BIOGRAPHY. 



509 



Biography, objects into a conformity to his factitious categories 



' v~ and predicaments, instead of pushing his inquiries by 



observation ar ' experiment into the actual proper- 

 ties of surrounding beings. A like error is commit- 

 ted by him who first constructs an elaborate theory 

 of man, and examines the individuals with no other 

 view than to fit them to his preconceived philosophy. 

 Some errors in morals, and more in metaphysics and 

 theology, might have been avoided, had the only me- 

 thod of science been pursued, the study of particu- 

 lars ; had the philosophy of man been built upon the 

 knowledge of the individuals which compose the spe- 

 cies. In such a pursuit, biography oilers its ready 

 help, by making men of every age, nation, tempera- 

 ment, profession, and character, pass in review ; and 

 enabling the philosophical speculatist to form his 

 opinions respecting the nature of man, not from dog- 

 mas, apothegms, and maxims, whether fashioned in 

 the cloister, or collected in the court, but from ac- 

 tual survey, and critical examination of the nature of 

 man, exhibited under all the diversified forms of in- 

 dividual existence. 



But the object which biography especially propo- 

 ses to accomplish, and for which it has advantages 

 above every other species of writing, is, to make en- 

 tertainment the vehicle of information and improve- 

 ment. Its superior utility on this account will ap- 

 pear by comparing it with general history on the one 

 hand, and on the other with tales of fiction. A great 

 portion of history is occupied in relating the intrigues 

 of courts, the operations of the camp, the adjustment 

 of treaties, and the causes of the rise and decline of 

 nations, in poising the interests of different states, 

 and unravelling the intricacies of state policy. These 

 details, however interesting to the statesman, the po- 

 litician, and the soldier, are capable of little practical 

 application to ordinary life, and administer more to 

 the gratification of the curious than to general im- 

 provement. To a great proportion of readers, they 

 are found even wanting in entertainment. The sub- 

 jects of narration are too remote from their own ob- 

 servation and experience, to awaken any very power- 

 ful sympathy ; and the information which they con- 

 vey is desired rather for ornament than use. But in 

 the perusal of the lives of eminent persons, we con- 

 template the man as well as the politician and the 

 warrior. By a nearer approach to him, by seeing 

 him in different relations private as well as public, 

 and following him step by 6tep from the cradle to 

 the grave, we participate in his feelings, enter into his 

 designs, and appropriate, in some measure, the results 

 of his experience. But whatever means the biographer 

 may possess of making instruction steal upon the 

 reader in the way of entertainment, fiction appears 

 to have some advantages which are not to be found 

 even in his department. In constructing a tale of 

 fiction, the author may shape his characters, and 

 connect incidents in any way that docs not violate 

 probability, and trespass beyond the limits of nature. 

 Within this line he 1ms license to range at large, and 

 collect and combine v. hatever, and in what manner 

 soever he may think best suited to the accomplish- 

 ment of his design. He may throw into the lives of 

 his chief actors the experience of many ordinary, and 

 r ven extraordinary lives, and contrive every passage 



of them with such skill and address, that each shall Biography. 

 point to some moral, or lead to some train of useful -"' 



reflection* He can suppose facts with a direct re- 

 ference in every step of his invention, to the conclu- 

 sion which he wishes to be drawn from them ; while 

 the historian must take facts as they are, connect 

 them as they are actually connected, and pursue uti- 

 lity in no track but that of historical truth. This 

 restriction, it must be admitted, narrows the basis of 

 his structure ; but it gives it at the same time a so- 

 lidity and stability which fiction wants. The latter, 

 indeed can produce correct imitations of nature and 

 of manners ; it can also describe a series of actions 

 that shall inculcate lessons of wisdom not different 

 from those which proceed from actual experience ; 

 but the dignity and impression of truth are still 

 wanting ; the orders which are issued are good, but 

 they have not the seal of authority. We are delight- 

 ed, but little practical conviction springs from the 

 delight. That it is but fiction, will inevitably occur, 

 if not during the perusal, so as to weaken the inte- 

 rest of the tale, yet at the conclusion, when emotion 

 has subsided, and the moral and practical application 

 remains to be made. If any moral feeling be in- 

 stinctive, it is respect for truth. The child has no 

 sooner learnt the meaning of the word, than he asks 

 is it true at the close of the narrative which has af- 

 fected or surprised his young mind. If he finds it 

 to be fiction, it shares the fate of the toy which, ha- 

 ving amused him for a second, is no more thought 

 of; but assure him of its truth, and if the moral be 

 not above his reach, he will pluck it, and make it a 

 part of the little system of associations which govern 

 his practice. Whatever good therefore maybe effected 

 by fiction, and much it can effect, biography has a 

 great superiority over it from its power of uniting in 

 a much higher degree the two objects of entertain- 

 ment and instruction. 



These are its legitimate objects, instead of which, Its abuses, 

 not unfrequently have been substituted such as it 

 would be difficult to reconcile with the nature of mo- 

 rality. This censure is pronounced not so much up- 

 on direct and palpable fabrication, which generally 

 involves its own disgrace and condemnation, as upon 

 false construction, partial representation, and falla- 

 cious colouring of facts, which are in the main true, 

 either with a view to some end distinct from utility, 

 or on the mischievous principle of promoting good 

 ends by any means. This is an abuse of biographi- 

 cal writing to which all whose minds are possessed 

 by a sectarian spirit are naturally prone. With them 

 it is a part of religion to maintain the immaculate 

 character of the founders, or principal ornaments of 

 their sect ; and to accomplish this, as much ingenui- 

 ty, and not seldom as little honesty, is displayed as in 

 the eloquence of the bar. By a very common con- 

 fusion of ideas, the credit of the man, and the truth 

 of that system of opinions which he conceived or 

 supported, are thought to have an indissoluble con- 

 nection, and the one must at all events be established 

 for the sake of the other. Another abuse, which is 

 indeed akin to the former, and issues from the same 

 source, is, the attempt to make biography subser- 

 vient to the purposes of political or religious party. 

 With this view a name is chosen which men have 



