VII. DEPARTMENT: 



BIOGRAPHY. 



IN the department of Biography, we comprehend that portion of 

 human knowledge which relates to the lives of distinguished persons ; 

 their character and actions ; their descent and their insignia; including 

 the kindred and subordinate subjects of Genealogy, Heraldry, Auto- 

 graphics, and Sphragistics. The name is derived from the Greek, 

 /3u>$, life, and ypa<j>co, I write or describe : and we may add, that 

 Biography is to individuals, what Chronography is to communities, 

 or nations ; the record of their existence. These departments are, 

 therefore, closely connected, and the present one is often regarded 

 as subordinate to the preceding ; but we think it so extensive, and 

 important, as to deserve a distinct place. Judging from the Cata- 

 logues of some of our largest Libraries, about one-fifth part of all the 

 books in the world, relates to History and Biography : from which 

 fact the propriety of separating these subjects will perhaps be still 

 more apparent. 



Biography, may, we think, be considered as supplementary to 

 Civil History, rather than subordinate, to it. Where the historian 

 gives only a crowded sketch, the biographer selects a single promi- 

 nent object, and presents us with a finished picture. This depart- 

 ment presents advantages over every other, for mingling instruction 

 with amusement, in a simple and natural style : the gravest facts and 

 principles being often enlivened by sprightly anecdotes ; and the cur- 

 rent of action readily bearing the reader along to the close, without 

 any severe mental effort. It is doubtless the duty, as it is generally 

 the aim of the Biographer, to exhibit the faults of his subject as a 

 warning, and the virtues as an example, for the reader's benefit ; but 

 this is often better done indirectly, than in a formal manner. While 

 a proper freedom of description is allowable, there are also domestic 

 privacies, especially in regard to persons recently deceased, which 

 we think no biographer has a right to invade. If wrong conduct, or 

 erroneous principles are already known to the world, they must per- 

 haps be mentioned ; but it is the writer's fault if they are allowed 

 cither to gratify or to mislead the mind of the reader. 



The earliest Biographers, in most countries, were the bards, or 

 minstrels, who sang the exploits of their chiefs, exalted them as 

 demigods, and ascribed to them actions surpassing human ability. 

 Thus, the remains of the most ancient biography, even in Greece 

 and Rome, are mixed with their Mythology ; or, in other words, 

 involved in fable. It is remarkable that in this department of Litera- 

 ture, the Greeks were surpassed by the Romans : the earliest general 

 work on Biography being that of Varro, written about 50 13. C. f 



242 



