856 Notices respecting New Books. 



history, in which those who have acquired celebrity in 

 learning or science by their labours, their discoveries, or 

 their errors, appear by turns upon the stage, but merely as 

 an accessory part of the picture, and without drawing oflT 

 the attention from the principal object to dx it upon each of 

 them in particular. The second part of literary history, 

 which may be called biographical, is composed of the par- 

 ticular histories of those who have contributed, either by 

 their own labours or by their influence and benefactions, to 

 the cultivation and advancement of human knowledge. 

 Each of them here appears isolated, in order to make us ac- 

 quainted with the time, place, and circumstances in which 

 he lived, the means of instruction which nature or fortune 

 presented to him, the application he made of them, the la- 

 bours for \\hich posterity is indebted to him, the services 

 he rendered, the monuments he has bequeathed of his talents 

 aiid zeal. According to the importance of the part which 

 each of them has performed, he occupies in this kind of histo- 

 ric gallery a space more or less considerable ; but no person 

 whose literary or scientific career has been niarked by any 

 service rendered, or any work left to posterity, should be 

 omitted. Thus the principal cities, the seats of adn)inislra- 

 tion, or the places illustrated by any great events, have 

 claims to a place in the general chart of a great empire ; and 

 when it is requisite to draw a map of a province, the small- 

 est cottage, which contributes its share to the support of the 

 charges of the state, cannot be omitted without injust.ee. 



The biographical part of literary history is, properly 

 speaking, the only one with which the Orientalists are oc- 

 cupied ; and it is only by comparing and classifying the 

 abundant materials of this kind which they have left us, that 

 we can afterwards extract what is necessary for composing 

 the svstematic part neglected by them. It is therefore with 

 biographical history exclusively we must commence : but 

 even here the task is not easy ; it reqvures great opportuni- 

 ties, time, and discernment, and the concurrence of several, 

 as the following observations vili convince us. 



In the first place, all the materials for a labour of thi,-; 

 kind are in manuscript, aud consequently they require 



niucli 



