Historic Personality (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ..." Elsewhere, however, he says that " he did not choose they should be published in his lifetime, but had no objection to their appearing after his death." Hence it is that his letters are of less interest than the records of his conversation. For the same reason a diary represents a man's real views better than his letters: it is written for his own use, and is not produced--if it be produced at all--until after his death. The letter-writer, however, in common with the diarist, is unable, as a rule, to perceive the general drift and tendency of the events he relates. He is a witness, or he hears from day to day, of the isolated facts of which he gives an account; he retails the current gossip, with all its exaggerations and all its glosses; he shares the prejudices and the partialities of his circle, and fails to see things in their proper perspective. From premises imperfectly verified he arrives at unsound conclusions. For historical purposes his views and his statements require to be confirmed, if possible, from other sources. Yet, every allowance being made for the effects of self-consciousness or of impulsiveness on the part of the writer, the fact remains that there is scarcely any branch of literature from which so much pleasure is to be derived as from correspondence, and that there is none which enables the reader to enter to the same extent into the spirit of past times. It throws light on the topics of which it treats, on the persons to whom it relates, and on those to whom it is addressed, whilst it illuminates with an even brighter glow the characteristics of the writer. As far as our knowledge of topics and contemporary personages is concerned, some of the most valuable contributions to the record of the world's history are to be...