The War of Independence | Page 3

special points; and
insensibly, without any volition on my part, I suppose, it has been
rather taking the shape of separate monographs. But I hope to go on in
that way until I cover the ground with these separate books,--that is, to
cover as much ground as possible. But, of course, the scheme has
become much more extensive than it was when I started."
Taken in the order of their subjects, the five works already contributed
to this series are, "The Discovery of America, with some Account of
Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest" (two volumes); "Old
Virginia and her Neighbours" (two volumes); "The Beginnings of New
England, or the Puritan Theocracy in its Relations to Civil and
Religious Liberty;" "The American Revolution" (two volumes); and
"The Critical Period of American History, 1783-1789." Allied with
these books, though hardly taking a place in the series, is "Civil
Government in the United States, Considered with some Reference to
its Origins," "The War of Independence," it will thus be seen, is the
least ambitious of all these historical works. "A History of the United
States for Schools" is addressed to the same audience, and in so far may
be considered a companion volume.
What makes Mr. Fiske's histories just what they are? Another step
backward in the stages of his own development will enable us to see,
and the sub-title, "Viewed from the Standpoint of Universal History,"
of one of his earlier books, "American Political Ideas," will help
towards an understanding of his power. It is due to the fact that he

brings to his historical work on special subjects the broad philosophic
and general view of a man who is much more than a specialist,--the
scientific habit of mind which must look for causes when effects are
seen, and must point out the relations between them. There could be no
better preparation for the writing of history than the apparently alien
study of the questions with which the names of Darwin and Spencer are
inseparably associated. When Darwin's "Origin of Species" appeared,
Mr. Fiske's own thought had prepared him to take the place of an ardent
apostle of Evolution, and it is held that no man has done more than he
in expounding the theory in America. Standing permanently for his
work in this field are his books, "Excursions of an Evolutionist" and
"Darwinism, and Other Essays." One of his first important works was
"Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy" (1874), and in more recent years
"The Destiny of Man" and "The Idea of God" speak forth very
distinctly, not as interpretations, but as his own contributions to the
progress of philosophic thought. One other phase of the use to which
Mr. Fiske's mind has been put should surely be mentioned in any
summary of his qualifications for writing histories. He is extremely
fond of hearing and telling good stories. His book on "Myths and
Myth-makers" (1872) gave early evidence of this fondness, and surely
there is the very spirit of the lover of tales in the Dedication of the book,
"To my dear Friend, William D. Howells, in remembrance of pleasant
autumn evenings spent among were-wolves and trolls and nixies." Thus,
besides the ability to see a story in all its bearings, Mr. Fiske has the
gift of telling it effectively,--a golden power without which all the
learning in the world would serve an historian as but so much lead.
But all of these works preceding Mr. Fiske's historical writings did not
come out of nothing. His mental acquirements as a young man and boy
were very extraordinary, and give to the last stage of his career at
which we shall look--the earliest--perhaps the greatest interest of all. A
description of it without a knowledge of what followed would be all too
apt to remind readers whose memories go back far enough of the
instances, all too common, of men whose early promise is not fulfilled.
Summa cum laude graduates settle down into lives of timid routine that
leads to nothing, just as often as the idle dreamers who stay
consistently at the foot of their classes wake up when the vital contact

with the world takes place, and do something astonishingly good.
These, however, are the exceptions. A development like Mr. Fiske's
follows the lines of nature.
Happily, there were books in the house in which he was brought up. At
the age of seven he was reading Rollin, Josephus, and Goldsmith's
Greece. Much of Milton, Pope, and Bunyan, and nearly all of
Shakespeare he had read before he was nine; histories of many lands
before eleven. At this age he filled a quarto blank book of sixty pages
with a chronological table, written from memory, of events between
1000 B. C. and 1820 A. D.
All this would seem enough for one