Excerpt from The World's Lincoln But even where the witnesses have been diligent, more than much remains in obscurity. Boswell on Johnson and Pepys on himself tell us a great deal that is significant, but their copious notes leave untold more than they tell. It must inevitably be so. The full story of a man's life would take as long to read as to live, and twenty times as long to write. The amplest compilation of facts, say Lockhart on Scott or Moore on Byron, amounts at last to a slight and more or less fortuitous selection. Far from being regrettable, this is fortunate; but it is a fact. 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.