Men of strong knees, of
good eyes, and of brains that do not keep them from sleep by night or from
work by day, have travelled over this same field, but of most that they
gathered it may be said: "To no such aureate earth 'tis turned as, buried
once, men want dug up again."
I have sat for days in the Harvard University Library among the books
bequeathed to it by Parkman (being the greater part of the library which
surrounded him in his work--books of history, of travel, and of biography;
books about Indians, flints, and folk-lore; maps and guides-among them
several guides to Paris--only twenty-five hundred volumes in all); but
they are not the material of his magic. His work was not legerdemain,
skilful manipulation, but recreation, and he found the aureate earth in
the forests, on the prairies, and in documents contemporary to his theme.
In a cabinet (bearing in its carving suggestions of the fleur-de-lis) in
the rooms of the Massachusetts Historical Society, I found some of this
precious material, also bequeathed by the historian.
Pages:
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599