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PARKMAN, FRANCIS (1823-1893)

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 833 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PARKMAN, See also:FRANCIS (1823-1893) , See also:American historian, was See also:born in See also:Boston on the 16th of See also:September 1823. His See also:great-grandfather, Ebenezer Parkman, a See also:graduate of Harvard in 1721, was for nearly sixty years See also:minister of the Congregational See also:Church in Westborough, and was noted for his devotion to the study of See also:history. One of this See also:good clergyman's sons, See also:Samuel Parkman, became an eminent See also:merchant in Boston, and exhibited much skill in See also:horticulture. Samuel's son, Francis Parkman, a graduate of Harvard in 1807, was one of the most eminent of the Boston clergymen, a See also:pupil and friend of See also:Channing, and noted among Unitarians for a broadly tolerant disposition. This Dr See also:Park-See also:man, a man of rare sagacity and exquisite See also:humour, was the See also:father of Francis Parkman, the historian. His See also:mother was a descendant of the celebrated See also:John See also:Cotton. She was the daughter of Nathaniel See also:Hall of See also:Medford, member of a See also:family which was represented in the See also:convention that framed the constitution of See also:Massachusetts in 1780. Francis Parkman was the eldest of her six See also:children. As a boy his See also:health was delicate, so that it was thought best for him to spend much of his See also:time at his grandfather Hall's See also:home in Medford rather than in the See also:city. That home was situated on the border of the See also:Middlesex Fells, a rough and rocky woodland, 4000 acres in extent, as See also:wild and See also:savage in many places as the primeval See also:forest. The See also:place is within 8 m. of Boston, and it may be doubted if anywhere else can be found anothersuch magnificent piece of See also:wilderness so near to a great city. There See also:young Parkman spent his leisure See also:hours in See also:collecting eggs, See also:insects and See also:reptiles, trapping squirrels and woodchucks, and See also:shooting birds with arrows.

This breezy See also:

life saved him from the artificial stupidity which; is too often superinduced in boys by their school training. At the See also:age of fourteen Parkman began to show a strong See also:taste for See also:literary See also:composition. In 1841, while a student at Harvard, he made a rough See also:journey of exploration in the See also:woods of See also:northern New See also:Hampshire, where he had a taste of See also:adventure slightly spiced with hardship. About this time he made up his mind to write a history of the last See also:French See also:war in See also:America, which ended in the See also:conquest of See also:Canada, and some time afterwards he enlarged the See also:plan so as to include the whole course of the American conflict between See also:France and Great See also:Britain; or, to use his own words, " The history of the American forest; for this was the See also:light in which I regarded it. My theme fascinated me, and I was haunted with wilderness images See also:day and See also:night." The way in which true See also:genius See also:works could not be more happily described. In the course of 1842 an attack of illness led to his making a journey in See also:Italy, where he spent some time in a monastery belonging to one of the strictest of all the monastic orders, the Passionists, brethren addicted to wearing See also:hair shirts and scourging themselves without See also:mercy. In the young historian's eyes these good brethren were of much value as living and breathing historic material. In 1844 he graduated at Harvard with high See also:rank. He now made up his mind to study the real wilderness in its gloom and vastness, and to meet See also:face to face the dusky warriors of the See also:Stone Age. To-day such a thing can hardly be done within the See also:United States, for nowhere does the See also:primitive wilderness exist See also:save here and there in shreds and patches. So recently as the See also:middle of the 19th See also:century, however, it covered the western See also:half of the See also:continent, and could be reached by a journey of 1600 or 1700 See also:miles from Boston to the plains of See also:Nebraska. Parkman had become an See also:adept in woodcraft and a dead shot with the See also:rifle, and could do such things with horses, tame or wild, as civilized See also:people never see done except in a See also:circus.

In See also:

company with his friend and classmate, Mr See also:Quincy See also:Shaw, he passed several months with the Ogillalah See also:band of See also:Sioux. Knowledge, intrepidity and tact carried Parkman through these experiences unscathed, and good See also:luck kept him clear of encounters with hostile See also:Indians, in which these qualities might not have sufficed to avert destruction. It was a very important experience in relation to his life-See also:work. This outdoor life, however, did not suffice to recruit Parkman's health, and by 1848, when he began See also:writing The See also:Conspiracy of See also:Pontiac, he had reached a truly pitiable See also:condition. The trouble seems to have been some See also:form of See also:nervous exhaustion, accompanied with such hyper-sensitiveness of the eyes that it was impossible to keep them open except in a dark See also:room. Against these difficulties he struggled with characteristic obstinacy. He invented a See also:machine which so supported his See also:hand that he could write legibly with closed eyes. Books and documents were read aloud to him, while notes were made by him with eyes shut, and were after-wards deciphered and read aloud to him till he had mastered them. After half an See also:hour his strength would give out, and in these circumstances his See also:rate of composition for a See also:long time averaged scarcely six lines a day. The superb See also:historical mono-graph composed under such difficulties was published in 1851. It had but a small See also:sale, as the American public was then too ignorant to feel much See also:interest in American history. Undeterred by this inhospitable reception, Parkman took up at the beginning his great work on France and See also:England in the New See also:World, to which the See also:book just mentioned was in reality the sequel.

This work obliged him to trace out, collect, arrange, and See also:

digest a great See also:mass of incongruous material scattered on both sides of the See also:Atlantic, a large portion of which was in See also:manuscript, and required much tedious exploration and the employment of trained copyists. This work involved several journeys to See also:Europe, and was performed with a thoroughness approaching finality. In 1865 the first See also:volume of the great work appeared, under the See also:title of Pioneers of France in the New World; and then seven-and-twenty years more elapsed before the final volumes came out in 1892. Nowhere can we find a better See also:illustration of the French critic's See also:definition of a great life—a thought conceived in youth, and realized in later years. After the Pioneers the sequence is The See also:Jesuits in See also:North America, La Salle and the See also:Discovery of the Great See also:West, The Old Regime in Canada, Frontenac and New France and See also:Louis XIV., Montcalm and See also:Wolfe, A Half Century of Conflict. As one obstacle after another was surmounted, as one See also:grand See also:division of the work after another became an accomplished fact, the effect upon Parkman's condition seems to have been bracing, and he acquired fresh impetus as he approached the See also:goal. There can be little doubt that his See also:physical condition was much improved by his See also:habit of cultivating See also:plants in See also:garden and conservatory. He was a horticulturist of profound attainments, and himself originated several new varieties of See also:flowers. His work in this See also:department made him an enthusiastic adherent of the views of See also:Darwin. He was See also:professor of horticulture in the agricultural school of Harvard in 1871-1872, and published a few books on the subject of gardening. He died at See also:Jamaica See also:Plain, near Boston, on the 8th of See also:November 1893• The significance of Parkman's work consists partly in the success with which he has depicted the North-American Indians, those belated children of the Stone Age, who have been so persistently misunderstood alike by romancers, such as See also:Cooper, and by detractors like Dr See also:Palfrey. Parkman was the first great literary author who really understood the See also:Indian's See also:character and motives.

Against this savage background of the forest Parkman shows the rise, progress and dramatic termination of the See also:

colossal struggle between France and Great Britain for colonial See also:empire. With true philosophic insight he shows that France failed. in the struggle not because of any inferiority in the ability and character of the men to whom the work was entrusted, but chiefly by See also:reason of her despotic and protective regime. There is no more eloquent commentary upon the whole-some results of See also:British self-See also:government than is to be found in Parkman's book. But while the author deals with history philosophically, he does not, like See also:Buckle, hurl at the reader's See also:head huge generalizations, or, like See also:Carlyle, preach him into somnolence. With all its manifold instructiveness, his book is a narrative as entertaining as those of See also:Macaulay or See also:Fronde. In judicial impartiality Parkman may be compared with See also:Gardiner, and for accuracy of learning with See also:Stubbs. There is a good Life by G. H. See also:Farnham (Boston, 1900). (J.

End of Article: PARKMAN, FRANCIS (1823-1893)

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