PREFACE. IX 



the furviving family of the author he com- 

 memorates ; or by an editor who believes 

 it highly conducive to his profits on the 

 writings he publishes, or republifhes, to 

 claim for their author the unquali- 

 fied admiration and reverence of man- 

 kind. All thefe clafles of biographers do 

 for the perfon whom they commemorate, 

 what our generally wife Queen Elizabeth 

 had the weaknefs to requeft her painters 



would do for her portrait on the canvafs ; 



*. 



they draw a picture without fhades. 



But though people of credulous and 

 effervefcent zeal may be gratified by feeing 

 a writer, whofe works have charmed 

 them, thus inverted with unrivalled genius 

 and fuper-human virtue, the judicious few, 

 whofe approbation is genuine honor, are 

 aware of this truth, aflerted by Mrs. Bar- 

 bauld in her beautiful, her ineftimable 

 Eflay againft Inconfiftency in our Expec- 

 tations. " Nature is much too frugal to 



" heap 



