accomplished and sagacious
Montaigne, speaking in raptures, upon the same subject, says "Plutarch
is the writer after my own heart, and Suetonius is another, the like of
whom we shall never see."

As a master key to the study of the human heart, the biographical
account of particular individuals is infinitely superior to history.
History, in fact, is not a just picture of man and nature, but a
registry of prominent actions which derive conspicuity from their name,
place, and date, while the inward nature of the agent, the secret
springs, the slow and silent causes of those actions, being left
unnoticed and undistinguished, remain forever unknown. The man himself
is seen only here and there, and now and then, and lies hidden from
view, except in those points in which his conduct is connected with
those actions. But biography follows him from his public exhibition into
his private retreat, haunts him in his closet concealments, accompanies
him through his house, where his desires, passions, irregularities,
vices, virtues, foibles, and follies take their full swing--sits by his
fireside--watches for his unsuspecting, unguarded moments,--catches and
lays up all the ebullitions of his heart, when it is freed from all
restraint by domestic confidence--scans all his expressions when he is
mixing in free social converse with his friends and family, and thus
penetrates into his heart--detects every secret emotion of the man's
soul, even when he thinks himself most effectually concealed, and in
every glance of his eye, every whisper, every unpremeditated act and
expression, dives to the very bottom of his designs and brings up his
real character.

In the regulation of life, therefore, or the improvement of moral
sentiment, little benefit is to be derived from a knowledge of the
events of history, the subjects of which are so far removed from the
ordinary business of the world, that they seldom address a salutary
example to the heart or understanding--seldom present an action in any
way applicable to the ordinary transactions of the world, or which men
in general can hope or wish to imitate, and which are therefore read
with comparative indifference, and passed by without improvement, while
biography conveys the best instruction for the conduct of life, by a
happy mixture of precept and example.

Doctor Johnson has, in some of his writings, given it as his opinion
that "a life has rarely passed, of which a judicious and faithfu