Excerpt from James K. Jones, the Plumed, Knight of Arkansas

Biography is not very popular nowadays. Its decrease in favor has been coincident with the increase of fiction and other works of lighter character. One of the greatest books in existence is "Plutarch"s Lives," but it was published when the minds of the nations were anxious to seize upon any story which told of military triumph. Most of Plutarch"s heroes illustrate the characteristics of physical valor and persistency in courses leading to success upon the field. I am not unaware that the written history of a man whose life reveals few efforts save those of an intellectual kind, is even now seldom perused with that enthusiasm which is usually stimulated by the story of a chieftain. The achievements of the great intelligencies of the age are too infrequently regarded with that degree of scrutiny which should be indulged in before the public makes up its mind upon what it so pleases to think, upon hasty conclusion, is a true estimate of the subject.

Biography does not consist in fulsome praise or needless panegyric. If the hero of the sketch needs this, it is positive evidence that his acts are not worthy the care and labor entailed in preserving what little he has actually accomplished. The work of the biographer is rather to tell, in as interesting way as possible, and always accurately, the story of the subject"s life and work, that they, thus faithfully revealed and stripped of eulogy, may stand forever as his most fitting monument.

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