426 Biographical Account of [Dec. 



the hope of its falling into abler hands." He was now raised to 

 the same Bench which had been dignified by the presence of 

 Lord Karnes ; and the business in which he was engaged 

 served every day to bring him to his remembrance, and to afford 

 him new opportunities of appretiating his learning and his genius. 

 From this fortunate concurrence of circumstances, Lord Wood- 

 houselee felt himself emboldened to undertake the task, and 

 having determined upon his plan, he entered with eagerness 

 upon the study of his works, and the collection of materials ; 

 aud in the course of the vacations of only four years, he was able 

 to accomplish his design. The work was finally published in 

 two volumes, quarto, in the year 1807, with the title of " Me- 

 moirs of the Life and Writings of Henry Home, Lord Karnes." 



It is impossible not to admire the motives which led Lord 

 Woodhouselee to this undertaking, and it is impossible also not 

 to respect the ability with which, amid the distractions of public 

 business, and the sufferings of infirm health, he has been able to 

 execute it ; yet 1 know not if the friends of Lord Woodhouse- 

 lee's literary fame have not some reason to lament his choice of 

 a subject ; and there are circumstances in the extent and variety 

 of Lord Karnes's powers, which seem to me to place him almost 

 beyond the reach of the biographer. 



The fortunate subjects of biography are those where some 

 powerful and uniform interest is maintained, — where great minds 

 are seen advancing to some lofty and determinate object, — and 

 where, amid the toils or the difficulties they have to encounter, 

 the mind of the reader feels somewhat of the same anxious and 

 unbroken interest, with which we follow the progress of the 

 drama, or the narrative of the epic poet. The lives of con- 

 querors, and of legislators, — of discoverers in science, or of in- 

 ventors in the arts, — of the founders of schools in philosophy, 

 or of sects in religion, it. is impossible even for the rudest hand 

 to trace, without awakening an interest which all men can un- 

 derstand, and in which all can participate ; and even the history 

 of inferior men can yet always be made interesting, when one 

 object of ambition is seen to be steadily pursued, and one cor- 

 respondent sympathy is awakened. Of this unity of pursuit, 

 and of interest, the life of Lord Karnes was singularly destitute. 

 There was a vigour in his powers, and an elevation in his am- 

 bition, that were incapable of being restrained within the limits 

 of any one pursuit ; and he seems to have felt it to be his pe- 

 culiar destiny, to take the lead in every science by which the re- 

 putation of his country could be exalted, and in every art by 

 which its prosperity could be increased. To delineate the pro- 

 gress of such a mind, — to follow his steps in all the various 

 fields of inquiry through which he travelled, — to mark with pre- 

 cision the accessions that science derived from his labours, or 

 the arts from his suggestions, was a task to the execution of 

 which few men could bring adequate knowledge or capacity ; 



