But Shakspeare, of whose absolute doings we know almost nothing, would not be nearer or dearer had he even had a Boswell to paint his daily portrait.

The man of letters is, in truth, ever writing his own biography.

What there is in his mind is being declared to the world at large by himself; and if he can so write that the world at large shall care to read what is written, no other memoir will, perhaps, be necessary.

For myself I have never regretted those details of Shakspeare's life which a Boswell of the time might have given us.

But Cicero's personality as a man of letters seems especially to require elucidation.