Excerpt from The Seven Ages of Washington: A Biography To an invitation from the University of Pennsylvania this book is due. The Washington orator chosen for 1907 found himself at a late hour compelled to renounee his task, and this honor fell from him upon me. Saving its seheme, little of the speeeh remains; English meant for the ear of an audience dsrs in fibre from English meant for the eye of a reader; besides this, the limit of an address shuts out muth that belongs to the subjeet. I had hoped to write this book short enough to be read in one comfortable sitting; such brevity has proved beyond my skill. I have attempted a full-length portrait of Washington, with enough of his times to see him elearly against; for this, his own writings, so admirably edited by Mr. Worthington Chauneey Ford in fourteen volumes, are the material. My other authorities are noted in a table at the end. Certain aneedotes, not before given to the pub/it, are due to the kindness of friends and to some privately published memoirs. Many things that. 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.