Historical Briefs

in spite of peculiar drawbacks, has gained already so just renown in the triple pursuits of law, history, and University instruction, deserves to be written out. Many among the thousands who have studied with profit one or another of his books or listened to his class lectures, desire to know something more regarding the methods of work and the personal experience of a scholar whose prodigious industry and productiveness they better apprehend than the actual course of his somewhat secluded life. And there are others who ask information concerning the author's father, ? a prominent figure in American journalism and politics for so many years, and Adjutant-General of Massachusetts through the Civil War, but whose memory since his death has been fading into oblivion. A disposition to gratify such wishes should not be ascribed to personal vanity; but rather to a genuine desire to be helpful. It is not necessarily the most romantic and adventurouslives that call for description. There is room besides for heroic example in the pathway which lies beaten by common travel. The silent power is often found the strong power. Triumph over obstacles remains the theme that most strongly appeals to the human heart; and such triumphs should be the lasting theme of biography. James Schouler, the subject of our present sketch, was born in West Cambridge (now Arlington), Massachusetts, on the 20th of March, 1839, the second of a family of five children, and the oldest son of William... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.