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It is, in fact, constructed largely around passages drawn from the Longfellow circle’s journals, correspondence and other personalia.

There are men–he was one–who will hunt up intelligence without the least interest in its contents, and personalia without realia, and who, with no curiosity about learning, seek to become acquainted with all learned men,–without any care for politics, to know all great statesmen,–and without the least love for war, to know all generals,–personally and by letter.

It is not easy to make an effort and to remember all the little personalia of some one one has loved very much, and by whom one has been loved.

See Carey's chapter, "Franklin's Influence on Adam Smith," for an exhaustive survey of the personalia linking Adam Smith and Franklin.

To be caustically funny at the expense of truth, to deal in impudent personalia, to lose one's dignity in belittling that of others is the construction of the gentle art of criticism which American reviewers reserve unto themselves.