It has been truthfully said that posterity loves details. When we contemplate the men who have lived before us, and left impressions of their acts upon the social aspect of the generation in which they moved, we feel a great desire to become acquainted with the details of their daily lives,---how they spent their time not devoted to those public duties which have given them a title to a place in history, what were their recreations in times of leisure, and who were their family associates and their chosen companions in private.