William Kent
Published: 2015-06-26
Total Pages: 357
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Excerpt from Memoirs and Letters of James Kent One of the peculiarities of letters, as a form of literature, is that the writer cannot superintend their publication; and the duty which therefore falls upon a literary executor is complex. It should be his aim to present to the reader a concise, true, and attractive selection from the material at hand, yet at the same time neither to dwarf nor magnify his subject out of true proportion. Light and shadow, as they inevitably come into the life of every man, are necessary to give true perspective, and, as Mr. Froude has said, "the sharpest scrutiny is the condition of enduring fame." To this end has this Memoir been written, in which there has been nothing to hide, nothing to extenuate. It has been the Editor's aim to tell the simple story of the life of this painstaking, industrious, and conscientious student, in his own words; and the narrative is chiefly interesting as we note the method by which he became the embodiment of such a vast store of legal erudition. The fire of the Revolution had burned fiercely, destroying the traditions, institutions, and usages which the colonists had transplanted from the mother country. 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.