Part 12 (1/2)

XXIII

1874-1877 AEt 60-63

DEATH OF MRS MOTLEY--LAST VISIT TO AMERICA--ILLNESS AND DEATH-LADY HARCOURT'S COMMUNICATION

On the last day of 1874, the beloved wife, whose health had for so, was taken from him by death She had been the pride of his happier years, the stay and solace of those which had so tried his sensitive spirit The blow found hi and bodily infirmity, and he never recovered from it Mr Motley's last visit to A several weeks which he passed at Nahant, a seaside resort near Boston, I saw him almost daily He walked feebly and with soreat weight in the right ar had not betrayed any very obvious change, so far as I had noticed in his letters His features and speech ithout any paralytic character His mind was clear except when, as on one or two occasions, he co, and walked a few hts were always tending to revert to the almost worshi+pped companion from whom death had parted him a few months before Yet he could often be led away to other topics, and in talking of them could be betrayed intoand all-pervading grief was not races of her whom he mourned than an evidence of the deeply affectionate nature which in other relations endeared him to so many whose friendshi+p was a title to love and honor

I have now the privilege of once hter, Lady Harcourt

”The harassing work and land], acting on an acutely nervous organization, began the process of under his constitution, of which ere so soon to see the results It was not the least courageous act of his life, that, s under a fresh wound, tired and unhappy, he set his face immediately towards the accoe in January he went to the Hague to begin his researches in the archives for John of Barneveld The Queen of the Netherlands had made ready a house for us, and personally superintended every preparation for his reception We re, and then re old-fashi+oned e library and every do the year of his sojourn The incessant literary labor in an enervating climate with enfeebled health may have prepared the way for the first break in his constitution, which was to show itself soon after There were many coe of constant companionshi+p with one of the warmest hearts and finest intellects which I have ever known in a woman,--the 'aracious sentiht to express her sense of what Holland owed him would have been deeply felt even had her personal friendshi+p been less dear to us all Froue, and the diplomatic circle we had many marks of kindness Once or twice I e of air to Amsterdam, to look for the portraits of John of Barneveld and his wife; to Bohe himself with the Thirty Years' War, he looked carefully at the scene of Wallenstein's death near Prague, and later to Varzin in Poreat events of the Franco-Gerland, partly because it was evident that his health and e; partly for private reasons to be near my sister and her children The day after our arrival at Bournes, without any apparently sufficient cause He recovered enough to revise and coht him better, when at the end of July, in London, he was struck down by the first attack of the head, which robbed hih the intellect remained untouched Sir William Gull sent him to Cannes for the winter, where he was seized with a violent internal inflaain the indication of the lesion of blood-vessels I a the shado,--the time of which I can hardly bear to write You know the terrible sorrohich crushed hirief which broke his heart and from which he never rallied From that day it seems to me that his life

Never for one hour did her spirit leave hi for the short and evil days left and the hope of the life beyond I think I have never watched quietly and reverently the traces of one personal character rely impressed on another nature With herself--depreciation and unselfishness she would have been the last to believe how much of him was in her very existence; nor could we have realized it until the parting came

Henceforward, with the mind still there, but with the machinery necessary to set it in motion disturbed and shattered, he could but try to create small occupations hich to fill the hours of a life which was only valued for his children's sake Kind and loving friends in England and Aratitude for so racious acts is deep and true His love for children, always a strong feeling, was gratified by the constant presence of irl who borethe companion of many hours and his best comforter At the end the blow came swiftly and suddenly, as he would have wished it It was a terrible shock to us who had vainly hoped to keep hier, but at least he was spared what he had dreaded with a great dread, a gradual failure of mental or bodily power The mind was never clouded, the affections never weakened, and after a few hours of unconscious physical struggle he lay at rest, his face beautiful and cal or illness Once or twice he said, 'It has come, it has come,' and there were a few broken words before consciousness fled, but there was little tie coincidence his life ended near the town of Dorchester, in the ht with it a reminiscence of his birthplace, and of his own dearly loved mother By his oish only the dates of his birth and death appear upon his gravestone, with the text chosen by hiht, and in him is no darkness at all'”

XXIV

CONCLUSION--HIS CHARACTER--HIS LABORS--HIS REWARD

In closing this restricted and imperfect record of a life which merits, and in due time will, I trust, receive an ahts which naturally suggest themselves, and some of which may seem quite unnecessary to the reader who has followed the story of the historian and diplomatist's brilliant and eventful career

Mr Motley caifts of enerally to be accounted for, in a measure at least, wherever we find theave him special attractions and laid hi men born to shi+ne in social life, to sparkle, it hter walks of literature, becoent, frivolous, incapable of large designs or sustained effort, lose every aspiration and forget every ideal Our gilded youth want such examples as this of Motley, not a solitary, but a conspicuous one, to teach them how much better is the restlessness of a noble ambition than the narcotized stupor of club-life or the vapid amusement of a dressed-up intercourse which too often requires a questionable flavor of forbidden license to render it endurable to persons of vivacious character and temperament

It would seem difficult for a man so flattered from his earliest days to be modest in his self-estimate; but Motley was never satisfied with himself He was impulsive, and was occasionally, I have heard it said, over excited, when his prejudices were roughly handled In all that related to the questions involved in our civil war, he was, no doubt, very sensitive He had heard so n society which he had expected to be in full syainst slavery, that he ht be excused if he showed i his own countrymen

He felt that he had been cruelly treated by his own governed and insulted isms on the propriety of the liberties which have been taken with his na, his manners were easy and courteous, simply because his nature arm and kindly, and with all his natural fastidiousness there was nothing of the coxcomb about hi individuality are sure to have; his presence castwas a reproach to the ignorant, his fah-bred air and refinement, which he could not help, would hardly cos in which mediocrity is at a premium, and the natural nobility of presence, which rarely comes without fareeable to the many whose two ideals are the man on horseback and the man in his shi+rt-sleeves It rand manner, would be nearly as popular hat are called ”the masses” as Lincoln, with his homely ways and broad stories The experie must render the waters of political and social life more or less turbid even if they rele its contents with the strea froo so far as one of our well-known politicians has recently gone in saying that no great overnment, but we can safely say that, apart from military fame, the loftiest and purest and finest personal qualities are not those which can be e stories are told of avowed opposition to Mr Motley on the ground of the most trivial differences in point of taste in personal matters,--so told that it is hard to disbelieve theht belonged exclusively to absolute rulers a their reat people which calls itself self-governing It is perfectly true that Mr Motley did not illustrate the popular type of politician He was too high-enerously industrious, too polished, too hest European circles, too much courted for his personal fascinations, too rerade him, so far as official capital punish one who it to the world in the fairest flower of its young civilization, but it was an indignity to a representative of the highest scholarshi+p of native grohich every student in the land felt as a discourage and noble ambition

If he was disappointed in his diploh, to console him in his brilliant literary triumphs He had earned them all by the most faithful and patient labor If he had not the ”frame of adamant” of the Swedish hero, he had his ”soul of fire” No labors could tire hiht hi ed, continuous capacity for work We have seen hat astonishment the old Dutch scholar, Groen van Prinsterer, looked upon a man who had wrestled with authors like Bor and Van Meteren, who had grappled with the iblehisease and stirring vitality His views may have been more or less partial; Philip the Secondbenevolence of poor Maximilian; Maurice may have wept as sincerely over the errors of Arminius as any one of ”the crocodile crew that believe in election;” Barneveld and Grotius s seem probable, but if they were all proved true in opposition to his viee should still have the long roll of glowing tapestry he has woven for us, with all its life-like portraits, its ales where we can see the artillery flashi+ng, its battle-fields with their smoke and fire,--pictures which cannot fade, and which will preserve his na colors

Republics are said to be ungrateful; it ive those who have wronged theood service But History never forgets and never forgives To her decision we may trust the question, whether the warm-hearted patriot who had stood up for his country nobly and reat scholar and writer who had reflected honor upon her throughout the world of letters, the high-enuity of experts to h to be presentable, was treated as such a citizen should have been dealt with His record is safe in her hands, and his memory will be precious always in the hearts of all who enjoyed his friendshi+p

APPENDIX

A

THE SAturdAY CLUB

This club, of which ere both , came into existence in a very quiet sort of way at about the sah entirely unconnected with that azine, included as ht have been s in its earlier days I felloell, Motley, Whipple, Whittier; Professors Agassiz and Peirce; John S Dwight; Governor Andrew, Richard H Dana, Junior, Charles Suences, and the s were noteworthy occasions

If there was not a certain a soreat pity, and iely endowed The vitality of this club has depended in a great measure on its utter poverty in statutes and by-laws, its entire absence of for