Chapter 6

Abstract

In October, 1845, appeared the first of his historical writings. It was a fifty page notice of two books in the “North American Review”; one, a work on Russia, and the other, a memoir on the life of Peter the Great. Although this early piece of writing cannot claim much merit either in criticism or historical knowledge, it does show, in his first literary production of importance, that he had already acquired that charm of style and enthusiasm for momentous historical transactions which were later to embellish his great histories. Another article, appearing in the July, 1847 number of the same publication, was on the subject of Balzac.