The life of one who for so long a time and in so great a degree enjoyed the favor of his countrymen may be said to belong to the public. The man who has been watched with such eagerness in the fictitious characters of the stage kindles a desire to see him truly in his own. It is proper that the story should be told for the gratification of the natural curiosity of the people, as well as for the sake of the numerous lessons it must inculcate. The lesson of an adventurous and ascending career surmounting severe hardships and obstacles,--the lesson of a varied, fresh, full, racy, and idiosyncratic experience,--the lesson of an extraordinary knowledge of the world, transmuting into consciousness the moral substance of the sphere of humanity,--the lesson of self-respect and force of character resisting the strongest temptations to fatal indulgence,--the lesson of strong faults and errors, not resisted or concealed, but unhappily yielded to, and the bearing of their unavoidable penalties,--the lesson of resolute devotion to physical training developing a frail and feeble child into a man of herculean frame and endurance,--the lesson of talent and ambition patiently employing the means of artistic mental improvement by independent application to truth and nature,--the lesson of a brilliant fortune and position bravely won and maintained,--these and other lessons, besides all those numerous and highly important ones which the theatrical world and the dramatic art in themselves present for the instruction of mankind, have not often been more effectively taught than they may be from the life of Edwin Forrest.