Historical Literature Of The Later Victorian Period

More than 130 years ago the historian Robertson wrote : "The universal progress of science during the two last Centuries, the art of printing, and other obvious causes, have filled Europe with such a multiplicity of histories and with such a vast collection of historical materials that the term of human life is too short for the study or even the perusal of them." If this was true in his day, how much more true is it at the present time. In spite of all the labor-saving inventions, the historical student is more than ever overwhelmed with the countless issues of the press, the publications of governments, societies, antiquarians and fellow laborers. The result is that for his main work he is compelled to renounce vast ambitions, and to restrict himself to single epochs. In slight essays he may take a rapid survey of great regions or important events apart from his chosen field. The reviews and magazines give ready admission to such sketches and they help to give him necessary practice in writing and supply the needy student with means for his more important work. Hence we have Freeman's "Historical Essays" and Froude's "Short Studies," which are more attractive to the general reader than their more solid work. But the vast learning and minute research which went to form the latter were equally requisite in the former. Still that genius may find a way to accomplish what common sense pronounces impossible, is perhaps proved by the labor of John Richard Green.