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the utmost pains to procure reliable material, to verify all statements of fact, and to bring out the incidents of Mr. Lincoln's life, with candor, fairness, and accuracy.

Mr. Arnold has shown in his life of Mr. Lincoln that he has a full and just appreciation of the true province of history. He was guided by that spirit which governed the greatest historian of modern times, M. Adolph Thiers. M. Xavier Marmier, in his admirable discourse before the French Academy, quotes M. Thiers as saying:

"I have for the mission of history such a respect, that the fear of alleging an inexact fact fills me with a sort of consternation. I have no repose till I have discovered the proof of the fact, the object of my doubt. I seek it wherever it ought to be, and I never stop till I have found it, or when I have acquired the certainty that it does not exist."

In the present volume Mr. Arnold has shown himself, in this regard, a worthy disciple of M. Thiers.

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