Excerpt from Life of the Hon. Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina: In Which There Is Displayed Striking Instances of Virtue, Enterprise, Courage, Generosity and Patriotism An author, who produces a book, be it good or bad, in some measure exhibits his heart to the world, provided this book contains thoughts which, if he has not invented, (and indeed in our days there is little left for invention, ) he has at least found and made his own. He not only reveals the subjects, that have employed his thoughts at certain periods, the doubts that have occurred to perplex him in his journey through life, and the solutions, with which he has removed them; but he reckons upon some minds in unison with his own, be they ever so few, to which these or similar ideas will prove of importance in the labyrinth of life. This is the most estimable merit of authorship, and a man of good heart will feel much less pleasure from what he says, than from what he excites. 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.