DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53309#0034
WILLIAM SICKLING PRESCOTT,
BORN in Salem, MASSACHUSETTS, May 4th, A. D. 1796.
The subject of this sketch is the son of William Prescott, one of the ablest lawyers and wisest and best men, New
England has produced; and grandson of William Prescott, who commanded our troops on Bnnker Hill. When he
was twelve years old, his family removed to Boston, where he has ever since resided, and where his classical train-
ing, begun in the place of his birth, was continued with success, by the Rev. Br. Gardiner, a scholar of Hr. Parr,
the great English Latinist. In 1811, he entered the Sophomore class in Harvard College, and was graduated there
in 1814, with honors appropriate to his favorite studies, and with a purpose to devote himself to the legal
profession.
Bnt, the misfortune which has done more than any other circumstance to give its coloring and direction to
Mr. Prescott’s life, had already befallen him. Before he was graduated, an accidental blow had completely deprived
him of the sight of one eye, and the natural consequence soon followed. The other was weakened, partly by sympathy,
and partly by the increased amount of labor thrown upon it; and, after a severe illness which happened some months
later, and during which he was entirely blind, he found the sight of this remaining eye impaired so far, that he was
obliged to abandon his professional studies, and give np all the hopes his young ambition had indulged for success in
life as a jurist. The next two years, he spent in Europe, seeking health by travelling in England, France and Italy,
or an improvement of his impaired vision through the skill of the oculists of London and Paris. His health was
strengthened by his journeyings; bnt for the misfortune to his sight he found no relief. Still he was not disheartened.
He had been endowed by Nature with a spirit eminently cheerful and clastic; and when he came hack from his
European excursion, he turned himself at once, and with the most earnest alacrity, to those studies which still lay
within his reach.
His plan was a noble one, and has been nobly carried out. He resolved to become, in the best sense of the
word, a historian. Ten years ho freely and wisely gave to prepare himself for his task, by a course of classical
studies such as he had always loved. He then selected his subject. Having done this, he gave ten years more,
to his History of ‘ Ferdinand and Isabella ;’-one of the few important periods in the affairs of modern Europe that
seemed still to invite the hand of a master. And thus, in 1838, at the age of forty-two,---in the freshness as well
as in the maturity of his genius,---he appeared before the world, as an acknowledged author, by the publication,
both in London and in Boston, of his great work on this great subject. Its success was at no time doubtful. On
both sides of the Atlantic it was received with an unhesitating applause, rare in any case, and most rare where the
claims made arc from their nature so various, and so high; but which, in the present instance, has only been increasing
and strengthening in proportion as the many editions of the original work published in America, France and
17
BORN in Salem, MASSACHUSETTS, May 4th, A. D. 1796.
The subject of this sketch is the son of William Prescott, one of the ablest lawyers and wisest and best men, New
England has produced; and grandson of William Prescott, who commanded our troops on Bnnker Hill. When he
was twelve years old, his family removed to Boston, where he has ever since resided, and where his classical train-
ing, begun in the place of his birth, was continued with success, by the Rev. Br. Gardiner, a scholar of Hr. Parr,
the great English Latinist. In 1811, he entered the Sophomore class in Harvard College, and was graduated there
in 1814, with honors appropriate to his favorite studies, and with a purpose to devote himself to the legal
profession.
Bnt, the misfortune which has done more than any other circumstance to give its coloring and direction to
Mr. Prescott’s life, had already befallen him. Before he was graduated, an accidental blow had completely deprived
him of the sight of one eye, and the natural consequence soon followed. The other was weakened, partly by sympathy,
and partly by the increased amount of labor thrown upon it; and, after a severe illness which happened some months
later, and during which he was entirely blind, he found the sight of this remaining eye impaired so far, that he was
obliged to abandon his professional studies, and give np all the hopes his young ambition had indulged for success in
life as a jurist. The next two years, he spent in Europe, seeking health by travelling in England, France and Italy,
or an improvement of his impaired vision through the skill of the oculists of London and Paris. His health was
strengthened by his journeyings; bnt for the misfortune to his sight he found no relief. Still he was not disheartened.
He had been endowed by Nature with a spirit eminently cheerful and clastic; and when he came hack from his
European excursion, he turned himself at once, and with the most earnest alacrity, to those studies which still lay
within his reach.
His plan was a noble one, and has been nobly carried out. He resolved to become, in the best sense of the
word, a historian. Ten years ho freely and wisely gave to prepare himself for his task, by a course of classical
studies such as he had always loved. He then selected his subject. Having done this, he gave ten years more,
to his History of ‘ Ferdinand and Isabella ;’-one of the few important periods in the affairs of modern Europe that
seemed still to invite the hand of a master. And thus, in 1838, at the age of forty-two,---in the freshness as well
as in the maturity of his genius,---he appeared before the world, as an acknowledged author, by the publication,
both in London and in Boston, of his great work on this great subject. Its success was at no time doubtful. On
both sides of the Atlantic it was received with an unhesitating applause, rare in any case, and most rare where the
claims made arc from their nature so various, and so high; but which, in the present instance, has only been increasing
and strengthening in proportion as the many editions of the original work published in America, France and
17