how can I know it? And winding; how can I be sure of it? And it runs in the dark, as well as in the light; how can I see it?" Poor little brook! No, blessed little brook! Be true to yourself, sparkling little creature from the mountain-side: push into mid-channel, and the slip of the current, which is the hand of God, will itself bear you unerringly through straight ways and through winding ways, through day and through night, till you mingle safely at last in the deeps of the great sea; for the Spirit of God still broods upon the face of the waters.

C. H. Parkhurst

NEW YORK CITY.

AMERICAN OUTGROWTHS OF CONTINENTAL EUROPE

BETWEEN THE LINES AND COVERS

There is nothing sensational in the history of maritime discovery, in accounts of the limited geographical knowledge of the ancients, in preColumbian explorations, or in the lavish liberality with which old world potentates gave away real estate that was not theirs to give in the newlydiscovered lands beyond the seas. But there are many wonderful and picturesque features involved in this class of information, and the careful reader quickly becomes interested, and then an incurable enthusiast. Scholarship is deplorably incomplete which does not embrace general culture in the things of the past. There are, however, comparatively few people of intelligence in the present age who are inclined to subsist altogether on the inventions of fiction evolved from individual inner consciousness. Something more substantial is desired. Facts attractively clothed, are well known to possess a charm unrivalled in imagination's popular domain. "Give me, oh, give me a true story!" cries the child. The "what has been" is irresistibly magnetic, awakening new ideas, and capturing the student, however docile it may appear in the midst of modern fancies and activities. It inspires natural curiosity, such as impels the young pupil in school to interrupt the whole machinery of instruction to ask what the men and women were like who once thought the earth was a flat surface stretching from the Ægean sea, the focus of ancient knowledge, into a dim horizon of complete nothingness? Then follows the question: "To whom belongs the honor of first propounding the theory of the spherical form of the earth?"

Teachers who are unprepared to wrestle with such conundrums complain that the way to historic lore is difficult, and even when accessible the pursuit absorbs more time than the self-supporting worker can afford. Writers also, of every grade, excuse themselves from painstaking historical research on similar grounds, reasonably, perhaps, according to their outlook, and from year to year and decade to decade go on repeating one another's errors and furnishing misinformation greatly in excess of the popular demand. It was in recognition of an imperative want in these directions, and for the help of all whose craving for extended knowledge is out of proportion to their opportunities, that the Narrative and Critical

History of America was projected a few years since by Dr. Justin Winsor, the learned librarian of Harvard University, and recently completed in eight monumental volumes, which might be aptly described as a collection of valuable monographs by distinguished specialists, only that it is much more. Accompanying every descriptive paper or monograph is a critical essay, with notes, on the varied sources of information, so that the reader comes directly into connection with the best results of four centuries of historic study, writing, discussion, and book-making. No one man could have collected the data and produced such a work as this of Dr. Winsor's within the limits of a lifetime; but commanding the fullest resources of historic science in a librarian's environment and the combined talent of a corps of thirty-nine historic writers of well-known erudition, chosen with reference to special fitness for the particular subjects treated, he has provided for the world a labor-saving compendium of priceless value. He does not recommend the cooperative method for the general writing of history; he says emphatically: "There is no substitute for the individuality of the historian." At the same time, in the elucidation of the broader aspects of themes of great magnitude, nothing could have been better than the plan adopted. The collation of authorities grouping the original material which has come to light, is one of the most useful features of the important work, enabling the reader to form independent judgment; for when the author's opinions differ from his own he can turn to the exact sources upon which such views were founded, and verify, amend, and deduce his own conclusions.

Whatever concerns the early voyages through which our country was first brought into public notice has the place of honor in these volumes. The great army of current writers who, in view of the approaching celebration of the discoveries of Columbus, are looking up material for countless newspaper and magazine articles, will in turning these pages find a polite and patient guide to the fruitful field. The second volume of the series is largely devoted to the great navigator's life, character, adventures, disappointments, and explorations, with a flood of pertinent illustrations-early maps, quaint charts, devices for representing the earth on a plane, specimens of the handwriting of Columbus, the house where he died, ancient methods of ascertaining latitude and longitude, and not less than ten of the various portraits of the discoverer of America. The same volume contains an ably prepared and fully illustrated chapter on Amerigo Vespucci, pointing out the exact basis (as far as known to scholars) of his claim to the honor of having his name attached to this continent. This is supplemented by an important discussion of "The naming of America," with an almost com

plete bibliography of what has ever been written on that subject during four centuries. "The Companions of Columbus," by Dr. Channing, and the "Early Cartography of the Gulf of Mexico," by Dr. Winsor, follow as naturally as the rainbow after a summer shower. On every leaf the authorities are conveniently massed for the help of those who are conscientiously seeking the truth.

The early and later arctic explorations, with their terrible sacrifices of life and money, are treated at length in the third and eighth volumes, and contain many thrilling pages. It seems but a step to them over the

centuries since the men of Sidon and Tyre looked covetously seaward from their narrow domain, "while the civilization of Egypt, as self-centred as that of China, accepted only the commerce that was brought to its gates." It is fascinating to watch the Phoenician ships as they tried the perilous waters of the Mediterranean, and in course of time reached the Atlantic; then to follow the Carthagenians, in the uncertain light, as they discovered and colonized the Canary Islands and other well-known groups. Mr. Tillinghast says: "As we trace the increasing volume and extent of commerce from the days of Tyre and Carthage and Alexandria to its fullest development under the empire, and remember that as the drafts of luxury-loving Rome upon the products of the east, even of China and farther India, increased, the true knowledge of the form of the earth and the under-estimate of the breadth of the western ocean, became more

widely known, the question inevitably suggests itself, Why did not the enterprise which had long since utilized the monsoons of the Indian ocean for direct passage to and from India essay the passage of the Atlantic? The inquiry gains force as we recall that the possibility of such a route to India had been asserted. Aristotle suggested, if he did not express it; Eratosthenes stated plainly that were it not for the extent of the Atlantic it would be possible to sail from Spain to India along the same parallel; and Strabo could object nothing but the chance of there being another island-continent or two in the way-an objection unknown to Columbus. No evidence from the classic writers justifies the assumption that the ancients communicated with America. If they guessed at the possibility of such a continent, it was only as we to-day imagine an antarctic continent or an open polar sea.” *

It was many decades after the voyages of Columbus before it was known in Europe whether America was an island, an archipelago, or a continent. The ambitious merchants and navigators scoured the oceans in every latitude, from the arctic regions to Cape Horn, searching for a gateway through it to the jeweled cities of the east. The sovereigns of the old world, meanwhile, were swift to claim shares in the mythical property, and made princely presents of territory to favorite subjects, in absolute ignorance of the quality and value of their gifts. Dr. George E. Ellis writes: "Under the latest advances of astronomical science, spaces in the moon might now be almost as definitely assigned to claimants for them as were the regions of this new world." In almost every instance the gifts of one monarch overlapped or conflicted with the gift of some other. Charles II. of England was one of the most generous of these European donors. He gave to his brother, afterward James II., the rich country from Pemaquid to the St. Croix, and from the west side of the Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware bay. To William Penn he gave a province in discharge of a crown debt due to his father; and in 1670, “by his own especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, without advice or confirmation by council or parliament," he presented his cousin Prince Rupert, and a few associates, with the icy region of magnificent proportions in North America, sloping inwards toward Hudson's bay, which has ever since been known as "Prince Rupert's Land." The western

* Through the courtesy of the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin & Company, we are permitted to give our readers a glimpse of some of the characteristic illustrations in the Narrative and Critical History of America, edited by Justin Winsor. LL.D. "Towing through the ice in 1600" is one of these, also the “Map of the Hudson Bay and vicinity in 1748,” Ellis's Map, vol. viii., page 27, and the portraits of Prince Rupert, Sir George Simpson, and Santa Anna. The other pictures are from rare prints in possession of this Magazine.