There are few things more difficult than to appraise the work of a man suddenly dead in his youth; to disentangle promise from achievement; to save him from that sentimentalizing which confuses the tragedy of the interruption with the merit of the work actually performed.

Summary

This quote highlights the challenge of evaluating the work of a young person who has died prematurely. It emphasizes the difficulty in separating the potential and promises they had for their future achievements from the actual accomplishments they were able to complete before their untimely death. The quote cautions against sentimentalizing the tragedy of their interrupted life and mistakenly attributing merit solely to the work they were able to produce in their shortened time. It implies that a fair evaluation requires a nuanced understanding of their potential and what they were able to achieve.

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