Page:Lectures on the French Revolution of John Acton.djvu/396



TIMES. "The treatment is personal, fresh, and original throughout. Lucidity is unfailing. Learning is marshalled behind every paragraph, and almost behind every sentence, and yet is never obtrusive. The lectures are equally adapted to illuminate the scholar and to introduce the novice to the study of the mighty scheme of human affairs in its dynamic flow. The selection of detail is governed by consummate judgment ; and frequently information drawn from sources alien to the matter in hand is dropped into its place with a sureness and precision which astonishes ; controversial questions, when intro- duced, are legitimately brought forward as an illustration of historical method, and not as the diversions and digressions of an overstocked mind."

ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW. "Three hundred years of European history are covered in these nineteen lectures, masterpieces of lucid statement, of suggestive and stimulating criticism. Everywhere, whether the lecturer be sketching the salient features of the sixteenth century or of the eighteenth, whether he be dealing with Italy or America, we feel the sureness of touch of one who is familiar with every detail. Although we may often not agree with his trenchant judgments, with his paradoxes, or even with his inter- pretation of the teaching of history, we are made to feel that his ample know- ledge would never have been at a loss for weighty arguments in answer to every objection."

TRIBUNE. "The pages abound in indispensable corrections of popular and pedagogic errors, and in revelations of new facts. No one could do this so well as Acton, because no historical scholar who ever lived kept himself so well abreast of Continental research or so completely in touch with the world of scholars. All archives were open to him, and all archivists put their knowledge at his disposal ; wealth, social position, and leisure gave him advantages denied to almost every other scholar."