History, on the other hand, is only
at the outset of its career. Its highest achievements are in all
probability reserved for a still distant future, when loftier points of
view shall have been attained, and the haze that now hangs over even the
nearest and most conspicuous objects in some measure dissipated. Its
endeavors hitherto have only shown how much is still to be
accomplished,--how little, indeed, comparatively speaking, it will ever
be possible to accomplish. Not the less, on this account, are the
laborers deserving of the honors bestowed upon them. Every fresh
contribution is a permanent gain. Even in the same field the results of
one exploration do not interfere with or supersede those of another.
Robertson has, in many respects, been surpassed, but he has not been
supplanted, by Prescott; Froude and Motley may traverse the same ground
without impairing our interest in the researches of either.
These four distinguished writers have all devoted their efforts to the
illustration of the period of which we have before spoken,--the grand
and fruitful sixteenth century. With the men and with the events of that
age we have thus become singularly familiar.
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