University of Virginia Library

We regard this work as the best contribution to modern history that has yet
been made by an American.

The “History of the Dutch Republic” is a great gift to us; but the heart and
earnestness that beat through all its pages are greater, for they give us most
timely inspiration to vindicate the true ideas of our country, and to compose an
able history of our own.

This work bears on its face the evidences of scholarship and research. The
arrangement is clear and effective; the style energetic, lively, and often brilliant.
* * * Mr. Motley's instructive volumes will, we trust, have a circulation commensurate
with their interest and value.

To the illustration of this most interesting period Mr. Motley has brought the
matured powers of a vigorous and brilliant mind, and the abundant fruits of patient
and judicious study and deep reflection. The result is, one of the most
important contributions to historical literature that have been made in this country.

We would conclude this notice by earnestly recommending our readers to procure
for themselves this truly great and admirable work, by the production of
which the auther has conferred no less honor upon his country than he has won
praise and fame for himself, and than which, we can assure them, they can find
nothing more attractive or interesting within the compass of modern literature.

It is not often that we have the pleasure of commending to the attention of the
lover of books a work of such extraordinary and unexceptionable excellence as
this one.

There are an elevation and a classic polish in these volumes, and a felicity of
grouping and of portraiture, which invest the subject with the attractions of a
living and stirring episode in the grand historic drama.

The author writes with a genial glow and love of his subject.

Mr. Motley is a sturdy Republican and a hearty Protestant. His style is lively
and picturesque, and his work is an honor and an important accession to our
national literature.

Mr. Motley's work is an important one, the result of profound research, sincere
convictions, sound principles, and manly sentiments; and even those who are
most familiar with the history of the period will find in it a fresh and vivid addition
to their previous knowledge. It does honor to American literature, and
would do honor to the literature of any country in the world.

A serious chasm in English historical literature has been (by this book) very
remarkably filled. * * * A history as complete as industry and genius can make
it now lies before us, of the first twenty years of the revolt of the United Provinces.
* * * All the essentials of a great writer Mr. Motley eminently possesses.
His mind is broad, his industry unwearied. In power of dramatic description
no modern historian, except, perhaps, Mr. Carlyle, surpasses him, and in analysis
of character he is elaborate and distinct.

It is a work of real historical value, the result of accurate criticism, written
in a liberal spirit, and from first to last deeply interesting.

The style is excellent, clear, vivid, eloquent; and the industry with which
original sources have been investigated, and through which new light has been
shed over perplexed incidents and characters, entitles Mr. Motley to a high rank
in the literature of an age peculiarly rich in history.

It abounds in new information, and, as a first work, commands a very cordial
recognition, not merely of the promise it gives, but of the extent and importance
of the labor actually performed on it.

Mr. Motley's “History” is a work of which any country might be proud.

Mr. Motley's History will be a standard book of reference in historical literature.

Mr. Motley has searched the whole range of historical documents necessary to
the composition of his work.

This is really a great work. It belongs to the class of books in which we
range our Grotes, Milmans, Merivales, and Macaulays, as the glories of English
literature in the department of history. * * * Mr. Motley's gifts as a historical
writer are among the highest and rarest.

Mr. Motley's volumes will well repay perusal. * * * For his learning, his liberal
tone, and his generous enthusiasm, we heartily commend him, and bid him good
speed for the remainer of his interesting and heroic narrative.

The story is a noble one, and is worthily treated. * * * Mr. Motley has had the
patience to unravel, with unfailing perseverance, the thousand intricate plots of
the adversaries of the Prince of Orange; but the details and the literal extracts
which he has derived from original documents, and transferred to his pages,
give a truthful color and a picturesque effect, which are especially charming.

M. Lothrop Motley dans son magnifique tableau de la formation de notre République.

Our accomplished countryman, Mr. J. Lothrop Motley, who, during the last
five years, for the better prosecution of his labors, has established his residence
in the neighborhood of the scenes of his narrative. No one acquainted with the
fine powers of mind possessed by this scholar, and the earnestness with which he
has devoted himself to the task, can doubt that he will do full justice to his important
but difficult subject.

The production of such a work as this astonishes, while it gratifies the pride
of the American reader.

The “Rise of the Dutch Republic” at once, and by acclamation, takes its
place by the “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” as a work which, whether
for research, substance, or style, will never be superseded.

A work upon which all who read the English language may congratulate
themselves.

Mr. Motley's place is now (alluding to this book) with Hallam and Lord Mahon,
Alison and Macanlay in the Old Country, and with Washington Irving,
Prescott, and Bancroft in this.

The authority, in the English tongue, for the history of the period and people
to which it refers.

This work at once places the author on the list of American historians which
has been so signally illustrated by the names of Irving, Prescott, Bancroft, and
Hildreth.

The work is a noble one, and a most desirable acquisition to our historical literature.

Such a work is an honor to its author, to his country, and to the age in which
it was written.