Excerpt from Contemporary Portraits: Fourth Series But what dreadful brainless reticence! The souls of great men, I have often said, are the Jacob's Ladder leading from Earth to Heaven: it is by knowledge of them, of their heart, and essence, and in being that the younger ones must grow in their turn, mounting rung by rung. To leave such a gap is nothing less than a crime - for this is the very quiddity and quintessence of Balzac. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition.

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