than several of his great contemporaries. He escaped the
brilliant but virulent pen of Lytton Strachey whose caricatures
of some Eminent Victorians set the vogue for future less-gifted
belittlers of human greatness. There is indeed a play which
bears his name, with a celebrated actor in the title rôle, which
is such a flagrant travesty of its original as to lack even the
merit of a caricature.

The habit of biography is productive of one valuable disci-
pline at least: it fosters in the conscience of him who essays it a
habit of veracity. For it is required of a biographer above all
else that he be found faithful; and such a requisite demands
constant vigilance. Dead men cannot defend themselves; they
cannot contradict or answer back. Not seldom in this task the
present chronicler has caught himself up on the verge of perpe-
trating some factual misstatement or even some erroneous
judgment, which further research or reflection corrected just
in time. But he has been almost shocked that there was no hand
to arrest him, no voice to say "Not so!"

Arising out of this it is the duty of a biographer to present
all the many aspects of his subject's character without partiality,
inviting comprehension but not seeking to compel it unduly.
For this reason there will be found in this book the maximum
of presentation and the minimum of interpretation. Its com-
pilation has resembled that of fitting together the scattered
pieces of a mosaic, gathered with some difficulty from various
sources far and near, in the hope that the resultant pattern
will present at least the lineaments of a recognizable portrait.

In collecting the materials for his task the writer has some
good friends to thank, and chiefly the following: the Reverend
Dr. J. I. Macnair who read through the first seventeen chapters
and offered valuable comments, before his lamented death at
an advanced age in 1955; any attempt to perpetuate Living-
stone's memory is inseparable from the name of Macnair.
Professor J. P. R. Wallis, the distinguished editor of contem-
porary records, performed the same kind office and generously
lent the typescripts of his edition of the Zambesi Journals and
Letters from the mass of recently found documents, of which
their publication is of necessity an abridgment. To Dr.
Hubert Wilson, the explorer's grandson, heartfelt thanks are
due for the use of personal letters hitherto unpublished, and

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