BIO 



namely, of making the memoirs of them- 

 selves the vehicle of abuse of their con- 

 temporaries, every one of whom would, 

 no doubt, be able to give a very different 

 and perhaps plausible reason, for the se- 

 veral actions which the biographer has 

 undertaken to scrutinize and condemn. 



Dr. Priestley lias constructed and pub- 

 lished a "Biographical Chart," of which 

 our plate is given as a specimen. This 

 .chart represents the interval of time be- 

 tween the year 1200 before the Chris- 

 tian sera, and 1800 after Christ, divided 

 by an equal scale into centuries. It con- 

 tains about 2000 names of persons, the 

 most distinguished in the annals of fame, 

 the length of whose lives is represented 

 by lines drawn in proportion to their real 

 duration, and terminated in such a man- 

 ner as to correspond to the dates of their 

 births and deaths. These names are dis- 

 tinguished into several classes by paral- 

 lel lines running the whole length of the 

 chart, the contents of each division be- 

 ing expressed at the end of it. The 

 chronology is noted in the margin, on 

 the upper side, by the year before and 

 after Christ, and on the lower by the 

 same sera, and also by the succession of 

 such kings as were most distinguished 

 in the whole period. See Plate BIOGUI.- 

 PHT. 



For a more full account we refer to 

 Dr. Priestley's description, which accom- 

 panies the chart ; from which we shall 

 make a short extract, that cannot fail to 

 entertain the reader. 



" Laborious and tedious as the compi- 

 lation of this work has been (vastly more 

 so than my first conceptions represented 

 it to me,) a variety of views were con- 

 tinually opening upon me during the ex- 

 ecution of it, which made me less atten- 

 tive to the labour. As these views agree- 

 ably amuse the mind, and may, in some 

 measure, be enjoyed by a person who on- 

 ly peruses the chart, without the labour 

 of compilation, 1 shall mention a few of 

 them in this place. 



"It is a peculiar kind of pleasure we 

 receive, from such a view as this chart 

 exhibits of a great man, such as Sir Isaac 

 Newton, seated, as it were, in the circle 

 of his friends and illustrious contempo- 

 raries. We see at once with whom he 

 was capable of holding conversation, and 

 in a manner (from the distinct view of 

 their respective ages) upon what terms 

 they might converse. And though it be 

 melancholy, it is not unpleasing, to ob- 

 serve the order in which we here see 

 illustrious persons go off the stage, and to 

 imagine to ourselves the reflections they 



VOL, II. 



BIQ 



might make upon the successive depar- 

 ture of their acquaintance or rivals. 



" We likewise see in some measure, 

 by the names which precede any person, 

 what advantages he enjoyed from the la- 

 bours and discoveries of others ; and, by 

 those which follow him, of what use his 

 labours were to his successors. 



" By the several void spaces between 

 such groups of great men, we have a 

 clear idea of the great revolutions of all 

 kinds of science, from the very origin of 

 it ; so that the thin and void places in the 

 chart are, in fact, no less instructive than 

 the most crowded, in giving us an idea 

 of the great interruptions of science, and 

 the intervals at which it hath flourished. 

 The state of all the divisions appropriat- 

 ed to men of learning is, for many cen- 

 turies before the revival of letters in this 

 western part of the' world, exactly ex- 

 pressed by this following line of Virgil : 



Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto. 



But we see no void spaces in the division 

 of statesmen, heroes, and politicians. The 

 world hath never wanted competitors for 

 empire and power, and least of all in those 

 periods in which the sciences and the 

 arts have been the most neglected. 



" But the noblest prospect of this na- 

 ture is suggested by a view of the crouds 

 of names, in the divisions appropriated to 

 the arts and sciences in the two last cen- 

 turies. Here all the classes of renown, and, 

 I may add, of merit, are full ; and a hun- 

 dred times as many might have been admit- 

 ted, of equal attainments in knowledge 

 with their predecessors. This prospect 

 gives us a kind of security for the con- 

 tinual propagation and extension of know- 

 ledge ; and that, for the future, no more 

 freat chasms of men, really eminent for 

 nowledge, will ever disfigure that part 

 of the chart of their lives which I cannot 

 draw, or ever see drawn. What a figure 

 must science make, advancing as it now 

 does, at the end of as many centuries as 

 have elapsed since the Augustan :ige !'* 



BIPED, in zoology, an animal furnish- 

 ed with only two legs. Men and birds are 

 bipeds. Apes occasionally walk on their 

 hind legs, and seem to be of this tribe ; 

 but that is not a natural position for them, 

 and they rest upon all their leg-,, like 

 other quadrupeds. The jerboas are also 

 of the latter description, jumping and 

 leaping on their hind legs, but resting on 

 their fore legs likewise. 



BIQUADRATIC />wer, in algebra, the 

 fourth power or squared square of u 

 number, as 16 is the biquadratic power of 



B b 



% 



