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by Robert Stuart MacArthur (Introduction by), Silas Xavier Floyd (Author)
There is no species of literary composition more difficult that the writing of a good biography. Biographers are under a great temptation at times to create, or at least to magnify, the virtues of their subjects; and the temptation is not less on other occasions to deny, or greatly to minify, their vices. The biographies of Holy Scripture are models of biographical literary production Inspired writers neither extenuate the defects nor magnify the excellencies of their subjects; extenuating nothing on the one hand, they do not, on the other, set down aught in malice. The excellence of the inspired writings in this regard differentiates them from the uninspired writings of any country or century. But while to biographize is a confessedly difficult task, it is at the same time universally admitted to be a form of literary production of great value, when properly executed. A biography is generally understood to be the history of the life, actions and character of a particular person; it is that form of history proper whose subject is described in the facts and events of his individual experience. Carlyle, in his "Sartor Resartus," says: "Biography is by nature the most universally profitable, universally pleasant of all things." He also elsewhere says: "There is no heroic poem in the world but is at bottom a biography, the life of a man." He has frequently expressed the idea that history is biographythat the history of any nation is the story of the lives of its great men. In a profound sense this statement is literally true. We thus see that peculiar ability is required accurately to write the life of any representative man. His forbears for many generations ought to be accurately known; his environment, in all its essential characteristics, ought to be thoroughly mastered. The times partly make men, and men partly make their time; each acts and reacts upon the other. Neither can be exhaustively described independent of the other. The difficulty of writing good biographies is so great that comparatively few great biographies have been written. All the world is familiar with the unique biography of Johnson by Boswell. It has excited hearty laughter, while it has imparted valuable information. Lockhart's Life of Scott and Lady Holland's Life of Sydney Smith, fill almost a unique place in biographical literature. G. Otto Trevelyan's Life of Lord Macaulay and Hallam Tennyson's Life of his father are among the more recent and valuable illustrations of the biographical literature of modern times.
