His living and truthful picture of events.

Fertile as the present age has been in historical works of the highest merit,
none of them can be ranked above these volumes in the grand qualities of interest,
accuracy, and truth.

This noble work.

One of the most fascinating as well as important histories of the century.

The careful study of these volumes will infallibly afford a feast both rich and
rare.

Already takes a rank among standard works of history.

Mr. Motley's prose epic.

Its pages are pregnant with instruction.

We may profit by almost every page of his narrative. All the topics which agitate
us now are more or less vividly presented in the History of the United Netherlands.

Bears on every page marks of the same vigorous mind that produced “The Rise
of the Dutch Republic;” but the new work is riper, mellower, and though equally
racy of the soil, softer flavored. The inspiring idea which breathes through Mr.
Motley's histories and colors the whole texture of his narrative, is the grandeur of
that memorable struggle in the 16th century by which the human mind broke the
thraldom of religious intolerance and achieved its independence.

The name of Motley now stands in the very front rank of living historians. His
Dutch Republic took the world by surprise; but the favorable verdict then given
is now only the more deliberately confirmed on the publication of the continued
story under the title of the History of the United Netherlands. All the nerve,
and power, and substance of juicy life are there, lending a charm to every page.

Motley, indeed, has produced a prose epic, and his fighting scenes are as real,
spirited, and life-like as the combats in the Iliad.

His history is as interesting as a romance, and as reliable as a proposition of Euclid.
Clio never had a more faithful disciple. We advise every reader whose
means will permit to become the owner of these fascinating volumes, assuring him
that he will never regret the investment.

It was once said of a very charming and high-minded woman that to know her
was in itself a liberal education; and we are inclined to set an almost equally
high value on an acquaintance with the writings of “George Eliot.” For those
who read them aright they possess the faculty of educating in its highest sense,
of invigorating the intellect, giving a healthy tone to the taste, appealing to the
nobler feelings of the heart, training its impulses aright, and awakening or developing
in every mind the consciousness of a craving for something higher than
the pleasures and rewards of that life which only the senses realize, the belief in
a destiny of a nobler nature than can be grasped by experience or demonstrated
by argument. On those readers who are able to appreciate a lofty independence
of thought, a rare nobility of feeling, and an exquisite sympathy with the joys
and sorrows of human nature, “George Eliot's” writings can not fail to exert an
invigorating and purifying influence, the good effects of which leaves behind it
a lasting impression.

“George Eliot,” or whoever he or she may be, has a wonderful power in giving
an air of intense reality to whatever scene is presented, whatever character
is portrayed.

She resembles Shakespeare in her power of delineation. It is from this characteristic
action on the part of each of the members of the dramatis personœ that
we feel not only an interest, even and consistent throughout, but also an admiration
for “George Eliot” above all other writers.

Few women—no living woman indeed—have so much strength as “George
Eliot,” and, more than that, she never allows it to degenerate into coarseness.
With all her so-called “masculine” vigor, she has a feminine tenderness, which
is nowhere shown more plainly than in her descriptions of children.

She looks out upon the world with the most entire enjoyment of all the good
that there is in it to enjoy, and with an enlarged compassion for all the ill that
there is in it to pity. But she never either whimpers over the sorrowful lot of
man, or snarls and chuckles over his follies and littlenesses and impotence.

Her acquaintance with different phases of outward life, and the power of analyzing
feeling and the working of the mind, are alike wonderful.

“George Eliot's” novels belong to the enduring literature of our country—
durable, not for the fashionableness of its pattern, but for the texture of its stuff.

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 Republique.

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.