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Great, indeed, is the human interest felt in biography! What are
all the novels that find such multitudes of readers, but so many
fictitious biographies? What are the dramas that people crowd to
see, but so much acted biography? Strange that the highest genius
should be employed on the fictitious biography, and so much
commonplace ability on the real!
Yet the authentic picture of any human being's life and experience
ought to possess an interest greatly beyond that which is
fictitious, inasmuch as it has the charm of reality. Every person
may learn something from the recorded life of another; and even
comparatively trivial deeds and sayings may be invested with
interest, as being the outcome of the lives of such beings
as we ourselves are.
The records of the lives of good men are especially useful. They
influence our hearts, inspire us with hope, and set before us
great examples. And when men have done their duty through life in
a great spirit, their influence will never wholly pass away. "The
good life," says George Herbert, "is never out of season."
Goethe has said that there is no man so commonplace that a wise
man may not learn something from him. Sir Walter Scott could not
travel in a coach without gleaning some information or discovering
some new trait of character in his companions. (3) Dr. Johnson
once observed that there was not a person in the streets but he
should like to know his biography--his experiences of life, his
trials, his difficulties, his successes, and his failures.
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