X PREFACE. 



" heap together all manner of finning 

 " qualities in one glaring mafs *." Every 

 man has his errors, and the errors of pub- 

 lic characters are too well known not to 

 expofe unfounded eulogium to the diftafte 

 of all who prefer truth to enthuflafm. 

 They are confcious that the mind, as well 

 as the perfon, of a celebrated character, 

 ought to be drawn with difpaffionate 

 fidelity, or not attempted ; that though 

 juft biographic record will touch the fail- 

 ings of the good and the eminent with 

 tendernels, it ought not to fpread over 

 them the veil of fuppreffion. A portrait 

 painter might as well omit each appropriate 

 diftinction of feature, countenance, and 

 form, becaufe it may not be elegant, and, 

 like the Limner in Gay's Fables, finifh 

 his pictures from cafts of the Venus and 

 Apollo, as the hiftorian conceal the faults, 

 foibles, and weakneffes of the individual 

 whom he delineates. 



* Aikin's and Barbauld's Eflays. 



it 



