* * * * *
A fitting postlude to Motley’s work as a whole may be found in the last sentence of the United Netherlands. It makes clear the motives other than scholarly and creative which led to the writing of these splendid narratives. Says the historian: ‘If by his labors a generous love has been fostered for that blessing, without which everything that this earth can afford is worthless,—freedom of thought, of speech, and of life,—his highest wish has been fulfilled.’
FOOTNOTES:
[46] O. W. Holmes.
[47] Merry-Mount is more readable than its predecessor. Such characters as Sir Christopher Gardiner and his ‘cousin,’ Thomas Morton with his hawks and his classical quotations, Esther Ludlow and Maudsley, Walford the smith, Blaxton the hermit, together with the human grotesques Peter Cakebread, Bootefish, and Canary-Bird, repay one for the trouble he takes to make their acquaintance.
[48] For a defence of the part played by the Secretary of State in this affair see John Bigelow’s paper entitled ‘Mr. Seward and Mr. Motley,’ in the ‘International Review,’ July-August, 1878.
[49] John Jay: ‘Motley’s Appeal to History,’ in the ‘International Review’ for November-December, 1877.
[50] J. R. Green.
[51] Dutch Republic, i, 162.