that he was a Trinitarian, and so forth. But we know almost as
little with respect to many men of comparatively modern times.
Thus, how little do we know of the lives of Spenser, author of
'The Faerie Queen,' and of Butler, the author of 'Hudibras,'
beyond the fact that they lived in comparative obscurity, and died
in extreme poverty! How little, comparatively, do we know of the
life of Jeremy Taylor, the golden preacher, of whom we should like
to have known so much!

The author of 'Philip Van Artevelde' has said that "the world
knows nothing of its greatest men." And doubtless oblivion has
enwrapt in its folds many great men who have done great deeds, and
been forgotten. Augustine speaks of Romanianus as the greatest
genius that ever lived, and yet we know nothing of him but his
name; he is as much forgotten as the builders of the Pyramids.
Gordiani's epitaph was written in five languages, yet it sufficed
not to rescue him from oblivion.

Many, indeed, are the lives worthy of record that have remained
unwritten. Men who have written books have been the most
fortunate in this respect, because they possess an attraction for
literary men which those whose lives have been embodied in deeds
do not possess. Thus there have been lives written of Poets
Laureate who were mere men of their time, and of their time only.
Dr. Johnson includes some of them in his 'Lives of the Poets,'
such as Edmund Smith and others, whose poems are now no longer
known. The lives of some men of letters--such as Goldsmith,
Swift, Sterne, and Steele--have been written again and again,
whilst great men of action, men of science, and men of industry,
are left without a record. (11)