"
Plutarch, himself justifies his method of portraiture by averring
that his design was not to write histories, but lives. "The most
glorious exploits," he says, "do not always furnish us with the
clearest discoveries of virtue or of vice in men. Sometimes a
matter of much less moment, an expression or a jest, better
informs us of their characters and inclinations than battles with
the slaughter of tens of thousands, and the greatest arrays of
armies or sieges of cities. Therefore, as portrait-painters are
more exact in their lines and features of the face and the
expression of the eyes, in which the character is seen, without
troubling themselves about the other parts of the body, so I must
be allowed to give my more particular attention to the signs and
indications of the souls of men; and while I endeavour by these
means to portray their lives, I leave important events and great
battles to be described by others."
Things apparently trifling may stand for much in biography as well
as history, and slight circumstances may influence great results.
Pascal has remarked, that if Cleopatra's nose had been shorter,
the whole face of the world would probably have been changed. But
for the amours of Pepin the Fat, the Saracens might have overrun
Europe; as it was his illegitimate son, Charles Martel, who
overthrew them at Tours, and eventually drove them out of France.
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