Page:Principles of Biography.djvu/60

 findings. A Frenchman has said that the features of Alexander ought only to he preserved by the chisel of Apelles. The admonition implies that magnitude in a career demands corresponding eminence in the biographer. No doubt the ideal partnership is there indicated. But like all counsels of perfection, this ideal union shrinks from realization. Did the precept prevail, the field, of biography would be very circumscribed and few biographers would find employment. It is more workaday counsel, to bid the biographer avoid unfit themes and to treat fit themes with scrupulous accuracy, with perfect frankness, with discriminating sympathy and with resolute brevity. Not otherwise is one of ordinary "clay likely to minister worthily to the commemorative instinct of his fellow men and to transmit to an after-age a memorable personality.