Excerpt from The American Portrait Gallery: With Biographical Sketches of Presidents, Statesmen, Military and Naval Heroes, Clergymen, Authors, Poets, Etc It is, however, from the combination of portrait and biography that we reap the utmost degree of utility and pleasure which can be derived from them. As, in contemplating the portrait of an eminent person, we long to be instructed in his history, so, in considering his actions, We are anxious to behold his countenance. So earnest is this desire, that the imagination is generally ready to coin a set of features, or to conceive a character, to supply the absence of one or the other. 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.