you must be a very able and honest man,
thinking of nothing else day and night; and he adds, "you must also be
a considerable piece of a rogue, having many reticences and
concealments; and I believe a good sort of roguery is never to say a
word against anybody, however much they may deserve it."

Now Professor Jowett has certainly done some good work at Oxford, but
if any one were to say that he also was a considerable piece of a
rogue, what an outcry there would be among the sons of Balliol. Jowett
thought that the only chance of a good biography was for a man to
write memoirs of himself, and what a pity that he did not do so in his
own case. His friends, however, who had to write his Life were wise,
and he escaped what of late has happened to several eminent men. He
escaped the testimonials for this, and testimonials for another life,
such as they are often published in our days.

Testimonials are bad enough in this life, when we have to select one
out of many candidates as best fitted for an office, and it is but
natural that the electors will hardly ever look at them, but will try
to get their information through some other channel. But what are
called _post obit_ testimonials really go beyond everything yet known
in funeral panegyrics. Of course, as no one is asked for such
testimonials except those who are known to have been friends of the
departed, these testimonials hardly ever contain one word of blame.
One feels ashamed to write such testimonials, but if you are asked,
what can you do without giving offence? We are placed altogether in a
false position. Let any one try to speak the truth and nothing but the
truth, and he will find that it is almost impossible to put down
anything that in the slightest way might seem to reflect on the
departed. The mention of the most innocent failings in an obituary
notice is sure to offend somebody, the widow or the children, or some
dear friend. I thought that my Recollections had hitherto contained
nothing that could possibly offend anybody, nothing that could not
have been published during the lifetime of the man to whom it
referred. But no; I had ever so many complaints, and I gladly left
out, in later editions, names which in many cases were really of no
consequence compared with what they said and did.

Surely every man has his faults and his little and often ridiculous
weaknesses, and these weaknesses belong quite as much to a man's
character as his strength; nay,