In _Lord Byron and Some of His Contemporaries_ appeared the first biographical memoir of Shelley, a sketch of some seventy pages.[276] It shows great appreciation of the fine and gentle qualities of his rare genius and defends some of the weak points of his career. The description of his personal appearance, of the life at Marlowe, and the few anecdotes are often quoted. But on the whole, it lacks the bold strokes of vivid portraiture and it is very disappointing.[277] There was probably no one, with the exception of his wife, who knew Shelley so well as Hunt and who was, therefore, in a position to give as complete and intimate an idea of him. It was Mrs. Shelley's wish that Hunt should be her husband's biographer, for she thought that he, "perhaps above all others, understood his nature and his genius."[278] Hunt, in _The Spectator_ of August 13, 1859, gave as his reason for not writing Shelley's life that he "could not survive enough persons." But it is to be questioned if he were fitted for the task. His son did not think that he was because of his attention to details and his irresistible tendency to analysis: "a mind, in short, like that of Hamlet, cultivated rather than corrected by the trials of life, was scarcely suited to comprehend the strong instincts, indomitable will, and complete unity of idea which distinguished Shelley."[279] In the _Tatler_ of August 1, 1831, Hunt wrote that "Mr. Shelley was a platonic philosopher, of the acutest and loftiest kind," and that he belonged to the school of Plato and AEschylus, as Keats belonged to that of Spenser and Milton. Following _The Tatler_ was the preface to _The Mask of Anarchy_,[280] published in 1832, originally designed for _The Examiner_ in 1819, but laid aside by the editor because he thought the public not discerning enough "to do justice to the sincerity and kindheartedness of the spirit that walked in this flaming robe of verse." The preface eulogizes the poet's spiritual nature and his "seraphic purpose of good." In _The Seer_, 1841, Shelley's qualities of heart were pronounced more enduring than his genius.[281]