to rise above the force of individual and national 

 prejudice, and preserve a strict impartiality in the 

 parallel characters he described. Who then of us 

 can fail to shrink from the attempt to tread a field 

 of literary adventure, so difficult to cultivate and 

 till? 



If this be true of the delineation of character gene- 

 rally, how much truer is it of the delineation of such 

 a character as Professor ALEXANDER'S ? The truth in 

 his life is more wonderful than fable ; and the mere 

 recital of the facts that made it so memorable has so 

 much the air of romance, that to those who knew not 

 the deceased, it may appear to be either the blind adu- 

 lation of weak friendship, or the coloring of an over- 

 wrought and dreamy imagination. 



Criticism has been levelled against biographers or 

 sketchers of character with all the venom of its 

 nature ; and while it is true, that much of what is 

 called biography is a fair subject of scathing rebuke, 

 on the ground of excessive eulogy, it is not. true that 

 panegyric is reprehensible, or inadmissible, in the 

 etching of the lights and shades of character. It is 

 as often the case, that criticism itself is wanting in 

 just discrimination, and as prone to accept the vaga- 

 ries of its own fancy for fact, as it is, that eulogy is 

 occasionally found to overstep the boundaries of truth. 

 To be justly worthy of censure, the panegyric must be 

 excessive. I do not profess to be above the weak- 

 nesses of our common nature. But I do desire to be 

 truthful. I shall not complain, if I am only judged 

 by my facts, in the estimate I have formed of the 

 deceased. If what I shall say in praise of him be 

 true, and you find, upon reflection, that it is only 

 praise merited, you will not, I am sure, condemn, but 

 rather applaud me for my truth. 



