Excerpt from The Life of Oliver Cromwell Some may think that Carlyle's "Letters and Speeches of Cromwell" render a life of him unnecessary, while, in fact, that work was the only cause of my writing this. A multitude of biographies have been written on Cromwell, but not one based on the general view taken by Carlyle. The letters and speeches of a man can never constitute his biography, though they may give us a correct and complete idea of his character. The letters and speeches of Washington, and his life, are two very different works. In the first place, the narrative is broken up by the introduction of letters and documents on various subjects, that must he placed in chronological order. In the second place, events are mere links, by which these are connected; while in biography, they are the writer's chief concern. In one case, the writings of a man form the burden of a book; in the other, his actions. The compiler of the former cannot condense, while it is the chief business of the historian of the latter to do so. 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.