1 50 Biography, 



before the British public by Adams and others. 

 The last publication of this class, and in some re- 

 spects the best, is that by Drs. Enfield and Aiken, 

 undertaken a short time before the close of the 

 century, and yet unfinished. 



Besides these general biographical works, there 

 were others, intended to exhibit the lives of parti- 

 cular classes of eminent persons, of which a num- 

 ber of high character were compiled and circulated 

 during the last age. The Lives of the British 

 Admirals form an important and interesting collec- 

 tion of this kind. The Biography of illustrious 

 British Naval Characters, by Charnock ; the lives 

 of Eminently Pious Women, by Dr. Gibbons; the 

 Biographia Medica, by Hutchinson ; the Biogra- 

 phia Literaria, by Dr. Berkenhout; and several 

 other similar works, are also entitled to respectful 

 notice in enumerating this class of modern writings. 



The biographical collections made on the conti- 

 nent of Europe, during the last age, were nume- 

 rous and extensive, especially in the French and 

 German languages. Among these the Histoire 

 LJterairc, of M. Sennebier, has attracted much 

 attention, and received much praise. Besides this, 

 the Biographical Dictionary of learned Swedes, by 

 Gezelius; the Lives of the Great Men of Ger- 

 many, by Klein; and the large biographical works, 

 byScHRANCK, Schiller and Meiners, of Germany; 

 byD'ALiiMBERT,of France; and byTENEVELLi and 

 Fabronius, of Italy, deserve honourable distinc- 

 tion. Of many others, perhaps equally worthy of 

 commendation, the author has too little knowledge 

 to enable him to speak, and especially to delineate 

 their character. 



But amongst all the Collections of Lives which 

 the eighteenth century produced, the greatest, if 

 not in bulk, yet in sterling merit, is the Lives of 

 the English Poets, by Dr. Samuel Johnson. It 



