163 



BINOXIDE OF PHENYL. 



BIOGRAPHY. 



154 



BINOXIDE OF PHENYL. 

 BINOXIDE OF PROTEIN. 



[OXYPHENIC ACID.] 

 [PROTEIN.] 



BIOGRAPHY, a modern term, and one indeed of only recent intro- 

 duction, formed from the Greek |8ios (bios), ' life,' and ypa^ (graphe), 

 ' writing ; ' and therefore signifying literally ' life-writing.' It is that 

 department of literature which treats of the actions and fortunes of 

 individuals. Biography is commonly distinguished from history by the 

 latter term being confined to the narration of the actions and fortunes, 

 not of individuals, but of the large communities of men called states 

 and nations ; but properly biography is only a branch of history. Thus 

 Thomas Stanley, in the preface to his ' History of Philosophy,' observes, 

 " There are two kinds of history ; one represents general affairs of state, 

 the other gives account of particular persons, whose lives have rendered 

 them eminent." At the time when this was written (the middle of the 

 1 7th century) the word biography, we believe, had not been invented. 

 Stanley adds, " Homer hath given an essay of each ; of the first in his 

 Iliads, a relation of a war between different nations ; of the second in 

 his Odysseys, confined to the person of Ulysses." 



Owing to this their natural connection, history and biography are 

 frequently combined in the same work. Indeed it is scarcely possible 

 to write any history of a nation, which shall not consist, in a great part, 

 of narratives or notices of the acts of individuals. The life of every 

 eminent political character, and of every person who has been con- 

 spicuously engaged in the conduct of any department of public affairs, 

 makes a portion of the history of his country. But besides such occa- 

 sional threads of biography aa are interwoven in almost every historical 

 composition, a more formal intermixture, or association in the same 

 work, of biographical details with national history, has sometimes been 

 attempted. Thus, for example, to his ' History of the Age of Louis 

 XIV.' Voltaire has added a biographical appendix of the more cele- 

 brated writers, painters, musicians, sculptors, and other artists who 

 lived in France during that period. So, in the very useful ' Synopsis 

 of Universal History,' written in German by J. H. Zopf, of which there 

 in an enlarged and otherwise improved translation into French (5 vols. 

 12mo. 1810), an account of the most eminent writers of every century 

 is regularly added to the abridgment of political events. In most 

 recent histories, the progress of literature is in a similar manner traced 

 alongside of that of national affairs, in distinct chapters, containing 

 accounts of the lives and writings of men of letters. There is indeed 

 scarcely any other way than this of incorporating the history of litera- 

 ture with the history of political transactions ; and it will therefore be 

 more or less resorted to whenever the former subject is thought of 

 sufficient importance to be included in the writer's scheme. 



But biography has sometimes been intermixed with history on a 

 more comprehensive principle. We have an example of this in one of 

 the divisions of the ' Encyclopaedia Metropolitana,' which is described 

 in the plan of the work as containing " Biography chronologically 

 arranged, interspersed with introductory chapters of National History, 

 Political Geography, and Chronology." Here the history would appear 

 to be subordinate to the biography. In the ' General Introduction ' 

 to the Encyclopaxlia, which was written by Mr. Coleridge, though 

 much altered both by interpolation and otherwise after it left his 

 hands, it is said, " Biography and history tend to the same points of 

 general instruction, in two ways : the one exhibiting human principles 

 and passions acting upon a large scale ; the other showing them as they 

 move in a smaller circle, but enabling us to trace the orbit which they 



describe with greater precision Assuredly the great use of 



history is to acquaint us with the nature of man. This end is best 

 answered by the most faithful portrait ; but biography is a collection 

 of portrait*. At the same time there must be some mode of grouping 

 and connecting the individuals, who are themselves the great land- 

 marks in the map of human nature. It has therefore occurred to us 

 that the most effectual mode of attaining the chief objects of historical 

 knowledge will be to present history in the form of biography 



chronologically arranged Thus will the far greater portion of 



history be conveyed, not only in its most interesting, but in its most 

 philosophical and real form ; while the remaining facts will be inter- 

 woven in the preliminary and connecting chapters." No work on this 

 plan however making any pretension to completeness, or at all satis- 

 factory in execution, has yet appeared : and the inconveniences 

 attending it are too obvious to be overlooked. 



Some of the most ancient literary compositions in existence are 

 works of biography, or of mixed biography and history. In the 

 historical books of the Old Testament the narrative of public events is 

 everywhere intermixed with the lives of individuals patriarchs, law- 

 givers, captains, high priests, judges, kings, and other rulers or eminent 

 characters. In some cases the composition is purely biographical, as 

 the Book of Ruth. 



Of professed biographical works, by far the greatest that has come 

 down to us from the Greeks, is the ' Parallel Lives ' of Plutarch, 

 written in the 2nd century of our sera. This work comprehends dis- 

 tinguished characters in all the departments both of military and civil 

 life. Another collection of very small value is that of the ' Lives of 

 Eminent Greek and Roman Commanders,' written by Cornelius Nepos, 

 in the reign of Augustus. There is also the work entitled ' The Lives 

 of the Twelve Caesars ' by Suetonius, which, however, is necessarily in 

 dome degree of an historical character. It is a very indigested com- 

 l>itioii. to wliat'/viT i ''! as belonging. Sueto- 



nius likewise wrote a book of lives of celebrated grammarians, of 

 which some fragments have been preserved. " They who writ of 

 philosophy," says Stanley, " exceeded the rest far in number, of whom 

 to give a particular account will be unnecessary, because their works 

 are not extant, and therefore we shall only name them : Aetius, 

 Anaxilides, Antigonus, Antisthenes, Aristocles, Aristomenus, Calli- 

 machus, Clitomachus, Diocles, Diogenes Laertiua, Eunapius, Heraclides, 

 Hermippus, Hesychius, Hippobotus, Ion, Idomeueus, Nicander, Nicias, 

 Paucetius, Porrius, Plutarch, Sotion, and Theodorus. Of almost all 

 these (which is much to be deplored) there remain not any footsteps ; 

 the only author in this kind for the more ancient philosophers is 

 Diogenes Lae'rtius ; for the later, Eunapius. And to make the mis- 

 fortune the greater, that which Lae'rtius gives us is so far short of 

 what he might have done, that there is much more to be found of the 

 same persons dispersed amongst other authors." Diogenes lived in the 

 beginning of the 3rd century. At the end of the 2d and beginning of 

 the 3rd century we have Flavins Philostratus, who wrote a collection 

 of biographies in two books, entitled ' Lives of the Sophists.' Of single 

 biographical sketches the ancients have also left us several, most of 

 which seem to have been originally prefixed to editions of the works 

 of the persons to whom they relate. Thus we have a Life of Homer 

 attributed to Herodotus ; and another of Plato, by Olympiodorus of 

 Alexandria. Of all such single lives perhaps the most curious is 

 that of Appllonius of Tyana, written in Greek by the Philostratus 

 above-mentioned. An earlier life of Apollonius, which is now lost, is 

 said to have been written by his disciple and contemporary Damis. 



Since the revival of letters numerous biographical works have 

 appeared in every language of Europe. Many of these have been 

 accounts of the lives of single individuals, published either sepa- 

 rately, or (in the case of authors) along with the works of the persons 

 to whom they relate. In some cases the writer of such a life has 

 aimed at making his work present a history, political, ecclesiastical, 

 literary, or general, of the age to which its subject belonged. As 

 answering a similar end, though written apparently with a less par- 

 ticular regard to the same object, may be mentioned one of the most 

 amusing, and in some respects one of the most perfect, of all bio- 

 graphical works, Boswell's Life of Johnson. Others of these single 

 lives are called autobiographies, or narratives which individuals have 

 written of their own lives. A collection of the most celebrated auto- 

 biographies, which it is evident must in general have certain pecu- 

 liarities strikingly distinguishing them from common biographical 

 accounts, was published a few years ago in London by Messrs. Hunt 

 and Clarke, in 34 vols. 18mo. 



Caesar's Commentaries of the Gallic and Civil Wars may be quoted 

 as examples of autobiographical works in ancient literature. Another 

 example is afforded by the lost history of his own times, also entitled 

 Commentaries, written by the Greek General Aratus, which Polybius 

 mentions. [ARATUS, BIOG. Div.] 



The collections of Lives that have appeared in modern times have 

 also been very numerous. Thus we have the various martyrologies, 

 or accounts of the lives and deaths of the early Christian martyrs, by 

 Ruinart (fol. Amsterdam, 1713), by Assemani (2 vols. fol. Rom. 1748), 

 &c. There is also the great work of the Flemish Jesuits, Bollandus, 

 Henschenius, &c., entitled ' Acta Sanctorum Omnium,' which was 

 begun to be published at Antwerp in 1643, and is of the enormous 

 extent of fifty-three volumes folio. The 16 volumes quarto of Tille- 

 mont's work, entitled ' Memoires pour servir a 1'Histoire Eccle'siastique 

 de vi. premieres siecles de 1'Eglise,' (Paris, 1693, &c.) is also in the 

 main a work of ecclesiastical biography. There are also the Lives of 

 the Fathers, by St. Jerome, and by many succeeding writers ; the 

 Lives of the Popes by Anastasius, commonly called the ' Bibliothecary,' 

 and by others in later times ; the Histories of the various monastic 

 orders, which are all in the greater part biographical ; and such works 

 as John Fox's ' Book of Martyrs,' &c. As examples of collections of 

 lives of the members of different artificial orders of persons among 

 ourselves, may be noticed such works as Ashmole's ' History of the 

 Order of the Garter,' the various Peerages and Baronetages ; Wilson's 

 ' Biographical Index to the House of Commons,' (Lond. 1806) : Ward's 

 ' Lives of the Professors of Gresham College,' Wood's ' Athena; Oxo- 

 nienses,' which is an account of writers educated at Oxford, &c. 



The lives of eminent statesmen, military commanders, admirals, 

 navigators, travellers, highwaymen, and various other descriptions of 

 persons, either in all countries, or in some one country, have frequently 

 formed the subjects of distinct works. Boccaccio wrote a work in 

 Latin, first published at Ulm in 1473, in folio, entitled ' Opus de Claris 

 Hominibus et Mulieribus,' and in subsequent editions, ' De Casibus 

 Virorum et Feminarum Illustrium," being a history of unfortunate 

 princes and princesses, and other persons of eminence. A translation 

 of this work into English verse, from a very paraphrastic French 

 version executed by Laurent de Premierfait, was composed by John 

 Lydgate, who lived in the reign of Henry VI., under the title of ' The 

 Tragedies gathered by John Bochas of all such princes as fell from 

 their estates through the mutability of fortune since the creation of 

 Adam until his time.' The poem is commonly known by the title of 

 Lydgate's ' Fall of Princes.' Somewhat similar to the design of this 

 work, and indeed confessedly borrowed from it, is that of the celebrated 

 collection of poems, first published in quarto, in 1559, with the title of 

 ' A Mirror for Magistrates, wherein may be seen, by example of others, 



