LIFE OF LANGHORNE. 



fleficient. They are often executed from mercenary motives, by 

 men, " wlio write to share the fame of the deceased;" by near rela- 

 tives, from whom an exposure of the faults of their object cannot be 

 expected, and whose pictures are all lucid and brilliant, without those 

 touches of shade which afford a proper contrast to a mass of splen- 

 dour. On the other hand, if the life of a man of eminence be 

 written by a stranger, who is emulous to acquire for his own pro- 

 ductions that portion of applause to which all who write aspire, we 

 are led to expect that his biography will be tinctured with a degree 

 of envious asperity : — we have seen, that the immortal Pope could 

 not refrain from envying, and even persecuting, those who aspired 

 to the favour of the Muses*; and we have no reason to assert, not- 

 withstandhig our boasted progress in illumination and theophilan- 

 thropy, that the present is more liberal than preceding ages. The 

 most material imperfection, however, in lives of deceased cha- 

 racters, composed by persons unconnected with their families, is a 

 want of proper and authentic materials, from which alone an im- 

 perishable wreath should be formed, for the tombs of those whose 

 characters and abilities entitle them to our attentive consideration. 

 Such was the case with respect to Dr. John Langhorne; for,though 

 many attempts have been made lo write his biography, they have all, 

 in a great degree, failed, by omitting very interesting incidents in his 

 mortal career. Indeed, the materials of the writers were so scanty 

 and unconnected, that the public have, till very lately, been unac- 

 quainted even with his ancestors, his birth, and his education. 



But, at length, these deficiencies have been supplied in a brief, 

 though interesting, account, written by his son, the Rev. J. T. 

 Langhorne, vicar of Harmondsworth and Drayton, Middlesex; 

 and we now learn, that our author's father was the Rev. Joseph 

 Langhorne, who held a living in Lincolnshire, but who died at 

 an early age, leaving a widow and four children, of which the 

 doctor was the youngest. 



• Vide a very interesting and uncommonly cheap volume, entitled a <' Diction> 

 ary of Ctlcbraled Women, by Matilda Betham," articles THOMAS. 



