To those who knew Leslie Stephen best the biography has seemed to be a true and vivid picture of the man; yet the work was undertaken with many misgivings, and gave cause for much anxiety. In the editing of the Year Books Maitland was exercising his own familiar craft, and doing what no other living man could do so well; but the writing of biography was new ground, and Maitland felt uncertain of his powers. The task was rendered more difficult by the depth of Maitland's affection for Stephen, and by his scrupulous anxiety to write down no epithet or adverb which would have seemed to Stephen himself to be excessive. Then there were the thousand and one little questions of taste and judgment which always confront the biographer. Should such a passage be omitted in deference to so and so's feelings? Will such and such a letter, interesting though it be to an intimate friend, commend itself to the chance reader? A man in the full tide of vigour might have shouldered the labour without a twinge of self-criticism, but Maitland, who was very ill and full of a most delicate and sensitive modesty, felt the burden of responsibility. "He is too big for me for one sort of writing and too dear for another," he wrote to a friend; and only when a considerable portion of the book had received the approval of relatives did he begin to experience a sensible measure of relief. The steady appreciation of Miss Caroline Stephen, and some warm words written by Lady Ritchie, brought him peculiar pleasure.