Excerpt from Human Documents: Portraits and Biographies of Eminent Men

This I believe to be at the bottom Of even our insatiate modern eagerness to know the best and the worst Of our contemporaries; it is simply to find out how far their behavior squares with their words and position. We seldom stop to get the best point Of view, either in friendly talk or in a sober effort, to notice the growth Of character, or, in the widest way, to comprehend the traits and influence Of a man Whose life in any way affects our own.

Now and then, in an Old picture gallery, one comes upon the grouped portraits of a great soldier, or man of letters, or some fine lady whose character still lifts itself into View above the dead level of feminine con formity which prevailed in her time. The blurred pastel, the cracked and dingy can vas, the delicate brightness of a miniature which bears touching signs of wear - from these we piece together a whole life's his tory. Here are the impersonal baby face; the domineering glance of the schoolboy, lord of his dog and gun; the wan-visaged student who was just beginning to confront the serried ranks of those successes which conspired to hinder him from his duty and the fulfilment Of his dreams; here is the mature man, with grave reticence of look and a proud sense Of achievement and at last the Older and vaguer face, blurred and pitifully conscious of fast waning powers. As they hang in a row they seem to bear mute witness to all the successes and failures of a life.

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