In offering to the public this volume of Essays, all but two of which have been read at various places on different occasions, I am aware that there is some repetition in ideas and illustrations, but, as the dates of their delivery and previous publication are indicated, I am letting them stand substantially as they were written and delivered.

I am indebted to my son, Daniel P. Rhodes, for a literary revision of these Essays; and I have to thank the editors of the Atlantic Monthly, of Scribner’s Magazine, and of the Century Magazine for leave to reprint the articles which have already appeared in their periodicals.

Boston, November, 1909.

[p vii]
CONTENTS

PAGE
I.History[1]
President’s Inaugural Address, American Historical Association,Boston, December 27, 1899; printed in the AtlanticMonthly of February, 1900.
II.Concerning the Writing of History[25]
Address delivered at the Meeting of the American HistoricalAssociation in Detroit, December, 1900.
III.The Profession of Historian[47]
Lecture read before the History Club of Harvard University,April 27, 1908, and at Yale, Columbia, and Western ReserveUniversities.
IV.Newspapers as Historical Sources[81]
A Paper read before the American Historical Association inWashington on December 29, 1908; printed in the AtlanticMonthly of May, 1909.
V.Speech prepared for the Commencement Dinnerat Harvard University, June 26, 1901. (Notdelivered)[99]
VI.Edward Gibbon[105]
Lecture read at Harvard University, April 6, 1908, and printedin Scribner’s Magazine of June, 1909.
VII.Samuel Rawson Gardiner[141]
A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society atthe March Meeting of 1902, and printed in the AtlanticMonthly of May, 1902.
VIII.William E. H. Lecky[151]
A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society atthe November Meeting of 1903.
IX.Sir Spencer Walpole[159]
A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society atthe November Meeting of 1907.
[p viii]
X.		John Richard Green[169]
Address at a Gathering of Historians on June 5, 1909, tomark the Placing of a Tablet in the Inner Quadrangle ofJesus College, Oxford, to the Memory of John RichardGreen.
XI.Edward L. Pierce[175]
A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Societyat the October Meeting of 1897.
XII.Jacob D. Cox[183]
A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Societyat the October Meeting of 1900.
XIII.Edward Gaylord Bourne[189]
A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Societyat the March Meeting of 1908.
XIV.The Presidential Office[201]
An Essay printed in Scribner’s Magazine of February, 1903.
XV.A Review of President Hayes’s Administration[243]
Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the GraduateSchool of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, on October8, 1908; printed in the Century Magazine for October,1909.
XVI.Edwin Lawrence Godkin[265]
Lecture read at Harvard University, April 13, 1908; printedin the Atlantic Monthly for September, 1908.
XVII.Who Burned Columbia?[299]
A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Societyat the November Meeting of 1901, and printed in theAmerican Historical Review of April, 1902.
XVIII.A New Estimate of Cromwell[315]
A Paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Societyat the January Meeting of 1898, and printed in the AtlanticMonthly of June, 1898.
Index[325]

[p ix]
HISTORY

President’s Inaugural Address, American Historical Association, Boston, December 27, 1899; printed in the Atlantic Monthly of February, 1900.

[p1]
HISTORICAL ESSAYS

HISTORY[1]

My theme is history. It is an old subject, which has been discoursed about since Herodotus, and I should be vain indeed if I flattered myself that I could say aught new concerning the methods of writing it, when this has for so long a period engaged the minds of so many gifted men. Yet to a sympathetic audience, to people who love history, there is always the chance that a fresh treatment may present the commonplaces in some different combination, and augment for the moment an interest which is perennial.