The deeds of these men, it is true, are to be found abundantly recorded in Histories but they lie so scattered along their ten thousand pages, and are so intermixed with the voluminous records of other mat ters, as to be practically out of the reach of the younger portion of readers, and so of the very ones for whom this series has been undertaken. These want only pictures of actual life; and, if the author shall, in any due degree, succeed even in sketching interesting out lines, he will feel that he is answering the very purpose that has long lain unperformed within his heart.