The Biographical Sketches, that follow next in the order of contents, appear here as the result of a gleaning from old magazines, which was made after Hawthorne's death. Designed to fulfil purposes of the moment, they are of course not to be placed in the same category with the purely literary work which he acknowledged. Nevertheless, the papers upon Mrs. Hutchinson, Sir William Phips, and Sir William Pep perell, are valuable as evidences of the study which he devoted to passages in the history of New England; study largely instrumental in developing that innate knowledge of his native region which gives perennial force to the picture presented in The Scarlet Let ter. The outline of Jonathan Cilley's career shows how active had been his observation of a classmate in college.