Memoirs of Waukesha County. From the earliest historical times to the present with chapters on various subjects, including each of the different towns, and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families in the county, prepared from data obtained from original sources of information.

              INTRODUCTORY   SKETCH
BY THE EDITOR.
The aspects of history are as various as those of the language of nature, to which the poet Bryant calls attention at the beginning of **Thanatopsis."
Doubtless many read history with the single object of entertain- inent; and so great a historian as Lord Macaulay endeavored to ad¬ just his work to the requirements of such readers. It should be so written, he claimed, as to be preferred by the average reader to the latest novel. For some time he seemed to have succeeded in tiie at¬ tainment of that object, but the course of events has demonstrated the error of his calculation. •By the mere lapse of time since its appearance^ Macaulay's great fragment of English history has lost its most pow¬ erful attraction, and is no longer to be seen in the boudoir of the young lady, or among the indispensable volumes carried to pleasure resorts by the summer tourist, except in very rare instances. As with matters of dress or of house furniture, the popular taste in literature is for novelty rather than for substantial qualities, with whatever per¬ fection of art any specified work may have been presented to the public* Comparatively few readers of the present day are aware of any material differences in the works of such distinguished writers of the annals of their country as Herodotus and Thucydides. Both are generally thought of as back numbers and therefore not worth attention.
But to the fortunate lover of entertaining reading who actually be¬ gins the perusal of Herodotus there are sources of intellectual delight to be found in almost every chapter. To the earnest explorer of im¬ portant facts, on the other hand, the pages of Thucydides are found more satisfactory. Even among comparatively recent historical writers, it is doubtful if any considerable proportion of the reading public is aware of the charm of Fronde's story of England under Henry VIII. and his children, as distinguished from the severer and probably more accurate delineation of Dr. Nares in his ponderous treatise on the times of Lord Burleigh.
There are students as well as writers whose prejudices have much to do with their enjoyment of what is brought to their attention. If such a person undertakes to read an account of the details of Na¬ poleon's career, for instance, he is supremely disgusted with whatever contradicts, or is inconsistent with, his preconceived views, whether adulatory or the reverse.
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