Lincoln, Lee, Grant, and Other Biographical Addresses (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Lincoln, Lee, Grant, and Other Biographical Addresses

Sir James Stephen wrote some sixty years ago, "A chain of splendid biographies constitutes the history of past centuries." Well-nigh inevitably, as we turn our eyes backward, our search is for the men in whom their time had its fullest embodiment. Our feeling is that a period is best studied in its leaders, whether we think they made it or were the product of it. Through human sympathies we gather our best understanding of events. Doubtless this habit may lead us astray, in respect of details, but it fastens attention upon large outlines securely. Biographical studies do not, indeed, attract all minds alike, nor always proportionately to their real merit. With some it is the fashion to belittle their usefulness. It has been said that every biography must be unsatisfying to those who loved the subject of it, and misleading to others. So much of life cannot be recorded; so little of it appears in the spoken word, or the outward act, or even in the written lines. Those without the love do not apprehend the rich significance of a life; those who loved must keep their secret. It is beyond their power to impart it. In this we may recognize much truth, and yet now and then a biography belies it, and finds for itself a way into the hearts of multitudes, enlightening and quickening their interest in life and stirring laudable aspirations for which the world becomes the better.

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