Excerpt from John Wellborn Root: A Study of His Life and Work We have sympathized with sorrow, - you and I and all of us. But which of us has the rarer gift of sympathy with joy? And so who will listen while I try to tell the story of a joyous life? It may be that I cannot tell it. My heart fails here at the outset of the journey, when I remember the swift grace of this man's walk through life, and resolve to stumble on where he trod with lightness. The flowers whose seeds he scattered lavishly by the wayside may wither in my hands, and my garland prove but a poor tribute. And though I could pluck and wreathe them at sunrise, and give them to immortality with the morning dews still fresh upon them, yet even then must I acknowledge that these were but the bounty of a rich nature, and that the best was never given to the world. For certain men of genius live more for life than for art, and often fate indulges this secret preference of the soul by the tribute of scant opportunity and early death. Of such men, when they are gone, it is almost futile to speak the truth. The essence of their lives is as subtle as perfume; it passes like the song of a bird. Perhaps it would be better that none should attempt to preserve it that we should intrust it to the magnanimity of Nature, as we intrust the mysteries of color and sound, sure that, though light yield to darkness and music to silence, the glory of them will wake again and endure through innumerable changes forever. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.