Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/844

 820 PEESCOTT of the preceding, born at Pepperell, Aug. 19, 1762, died in Boston, Dec. 8, 1844. He grad- uated at Harvard college in 1783, studied law at Beverly, and practised there from 1787 to 1789, when he removed to Salem, which town he represented for several years in the legis- lature, and was subsequently elected by the federal party a state senator. In 1808 he re- moved to Boston, and in 1809 and for several years afterward was a member of the gov- ernor's council. In 1814 he was a delegate to the Hartford convention, and in 1818 was ap- pointed a judge of the court of common pleas, which office he resigned at the end of a year. He was a delegate to the constitutional con- vention of Massachusetts, his last public office. He received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard college in 1824. IV. William Hiekling, an Amer- ican historian, son of the preceding, born in Salem, Mass., May 4, 1796, died in Boston, Jan. 28, 1859. His mother was the daughter of Thomas Hiekling, for many years United States consul at the Azores. At the age of 12 he removed with his family to Boston ; and he graduated at Harvard college in 1814. In the last year of his student life a classmate play- fully threw at him a crust of bread, which struck one of his eyes, inflicting an injury which deprived the eye of sight except so much as sufficed to distinguish light from dark- ness. Excessive use of the other eye brought on a rheumatic inflammation, which deprived him entirely of sight for some weeks, and left the eye too irritable to be employed in reading for several years. Subsequently for some years he was enabled to use it for many hours of the day, but eventually it again became so weak that during the latter half of his life Mr. Prescott could only read for a few moments at a time, and could scarcely see to write at all. Soon after leaving college he travelled in England, France, and Italy, and resided for several months at Rome and Naples. On his return to Boston after two years' absence, he married and settled for life in his father's family. In 1819 he determined to devote the next ten years to the study of ancient and modern liter- atures, and to give the succeeding ten to the composition of a history. He accordingly ap- plied himself to the study of French and Italian literature, and at one time meditated writing a life of Molire, for which he made an exten- sive collection of materials. This project, and another for the history of Italian literature, he reluctantly abandoned because of the great amount of reading which they involved. Of his studies in this direction the chief fruits were given to the public in a series of essays in the "North American Review " on "Moliere," "Italian Narrative Poetry," and "Poetry and Romance of the Italians," which, with others on kindred topics, were printed in a volume of "Miscellanies" (London and Boston, 1845). About 1825 Mr. Prescott began to study Span- ish literature and history, and selected as the subject of his first work the reign of Ferdi- nand and Isabella. He made at great expense a collection of materials for the illustration of the period in question, including various con- temporary manuscripts, covering the whole ground of the narrative, none of which had been printed, and some of which were little known to Spanish scholars. But when his ma- terials were collected, his eyes, which for a time had been well enough to enable him to read a few hours each day, became worse than ever. He obtained the assistance of a reader, who knew no language but English. " I taught him to pronounce the Oastilian in a manner suited, I suspect, much more to my ear than to that of a Spaniard ; and we began our weari- some journey through Mariana's noble history. I cannot even now call to mind without a smile the tedious hours in which, seated under some old trees in my country residence, we pursued our slow and melancholy way over pages which afforded no glimmering of light to him, and from which the light came dimly strug- gling to me through a half intelligible vocab- ulary. But in a few weeks the light became stronger, and I was cheered by the conscious- ness of my own improvement ; and when we had toiled our way through seven quartos I found I could understand the book when read about two thirds as fast as ordinary English." At a later period Mr. Prescott obtained the ser- vices of a reader acquainted with Spanish and other languages of continental Europe. After more than ten years of labor the " History of Ferdinand and Isabella" was ready for the press. A few copies were privately printed and shown to Mr. Sparks, Mr. Ticknor, and other friends, whose cordial approbation at length encouraged the diffident author to publish the work. It appeared in Boston and London in 1837, in 3 vols. 8vo, was immediately received with great favor, and was soon translated into- German, French, and Spanish ;. and the royal academy of history at Madrid elected the au- thor a corresponding member. Six years of labor were next devoted to the " History of the Conquest of Mexico " (3 vols. 8vo, Lon- don and New York, 1843), and four years to the " Conquest of Peru " (2 vols. 8vo, 1847). These works were received with the highest favor in all parts of the civilized world. Pres- cott was elected a member of nearly all the principal literary bodies in Europe, and in 1845 was made a corresponding member of the in- stitute of France. He received the degree of LL. D. from Columbia college in 1840, and from Harvard in 1843, and that of D. C. L. from Oxford university in 1850. In 1850 he made a short visit to Europe, passing a few months in England, Scotland, and Belgium. After his return he applied himself to the com- position of a history of the reign of Philip II., for which he had made an extensive collection. The first two volumes appeared at Boston in 1855, and the third in 1858. The entire his- tory was intended to comprise six volumes, but was never finished. On Feb. 4, 1858, he