However important the public services of individuals may be, however entitled to the notice and gratitude of their country, their reputation will lose much of its lustre, or receive additional splendour, from the tenor of their conduct in the different relations of private life. Speculative men may argue, that, if a statesman by his wise counsels, or a general by his military talents, promote the interests and glory of his country, it is of little consequence whether he is moral and virtuous. But such a conclusion is unjust: for men who attain distinction, by becoming objects of imitation, do infinite good or harm in the community to which they belong, by the influence of their example. Few can hope to emulate their higher qualities; but their failings and imperfections are within the reach of every one, and are copied by the lowest, in the belief that they thereby approximate themselves to him whom the public voice has raised to such celebrity. This influence over society renders such persons far more responsible than ordinary men, for every action, and becomes therefore one test by which public characters must be tried. There is, indeed, no way in which we can more satisfactorily confirm our opinion of the superiority of an individual, than by accompanying him into the walks of private life; for we may be assured that no stronger proof of his just title to pre-eminence can be obtained, than his not being intoxicated with his own elevation, and its effecting no alteration in his personal habits, or in the ties of family or of friendship; while, on the other hand, we may pronounce, that he who does not contemplate unchanged and undisturbed his own fame and fortune, is deficient in that simplicity and strength of mind, which are the most essential of all attributes in the composition of a truly great character. If there be justice in these remarks, the general historian even should not lightly pass over the incidents of the private life of those eminent men whose public deeds it is his duty to record; but with the biographer such facts are of essential importance, not only as they develope the character of the subject of his biography, but as they establish or contradict the sincerity and truth of the alleged motives and principles of his public acts. I am very anxious to do justice to this part of my task, which for the sake of perspicuity I have separated from those official details, which have hitherto occupied so much of our attention. I can only hope the reader will experience the same satisfaction that I have had, in escaping for a time from the description of battles, sieges, crimes, and intrigues, to the less brilliant, though more pleasing subject of domestic habits, and the formation and maintenance of those ties of love and friendship which form the bonds of human society.