The Prairies. I behold them for the first, And my heart swells while the dilated sight 5 Takes in the encircling vastness. Lo, they stretch In airy undulations, far away, As if the Ocean, in his gentlest swell, Rival the constellations! The great heavens As o'er the verdant waste I guide my steed, Among the high rank grass that sweeps his sides, 36 The hollow beating of his footstep seems That overlook the rivers, or that rise Thus change the forms of being. Thus arise Was hewing the Pentelicus to forms 50 Races of living things, glorious in strength, And perish, as the quickening breath of God Nourished their harvests; here their herds Fills them or is withdrawn. The red man, were fed, too, The roaming hunter tribes, warlike and He rears his little Venice. In these plains fierce, The bison feeds no more: twice twenty leagues And the mound-builders vanished from the earth. The solitude of centuries untold 60 Are here, and sliding reptiles of the ground, A more adventurous colonist than man, 110 To his domestic hum, and think I hear 115 Comes up the laugh of children, the soft voice Of maidens, and the sweet and solemn hymn And I am in the wilderness alone. 1833. TO THE FRINGED GENTIAN Thou blossom bright with autumn dew, And colored with the heaven's own blue, WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT (1796-1859) William Hickling Prescott, grandson of the hero of Bunker Hill, was born at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1796, and was graduated at Harvard College in the class of 1814. An accident in his senior year nearly deprived him of his eyesight and compelled him for the rest of his life to make use of all the expedients open to the blind student. Inheriting ample means, he was enabled to travel extensively abroad, to employ secretaries and research experts and readers, and to follow to the full his scholarly inclinations which all led, as Irving before him had been led, into the fascinating field of Spanish history. His Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, which was the result of eleven years of patient work, appeared in 1837, his History of the Conquest of Mexico in 1843, and his History of the Conquest of Peru in 1847. His uncompleted History of Philip II was published after his death. The writings of Prescott, unlike those of most modern historians, belong distinctively to literature. Like Macaulay's work, they have a distinctive style. Prescott was a transition figure: he rejected the stately pompousness of Gibbon and wrote in simple flowing sentences, yet he must be reckoned to-day with the old rather than with the new. He was not romantic in his interpretation of history; rather was he severely classical, and yet he had all the power of a Scott to make stirring scenes alive and thrilling, and to reproduce the atmosphere of a great event. His works as histories have been superseded: they are, in the light of modern research and modern methods, superficial and wrongly emphasized and unphilosophical; they survive now on account of their literary qualities. RETURN OF COLUMBUS Great was the agitation in the little community of Palos, as they beheld the wellknown vessel of the admiral re-entering 5 their harbor. Their desponding imaginations had long since consigned him to a watery grave; for, in addition to the preternatural horrors which hung over the voyage, they had experienced the most to stormy and disastrous winter within the recollection of the oldest mariners. Most of them had relatives or friends on board. They thronged immediately to the shore to assure themselves with their own eyes 15 of the truth of their return. When they beheld their faces once more, and saw them accompanied by the numerous evidences which they brought back of the success of the expedition, they burst forth 20 in acclamations of joy and gratulation. They awaited the landing of Columbus. when the whole population of the place accompanied him and his crew to the principal church, where solemn thanksgivings were offered up for their return; while every bell in the village sent forth a joyous peal in honor of the glorious event. The admiral was too desirous of 25 presenting himself before the sovereigns, to protract his stay long at Palos. He took with him on his journey specimens of the multifarious products of the newlydiscovered regions. He was accompanied by several of the native islanders, arrayed in their simple barbaric costume, and decorated, as he passed through the principal cities, with collars, bracelets, and other ornaments of gold, rudely fashioned. He exhibited also considerable quantities of the same metal in dust, or in crude masses, numerous vegetable exotics, possessed of aromatic or medicinal virtue, and several kinds of quadrupeds unknown in Europe, and birds whose varieties of gaudy plumage gave a brilliant effect to the pageant. The admiral's progress through the country was everywhere impeded by the multitudes thronging forth to gaze at the extraordinary spectacle, and the more extraordinary man, who, in the emphatic language of that time, which has now lost its force from its familiarity, first revealed the existence of a 'New World.' As he passed through the busy, populous city of Seville, every window, balcony, and housetop, which could afford a glimpse of him, is described to have been 5 crowded with spectators. It was the mid- indeed, the proudest moment in the life of From Ferdinand and Isabella, 1837. QUEEN ISABELLA miliarity; yet the respect which she imposed was mingled with the strongest feelings of devotion and love. She showed great tact in accommodating herself to the peculiar situation and character of those around her. She appeared in arms at the head of her troops, and shrunk from none of the hardships of war. During the reforms introduced into the religious houses, she visited the nunneries in person, taking her needlework with her, and passing the day in the society of the inmates. When traveling in Galicia, she attired herself in the costume of the country, borrowing for that purpose the jewels and other ornaments of the ladies there, and returning them with liberal additions. By this condescending and captivating deportment, as well as by her higher qualities, she gained an ascendency over her turbulent subjects which no king of Spain could ever boast. She spoke the Castilian with much elegance and correctness. She had an easy fluency of discourse, which, though generally of a serious complexion, was occasionally seasoned with agreeable sallies, some of which have passed into proverbs. She was temperate even to abstemiousness in her diet, seldom or never tasting wine, and so frugal in her table, that the daily expenses for herself and family did not exceed the moderate sum of forty ducats. She was equally simple and economical in her apparel. On all public occasions, in35 deed, she displayed a royal magnificence; but she had no relish for it in private; and she freely gave away her clothes and jewels as presents to her friends. Naturally of a sedate, though cheerful temper, she had little taste for the frivolous amusements which make up so much of a court life; and, if she encouraged the presence of minstrels and musicians in her palace, it was to wean her young nobility from the coarser and less intellectual pleasures to which they were addicted. Her person was of the middle height, and well proportioned. She had a clear, fresh complexion, with light blue eyes and auburn hair, a style of beauty exceed- 40 ingly rare in Spain. Her features were regular, and universally allowed to be uncommonly handsome. The illusion which attaches to rank, more especially when united with engaging manners, 45 might lead us to suspect some exaggeration in the encomiums so liberally lavished on her. But they would seem to be in a great measure justified by the portraits that remain of her, which combine a fault- 50 less symmetry of features with singular sweetness and intelligence of expression. Her manners were most gracious and pleasing. They were marked by natural dignity and modest reserve, tempered by 35 an affability which flowed from the kindliness of her disposition. She was the last person to be approached with undue fa Among her moral qualities, the most conspicuous, perhaps, was her magnanimity. She betrayed nothing little or selfish in thought or action. Her schemes were vast, and executed in the same noble spirit in which they were conceived. She never employed doubtful agents or sinister measures, but the most direct and open policy. She scorned to avail herself of advantages offered by the perfidy of others. Where she had once given her confidence, she gave her hearty and steady support; and |