Here can be no doubt that our interest in the dim past is increased the more we are able to read into the dry documents before us the human character of the actors. As long as these actors are only names to us we seem to be walking in a world Of shadows, but when we can realise them as beings like ourselves with the same feelings and aspirations, although governed by other conditions Of life, all is changed, and we take the keenest interest in attempting to understand circum stances so different from those under which we live.