362 

 CHAPTER XVIIL 



BIOGRAPHY. 



JDIOGRAPHY is one of the oldest species of 

 "writing. After the restoration of learning this 

 branch of historical composition became particu- 

 larly popular in Italy and France. From the lat- 

 ter country the same taste passed into Great Bri- 

 tain, where it has been ever since growing. Since 

 the commencement of the eighteenth century, 

 every literary country of Europe has produced a 

 greater number of biographical works than at any 

 former period. There certainly never was an age 

 in which Alemoirs, Lives, collections of Anecdotes, 

 &c. respecting the dead, were so numerous, and 

 had such a general circulation, as that which* is the 

 subject of this retrospect. 



Perhaps few works have contributed more to 

 form a taste for biography, in modern Europe, 

 than the Dictionary of M. Bayle, one of the most 

 curious and learned publications of any age. Early 

 in the century under review this work was trans- 

 lated into English, and circulated in Great Britain. 

 Not long afterwards it was republished, with very 

 large additions, which nearly doubled its original 

 extent. The Biographical History of England, by 

 Grainger, is entitled to the next place in recount- 

 ing the British productions of this nature. This 

 was followed by the Biographia Britajinica, by 

 Dr. Kippis, after the manner of Bayle. Since the 



