines + towards the vague and undecided doctrine of the Unitarians." + +What M. Groen's idea of Unitarians is may be gathered from the statement +about them which he gets from a letter of De Tocqueville. + + "They are pure deists; they talk about the Bible, because they do + not wish to shock too severely public opinion, which is prevailingly + Christian. They have a service on Sundays; I have been there. At + it they read verses from Dryden or other English poets on the + existence of God and the immortality of the soul. They deliver a + discourse on some point of morality, and all is said." + +In point of fact the wave of protest which stormed the dikes of Dutch +orthodoxy in the seventeenth century stole gently through the bars of New +England Puritanism in the eighteenth. + +"Though the large number," says Mr. Bancroft, "still acknowledged the +fixedness of the divine decrees, and the resistless certainty from all +eternity of election and of reprobation, there were not wanting, even +among the clergy, some who had modified the sternness of the ancient +doctrine by making the self-direction of the active powers of man with +freedom of inquiry and private judgment the central idea of a protest +against Calvinism." + +Protestantism, cut loose from an infallible church, and drifting with +currents it cannot resist, wakes up once or oftener in every century, to +find itself in a new locality. Then it rubs its eyes and wonders whether +it has found its harbor or only lost its anchor. There is no end to its +disputes, for it has nothing but a fallible vote as authority for its +oracles, and these appeal only to fallible interpreters. + +It is as hard to contend in argument against "the oligarchy of heaven," +as Motley calls the Calvinistic party, as it was formerly to strive with +them in arms. + +To this "aristocracy of God's elect" belonged the party which framed the +declaration of the Synod of Dort; the party which under the forms of +justice shed the blood of the great statesman who had served his country +so long and so well. To this chosen body belonged the late venerable and +truly excellent as well as learned M. Groen van Prinsterer, and he +exercised the usual right of examining in the light of his privileged +position the views of a "liberal" and "rationalist" writer who goes to +meeting on Sunday to hear verses from Dryden. This does not diminish his +claim for a fair reading of the "intimate correspondence," which he +considers Mr. Motley has not duly taken into account, and of the other +letters to be found printed in his somewhat disjointed and fragmentary +volume. + +This "intimate correspondence" shows Maurice the Stadholder indifferent +and lax in internal administration and as being constantly advised and +urged by his relative Count William of Nassau. This need of constant +urging extends to religious as well as other matters, and is inconsistent +with M. Groen van Prinsterer's assertion that the question was for +Maurice above all religious, and for Barneveld above all political. +Whether its negative evidence can be considered as neutralizing that +which is adduced by Mr. Motley to show the Stadholder's hatred of the +Advocate may be left to the reader who has just risen from the account of +the mock trial and the swift execution of the great and venerable +statesman. The formal entry on the record upon the day of his "judicial +murder" is singularly solemn and impressive:-- + + "Monday, 13th May, 1619. To-day was executed with the sword here in + the Hague, on a scaffold thereto erected in the Binnenhof before the + steps of the great hall, Mr. John of Barneveld, in his life Knight, + Lord of Berkel, Rodenrys, etc., Advocate of Holland and West + Friesland, for reasons expressed in the sentence and otherwise, with + confiscation of his property, after he had served the state thirty- + three years two months and five days, since 8th March, 1586; a man + of great activity, business, memory, and wisdom,--yea, extraordinary + in every respect. He that stands let him see that he does not + fall." + +Maurice gave an account of the execution of Barneveld to Count William +Lewis on the same day in a note "painfully brief and dry." + + +Most authors write their own biography consciously or unconsciously. We +have seen Mr. Motley portraying much of himself, his course of life and +his future, as he would have had it, in his first story. In this, his +last work, it is impossible not to read much of his own external and +internal personal history told under other names and with different +accessories. The parallelism often accidentally or intentionally passes +into divergence. He would not have had it too close if he could, but +there are various passages in which it is plain enough that he is telling +his own story. + +Mr. Motley was a diplomatist, and he writes of other diplomatists, and +one in particular, with most significant detail. It need not be supposed +that he intends the "arch intriguer" Aerssens to stand for himself, or +that he would have endured being thought to identify himself with the man +of whose "almost devilish acts" he speaks so freely. But the sagacious +reader--and he need not be very sharp-sighted--will very certainly see +something more than a mere historical significance in some of the +passages which I shall cite for him to reflect upon. Mr. Motley's +standard of an ambassador's accomplishments may be judged from the +following passage:-- + + "That those ministers [those of the Republic] were second to the + representatives of no other European state in capacity and + accomplishment was a fact well known to all who had dealings with + them, for the states required in their diplomatic representatives + knowledge of history and international law, modern languages, and + the classics, as well as familiarity with political customs and + social courtesies; the breeding of gentlemen, in short, and the + accomplishments of scholars." + +The story of the troubles of Aerssens, the ambassador of the United +Provinces at Paris, must be given at some length, and will repay careful +reading. + + "Francis Aerssens . . . continued to be the Dutch ambassador + after the murder of Henry IV. . . . He was beyond doubt one of + the ablest diplomatists in Europe. Versed in many languages, a + classical student, familiar with history and international law, a + man of the world and familiar with its usages, accustomed to + associate with dignity and tact on friendliest terms with + sovereigns, eminent statesmen, and men of letters; endowed with a + facile tongue, a fluent pen, and an eye and ear of singular + acuteness and delicacy; distinguished for unflagging industry and + singular aptitude for secret and intricate affairs;--he had by the + exercise of these various qualities during a period of nearly twenty + years at the court of Henry the Great been able to render + inestimable services to the Republic which he represented. + + "He had enjoyed the intimacy and even the confidence of Henry IV., + so far as any man could be said to possess that monarch's + confidence, and his friendly relations and familiar access to the + king gave him political advantages superior to those of any of his + colleagues at the same court. + + "Acting entirely and faithfully according to the instructions of the + Advocate of Holland, he always gratefully and copiously acknowledged + the privilege of being guided and sustained in the difficult paths + he had to traverse by so powerful and active an intellect. I have + seldom alluded in terms to the instructions and dispatches of the + chief, but every position, negotiation, and opinion of the envoy-- + and the reader has seen many of them is pervaded by their spirit. + + "It had become a question whether he was to remain at his post or + return. It was doubtful whether he wished to be relieved of his + embassy or not. The States of Holland voted 'to leave it to his + candid opinion if in his free conscience he thinks he can serve the + public any longer. If yes, he may keep his office one year more. + If no, he may take leave and come home.' + + "Surely the States, under the guidance of the Advocate, had thus + acted with consummate courtesy towards a diplomatist whose position, + from no apparent fault of his own, but by the force of + circumstances,--and rather to his credit than otherwise,-- + was gravely compromised." + +The Queen, Mary de' Medici, had a talk with him, got angry, "became very +red in the face," and wanted to be rid of him. + + "Nor was the envoy at first desirous of remaining. . . . + Nevertheless, he yielded reluctantly to Barneveld's request that he + should, for the time at least, remain at his post. Later on, as the + intrigues against him began to unfold themselves, and his faithful + services were made use of at home to blacken his character and + procure his removal, he refused to resign, as to do so would be to + play into the hands of his enemies, and, by inference at least, to + accuse himself of infidelity to his trust. . . . + + "It is no wonder that the ambassador was galled to the quick by the + outrage which those concerned in the government were seeking to put + upon him. How could an honest man fail to be overwhelmed with rage + and anguish at being dishonored before the world by his masters for + scrupulously doing his duty, and for maintaining the rights and + dignity of his own country? He knew that the charges were but + pretexts, that the motives of his enemies were as base as the + intrigues themselves, but he also knew that the world usually sides + with the government against the individual, and that a man's + reputation is rarely strong enough to maintain itself unsullied in a + foreign land when his own government stretches forth its hand, not + to shield, but to stab him. . . . + + "'I know,' he said, that this plot has been woven partly here in + Holland and partly here by good correspondence in order to drive me + from my post. + + "'But as I have discovered this accurately, I have resolved to offer + to my masters the continuance of my very humble service for such + time and under such conditions as they may think good to prescribe. + I prefer forcing my natural and private inclinations to giving an + opportunity for the ministers of this kingdom to discredit us, and + to my enemies to succeed in injuring me, and by fraud and malice to + force me from my post. . . . I am truly sorry, being ready to + retire, wishing to have an honorable testimony in recompense of my + labors, that one is in such hurry to take advantage of my fall. . + . . What envoy will ever dare to speak with vigor if he is not + sustained by the government at home? . . . My enemies have + misrepresented my actions, and my language as passionate, + exaggerated, mischievous, but I have no passion except for the + service of my superiors.' + + "Barneveld, from well-considered motives of public policy, was + favoring his honorable recall. But he allowed a decorous interval + of more than three years to elapse in which to terminate his + affairs, and to take a deliberate departure from that French embassy + to which the Advocate had originally promoted him, and in which + there had been so many years of mutual benefit and confidence + between the two statesmen. He used no underhand means. He did not + abuse the power of the States-General which he wielded to cast him + suddenly and brutally from the distinguished post which he occupied, + and so to attempt to dishonor him before the world. Nothing could + be more respectful and conciliatory than the attitude of the + government from first to last towards this distinguished + functionary. The Republic respected itself too much to deal with + honorable agents whose services it felt obliged to dispense with as + with vulgar malefactors who had been detected in crime. . . . + + "This work aims at being a political study. I would attempt to + exemplify the influence of individual humors and passions--some of + them among the highest, and others certainly the basest that agitate + humanity--upon the march of great events, upon general historical + results at certain epochs, and upon the destiny of eminent + personages." + +Here are two suggestive portraits:-- + + "The Advocate, while acting only in the name of a slender + confederacy, was in truth, so long as he held his place, the prime + minister of European Protestantism. There was none other to rival + him, few to comprehend him, fewer still to sustain him. As Prince + Maurice was at that time the great soldier of Protestantism, without + clearly scanning the grandeur of the field in which he was a chief + actor, or foreseeing the vastness of its future, so the Advocate was + its statesman and its prophet. Could the two have worked together + as harmoniously as they had done at an earlier day, it would have + been a blessing for the common weal of Europe. But, alas! the evil + genius of jealousy, which so often forbids cordial relations between + soldier and statesman, already stood shrouded in the distance, + darkly menacing the strenuous patriot, who was wearing his life out + in exertions for what he deemed the true cause of progress and + humanity. . . . + + "All history shows that the brilliant soldier of a republic is apt + to have the advantage, in a struggle for popular affection and + popular applause, over the statesman, however consummate. . . . + The great battles and sieges of the prince had been on a world's + theatre, had enchained the attention of Christendom, and on their + issue had frequently depended, or seemed to depend, the very + existence of the nation. The labors of the statesman, on the + contrary, had been comparatively secret. His noble orations and + arguments had been spoken with closed doors to assemblies of + colleagues, rather envoys than senators, . . while his vast labors + in directing both the internal administration and especially the + foreign affairs of the commonwealth had been by their very nature + as secret as they were perpetual and enormous." + +The reader of the "Life of Barneveld" must judge for himself whether in +these and similar passages the historian was thinking solely of Maurice, +the great military leader, of Barneveld, the great statesman, and of +Aerssens, the recalled ambassador. He will certainly find that there +were "burning questions" for ministers to handle then as now, and +recognize in "that visible atmosphere of power the poison of which it is +so difficult to resist" a respiratory medium as well known to the +nineteenth as to the seventeenth century. + + + + +XXIII. + +1874-1877. AEt. 60-63. + +DEATH OF MRS. MOTLEY.--LAST VISIT TO AMERICA.--ILLNESS AND DEATH.-LADY +HARCOURT'S COMMUNICATION. + +On the last day of 1874, the beloved wife, whose health had for some +years been failing, was taken from him by death. She had been the pride +of his happier years, the stay and solace of those which had so tried his +sensitive spirit. The blow found him already weakened by mental +suffering and bodily infirmity, and he never recovered from it. Mr. +Motley's last visit to America was in the summer and autumn of 1875. +During several weeks which he passed at Nahant, a seaside resort near +Boston, I saw him almost daily. He walked feebly and with some little +difficulty, and complained of a feeling of great weight in the right arm, +which made writing laborious. His handwriting had not betrayed any very +obvious change, so far as I had noticed in his letters. His features and +speech were without any paralytic character. His mind was clear except +when, as on one or two occasions, he complained of some confused feeling, +and walked a few minutes in the open air to compose himself. His +thoughts were always tending to revert to the almost worshipped companion +from whom death had parted him a few months before. Yet he could often +be led away to other topics, and in talking of them could be betrayed +into momentary cheerfulness of manner. His long-enduring and all- +pervading grief was not more a tribute to the virtues and graces of her +whom he mourned than an evidence of the deeply affectionate nature which +in other relations endeared him to so many whose friendship was a title +to love and honor. + +I have now the privilege of once more recurring to the narrative of Mr. +Motley's daughter, Lady Harcourt. + + "The harassing work and mental distress of this time [after the + recall from England], acting on an acutely nervous organization, + began the process of undermining his constitution, of which we were + so soon to see the results. It was not the least courageous act of + his life, that, smarting under a fresh wound, tired and unhappy, he + set his face immediately towards the accomplishment of fresh + literary labor. After my sister's marriage in January he went to + the Hague to begin his researches in the archives for John of + Barneveld. The Queen of the Netherlands had made ready a house + for us, and personally superintended every preparation for his + reception. We remained there until the spring, and then removed to + a house more immediately in the town, a charming old-fashioned + mansion, once lived in by John de Witt, where he had a large library + and every domestic comfort during the year of his sojourn. The + incessant literary labor in an enervating climate with enfeebled + health may have prepared the way for the first break in his + constitution, which was to show itself soon after. There were many + compensations in the life about him. He enjoyed the privilege of + constant companionship with one of the warmest hearts and finest + intellects which I have ever known in a woman,--the 'ame d'elite' + which has passed beyond this earth. The gracious sentiment with + which the Queen sought to express her sense of what Holland owed him + would have been deeply felt even had her personal friendship been + less dear to us all. From the King, the society of the Hague, and + the diplomatic circle we had many marks of kindness. Once or twice + I made short journeys with him for change of air to Amsterdam, to + look for the portraits of John of Barneveld and his wife; to + Bohemia, where, with the lingering hope of occupying himself with + the Thirty Years' War, he looked carefully at the scene of + Wallenstein's death near Prague, and later to Varzin in Pomerania + for a week with Prince Bismarck, after the great events of the + Franco-German war. In the autumn of 1872 we moved to England, + partly because it was evident that his health and my mother's + required a change; partly for private reasons to be near my sister + and her children. The day after our arrival at Bournemouth occurred + the rupture of a vessel on the lungs, without any apparently + sufficient cause. He recovered enough to revise and complete his + manuscript, and we thought him better, when at the end of July, in + London, he was struck down by the first attack of the head, which + robbed him of all after power of work, although the intellect + remained untouched. Sir William Gull sent him to Cannes for the + winter, where he was seized with a violent internal inflammation, + in which I suppose there was again the indication of the lesion of + blood-vessels. I am nearing the shadow now,--the time of which I + can hardly bear to write. You know the terrible sorrow which + crushed him on the last day of 1874,--the grief which broke his + heart and from which he never rallied. From that day it seems to me + that his life may be summed up in the two words,--patient waiting. + Never for one hour did her spirit leave him, and he strove to follow + its leading for the short and evil days left and the hope of the + life beyond. I think I have never watched quietly and reverently + the traces of one personal character remaining so strongly impressed + on another nature. With herself--depreciation and unselfishness she + would have been the last to believe how much of him was in her very + existence; nor could we have realized it until the parting came. + Henceforward, with the mind still there, but with the machinery + necessary to set it in motion disturbed and shattered, he could but + try to create small occupations with which to fill the hours of a + life which was only valued for his children's sake. Kind and loving + friends in England and America soothed the passage, and our + gratitude for so many gracious acts is deep and true. His love for + children, always a strong feeling, was gratified by the constant + presence of my sister's babies, the eldest, a little girl who bore + my mother's name, and had been her idol, being the companion of many + hours and his best comforter. At the end the blow came swiftly and + suddenly, as he would have wished it. It was a terrible shock to us + who had vainly hoped to keep him a few years longer, but at least he + was spared what he had dreaded with a great dread, a gradual failure + of mental or bodily power. The mind was never clouded, the + affections never weakened, and after a few hours of unconscious + physical struggle he lay at rest, his face beautiful and calm, + without a trace of suffering or illness. Once or twice he said, 'It + has come, it has come,' and there were a few broken words before + consciousness fled, but there was little time for messages or leave- + taking. By a strange coincidence his life ended near the town of + Dorchester, in the mother country, as if the last hour brought with + it a reminiscence of his birthplace, and of his own dearly loved + mother. By his own wish only the dates of his birth and death + appear upon his gravestone, with the text chosen by himself, 'In God + is light, and in him is no darkness at all.'" + + + + +XXIV. + +CONCLUSION.--HIS CHARACTER.--HIS LABORS.--HIS REWARD. + +In closing this restricted and imperfect record of a life which merits, +and in due time will, I trust, receive an ampler tribute, I cannot +refrain from adding a few thoughts which naturally suggest themselves, +and some of which may seem quite unnecessary to the reader who has +followed the story of the historian and diplomatist's brilliant and +eventful career. + +Mr. Motley came of a parentage which promised the gifts of mind and body +very generally to be accounted for, in a measure at least, wherever we +find them, by the blood of one or both of the parents. They gave him +special attractions and laid him open to not a few temptations. Too +many young men born to shine in social life, to sparkle, it may be, +in conversation, perhaps in the lighter walks of literature, become +agreeable idlers, self-indulgent, frivolous, incapable of large designs +or sustained effort, lose every aspiration and forget every ideal. Our +gilded youth want such examples as this of Motley, not a solitary, but a +conspicuous one, to teach them how much better is the restlessness of a +noble ambition than the narcotized stupor of club-life or the vapid +amusement of a dressed-up intercourse which too often requires a +questionable flavor of forbidden license to render it endurable to +persons of vivacious character and temperament. + +It would seem difficult for a man so flattered from his earliest days to +be modest in his self-estimate; but Motley was never satisfied with +himself. He was impulsive, and was occasionally, I have heard it said, +over excited, when his prejudices were roughly handled. In all that +related to the questions involved in our civil war, he was, no doubt, +very sensitive. He had heard so much that exasperated him in the foreign +society which he had expected to be in full sympathy with the cause of +liberty as against slavery, that he might be excused if he showed +impatience when be met with similar sentiments among his own countrymen. +He felt that he had been cruelly treated by his own government, and no +one who conceives himself to have been wronged and insulted must be +expected to reason in naked syllogisms on the propriety of the liberties +which have been taken with his name and standing. But with all his +quickness of feeling, his manners were easy and courteous, simply because +his nature was warm and kindly, and with all his natural fastidiousness +there was nothing of the coxcomb about him. + +He must have had enemies, as all men of striking individuality are sure +to have; his presence cast more uncouth patriots into the shade; his +learning was a reproach to the ignorant, his fame was too bright a +distinction; his high-bred air and refinement, which he could not help, +would hardly commend him to the average citizen in an order of things in +which mediocrity is at a premium, and the natural nobility of presence, +which rarely comes without family antecedents to account for it, is not +always agreeable to the many whose two ideals are the man on horseback +and the man in his shirt-sleeves. It may well be questioned whether +Washington, with his grand manner, would be nearly as popular with what +are called "the masses" as Lincoln, with his homely ways and broad +stories. The experiment of universal suffrage must render the waters +of political and social life more or less turbid even if they remain +innoxious. The Cloaca Maxima can hardly mingle its contents with the +stream of the Aqua Claudia, without taking something from its crystal +clearness. We need not go so far as one of our well-known politicians +has recently gone in saying that no great man can reach the highest +position in our government, but we can safely say that, apart from +military fame, the loftiest and purest and finest personal qualities are +not those which can be most depended upon at the ballot-box. Strange +stories are told of avowed opposition to Mr. Motley on the ground of the +most trivial differences in point of taste in personal matters,--so told +that it is hard to disbelieve them, and they show that the caprices which +we might have thought belonged exclusively to absolute rulers among their +mistresses or their minions may be felt in the councils of a great people +which calls itself self-governing. It is perfectly true that Mr. Motley +did not illustrate the popular type of politician. He was too high- +minded, too scholarly, too generously industrious, too polished, too much +at home in the highest European circles, too much courted for his +personal fascinations, too remote from the trading world of caucus +managers. To degrade him, so far as official capital punishment could do +it, was not merely to wrong one whom the nation should have delighted to +honor as showing it to the world in the fairest flower of its young +civilization, but it was an indignity to a representative of the highest +scholarship of native growth, which every student in the land felt as a +discouragement to all sound learning and noble ambition. + +If he was disappointed in his diplomatic career, he had enough, and more +than enough, to console him in his brilliant literary triumphs. He had +earned them all by the most faithful and patient labor. If he had not +the "frame of adamant" of the Swedish hero, he had his "soul of fire." +No labors could tire him, no difficulties affright him. What most +surprised those who knew him as a young man was, not his ambition, not +his brilliancy, but his dogged, continuous capacity for work. We have +seen with what astonishment the old Dutch scholar, Groen van Prinsterer, +looked upon a man who had wrestled with authors like Bor and Van Meteren, +who had grappled with the mightiest folios and toiled undiscouraged among +half-illegible manuscript records. Having spared no pains in collecting +his materials, he told his story, as we all know, with flowing ease and +stirring vitality. His views may have been more or less partial; Philip +the Second may have deserved the pitying benevolence of poor Maximilian; +Maurice may have wept as sincerely over the errors of Arminius as any one +of "the crocodile crew that believe in election;" Barneveld and Grotius +may have been on the road to Rome; none of these things seem probable, +but if they were all proved true in opposition to his views, we should +still have the long roll of glowing tapestry he has woven for us, with +all its life-like portraits, its almost moving pageants, its sieges where +we can see the artillery flashing, its battle-fields with their smoke and +fire,--pictures which cannot fade, and which will preserve his name +interwoven with their own enduring colors. + +Republics are said to be ungrateful; it might be truer to say that they +are forgetful. They forgive those who have wronged them as easily as +they forget those who have done them good service. But History never +forgets and never forgives. To her decision we may trust the question, +whether the warm-hearted patriot who had stood up for his country nobly +and manfully in the hour of trial, the great scholar and writer who had +reflected honor upon her throughout the world of letters, the high-minded +public servant, whose shortcomings it taxed the ingenuity of experts to +make conspicuous enough to be presentable, was treated as such a citizen +should have been dealt with. His record is safe in her hands, and his +memory will be precious always in the hearts of all who enjoyed his +friendship. + + + + +APPENDIX. + +A. + +THE SATURDAY CLUB. + +This club, of which we were both members, and which is still flourishing, +came into existence in a very quiet sort of way at about the same time as +"The Atlantic Monthly," and, although entirely unconnected with that +magazine, included as members some of its chief contributors. Of those +who might have been met at some of the monthly gatherings in its earlier +days I may mention Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Lowell, Motley, +Whipple, Whittier; Professors Agassiz and Peirce; John S. Dwight; +Governor Andrew, Richard H. Dana, Junior, Charles Sumner. It offered a +wide gamut of intelligences, and the meetings were noteworthy occasions. +If there was not a certain amount of "mutual admiration" among some of +those I have mentioned it was a great pity, and implied a defect in the +nature of men who were otherwise largely endowed. The vitality of this +club has depended in a great measure on its utter poverty in statutes and +by-laws, its entire absence of formality, and its blessed freedom from +speech-making. + +That holy man, Richard Baxter, says in his Preface to Alleine's +"Alarm:"-- + + "I have done, when I have sought to remove a little scandal, which I + foresaw, that I should myself write the Preface to his Life where + himself and two of his friends make such a mention of my name, which + I cannot own; which will seem a praising him for praising me. I + confess it looketh ill-favoredly in me. But I had not the power of + other men's writings, and durst not forbear that which was his due." + +I do not know that I have any occasion for a similar apology in printing +the following lines read at a meeting of members of the Saturday Club and +other friends who came together to bid farewell to Motley before his +return to Europe in 1857. + + + A PARTING HEALTH + + Yes, we knew we must lose him,--though friendship may claim + To blend her green leaves with the laurels of fame, + Though fondly, at parting, we call him our own, + 'T is the whisper of love when the bugle has blown. + + As the rider that rests with the spur on his heel, + As the guardsman that sleeps in his corselet of steel, + As the archer that stands with his shaft on the string, + He stoops from his toil to the garland we bring. + + What pictures yet slumber unborn in his loom + Till their warriors shall breathe and their beauties shall bloom, + While the tapestry lengthens the life-glowing dyes + That caught from our sunsets the stain of their skies! + + In the alcoves of death, in the charnels of time, + Where flit the dark spectres of passion and crime, + There are triumphs untold, there are martyrs unsung, + There are heroes yet silent to speak with his tongue! + + Let us hear the proud story that time has bequeathed + From lips that are warm with the freedom they breathed! + Let him summon its tyrants, and tell us their doom, + Though he sweep the black past like Van Tromp with his broom! + + The dream flashes by, for the west-winds awake + On pampas, on prairie, o'er mountain and lake, + To bathe the swift bark, like a sea-girdled shrine + With incense they stole from the rose and the pine. + + So fill a bright cup with the sunlight that gushed + When the dead summer's jewels were trampled and crushed; + THE TRUE KNIGHT OF LEARNING,--the world holds him dear,-- + + Love bless him, joy crown him, God speed his career! + + + + +B. + +HABITS AND METHODS OF STUDY. + +Mr. Motley's daughter, Lady Harcourt, has favored me with many +interesting particulars which I could not have learned except from a +member of his own family. Her description of his way of living and of +working will be best given in her own words:-- + + "He generally rose early, the hour varying somewhat at different + parts of his life, according to his work and health. Sometimes when + much absorbed by literary labor he would rise before seven, often + lighting his own fire, and with a cup of tea or coffee writing until + the family breakfast hour, after which his work was immediately + resumed, and be usually sat over his writing-table until late in the + afternoon, when he would take a short walk. His dinner hour was + late, and he rarely worked at night. During the early years of his + literary studies he led a life of great retirement. Later, after + the publication of the 'Dutch Republic' and during the years of + official place, he was much in society in England, Austria, and + Holland. He enjoyed social life, and particularly dining out, + keenly, but was very moderate and simple in all his personal habits, + and for many years before his death had entirely given up smoking. + His work, when not in his own library, was in the Archives of the + Netherlands, Brussels, Paris, the English State Paper Office, and + the British Museum, where he made his own researches, patiently and + laboriously consulting original manuscripts and reading masses of + correspondence, from which he afterwards sometimes caused copies to + be made, and where he worked for many consecutive hours a day. + After his material had been thus painfully and toilfully amassed, + the writing of his own story was always done at home, and his mind, + having digested the necessary matter, always poured itself forth in + writing so copiously that his revision was chiefly devoted to + reducing the over-abundance. He never shrank from any of the + drudgery of preparation, but I think his own part of the work was + sheer pleasure to him." + +I should have mentioned that his residence in London while minister was +at the house No. 17 Arlington Street, belonging to Lord Yarborough. + + + + +C. + +SIR WILLIAM GULL's ACCOUNT OF HIS ILLNESS. + +I have availed myself of the permission implied in the subjoined letter +of Sir William Gull to make large extracts from his account of Mr. +Motley's condition while under his medical care. In his earlier years he +had often complained to me of those "nervous feelings connected with the +respiration" referred to by this very distinguished physician. I do not +remember any other habitual trouble to which he was subject. + + 74 BROOK STREET, GROSVENOR SQUARE, W. + February 13, 1878. +MY DEAR SIR,--I send the notes of Mr. Motley's last illness, as I +promised. They are too technical for general readers, but you will make +such exception as you require. The medical details may interest your +professional friends. Mr. Motley's case was a striking illustration that +the renal disease of so-called Bright's disease may supervene as part and +parcel of a larger and antecedent change in the blood-vessels in other +parts than the kidney. . . . I am, my dear sir, + + Yours very truly, + WILLIAM W. GULL. + +To OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, ESQ. + + I first saw Mr. Motley, I believe, about the year 1870, on account + of some nervous feelings connected with the respiration. At that + time his general health was good, and all he complained of was + occasionally a feeling of oppression about the chest. There were no + physical signs of anything abnormal, and the symptoms quite passed + away in the course of time, and with the use of simple antispasmodic + remedies, such as camphor and the like. This was my first interview + with Mr. Motley, and I was naturally glad to have the opportunity of + making his acquaintance. I remember that in our conversation I + jokingly said that my wife could hardly forgive him for not making + her hero, Henri IV., a perfect character, and the earnestness with + which he replied 'au serieux,' I assure you I have fairly recorded + the facts. After this date I did not see Mr. Motley for some time. + He had three slight attacks of haemoptysis in the autumn of 1872, + but no physical signs of change in the lung tissue resulted. So + early as this I noticed that there were signs of commencing + thickening in the heart, as shown by the degree and extent of its + impulse. The condition of his health, though at that time not very + obviously failing, a good deal arrested my attention, as I thought I + could perceive in the occurrence of the haemoptysis, and in the + cardiac hypertrophy, the early beginnings of vascular degeneration. + + In August, 1873, occurred the remarkable seizure, from the effects + of which Mr. Motley never recovered. I did not see him in the + attack, but was informed, as far as I can remember, that he was on a + casual visit at a friend's house at luncheon (or it might have been + dinner), when he suddenly became strangely excited, but not quite + unconscious. . . . I believed at the time, and do so still, that + there was some capillary apoplexy of the convolutions. The attack + was attended with some hemiplegic weakness on the right side, and + altered sensation, and ever after there was a want of freedom and + ease both in the gait and in the use of the arm of that side. To my + inquiries from time to time how the arm was, the patient would + always flex and extend it freely, but nearly always used the + expression, "There is a bedevilment in it;" though the handwriting + was not much, if at all, altered. + + In December, 1873, Mr. Motley went by my advice to Cannes. I wrote + the following letter at the time to my friend Dr. Frank, who was + practising there:-- + + [This letter, every word of which was of value to the + practitioner who was to have charge of the patient, relates + many of the facts given above, and I shall therefore only give + extracts from it.] + + December 29, 1873. + + MY DEAR DR. FRANK,--My friend Mr. Motley, the historian and late + American Minister, whose name and fame no doubt you know very well, + has by my advice come to Cannes for the winter and spring, and I + have promised him to give you some account of his case. To me it is + one of special interest, and personally, as respects the subject of + it, of painful interest. I have known Mr. Motley for some time, but + he consulted me for the present condition about midsummer. + + . . . If I have formed a correct opinion of the pathology of the + case, I believe the smaller vessels are degenerating in several + parts of the vascular area, lung, brain, and kidneys. With this + view I have suggested a change of climate, a nourishing diet, etc.; + and it is to be hoped, and I trust expected, that by great attention + to the conditions of hygiene, internal and external, the progress of + degeneration may be retarded. I have no doubt you will find, as + time goes on, increasing evidence of renal change, but this is + rather a coincidence and consequence than a cause, though no doubt + when the renal change has reached a certain point, it becomes in its + own way a factor of other lesions. I have troubled you at this + length because my mind is much occupied with the pathology of these + cases, and because no case can, on personal grounds, more strongly + challenge our attention. + + Yours very truly, + WILLIAM W. GULL. + + During the spring of 1874, whilst at Cannes, Mr. Motley had a sharp + attack of nephritis, attended with fever; but on returning to + England in July there was no important change in the health. The + weakness of the side continued, and the inability to undertake any + mental work. The signs of cardiac hypertrophy were more distinct. + In the beginning of the year 1875 I wrote as follows:-- + + February 20, 1875. + + MY DEAR Mr. MOTLEY,--. . . The examination I have just made + appears to indicate that the main conditions of your health are more + stable than they were some months ago, and would therefore be so far + in favor of your going to America in the summer, as we talked of. + The ground of my doubt has lain in the possibility of such a trip + further disordering the circulation. Of this, I hope, there is now + less risk. + + + On the 4th of June, 1875, I received the following letter:-- + + CALVERLY PARK HOTEL, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, + June 4, 1875. + + MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM,--I have been absent from town for a long time, + but am to be there on the 9th and 10th. Could I make an appointment + with you for either of those days? I am anxious to have a full + consultation with you before leaving for America. Our departure is + fixed for the 19th of this month. I have not been worse than usual + of late. I think myself, on the contrary, rather stronger, and it + is almost impossible for me not to make my visit to America this + summer, unless you should absolutely prohibit it. If neither of + those days should suit you, could you kindly suggest another day? + I hope, however, you can spare me half an hour on one of those days, + as I like to get as much of this bracing air as I can. Will you + kindly name the hour when I may call on you, and address me at this + hotel. Excuse this slovenly note in pencil, but it fatigues my head + and arm much more to sit at a writing-table with pen and ink. + + Always most sincerely yours, + My dear Sir William, + J. L. MOTLEY. + + On Mr. Motley's return from America I saw him, and found him, I + thought, rather better in general health than when he left England. + + In December, 1875, Mr. Motley consulted me for trouble of vision in + reading or walking, from sensations like those produced by flakes of + falling snow coming between him and the objects he was looking at. + Mr. Bowman, one of our most excellent oculists, was then consulted. + Mr. Bowman wrote to me as follows: "Such symptoms as exist point + rather to disturbed retinal function than to any brain-mischief. It + is, however, quite likely that what you fear for the brain may have + had its counterpart in the nerve-structures of the eye, and as he is + short-sighted, this tendency may be further intensified." + + Mr. Bowman suggested no more than such an arrangement of glasses as + might put the eyes, when in use, under better optic conditions. + + The year 1876 was passed over without any special change worth + notice. The walking powers were much impeded by the want of control + over the right leg. The mind was entirely clear, though Mr. Motley + did not feel equal, and indeed had been advised not to apply + himself, to any literary work. Occasional conversations, when I had + interviews with him on the subject of his health, proved that the + attack which had weakened the movements of the right side had not + impaired the mental power. The most noticeable change which had + come over Mr. Motley since I first knew him was due to the death of + Mrs. Motley in December, 1874. It had in fact not only profoundly + depressed him, but, if I may so express it, had removed the centre + of his thought to a new world. In long conversations with me of a + speculative kind, after that painful event, it was plain how much + his point of view of the whole course and relation of things had + changed. His mind was the last to dogmatize on any subject. There + was a candid and childlike desire to know, with an equal confession + of the incapacity of the human intellect. I wish I could recall the + actual expressions he used, but the sense was that which has been so + well stated by Hooker in concluding an exhortation against the pride + of the human intellect, where he remarks:-- + + "Dangerous it were for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the + doings of the Most High; whom although to know be life, and joy to + make mention of His Name, yet our soundest knowledge is to know that + we know Him, not indeed as He is, neither can know Him; and our + safest eloquence concerning Him is our silence, when we confess + without confession that His glory is inexplicable, His greatness + above our capacity and reach. He is above and we upon earth; + therefore it behoveth our words to be wary and few." + + Mrs. Motley's illness was not a long one, and the nature of it was + such that its course could with certainty be predicted. Mr. Motley + and her children passed the remaining days of her life, extending + over about a month, with her, in the mutual under standing that she + was soon to part from them. The character of the illness, and the + natural exhaustion of her strength by suffering, lessened the shock + of her death, though not the loss, to those who survived her. + + The last time I saw Mr. Motley was, I believe, about two months + before his death, March 28, 1877. There was no great change in his + health, but he complained of indescribable sensations in his nervous + system, and felt as if losing the whole power of walking, but this + was not obvious in his gait, although he walked shorter distances + than before. I heard no more of him until I was suddenly summoned + on the 29th of May into Devonshire to see him. The telegram I + received was so urgent, that I suspected some rupture of a blood- + vessel in the brain, and that I should hardly reach him alive; and + this was the case. About two o'clock in the day he complained of a + feeling of faintness, said he felt ill and should not recover; and + in a few minutes was insensible with symptoms of ingravescent + apoplexy. There was extensive haemorrhage into the brain, as shown + by post-mortem examination, the cerebral vessels being atheromatous. + The fatal haemorrhage had occurred into the lateral ventricles, from + rupture of one of the middle cerebral arteries. + + I am, my dear Sir, + Yours very truly, + WILLIAM W. GULL. + + + +E. + +FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY. + +At a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, held on Thursday, +the 14th of June, 1877, after the reading of the records of the preceding +meeting, the president, the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, spoke as follows: + + "Our first thoughts to-day, gentlemen, are of those whom we may not + again welcome to these halls. We shall be in no mood, certainly, + for entering on other subjects this morning until we have given some + expression to our deep sense of the loss--the double loss--which our + Society has sustained since our last monthly meeting."--[Edmund + Quincy died May 17. John Lothrop Motley died May 29.] + +After a most interesting and cordial tribute to his friend, Mr. Quincy, +Mr. Winthrop continued: + + "The death of our distinguished associate, Motley, can hardly have + taken many of us by surprise. Sudden at the moment of its + occurrence, we had long been more or less prepared for it by his + failing health. It must, indeed, have been quite too evident to + those who had seen him, during the last two or three years, that his + life-work was finished. I think he so regarded it himself. + + "Hopes may have been occasionally revived in the hearts of his + friends, and even in his own heart, that his long-cherished purpose + of completing a History of the Thirty Years' War, as the grand + consummation of his historical labors,--for which all his other + volumes seemed to him to have been but the preludes and overtures,-- + might still be accomplished. But such hopes, faint and flickering + from his first attack, had well-nigh died away. They were like + Prescott's hopes of completing his 'Philip the Second,' or like + Macaulay's hopes of finishing his brilliant 'History of England.' + + "But great as may be the loss to literature of such a crowning work + from Motley's pen, it was by no means necessary to the completeness + of his own fame. His 'Rise of the Dutch Republic,' his 'History of + the United Netherlands,' and his 'Life of John of Barneveld,' had + abundantly established his reputation, and given him a fixed place + among the most eminent historians of our country and of our age. + + "No American writer, certainly, has secured a wider recognition or a + higher appreciation from the scholars of the Old World. The + universities of England and the learned societies of Europe have + bestowed upon him their largest honors. It happened to me to be in + Paris when he was first chosen a corresponding member of the + Institute, and when his claims were canvassed with the freedom and + earnestness which peculiarly characterize such a candidacy in + France. There was no mistaking the profound impression which his + first work had made on the minds of such men as Guizot and Mignet. + Within a year or two past, a still higher honor has been awarded him + from the same source. The journals not long ago announced his + election as one of the six foreign associates of the French Academy + of Moral and Political Sciences,--a distinction which Prescott would + probably have attained had he lived a few years longer, until there + was a vacancy, but which, as a matter of fact, I believe, Motley was + the only American writer, except the late Edward Livingston, of + Louisiana, who has actually enjoyed. + + "Residing much abroad, for the purpose of pursuing his historical + researches, he had become the associate and friend of the most + eminent literary men in almost all parts of the world, and the + singular charms of his conversation and manners had made him a + favorite guest in the most refined and exalted circles. + + "Of his relations to political and public life, this is hardly the + occasion or the moment for speaking in detail. Misconstructions and + injustices are the proverbial lot of those who occupy eminent + position. It was a duke of Vienna, if I remember rightly, whom + Shakespeare, in his 'Measure for Measure,' introduces as + exclaiming,-- + + 'O place and greatness, millions of false eyes + Are stuck upon thee! Volumes of report + Run with these false and most contrarious quests + Upon thy doings! Thousand 'stapes of wit + Make thee the father of their idle dream, + And rack thee in their fancies!' + + "I forbear from all application of the lines. It is enough for me, + certainly, to say here, to-day, that our country was proud to be + represented at the courts of Vienna and London successively by a + gentleman of so much culture and accomplishment as Mr. Motley, and + that the circumstances of his recall were deeply regretted by us + all. + + "His fame, however, was quite beyond the reach of any such + accidents, and could neither be enhanced nor impaired by + appointments or removals. As a powerful and brilliant historian we + pay him our unanimous tribute of admiration and regret, and give him + a place in our memories by the side of Prescott and Irving. I do + not forget how many of us lament him, also, as a cherished friend. + + "He died on the 29th ultimo, at the house of his daughter, Mrs. + Sheridan, in Dorsetshire, England, and an impressive tribute to his + memory was paid, in Westminster Abbey, on the following Sunday, by + our Honorary Member, Dean Stanley. Such a tribute, from such lips, + and with such surroundings, leaves nothing to be desired in the way + of eulogy. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, by the side of + his beloved wife. + + "One might well say of Motley precisely what he said of Prescott, in + a letter from Rome to our associate, Mr. William Amory, immediately + on hearing of Prescott's death: 'I feel inexpressibly disappointed-- + speaking now for an instant purely from a literary point of view-- + that the noble and crowning monument of his life, for which he had + laid such massive foundations, and the structure of which had been + carried forward in such a grand and masterly manner, must remain + uncompleted, like the unfinished peristyle of some stately and + beautiful temple on which the night of time has suddenly descended. + But, still, the works which his great and untiring hand had already + thoroughly finished will remain to attest his learning and genius,-- + a precious and perpetual possession for his country." + + ................................. + +The President now called on Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said:-- + + "The thoughts which suggest themselves upon this occasion are such + as belong to the personal memories of the dear friends whom we have + lost, rather than to their literary labors, the just tribute to + which must wait for a calmer hour than the present, following so + closely as it does on our bereavement." + + ................................. + + "His first literary venture of any note was the story called + 'Morton's Hope; or, The Memoirs of a Provincial.' This first effort + failed to satisfy the critics, the public, or himself. His + personality pervaded the characters and times which he portrayed, + so that there was a discord between the actor and his costume. + Brilliant passages could not save it; and it was plain enough that + he must ripen into something better before the world would give him + the reception which surely awaited him if he should find his true + destination. + + "The early failures of a great writer are like the first sketches + of a great artist, and well reward patient study. More than this, + the first efforts of poets and story-tellers are very commonly + palimpsests: beneath the rhymes or the fiction one can almost always + spell out the characters which betray the writer's self. Take these + passages from the story just referred to: + + "'Ah! flattery is a sweet and intoxicating potion, whether we drink + it from an earthen ewer or a golden chalice. . . . Flattery from + man to woman is expected: it is a part of the courtesy of society; + but when the divinity descends from the altar to burn incense to the + priest, what wonder if the idolater should feel himself transformed + into a god!' + + "He had run the risk of being spoiled, but he had a safeguard in his + aspirations. + + "'My ambitious anticipations,' says Morton, in the story, were as + boundless as they were various and conflicting. There was not a + path which leads to glory in which I was not destined to gather + laurels. As a warrior, I would conquer and overrun the world; as a + statesman, I would reorganize and govern it; as a historian, I would + consign it all to immortality; and, in my leisure moments, I would + be a great poet and a man of the world.' + + "Who can doubt that in this passage of his story he is picturing his + own visions, one of the fairest of which was destined to become + reality? + + "But there was another element in his character, which those who + knew him best recognized as one with which he had to struggle hard, + --that is, a modesty which sometimes tended to collapse into self- + distrust. This, too, betrays itself in the sentences which follow + those just quoted:-- + + "'In short,' says Morton, 'I was already enrolled in that large + category of what are called young men of genius, . . . men of + whom unheard-of things are expected; till after long preparation + comes a portentous failure, and then they are forgotten. . . . + Alas! for the golden imaginations of our youth. . . . They are + all disappointments. They are bright and beautiful, but they fade.'" + + ........................... + +The President appointed Professor Lowell to write the Memoir of Mr. +Quincy, and Dr. Holmes that of Mr. Motley, for the Society's +"Proceedings." + +Professor William Everett then spoke as follows: + + "There is one incident, sir, in Mr. Motley's career that has not + been mentioned to-day, which is, perhaps, most vividly remembered by + those of us who were in Europe at the outbreak of our civil war in + 1861. At that time, the ignorance of Englishmen, friendly or + otherwise, about America, was infinite: they knew very little of us, + and that little wrong. Americans were overwhelmed with questions, + taunts, threats, misrepresentations, the outgrowth of ignorance, and + ignoring worse than ignorance, from every class of Englishmen. + Never was an authoritative exposition of our hopes and policy worse + needed; and there was no one to do it. The outgoing diplomatic + agents represented a bygone order of things; the representatives of + Mr. Lincoln's administration had not come. At that time of anxiety, + Mr. Motley, living in England as a private person, came forward with + two letters in the 'Times,' which set forth the cause of the United + States once and for all. No unofficial, and few official, men could + have spoken with such authority, and been so certain of obtaining a + hearing from Englishmen. Thereafter, amid all the clouds of + falsehood and ridicule which we had to encounter, there was one + lighthouse fixed on a rock to which we could go for foothold, from + which we could not be driven, and against which all assaults were + impotent. + + "There can be no question that the effect produced by these letters + helped, if help had been needed, to point out Mr. Motley as a + candidate for high diplomatic place who could not be overlooked. + Their value was recognized alike by his fellow-citizens in America + and his admirers in England; but none valued them more than the + little band of exiles, who were struggling against terrible odds, + and who rejoiced with a great joy to see the stars and stripes, + whose centennial anniversary those guns are now celebrating, planted + by a hand so truly worthy to rally every American to its support." + + + +G. + +POEM BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. + +I cannot close this Memoir more appropriately than by appending the +following poetical tribute:-- + + IN MEMORY OF JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. + + BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. + + Sleep, Motley, with the great of ancient days, + Who wrote for all the years that yet shall be. + Sleep with Herodotus, whose name and praise + Have reached the isles of earth's remotest sea. + Sleep, while, defiant of the slow delays + Of Time, thy glorious writings speak for thee + And in the answering heart of millions raise + The generous zeal for Right and Liberty. + And should the days o'ertake us, when, at last, + The silence that--ere yet a human pen + Had traced the slenderest record of the past + Hushed the primeval languages of men + Upon our English tongue its spell shall cast, + Thy memory shall perish only then. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +An order of things in which mediocrity is at a premium +Better is the restlessness of a noble ambition +Blessed freedom from speech-making +Flattery is a sweet and intoxicating potion +Forget those who have done them good service +His dogged, continuous capacity for work +His learning was a reproach to the ignorant +History never forgets and never forgives +Mediocrity is at a premium +No great man can reach the highest position in our government +Over excited, when his prejudices were roughly handled +Plain enough that he is telling his own story +Republics are said to be ungrateful +They knew very little of us, and that little wrong +Visible atmosphere of power the poison of which +Wonders whether it has found its harbor or only lost its anchor + + +[The End] + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4727 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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Thus, we usually do not +keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +The "legal small print" and other information about this book +may now be found at the end of this file. Please read this +important information, as it gives you specific rights and +tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used. + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + +JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. + +A MEMOIR + +By Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. + + +Volume III. + + + +XXII. + +1874. AEt. 60. + +"LIFE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD."--CRITICISMS.--GROEN VAN PRINSTERER. + +The full title of Mr. Motley's next and last work is "The Life and Death +of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland; with a View of the Primary +Causes and Movements of the Thirty Years' War." + +In point of fact this work is a history rather than a biography. It is +an interlude, a pause between the acts which were to fill out the +complete plan of the "Eighty Years' Tragedy," and of which the last act, +the Thirty Years' War, remains unwritten. The "Life of Barneveld" was +received as a fitting and worthy continuation of the series of +intellectual labor in which he was engaged. I will quote but two general +expressions of approval from the two best known British critical reviews. +In connection with his previous works, it forms, says "The London +Quarterly," "a fine and continuous story, of which the writer and the +nation celebrated by him have equal reason to be proud; a narrative which +will remain a prominent ornament of American genius, while it has +permanently enriched English literature on this as well as on the other +side of the Atlantic." + +"The Edinburgh Review" speaks no less warmly: "We can hardly give too +much appreciation to that subtile alchemy of the brain which has enabled +him to produce out of dull, crabbed, and often illegible state papers, +the vivid, graphic, and sparkling narrative which he has given to the +world." + +In a literary point of view, M. Groen van Prinsterer, whose elaborate +work has been already referred to, speaks of it as perhaps the most +classical of Motley's productions, but it is upon this work that the +force of his own and other Dutch criticisms has been chiefly expended. + +The key to this biographical history or historical biography may be found +in a few sentences from its opening chapter. + + "There have been few men at any period whose lives have been more + closely identical than his [Barneveld's] with a national history. + There have been few great men in any history whose names have become + less familiar to the world, and lived less in the mouths of + posterity. Yet there can be no doubt that if William the Silent was + the founder of the independence of the United Provinces, Barneveld + was the founder of the Commonwealth itself. . . . + + "Had that country of which he was so long the first citizen + maintained until our own day the same proportional position among + the empires of Christendom as it held in the seventeenth century, + the name of John of Barneveld would have perhaps been as familiar to + all men as it is at this moment to nearly every inhabitant of the + Netherlands. Even now political passion is almost as ready to flame + forth, either in ardent affection or enthusiastic hatred, as if two + centuries and a half had not elapsed since his death. His name is + so typical of a party, a polity, and a faith, so indelibly + associated with a great historical cataclysm, as to render it + difficult even for the grave, the conscientious, the learned, the + patriotic, of his own compatriots to speak of him with absolute + impartiality. + + "A foreigner who loves and admires all that is great and noble in + the history of that famous republic, and can have no hereditary bias + as to its ecclesiastical or political theories, may at least attempt + the task with comparative coldness, although conscious of inability + to do thorough justice to a most complex subject." + +With all Mr. Motley's efforts to be impartial, to which even his sternest +critics bear witness, he could not help becoming a partisan of the cause +which for him was that of religious liberty and progress, as against the +accepted formula of an old ecclesiastical organization. For the quarrel +which came near being a civil war, which convulsed the state, and cost +Barneveld his head, had its origin in a difference on certain points, and +more especially on a single point, of religious doctrine. + +As a great river may be traced back until its fountainhead is found in a +thread of water streaming from a cleft in the rocks, so a great national +movement may sometimes be followed until its starting-point is found in +the cell of a monk or the studies of a pair of wrangling professors. + +The religious quarrel of the Dutchmen in the seventeenth century reminds +us in some points of the strife between two parties in our own New +England, sometimes arraying the "church" on one side against the +"parish," or the general body of worshippers, on the other. The +portraits of Gomarus, the great orthodox champion, and Arminius, the head +and front of the "liberal theology" of his day, as given in the little +old quarto of Meursius, recall two ministerial types of countenance +familiar to those who remember the earlier years of our century. + +Under the name of "Remonstrants" and "Contra-Remonstrants,"--Arminians +and old-fashioned Calvinists, as we should say,--the adherents of the two +Leyden professors disputed the right to the possession of the churches, +and the claim to be considered as representing the national religion. Of +the seven United Provinces, two, Holland and Utrecht, were prevailingly +Arminian, and the other five Calvinistic. Barneveld, who, under the +title of Advocate, represented the province of Holland, the most +important of them all, claimed for each province a right to determine its +own state religion. Maurice the Stadholder, son of William the Silent, +the military chief of the republic, claimed the right for the States- +General. 'Cujus regio ejus religio' was then the accepted public +doctrine of Protestant nations. Thus the provincial and the general +governments were brought into conflict by their creeds, and the question +whether the republic was a confederation or a nation, the same question +which has been practically raised, and for the time at least settled, in +our own republic, was in some way to be decided. After various +disturbances and acts of violence by both parties, Maurice, representing +the States-General, pronounced for the Calvinists or Contra-Remonstrants, +and took possession of one of the great churches, as an assertion of his +authority. Barneveld, representing the Arminian or Remonstrant +provinces, levied a body of mercenary soldiers in several of the cities. +These were disbanded by Maurice, and afterwards by an act of the States- +General. Barneveld was apprehended, imprisoned, and executed, after an +examination which was in no proper sense a trial. Grotius, who was on +the Arminian side and involved in the inculpated proceedings, was also +arrested and imprisoned. His escape, by a stratagem successfully +repeated by a slave in our own times, may challenge comparison for its +romantic interest with any chapter of fiction. How his wife packed him +into the chest supposed to contain the folios of the great oriental +scholar Erpenius, how the soldiers wondered at its weight and questioned +whether it did not hold an Arminian, how the servant-maid, Elsje van +Houwening, quick-witted as Morgiana of the "Forty Thieves," parried their +questions and convoyed her master safely to the friendly place of +refuge,--all this must be read in the vivid narrative of the author. + +The questions involved were political, local, personal, and above all +religious. Here is the picture which Motley draws of the religious +quarrel as it divided the people:-- + + "In burghers' mansions, peasants' cottages, mechanics' back-parlors; + on board herring-smacks, canal-boats, and East Indiamen; in shops, + counting-rooms, farm-yards, guard-rooms, alehouses; on the exchange, + in the tennis court, on the mall; at banquets, at burials, + christenings, or bridals; wherever and whenever human creatures met + each other, there was ever to be found the fierce wrangle of + Remonstrant and Contra-Remonstrant, the hissing of red-hot + theological rhetoric, the pelting of hostile texts. The + blacksmith's iron cooled on the anvil, the tinker dropped a kettle + half mended, the broker left a bargain unclinched, the Scheveningen + fisherman in his wooden shoes forgot the cracks in his pinkie, while + each paused to hold high converse with friend or foe on fate, free- + will, or absolute foreknowledge; losing himself in wandering mazes + whence there was no issue. Province against province, city against + city, family against family; it was one vast scene of bickering, + denunciation, heart-burnings, mutual excommunication and hatred." + +The religious grounds of the quarrel which set these seventeenth-century +Dutchmen to cutting each other's throats were to be looked for in the +"Five Points" of the Arminians as arrayed against the "Seven Points" of +the Gomarites, or Contra-Remonstrants. The most important of the +differences which were to be settled by fratricide seem to have been +these:-- + +According to the Five Points, "God has from eternity resolved to choose +to eternal life those who through his grace believe in Jesus Christ," +etc. According to the Seven Points, "God in his election has not looked +at the belief and the repentance of the elect," etc. According to the +Five Points, all good deeds must be ascribed to God's grace in Christ, +but it does not work irresistibly. The language of the Seven Points +implies that the elect cannot resist God's eternal and unchangeable +design to give them faith and steadfastness, and that they can never +wholly and for always lose the true faith. The language of the Five +Points is unsettled as to the last proposition, but it was afterwards +maintained by the Remonstrant party that a true believer could, through +his own fault, fall away from God and lose faith. + +It must be remembered that these religious questions had an immediate +connection with politics. Independently of the conflict of jurisdiction, +in which they involved the parties to the two different creeds, it was +believed or pretended that the new doctrines of the Remonstrants led +towards Romanism, and were allied with designs which threatened the +independence of the country. "There are two factions in the land," said +Maurice, "that of Orange and that of Spain, and the two chiefs of the +Spanish faction are those political and priestly Arminians, Uytenbogaert +and Oldenbarneveld." + +The heads of the two religious and political parties were in such +hereditary, long-continued, and intimate relations up to the time when +one signed the other's death-warrant, that it was impossible to write the +life of one without also writing that of the other. For his biographer +John of Barneveld is the true patriot, the martyr, whose cause was that +of religious and political freedom. For him Maurice is the ambitious +soldier who hated his political rival, and never rested until this rival +was brought to the scaffold. + +The questions which agitated men's minds two centuries and a half ago +are not dead yet in the country where they produced such estrangement, +violence, and wrong. No stranger could take them up without encountering +hostile criticism from one party or the other. It may be and has been +conceded that Mr. Motley writes as a partisan,--a partisan of freedom in +politics and religion, as he understands freedom. This secures him the +antagonism of one class of critics. But these critics are themselves +partisans, and themselves open to the cross-fire of their antagonists. +M. Groen van Prinsterer, "the learned and distinguished" editor of the +"Archives et Correspondance" of the Orange and Nassau family, published a +considerable volume, before referred to, in which many of Motley's views +are strongly controverted. But he himself is far from being in accord +with "that eminent scholar," M. Bakhuyzen van den Brink, whose name, he +says, is celebrated enough to need no comment, or with M. Fruin, of whose +impartiality and erudition he himself speaks in the strongest terms. The +ground upon which he is attacked is thus stated in his own words:-- + +"People have often pretended to find in my writings the deplorable +influence of an extreme Calvinism. The Puritans of the seventeenth +century are my fellow-religionists. I am a sectarian and not an +historian." + +It is plain enough to any impartial reader that there are at least +plausible grounds for this accusation against Mr. Motley's critic. And +on a careful examination of the formidable volume, it becomes obvious +that Mr. Motley has presented a view of the events and the personages of +the stormy epoch with which he is dealing, which leaves a battle-ground +yet to be fought over by those who come after him. The dispute is not +and cannot be settled. + +The end of all religious discussion has come when one of the parties +claims that it is thinking or acting under immediate Divine guidance. +"It is God's affair, and his honor is touched," says William Lewis to +Prince Maurice. Mr. Motley's critic is not less confident in claiming +the Almighty as on the side of his own views. Let him state his own +ground of departure:-- + + "To show the difference, let me rather say the contrast, between the + point of view of Mr. Motley and my own, between the Unitarian and + the Evangelical belief. I am issue of CALVIN, child of the + Awakening (reveil). Faithful to the device of the Reformers: + Justification by faith alone, and the Word of God endures eternally. + I consider history from the point of view of Merle d'Aubigne, + Chalmers, Guizot. I desire to be disciple and witness of our Lord + and Saviour, Jesus Christ." + +He is therefore of necessity antagonistic to a writer whom he describes +in such words as these:-- + + "Mr. Motley is liberal and rationalist. + + "He becomes, in attacking the principle of the Reformation, the + passionate opponent of the Puritans and of Maurice, the ardent + apologist of Barnevelt and the Arminians. + + "It is understood, and he makes no mystery of it, that he inclines + towards the vague and undecided doctrine of the Unitarians." + +What M. Groen's idea of Unitarians is may be gathered from the statement +about them which he gets from a letter of De Tocqueville. + + "They are pure deists; they talk about the Bible, because they do + not wish to shock too severely public opinion, which is prevailingly + Christian. They have a service on Sundays; I have been there. At + it they read verses from Dryden or other English poets on the + existence of God and the immortality of the soul. They deliver a + discourse on some point of morality, and all is said." + +In point of fact the wave of protest which stormed the dikes of Dutch +orthodoxy in the seventeenth century stole gently through the bars of New +England Puritanism in the eighteenth. + +"Though the large number," says Mr. Bancroft, "still acknowledged the +fixedness of the divine decrees, and the resistless certainty from all +eternity of election and of reprobation, there were not wanting, even +among the clergy, some who had modified the sternness of the ancient +doctrine by making the self-direction of the active powers of man with +freedom of inquiry and private judgment the central idea of a protest +against Calvinism." + +Protestantism, cut loose from an infallible church, and drifting with +currents it cannot resist, wakes up once or oftener in every century, to +find itself in a new locality. Then it rubs its eyes and wonders whether +it has found its harbor or only lost its anchor. There is no end to its +disputes, for it has nothing but a fallible vote as authority for its +oracles, and these appeal only to fallible interpreters. + +It is as hard to contend in argument against "the oligarchy of heaven," +as Motley calls the Calvinistic party, as it was formerly to strive with +them in arms. + +To this "aristocracy of God's elect" belonged the party which framed the +declaration of the Synod of Dort; the party which under the forms of +justice shed the blood of the great statesman who had served his country +so long and so well. To this chosen body belonged the late venerable and +truly excellent as well as learned M. Groen van Prinsterer, and he +exercised the usual right of examining in the light of his privileged +position the views of a "liberal" and "rationalist" writer who goes to +meeting on Sunday to hear verses from Dryden. This does not diminish his +claim for a fair reading of the "intimate correspondence," which he +considers Mr. Motley has not duly taken into account, and of the other +letters to be found printed in his somewhat disjointed and fragmentary +volume. + +This "intimate correspondence" shows Maurice the Stadholder indifferent +and lax in internal administration and as being constantly advised and +urged by his relative Count William of Nassau. This need of constant +urging extends to religious as well as other matters, and is inconsistent +with M. Groen van Prinsterer's assertion that the question was for +Maurice above all religious, and for Barneveld above all political. +Whether its negative evidence can be considered as neutralizing that +which is adduced by Mr. Motley to show the Stadholder's hatred of the +Advocate may be left to the reader who has just risen from the account of +the mock trial and the swift execution of the great and venerable +statesman. The formal entry on the record upon the day of his "judicial +murder" is singularly solemn and impressive:-- + + "Monday, 13th May, 1619. To-day was executed with the sword here in + the Hague, on a scaffold thereto erected in the Binnenhof before the + steps of the great hall, Mr. John of Barneveld, in his life Knight, + Lord of Berkel, Rodenrys, etc., Advocate of Holland and West + Friesland, for reasons expressed in the sentence and otherwise, with + confiscation of his property, after he had served the state thirty- + three years two months and five days, since 8th March, 1586; a man + of great activity, business, memory, and wisdom,--yea, extraordinary + in every respect. He that stands let him see that he does not + fall." + +Maurice gave an account of the execution of Barneveld to Count William +Lewis on the same day in a note "painfully brief and dry." + + +Most authors write their own biography consciously or unconsciously. We +have seen Mr. Motley portraying much of himself, his course of life and +his future, as he would have had it, in his first story. In this, his +last work, it is impossible not to read much of his own external and +internal personal history told under other names and with different +accessories. The parallelism often accidentally or intentionally passes +into divergence. He would not have had it too close if he could, but +there are various passages in which it is plain enough that he is telling +his own story. + +Mr. Motley was a diplomatist, and he writes of other diplomatists, and +one in particular, with most significant detail. It need not be supposed +that he intends the "arch intriguer" Aerssens to stand for himself, or +that he would have endured being thought to identify himself with the man +of whose "almost devilish acts" he speaks so freely. But the sagacious +reader--and he need not be very sharp-sighted--will very certainly see +something more than a mere historical significance in some of the +passages which I shall cite for him to reflect upon. Mr. Motley's +standard of an ambassador's accomplishments may be judged from the +following passage:-- + + "That those ministers [those of the Republic] were second to the + representatives of no other European state in capacity and + accomplishment was a fact well known to all who had dealings with + them, for the states required in their diplomatic representatives + knowledge of history and international law, modern languages, and + the classics, as well as familiarity with political customs and + social courtesies; the breeding of gentlemen, in short, and the + accomplishments of scholars." + +The story of the troubles of Aerssens, the ambassador of the United +Provinces at Paris, must be given at some length, and will repay careful +reading. + + "Francis Aerssens . . . continued to be the Dutch ambassador + after the murder of Henry IV. . . . He was beyond doubt one of + the ablest diplomatists in Europe. Versed in many languages, a + classical student, familiar with history and international law, a + man of the world and familiar with its usages, accustomed to + associate with dignity and tact on friendliest terms with + sovereigns, eminent statesmen, and men of letters; endowed with a + facile tongue, a fluent pen, and an eye and ear of singular + acuteness and delicacy; distinguished for unflagging industry and + singular aptitude for secret and intricate affairs;--he had by the + exercise of these various qualities during a period of nearly twenty + years at the court of Henry the Great been able to render + inestimable services to the Republic which he represented. + + "He had enjoyed the intimacy and even the confidence of Henry IV., + so far as any man could be said to possess that monarch's + confidence, and his friendly relations and familiar access to the + king gave him political advantages superior to those of any of his + colleagues at the same court. + + "Acting entirely and faithfully according to the instructions of the + Advocate of Holland, he always gratefully and copiously acknowledged + the privilege of being guided and sustained in the difficult paths + he had to traverse by so powerful and active an intellect. I have + seldom alluded in terms to the instructions and dispatches of the + chief, but every position, negotiation, and opinion of the envoy-- + and the reader has seen many of them is pervaded by their spirit. + + "It had become a question whether he was to remain at his post or + return. It was doubtful whether he wished to be relieved of his + embassy or not. The States of Holland voted 'to leave it to his + candid opinion if in his free conscience he thinks he can serve the + public any longer. If yes, he may keep his office one year more. + If no, he may take leave and come home.' + + "Surely the States, under the guidance of the Advocate, had thus + acted with consummate courtesy towards a diplomatist whose position, + from no apparent fault of his own, but by the force of + circumstances,--and rather to his credit than otherwise,-- + was gravely compromised." + +The Queen, Mary de' Medici, had a talk with him, got angry, "became very +red in the face," and wanted to be rid of him. + + "Nor was the envoy at first desirous of remaining. . . . + Nevertheless, he yielded reluctantly to Barneveld's request that he + should, for the time at least, remain at his post. Later on, as the + intrigues against him began to unfold themselves, and his faithful + services were made use of at home to blacken his character and + procure his removal, he refused to resign, as to do so would be to + play into the hands of his enemies, and, by inference at least, to + accuse himself of infidelity to his trust. . . . + + "It is no wonder that the ambassador was galled to the quick by the + outrage which those concerned in the government were seeking to put + upon him. How could an honest man fail to be overwhelmed with rage + and anguish at being dishonored before the world by his masters for + scrupulously doing his duty, and for maintaining the rights and + dignity of his own country? He knew that the charges were but + pretexts, that the motives of his enemies were as base as the + intrigues themselves, but he also knew that the world usually sides + with the government against the individual, and that a man's + reputation is rarely strong enough to maintain itself unsullied in a + foreign land when his own government stretches forth its hand, not + to shield, but to stab him. . . . + + "'I know,' he said, that this plot has been woven partly here in + Holland and partly here by good correspondence in order to drive me + from my post. + + "'But as I have discovered this accurately, I have resolved to offer + to my masters the continuance of my very humble service for such + time and under such conditions as they may think good to prescribe. + I prefer forcing my natural and private inclinations to giving an + opportunity for the ministers of this kingdom to discredit us, and + to my enemies to succeed in injuring me, and by fraud and malice to + force me from my post. . . . I am truly sorry, being ready to + retire, wishing to have an honorable testimony in recompense of my + labors, that one is in such hurry to take advantage of my fall. . + . . What envoy will ever dare to speak with vigor if he is not + sustained by the government at home? . . . My enemies have + misrepresented my actions, and my language as passionate, + exaggerated, mischievous, but I have no passion except for the + service of my superiors.' + + "Barneveld, from well-considered motives of public policy, was + favoring his honorable recall. But he allowed a decorous interval + of more than three years to elapse in which to terminate his + affairs, and to take a deliberate departure from that French embassy + to which the Advocate had originally promoted him, and in which + there had been so many years of mutual benefit and confidence + between the two statesmen. He used no underhand means. He did not + abuse the power of the States-General which he wielded to cast him + suddenly and brutally from the distinguished post which he occupied, + and so to attempt to dishonor him before the world. Nothing could + be more respectful and conciliatory than the attitude of the + government from first to last towards this distinguished + functionary. The Republic respected itself too much to deal with + honorable agents whose services it felt obliged to dispense with as + with vulgar malefactors who had been detected in crime. . . . + + "This work aims at being a political study. I would attempt to + exemplify the influence of individual humors and passions--some of + them among the highest, and others certainly the basest that agitate + humanity--upon the march of great events, upon general historical + results at certain epochs, and upon the destiny of eminent + personages." + +Here are two suggestive portraits:-- + + "The Advocate, while acting only in the name of a slender + confederacy, was in truth, so long as he held his place, the prime + minister of European Protestantism. There was none other to rival + him, few to comprehend him, fewer still to sustain him. As Prince + Maurice was at that time the great soldier of Protestantism, without + clearly scanning the grandeur of the field in which he was a chief + actor, or foreseeing the vastness of its future, so the Advocate was + its statesman and its prophet. Could the two have worked together + as harmoniously as they had done at an earlier day, it would have + been a blessing for the common weal of Europe. But, alas! the evil + genius of jealousy, which so often forbids cordial relations between + soldier and statesman, already stood shrouded in the distance, + darkly menacing the strenuous patriot, who was wearing his life out + in exertions for what he deemed the true cause of progress and + humanity. . . . + + "All history shows that the brilliant soldier of a republic is apt + to have the advantage, in a struggle for popular affection and + popular applause, over the statesman, however consummate. . . . + The great battles and sieges of the prince had been on a world's + theatre, had enchained the attention of Christendom, and on their + issue had frequently depended, or seemed to depend, the very + existence of the nation. The labors of the statesman, on the + contrary, had been comparatively secret. His noble orations and + arguments had been spoken with closed doors to assemblies of + colleagues, rather envoys than senators, . . while his vast labors + in directing both the internal administration and especially the + foreign affairs of the commonwealth had been by their very nature + as secret as they were perpetual and enormous." + +The reader of the "Life of Barneveld" must judge for himself whether in +these and similar passages the historian was thinking solely of Maurice, +the great military leader, of Barneveld, the great statesman, and of +Aerssens, the recalled ambassador. He will certainly find that there +were "burning questions" for ministers to handle then as now, and +recognize in "that visible atmosphere of power the poison of which it is +so difficult to resist" a respiratory medium as well known to the +nineteenth as to the seventeenth century. + + + + +XXIII. + +1874-1877. AEt. 60-63. + +DEATH OF MRS. MOTLEY.--LAST VISIT TO AMERICA.--ILLNESS AND DEATH.-LADY +HARCOURT'S COMMUNICATION. + +On the last day of 1874, the beloved wife, whose health had for some +years been failing, was taken from him by death. She had been the pride +of his happier years, the stay and solace of those which had so tried his +sensitive spirit. The blow found him already weakened by mental +suffering and bodily infirmity, and he never recovered from it. Mr. +Motley's last visit to America was in the summer and autumn of 1875. +During several weeks which he passed at Nahant, a seaside resort near +Boston, I saw him almost daily. He walked feebly and with some little +difficulty, and complained of a feeling of great weight in the right arm, +which made writing laborious. His handwriting had not betrayed any very +obvious change, so far as I had noticed in his letters. His features and +speech were without any paralytic character. His mind was clear except +when, as on one or two occasions, he complained of some confused feeling, +and walked a few minutes in the open air to compose himself. His +thoughts were always tending to revert to the almost worshipped companion +from whom death had parted him a few months before. Yet he could often +be led away to other topics, and in talking of them could be betrayed +into momentary cheerfulness of manner. His long-enduring and all- +pervading grief was not more a tribute to the virtues and graces of her +whom he mourned than an evidence of the deeply affectionate nature which +in other relations endeared him to so many whose friendship was a title +to love and honor. + +I have now the privilege of once more recurring to the narrative of Mr. +Motley's daughter, Lady Harcourt. + + "The harassing work and mental distress of this time [after the + recall from England], acting on an acutely nervous organization, + began the process of undermining his constitution, of which we were + so soon to see the results. It was not the least courageous act of + his life, that, smarting under a fresh wound, tired and unhappy, he + set his face immediately towards the accomplishment of fresh + literary labor. After my sister's marriage in January he went to + the Hague to begin his researches in the archives for John of + Barneveld. The Queen of the Netherlands had made ready a house + for us, and personally superintended every preparation for his + reception. We remained there until the spring, and then removed to + a house more immediately in the town, a charming old-fashioned + mansion, once lived in by John de Witt, where he had a large library + and every domestic comfort during the year of his sojourn. The + incessant literary labor in an enervating climate with enfeebled + health may have prepared the way for the first break in his + constitution, which was to show itself soon after. There were many + compensations in the life about him. He enjoyed the privilege of + constant companionship with one of the warmest hearts and finest + intellects which I have ever known in a woman,--the 'ame d'elite' + which has passed beyond this earth. The gracious sentiment with + which the Queen sought to express her sense of what Holland owed him + would have been deeply felt even had her personal friendship been + less dear to us all. From the King, the society of the Hague, and + the diplomatic circle we had many marks of kindness. Once or twice + I made short journeys with him for change of air to Amsterdam, to + look for the portraits of John of Barneveld and his wife; to + Bohemia, where, with the lingering hope of occupying himself with + the Thirty Years' War, he looked carefully at the scene of + Wallenstein's death near Prague, and later to Varzin in Pomerania + for a week with Prince Bismarck, after the great events of the + Franco-German war. In the autumn of 1872 we moved to England, + partly because it was evident that his health and my mother's + required a change; partly for private reasons to be near my sister + and her children. The day after our arrival at Bournemouth occurred + the rupture of a vessel on the lungs, without any apparently + sufficient cause. He recovered enough to revise and complete his + manuscript, and we thought him better, when at the end of July, in + London, he was struck down by the first attack of the head, which + robbed him of all after power of work, although the intellect + remained untouched. Sir William Gull sent him to Cannes for the + winter, where he was seized with a violent internal inflammation, + in which I suppose there was again the indication of the lesion of + blood-vessels. I am nearing the shadow now,--the time of which I + can hardly bear to write. You know the terrible sorrow which + crushed him on the last day of 1874,--the grief which broke his + heart and from which he never rallied. From that day it seems to me + that his life may be summed up in the two words,--patient waiting. + Never for one hour did her spirit leave him, and he strove to follow + its leading for the short and evil days left and the hope of the + life beyond. I think I have never watched quietly and reverently + the traces of one personal character remaining so strongly impressed + on another nature. With herself--depreciation and unselfishness she + would have been the last to believe how much of him was in her very + existence; nor could we have realized it until the parting came. + Henceforward, with the mind still there, but with the machinery + necessary to set it in motion disturbed and shattered, he could but + try to create small occupations with which to fill the hours of a + life which was only valued for his children's sake. Kind and loving + friends in England and America soothed the passage, and our + gratitude for so many gracious acts is deep and true. His love for + children, always a strong feeling, was gratified by the constant + presence of my sister's babies, the eldest, a little girl who bore + my mother's name, and had been her idol, being the companion of many + hours and his best comforter. At the end the blow came swiftly and + suddenly, as he would have wished it. It was a terrible shock to us + who had vainly hoped to keep him a few years longer, but at least he + was spared what he had dreaded with a great dread, a gradual failure + of mental or bodily power. The mind was never clouded, the + affections never weakened, and after a few hours of unconscious + physical struggle he lay at rest, his face beautiful and calm, + without a trace of suffering or illness. Once or twice he said, 'It + has come, it has come,' and there were a few broken words before + consciousness fled, but there was little time for messages or leave- + taking. By a strange coincidence his life ended near the town of + Dorchester, in the mother country, as if the last hour brought with + it a reminiscence of his birthplace, and of his own dearly loved + mother. By his own wish only the dates of his birth and death + appear upon his gravestone, with the text chosen by himself, 'In God + is light, and in him is no darkness at all.'" + + + + +XXIV. + +CONCLUSION.--HIS CHARACTER.--HIS LABORS.--HIS REWARD. + +In closing this restricted and imperfect record of a life which merits, +and in due time will, I trust, receive an ampler tribute, I cannot +refrain from adding a few thoughts which naturally suggest themselves, +and some of which may seem quite unnecessary to the reader who has +followed the story of the historian and diplomatist's brilliant and +eventful career. + +Mr. Motley came of a parentage which promised the gifts of mind and body +very generally to be accounted for, in a measure at least, wherever we +find them, by the blood of one or both of the parents. They gave him +special attractions and laid him open to not a few temptations. Too +many young men born to shine in social life, to sparkle, it may be, +in conversation, perhaps in the lighter walks of literature, become +agreeable idlers, self-indulgent, frivolous, incapable of large designs +or sustained effort, lose every aspiration and forget every ideal. Our +gilded youth want such examples as this of Motley, not a solitary, but a +conspicuous one, to teach them how much better is the restlessness of a +noble ambition than the narcotized stupor of club-life or the vapid +amusement of a dressed-up intercourse which too often requires a +questionable flavor of forbidden license to render it endurable to +persons of vivacious character and temperament. + +It would seem difficult for a man so flattered from his earliest days to +be modest in his self-estimate; but Motley was never satisfied with +himself. He was impulsive, and was occasionally, I have heard it said, +over excited, when his prejudices were roughly handled. In all that +related to the questions involved in our civil war, he was, no doubt, +very sensitive. He had heard so much that exasperated him in the foreign +society which he had expected to be in full sympathy with the cause of +liberty as against slavery, that he might be excused if he showed +impatience when be met with similar sentiments among his own countrymen. +He felt that he had been cruelly treated by his own government, and no +one who conceives himself to have been wronged and insulted must be +expected to reason in naked syllogisms on the propriety of the liberties +which have been taken with his name and standing. But with all his +quickness of feeling, his manners were easy and courteous, simply because +his nature was warm and kindly, and with all his natural fastidiousness +there was nothing of the coxcomb about him. + +He must have had enemies, as all men of striking individuality are sure +to have; his presence cast more uncouth patriots into the shade; his +learning was a reproach to the ignorant, his fame was too bright a +distinction; his high-bred air and refinement, which he could not help, +would hardly commend him to the average citizen in an order of things in +which mediocrity is at a premium, and the natural nobility of presence, +which rarely comes without family antecedents to account for it, is not +always agreeable to the many whose two ideals are the man on horseback +and the man in his shirt-sleeves. It may well be questioned whether +Washington, with his grand manner, would be nearly as popular with what +are called "the masses" as Lincoln, with his homely ways and broad +stories. The experiment of universal suffrage must render the waters +of political and social life more or less turbid even if they remain +innoxious. The Cloaca Maxima can hardly mingle its contents with the +stream of the Aqua Claudia, without taking something from its crystal +clearness. We need not go so far as one of our well-known politicians +has recently gone in saying that no great man can reach the highest +position in our government, but we can safely say that, apart from +military fame, the loftiest and purest and finest personal qualities are +not those which can be most depended upon at the ballot-box. Strange +stories are told of avowed opposition to Mr. Motley on the ground of the +most trivial differences in point of taste in personal matters,--so told +that it is hard to disbelieve them, and they show that the caprices which +we might have thought belonged exclusively to absolute rulers among their +mistresses or their minions may be felt in the councils of a great people +which calls itself self-governing. It is perfectly true that Mr. Motley +did not illustrate the popular type of politician. He was too high- +minded, too scholarly, too generously industrious, too polished, too much +at home in the highest European circles, too much courted for his +personal fascinations, too remote from the trading world of caucus +managers. To degrade him, so far as official capital punishment could do +it, was not merely to wrong one whom the nation should have delighted to +honor as showing it to the world in the fairest flower of its young +civilization, but it was an indignity to a representative of the highest +scholarship of native growth, which every student in the land felt as a +discouragement to all sound learning and noble ambition. + +If he was disappointed in his diplomatic career, he had enough, and more +than enough, to console him in his brilliant literary triumphs. He had +earned them all by the most faithful and patient labor. If he had not +the "frame of adamant" of the Swedish hero, he had his "soul of fire." +No labors could tire him, no difficulties affright him. What most +surprised those who knew him as a young man was, not his ambition, not +his brilliancy, but his dogged, continuous capacity for work. We have +seen with what astonishment the old Dutch scholar, Groen van Prinsterer, +looked upon a man who had wrestled with authors like Bor and Van Meteren, +who had grappled with the mightiest folios and toiled undiscouraged among +half-illegible manuscript records. Having spared no pains in collecting +his materials, he told his story, as we all know, with flowing ease and +stirring vitality. His views may have been more or less partial; Philip +the Second may have deserved the pitying benevolence of poor Maximilian; +Maurice may have wept as sincerely over the errors of Arminius as any one +of "the crocodile crew that believe in election;" Barneveld and Grotius +may have been on the road to Rome; none of these things seem probable, +but if they were all proved true in opposition to his views, we should +still have the long roll of glowing tapestry he has woven for us, with +all its life-like portraits, its almost moving pageants, its sieges where +we can see the artillery flashing, its battle-fields with their smoke and +fire,--pictures which cannot fade, and which will preserve his name +interwoven with their own enduring colors. + +Republics are said to be ungrateful; it might be truer to say that they +are forgetful. They forgive those who have wronged them as easily as +they forget those who have done them good service. But History never +forgets and never forgives. To her decision we may trust the question, +whether the warm-hearted patriot who had stood up for his country nobly +and manfully in the hour of trial, the great scholar and writer who had +reflected honor upon her throughout the world of letters, the high-minded +public servant, whose shortcomings it taxed the ingenuity of experts to +make conspicuous enough to be presentable, was treated as such a citizen +should have been dealt with. His record is safe in her hands, and his +memory will be precious always in the hearts of all who enjoyed his +friendship. + + + + +APPENDIX. + +A. + +THE SATURDAY CLUB. + +This club, of which we were both members, and which is still flourishing, +came into existence in a very quiet sort of way at about the same time as +"The Atlantic Monthly," and, although entirely unconnected with that +magazine, included as members some of its chief contributors. Of those +who might have been met at some of the monthly gatherings in its earlier +days I may mention Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Lowell, Motley, +Whipple, Whittier; Professors Agassiz and Peirce; John S. Dwight; +Governor Andrew, Richard H. Dana, Junior, Charles Sumner. It offered a +wide gamut of intelligences, and the meetings were noteworthy occasions. +If there was not a certain amount of "mutual admiration" among some of +those I have mentioned it was a great pity, and implied a defect in the +nature of men who were otherwise largely endowed. The vitality of this +club has depended in a great measure on its utter poverty in statutes and +by-laws, its entire absence of formality, and its blessed freedom from +speech-making. + +That holy man, Richard Baxter, says in his Preface to Alleine's +"Alarm:"-- + + "I have done, when I have sought to remove a little scandal, which I + foresaw, that I should myself write the Preface to his Life where + himself and two of his friends make such a mention of my name, which + I cannot own; which will seem a praising him for praising me. I + confess it looketh ill-favoredly in me. But I had not the power of + other men's writings, and durst not forbear that which was his due." + +I do not know that I have any occasion for a similar apology in printing +the following lines read at a meeting of members of the Saturday Club and +other friends who came together to bid farewell to Motley before his +return to Europe in 1857. + + + A PARTING HEALTH + + Yes, we knew we must lose him,--though friendship may claim + To blend her green leaves with the laurels of fame, + Though fondly, at parting, we call him our own, + 'T is the whisper of love when the bugle has blown. + + As the rider that rests with the spur on his heel, + As the guardsman that sleeps in his corselet of steel, + As the archer that stands with his shaft on the string, + He stoops from his toil to the garland we bring. + + What pictures yet slumber unborn in his loom + Till their warriors shall breathe and their beauties shall bloom, + While the tapestry lengthens the life-glowing dyes + That caught from our sunsets the stain of their skies! + + In the alcoves of death, in the charnels of time, + Where flit the dark spectres of passion and crime, + There are triumphs untold, there are martyrs unsung, + There are heroes yet silent to speak with his tongue! + + Let us hear the proud story that time has bequeathed + From lips that are warm with the freedom they breathed! + Let him summon its tyrants, and tell us their doom, + Though he sweep the black past like Van Tromp with his broom! + + The dream flashes by, for the west-winds awake + On pampas, on prairie, o'er mountain and lake, + To bathe the swift bark, like a sea-girdled shrine + With incense they stole from the rose and the pine. + + So fill a bright cup with the sunlight that gushed + When the dead summer's jewels were trampled and crushed; + THE TRUE KNIGHT OF LEARNING,--the world holds him dear,-- + + Love bless him, joy crown him, God speed his career! + + + + +B. + +HABITS AND METHODS OF STUDY. + +Mr. Motley's daughter, Lady Harcourt, has favored me with many +interesting particulars which I could not have learned except from a +member of his own family. Her description of his way of living and of +working will be best given in her own words:-- + + "He generally rose early, the hour varying somewhat at different + parts of his life, according to his work and health. Sometimes when + much absorbed by literary labor he would rise before seven, often + lighting his own fire, and with a cup of tea or coffee writing until + the family breakfast hour, after which his work was immediately + resumed, and be usually sat over his writing-table until late in the + afternoon, when he would take a short walk. His dinner hour was + late, and he rarely worked at night. During the early years of his + literary studies he led a life of great retirement. Later, after + the publication of the 'Dutch Republic' and during the years of + official place, he was much in society in England, Austria, and + Holland. He enjoyed social life, and particularly dining out, + keenly, but was very moderate and simple in all his personal habits, + and for many years before his death had entirely given up smoking. + His work, when not in his own library, was in the Archives of the + Netherlands, Brussels, Paris, the English State Paper Office, and + the British Museum, where he made his own researches, patiently and + laboriously consulting original manuscripts and reading masses of + correspondence, from which he afterwards sometimes caused copies to + be made, and where he worked for many consecutive hours a day. + After his material had been thus painfully and toilfully amassed, + the writing of his own story was always done at home, and his mind, + having digested the necessary matter, always poured itself forth in + writing so copiously that his revision was chiefly devoted to + reducing the over-abundance. He never shrank from any of the + drudgery of preparation, but I think his own part of the work was + sheer pleasure to him." + +I should have mentioned that his residence in London while minister was +at the house No. 17 Arlington Street, belonging to Lord Yarborough. + + + + +C. + +SIR WILLIAM GULL's ACCOUNT OF HIS ILLNESS. + +I have availed myself of the permission implied in the subjoined letter +of Sir William Gull to make large extracts from his account of Mr. +Motley's condition while under his medical care. In his earlier years he +had often complained to me of those "nervous feelings connected with the +respiration" referred to by this very distinguished physician. I do not +remember any other habitual trouble to which he was subject. + + 74 BROOK STREET, GROSVENOR SQUARE, W. + February 13, 1878. +MY DEAR SIR,--I send the notes of Mr. Motley's last illness, as I +promised. They are too technical for general readers, but you will make +such exception as you require. The medical details may interest your +professional friends. Mr. Motley's case was a striking illustration that +the renal disease of so-called Bright's disease may supervene as part and +parcel of a larger and antecedent change in the blood-vessels in other +parts than the kidney. . . . I am, my dear sir, + + Yours very truly, + WILLIAM W. GULL. + +To OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, ESQ. + + I first saw Mr. Motley, I believe, about the year 1870, on account + of some nervous feelings connected with the respiration. At that + time his general health was good, and all he complained of was + occasionally a feeling of oppression about the chest. There were no + physical signs of anything abnormal, and the symptoms quite passed + away in the course of time, and with the use of simple antispasmodic + remedies, such as camphor and the like. This was my first interview + with Mr. Motley, and I was naturally glad to have the opportunity of + making his acquaintance. I remember that in our conversation I + jokingly said that my wife could hardly forgive him for not making + her hero, Henri IV., a perfect character, and the earnestness with + which he replied 'au serieux,' I assure you I have fairly recorded + the facts. After this date I did not see Mr. Motley for some time. + He had three slight attacks of haemoptysis in the autumn of 1872, + but no physical signs of change in the lung tissue resulted. So + early as this I noticed that there were signs of commencing + thickening in the heart, as shown by the degree and extent of its + impulse. The condition of his health, though at that time not very + obviously failing, a good deal arrested my attention, as I thought I + could perceive in the occurrence of the haemoptysis, and in the + cardiac hypertrophy, the early beginnings of vascular degeneration. + + In August, 1873, occurred the remarkable seizure, from the effects + of which Mr. Motley never recovered. I did not see him in the + attack, but was informed, as far as I can remember, that he was on a + casual visit at a friend's house at luncheon (or it might have been + dinner), when he suddenly became strangely excited, but not quite + unconscious. . . . I believed at the time, and do so still, that + there was some capillary apoplexy of the convolutions. The attack + was attended with some hemiplegic weakness on the right side, and + altered sensation, and ever after there was a want of freedom and + ease both in the gait and in the use of the arm of that side. To my + inquiries from time to time how the arm was, the patient would + always flex and extend it freely, but nearly always used the + expression, "There is a bedevilment in it;" though the handwriting + was not much, if at all, altered. + + In December, 1873, Mr. Motley went by my advice to Cannes. I wrote + the following letter at the time to my friend Dr. Frank, who was + practising there:-- + + [This letter, every word of which was of value to the + practitioner who was to have charge of the patient, relates + many of the facts given above, and I shall therefore only give + extracts from it.] + + December 29, 1873. + + MY DEAR DR. FRANK,--My friend Mr. Motley, the historian and late + American Minister, whose name and fame no doubt you know very well, + has by my advice come to Cannes for the winter and spring, and I + have promised him to give you some account of his case. To me it is + one of special interest, and personally, as respects the subject of + it, of painful interest. I have known Mr. Motley for some time, but + he consulted me for the present condition about midsummer. + + . . . If I have formed a correct opinion of the pathology of the + case, I believe the smaller vessels are degenerating in several + parts of the vascular area, lung, brain, and kidneys. With this + view I have suggested a change of climate, a nourishing diet, etc.; + and it is to be hoped, and I trust expected, that by great attention + to the conditions of hygiene, internal and external, the progress of + degeneration may be retarded. I have no doubt you will find, as + time goes on, increasing evidence of renal change, but this is + rather a coincidence and consequence than a cause, though no doubt + when the renal change has reached a certain point, it becomes in its + own way a factor of other lesions. I have troubled you at this + length because my mind is much occupied with the pathology of these + cases, and because no case can, on personal grounds, more strongly + challenge our attention. + + Yours very truly, + WILLIAM W. GULL. + + During the spring of 1874, whilst at Cannes, Mr. Motley had a sharp + attack of nephritis, attended with fever; but on returning to + England in July there was no important change in the health. The + weakness of the side continued, and the inability to undertake any + mental work. The signs of cardiac hypertrophy were more distinct. + In the beginning of the year 1875 I wrote as follows:-- + + February 20, 1875. + + MY DEAR Mr. MOTLEY,--. . . The examination I have just made + appears to indicate that the main conditions of your health are more + stable than they were some months ago, and would therefore be so far + in favor of your going to America in the summer, as we talked of. + The ground of my doubt has lain in the possibility of such a trip + further disordering the circulation. Of this, I hope, there is now + less risk. + + + On the 4th of June, 1875, I received the following letter:-- + + CALVERLY PARK HOTEL, TUNBRIDGE WELLS, + June 4, 1875. + + MY DEAR SIR WILLIAM,--I have been absent from town for a long time, + but am to be there on the 9th and 10th. Could I make an appointment + with you for either of those days? I am anxious to have a full + consultation with you before leaving for America. Our departure is + fixed for the 19th of this month. I have not been worse than usual + of late. I think myself, on the contrary, rather stronger, and it + is almost impossible for me not to make my visit to America this + summer, unless you should absolutely prohibit it. If neither of + those days should suit you, could you kindly suggest another day? + I hope, however, you can spare me half an hour on one of those days, + as I like to get as much of this bracing air as I can. Will you + kindly name the hour when I may call on you, and address me at this + hotel. Excuse this slovenly note in pencil, but it fatigues my head + and arm much more to sit at a writing-table with pen and ink. + + Always most sincerely yours, + My dear Sir William, + J. L. MOTLEY. + + On Mr. Motley's return from America I saw him, and found him, I + thought, rather better in general health than when he left England. + + In December, 1875, Mr. Motley consulted me for trouble of vision in + reading or walking, from sensations like those produced by flakes of + falling snow coming between him and the objects he was looking at. + Mr. Bowman, one of our most excellent oculists, was then consulted. + Mr. Bowman wrote to me as follows: "Such symptoms as exist point + rather to disturbed retinal function than to any brain-mischief. It + is, however, quite likely that what you fear for the brain may have + had its counterpart in the nerve-structures of the eye, and as he is + short-sighted, this tendency may be further intensified." + + Mr. Bowman suggested no more than such an arrangement of glasses as + might put the eyes, when in use, under better optic conditions. + + The year 1876 was passed over without any special change worth + notice. The walking powers were much impeded by the want of control + over the right leg. The mind was entirely clear, though Mr. Motley + did not feel equal, and indeed had been advised not to apply + himself, to any literary work. Occasional conversations, when I had + interviews with him on the subject of his health, proved that the + attack which had weakened the movements of the right side had not + impaired the mental power. The most noticeable change which had + come over Mr. Motley since I first knew him was due to the death of + Mrs. Motley in December, 1874. It had in fact not only profoundly + depressed him, but, if I may so express it, had removed the centre + of his thought to a new world. In long conversations with me of a + speculative kind, after that painful event, it was plain how much + his point of view of the whole course and relation of things had + changed. His mind was the last to dogmatize on any subject. There + was a candid and childlike desire to know, with an equal confession + of the incapacity of the human intellect. I wish I could recall the + actual expressions he used, but the sense was that which has been so + well stated by Hooker in concluding an exhortation against the pride + of the human intellect, where he remarks:-- + + "Dangerous it were for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the + doings of the Most High; whom although to know be life, and joy to + make mention of His Name, yet our soundest knowledge is to know that + we know Him, not indeed as He is, neither can know Him; and our + safest eloquence concerning Him is our silence, when we confess + without confession that His glory is inexplicable, His greatness + above our capacity and reach. He is above and we upon earth; + therefore it behoveth our words to be wary and few." + + Mrs. Motley's illness was not a long one, and the nature of it was + such that its course could with certainty be predicted. Mr. Motley + and her children passed the remaining days of her life, extending + over about a month, with her, in the mutual under standing that she + was soon to part from them. The character of the illness, and the + natural exhaustion of her strength by suffering, lessened the shock + of her death, though not the loss, to those who survived her. + + The last time I saw Mr. Motley was, I believe, about two months + before his death, March 28, 1877. There was no great change in his + health, but he complained of indescribable sensations in his nervous + system, and felt as if losing the whole power of walking, but this + was not obvious in his gait, although he walked shorter distances + than before. I heard no more of him until I was suddenly summoned + on the 29th of May into Devonshire to see him. The telegram I + received was so urgent, that I suspected some rupture of a blood- + vessel in the brain, and that I should hardly reach him alive; and + this was the case. About two o'clock in the day he complained of a + feeling of faintness, said he felt ill and should not recover; and + in a few minutes was insensible with symptoms of ingravescent + apoplexy. There was extensive haemorrhage into the brain, as shown + by post-mortem examination, the cerebral vessels being atheromatous. + The fatal haemorrhage had occurred into the lateral ventricles, from + rupture of one of the middle cerebral arteries. + + I am, my dear Sir, + Yours very truly, + WILLIAM W. GULL. + + + +E. + +FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY. + +At a meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, held on Thursday, +the 14th of June, 1877, after the reading of the records of the preceding +meeting, the president, the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, spoke as follows: + + "Our first thoughts to-day, gentlemen, are of those whom we may not + again welcome to these halls. We shall be in no mood, certainly, + for entering on other subjects this morning until we have given some + expression to our deep sense of the loss--the double loss--which our + Society has sustained since our last monthly meeting."--[Edmund + Quincy died May 17. John Lothrop Motley died May 29.] + +After a most interesting and cordial tribute to his friend, Mr. Quincy, +Mr. Winthrop continued: + + "The death of our distinguished associate, Motley, can hardly have + taken many of us by surprise. Sudden at the moment of its + occurrence, we had long been more or less prepared for it by his + failing health. It must, indeed, have been quite too evident to + those who had seen him, during the last two or three years, that his + life-work was finished. I think he so regarded it himself. + + "Hopes may have been occasionally revived in the hearts of his + friends, and even in his own heart, that his long-cherished purpose + of completing a History of the Thirty Years' War, as the grand + consummation of his historical labors,--for which all his other + volumes seemed to him to have been but the preludes and overtures,-- + might still be accomplished. But such hopes, faint and flickering + from his first attack, had well-nigh died away. They were like + Prescott's hopes of completing his 'Philip the Second,' or like + Macaulay's hopes of finishing his brilliant 'History of England.' + + "But great as may be the loss to literature of such a crowning work + from Motley's pen, it was by no means necessary to the completeness + of his own fame. His 'Rise of the Dutch Republic,' his 'History of + the United Netherlands,' and his 'Life of John of Barneveld,' had + abundantly established his reputation, and given him a fixed place + among the most eminent historians of our country and of our age. + + "No American writer, certainly, has secured a wider recognition or a + higher appreciation from the scholars of the Old World. The + universities of England and the learned societies of Europe have + bestowed upon him their largest honors. It happened to me to be in + Paris when he was first chosen a corresponding member of the + Institute, and when his claims were canvassed with the freedom and + earnestness which peculiarly characterize such a candidacy in + France. There was no mistaking the profound impression which his + first work had made on the minds of such men as Guizot and Mignet. + Within a year or two past, a still higher honor has been awarded him + from the same source. The journals not long ago announced his + election as one of the six foreign associates of the French Academy + of Moral and Political Sciences,--a distinction which Prescott would + probably have attained had he lived a few years longer, until there + was a vacancy, but which, as a matter of fact, I believe, Motley was + the only American writer, except the late Edward Livingston, of + Louisiana, who has actually enjoyed. + + "Residing much abroad, for the purpose of pursuing his historical + researches, he had become the associate and friend of the most + eminent literary men in almost all parts of the world, and the + singular charms of his conversation and manners had made him a + favorite guest in the most refined and exalted circles. + + "Of his relations to political and public life, this is hardly the + occasion or the moment for speaking in detail. Misconstructions and + injustices are the proverbial lot of those who occupy eminent + position. It was a duke of Vienna, if I remember rightly, whom + Shakespeare, in his 'Measure for Measure,' introduces as + exclaiming,-- + + 'O place and greatness, millions of false eyes + Are stuck upon thee! Volumes of report + Run with these false and most contrarious quests + Upon thy doings! Thousand 'stapes of wit + Make thee the father of their idle dream, + And rack thee in their fancies!' + + "I forbear from all application of the lines. It is enough for me, + certainly, to say here, to-day, that our country was proud to be + represented at the courts of Vienna and London successively by a + gentleman of so much culture and accomplishment as Mr. Motley, and + that the circumstances of his recall were deeply regretted by us + all. + + "His fame, however, was quite beyond the reach of any such + accidents, and could neither be enhanced nor impaired by + appointments or removals. As a powerful and brilliant historian we + pay him our unanimous tribute of admiration and regret, and give him + a place in our memories by the side of Prescott and Irving. I do + not forget how many of us lament him, also, as a cherished friend. + + "He died on the 29th ultimo, at the house of his daughter, Mrs. + Sheridan, in Dorsetshire, England, and an impressive tribute to his + memory was paid, in Westminster Abbey, on the following Sunday, by + our Honorary Member, Dean Stanley. Such a tribute, from such lips, + and with such surroundings, leaves nothing to be desired in the way + of eulogy. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, by the side of + his beloved wife. + + "One might well say of Motley precisely what he said of Prescott, in + a letter from Rome to our associate, Mr. William Amory, immediately + on hearing of Prescott's death: 'I feel inexpressibly disappointed-- + speaking now for an instant purely from a literary point of view-- + that the noble and crowning monument of his life, for which he had + laid such massive foundations, and the structure of which had been + carried forward in such a grand and masterly manner, must remain + uncompleted, like the unfinished peristyle of some stately and + beautiful temple on which the night of time has suddenly descended. + But, still, the works which his great and untiring hand had already + thoroughly finished will remain to attest his learning and genius,-- + a precious and perpetual possession for his country." + + ................................. + +The President now called on Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said:-- + + "The thoughts which suggest themselves upon this occasion are such + as belong to the personal memories of the dear friends whom we have + lost, rather than to their literary labors, the just tribute to + which must wait for a calmer hour than the present, following so + closely as it does on our bereavement." + + ................................. + + "His first literary venture of any note was the story called + 'Morton's Hope; or, The Memoirs of a Provincial.' This first effort + failed to satisfy the critics, the public, or himself. His + personality pervaded the characters and times which he portrayed, + so that there was a discord between the actor and his costume. + Brilliant passages could not save it; and it was plain enough that + he must ripen into something better before the world would give him + the reception which surely awaited him if he should find his true + destination. + + "The early failures of a great writer are like the first sketches + of a great artist, and well reward patient study. More than this, + the first efforts of poets and story-tellers are very commonly + palimpsests: beneath the rhymes or the fiction one can almost always + spell out the characters which betray the writer's self. Take these + passages from the story just referred to: + + "'Ah! flattery is a sweet and intoxicating potion, whether we drink + it from an earthen ewer or a golden chalice. . . . Flattery from + man to woman is expected: it is a part of the courtesy of society; + but when the divinity descends from the altar to burn incense to the + priest, what wonder if the idolater should feel himself transformed + into a god!' + + "He had run the risk of being spoiled, but he had a safeguard in his + aspirations. + + "'My ambitious anticipations,' says Morton, in the story, were as + boundless as they were various and conflicting. There was not a + path which leads to glory in which I was not destined to gather + laurels. As a warrior, I would conquer and overrun the world; as a + statesman, I would reorganize and govern it; as a historian, I would + consign it all to immortality; and, in my leisure moments, I would + be a great poet and a man of the world.' + + "Who can doubt that in this passage of his story he is picturing his + own visions, one of the fairest of which was destined to become + reality? + + "But there was another element in his character, which those who + knew him best recognized as one with which he had to struggle hard, + --that is, a modesty which sometimes tended to collapse into self- + distrust. This, too, betrays itself in the sentences which follow + those just quoted:-- + + "'In short,' says Morton, 'I was already enrolled in that large + category of what are called young men of genius, . . . men of + whom unheard-of things are expected; till after long preparation + comes a portentous failure, and then they are forgotten. . . . + Alas! for the golden imaginations of our youth. . . . They are + all disappointments. They are bright and beautiful, but they fade.'" + + ........................... + +The President appointed Professor Lowell to write the Memoir of Mr. +Quincy, and Dr. Holmes that of Mr. Motley, for the Society's +"Proceedings." + +Professor William Everett then spoke as follows: + + "There is one incident, sir, in Mr. Motley's career that has not + been mentioned to-day, which is, perhaps, most vividly remembered by + those of us who were in Europe at the outbreak of our civil war in + 1861. At that time, the ignorance of Englishmen, friendly or + otherwise, about America, was infinite: they knew very little of us, + and that little wrong. Americans were overwhelmed with questions, + taunts, threats, misrepresentations, the outgrowth of ignorance, and + ignoring worse than ignorance, from every class of Englishmen. + Never was an authoritative exposition of our hopes and policy worse + needed; and there was no one to do it. The outgoing diplomatic + agents represented a bygone order of things; the representatives of + Mr. Lincoln's administration had not come. At that time of anxiety, + Mr. Motley, living in England as a private person, came forward with + two letters in the 'Times,' which set forth the cause of the United + States once and for all. No unofficial, and few official, men could + have spoken with such authority, and been so certain of obtaining a + hearing from Englishmen. Thereafter, amid all the clouds of + falsehood and ridicule which we had to encounter, there was one + lighthouse fixed on a rock to which we could go for foothold, from + which we could not be driven, and against which all assaults were + impotent. + + "There can be no question that the effect produced by these letters + helped, if help had been needed, to point out Mr. Motley as a + candidate for high diplomatic place who could not be overlooked. + Their value was recognized alike by his fellow-citizens in America + and his admirers in England; but none valued them more than the + little band of exiles, who were struggling against terrible odds, + and who rejoiced with a great joy to see the stars and stripes, + whose centennial anniversary those guns are now celebrating, planted + by a hand so truly worthy to rally every American to its support." + + + +G. + +POEM BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. + +I cannot close this Memoir more appropriately than by appending the +following poetical tribute:-- + + IN MEMORY OF JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. + + BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. + + Sleep, Motley, with the great of ancient days, + Who wrote for all the years that yet shall be. + Sleep with Herodotus, whose name and praise + Have reached the isles of earth's remotest sea. + Sleep, while, defiant of the slow delays + Of Time, thy glorious writings speak for thee + And in the answering heart of millions raise + The generous zeal for Right and Liberty. + And should the days o'ertake us, when, at last, + The silence that--ere yet a human pen + Had traced the slenderest record of the past + Hushed the primeval languages of men + Upon our English tongue its spell shall cast, + Thy memory shall perish only then. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +An order of things in which mediocrity is at a premium +Better is the restlessness of a noble ambition +Blessed freedom from speech-making +Flattery is a sweet and intoxicating potion +Forget those who have done them good service +His dogged, continuous capacity for work +His learning was a reproach to the ignorant +History never forgets and never forgives +Mediocrity is at a premium +No great man can reach the highest position in our government +Over excited, when his prejudices were roughly handled +Plain enough that he is telling his own story +Republics are said to be ungrateful +They knew very little of us, and that little wrong +Visible atmosphere of power the poison of which +Wonders whether it has found its harbor or only lost its anchor + + +[The End] + + + + +********************************************************************* +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Memoir of John Lothrop Motley, v3 +********This file should be named oh13v10.txt or oh13v10.zip******** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, oh13v11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, oh13v10a.txt + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +More information about this book is at the top of this file. + +We are now trying to release all our etexts one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. 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