Gordiani's epitaph was written in five languages, yet it sufficed not to rescue him from oblivion.
Many, indeed, are the lives worthy of record that have remained unwritten.

Men who have written books have been the most fortunate in this respect, because they possess an attraction for literary men which those whose lives have been embodied in deeds do not possess.

Thus there have been lives written of Poets Laureate who were mere men of their time, and of their time only.

Dr.Johnson includes some of them in his 'Lives of the Poets,' such as Edmund Smith and others, whose poems are now no longer known.

The lives of some men of letters--such as Goldsmith, Swift, Sterne, and Steele--have been written again and again, whilst great men of action, men of science, and men of industry, are left without a record.