500 News from Parnassus, No. XXX III. 



Willi whom we liave intercourse. We 

 shall seldom find that we assign to any 

 one the character of fortitude, of indeci- 

 sion, of sensibility, of insincerity, of 

 pride, of indolence, or of any other 

 ruling habit, feeling, or disposition, ac- 

 quired by education or fosfered by rank, 

 from the few incidents of lite which are 

 •worthy of record. I believe it will be 

 discovered, that we form an estimate of 

 our friends' abilities or tjnalitics chiefly 

 from a repetition of trifling circum- 

 stances, which, in detail, would be too 

 minute to be severally analyzed, and are 

 too evanescent for severe scrutiny, 

 though, according to the trite illustra- 

 tion of drops of water which fall on 

 stone, by their frequency eflect that of 

 which their insignificant power seems in- 

 capable. If we attempt to ascertain the 

 opportunities of discrimination per- 

 mitted to biographers, in general, they 

 will be found to be small indeed. The 

 autlioritics of their works are mostly the 

 contradictory statements of their sub- 

 ject's contemporaries, though souietimes 

 the more stable warrants of his private 

 letters. In tiie latter, the mind is often 

 more accommodated to comply with the 

 ■wishes of the correspondent than to ex- 

 hibit the unbiassed diclatcs of its own 

 inclination. It is rare to tind a man with 

 many friends who ran bear the sight of 

 his mind divested of the usual disguise: 

 it is rare to find a man who can endure 

 the appearance of his own mind wholly 

 deprived of a mask. 



How then can tlie biographer, from 

 scanty materials, hope to stamp for the 

 consideration of posterity those distinc- 

 tions in the coimtenance of the mind, 

 fleeting and transient as they are seem- 

 ingly to the supcificial observer, but 

 xvhieh have acquired a durability from 

 their invariable return, and are the dis- 

 tinguishing impress with which nature 

 lias marked her children? If even inti- 

 macy with the subject of the memoir will 

 not assure to tlie describer the power of 

 transmitting a resemblance with ac- 

 curacy, — for more than acquaintance, or 

 jiropinquity of situation, are requisite, 

 perhaps congeniality of sentiments, or 

 agreement in the objects of general pur- 

 suit ; how can the mere transcriber and 

 critic on others' opinions hope to deter- 

 mine betwojn shades whichso often ap- 

 proximate, and to trace a line so elusive 

 and so intricate? One answer may per- 

 haps serve as a sedative; it may be 

 disserted, that, if liiis power of ascertiiin- 

 iug llic peculiar frame of mind is so 

 dilliuult, jet the aciiuisition is hardly nc- 



[July 1, 



cessary, and the slight sketches and 

 hasty notices so often produced, answer 

 every purpose of utility. In the minor 

 regulations of social conduct, sufficient 

 scope of observation is given to every 

 one for a guide, and seldom or ever 

 does an individual trust in these cases to 

 the reasonings and deductions of a 

 printed record. In emergencies of con- 

 se(|uenee, where skill and energy are 

 necessary, if the mind of him to whose 

 lot tliey fall is powerful and masterly, its 

 faculties are awakened, it relies on its 

 own talents, an<l scorns to be led at the 

 disposal of another ; should such a crisis 

 happen to a mind diO'crentlj formed, it is 

 unsuitable for such a man to compare 

 his case with another not strictly similar; 

 he is either led into error, or gains no- 

 tions so vague and indefinite, that ho 

 will use delusive guides, and will err 

 much more widely than if he had trusted 

 to his own frailty and feebleness. Yet, 

 that much good may l>e elicited from 

 biography, even in its incomplete state, 

 may be satisfactorily shown ; great minds 

 may compare their sentiments and their 

 atiainmchts with those of the illustrious 

 dead, and may thus be exercised in pas- 

 sive action, and those of less powers may 

 obtain that knowledge of mankind for 

 which they were not enough endowed to 

 eo|)c in actual experience. 



'I'he study of biograpliy, more perhaps 

 than any other miscellaneous reading, 

 combines diversity with regularity, and 

 anuisement with instruction; reality 

 gives it slsbility, and variety attraction; 

 it affords o|)portunily for comparison, 

 and materials for reflection; it allows a 

 scale for the observance of the present 

 degree of civilization ; every one caii 

 find in its extensive territory a favourite, 

 a partner in similar employments, an in- 

 structor, a superior, a standard for imita- 

 tion. The manner in which it is treated 

 is far from perfect; but, with all its im- 

 perfections, it is, and ever will be, 

 attractive. Abditus. 



For the 3Ioiiilihj Magazine. 



NEWS TROM i^ARNASSUS. 



NO. xxxiir. 



THE Night before the Bridal, a 

 Spanish 'J'aie, and other Poems, 

 by Catharine Grace Garnett," rises 

 far above the common class of poetical 

 jnodnctioiis with which the press is 

 teeming. The versilication, if not re- 

 markable for its elegance, is never tame 

 and insipi<l, and the story is well ima- 

 gined. xV young Sevillian lady is 

 doomed from her infancy to become the 

 iciideut 



