George Washington Greene

“ The history of the American war of independence has not yet taken the place which belongs to it in historical literature. Its causes, its actor's, and its events invest it with an interest for the statesman, for the philosopher, and for the lover of picturesque narrative which has never been surpassed. It is a great prose epic, with heroes whom we can love and revere, whose marvelous truths exceed the boldest inventions of fiction. ”

“ In the first decade of the present century one of the most attractive saloons of Paris was the saloon of a lady whom, out of reverence for the memory of her father, Italians loved to call Madame Beccaria, although she was already the mother of Alessandro Manzoni. ”