Excerpt from Pleasant Hours With Illustrious Men and Women: With Many Personal Reminiscences There are few studies more interesting, and none more in structive, than the study of biography. Horace Mann says Biography, especially the biography of the great and good. Who have risen by their own exertions from poverty and obscurity to eminence and usefulness, is an inspiring and ennobling study. Lts direct tendency is to reproduce the excel lence it records. A greater thinker still-thomas Carlyle says Biography is the most universal] y pleasant, and the most universally profitable of all reading. In the study of a man's life we find principles in action, and great truths translated into character. The drama of a man's life - the tragic, the comic and the pathetic. Playing their parts in the shifting scenes - is not only an enchanting study, but it is by this study alone that we can become well informed in the philosophy of life. If we would understand what heroism is, we must study the lives of heroic men and women. A living patriot will teach us more of patriotism than a thousand books. Men are growing wise enough to know that the only way to get a good understanding of Christianity is to study the life of Jesus Christ. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.