380° Great Utility of an 
to compofe a portrait as melancholy and 
uninterefting as the monotonous darknefs 
of a Albeuette. The beautiful colouring 
and lively image of Nature was unknown 
in this rude fate of the art. This mode 
of biography exacted neither learning to 
comprchend the works it noticed, nor a 
fufcepribilicy of fentiment to adapt itfelf to 
the charaéter recorded, nor tafte, in 
defcribing works of tafte; and, in a word, 
neither art nor nature. Swift’s Life cf 
his patron, Sir William Temple, may be 
deemed even too favourable a fpecimen of 
this biography ; but if it were not fub- 
fcribed with his name, no critic, of com- 
mon charity, would venture to affix it. 
Doétor Birch was one of the late, but, I 
fear, he is not the laft doctor, of thefe 
biographers of the old fchool ; and it was 
pleatantly faid of his fepulchral pen, thac 
he had a dead hand at a life. 
Perhaps Johnfon is the frf? Englifh 
biographer of eminence. His affection 
for literary hiftory ; his habits of medita- 
tion ; his fingular penetration into human 
nature; and, above all, his fovereign com- 
mand over the remoteit boundaries of our 
language, enabled him to create a critical 
dition, which, in its energy, its glow, and 
its felicitous fhadowings of inteileétual 
-{enfation, had the charm of novelty in this 
country. ‘To imitate this model is mor- 
tifying, and, perhaps, it is as dangerous, 
as to effay wielding the club of Hercules. 
But let it not be forgotten, that this model 
was himfelf a lover and an imitator of the 
mot enchanting biography ; the Eloges of 
Fontenelle, and fome of his fucceffors. 
Of thefe Eloges, it is a prevalent and 
erroneous notion, that they are as deter- 
mined panegyrics as that of Pliny’s on 
Trajan. But every thing has how re- 
etived the touch of philofophy ; fome 
things have perifhed at that touch, while 
others have been ameliorated ; among 
this va concuflion of human events, 
Hloges have not fuffered. They have be- 
come the inftroment of bold and impartial 
truths ; and, in a funeral oration, the life 
ef a great man has been examined, as the 
Egyptians at the tombs of their princes, 
ere the body was depofited, were per- 
mitted to form their accufations, or their 
appiacfe. Fontenelle, in his Eloges, ob- 
ferves, thet “ their title is unjuft; for 
that of lives bad’ been more correct.” 
But even, adinirable as ate his own,perhaps 
they have fill been invigorated by a bolder 
firain of opinion than was hazarded in his 
age. A biographer is a painter of man, 
au interpreter of nature. Eyery life of an 
Annual Biography. ‘[ Nove 
illuftrious charaéter contains fomething 
valuable to that. art, that fcience, or thofe 
virtues, in which he excelled; it becomes, 
therefore, not only the life of an artift, 
but a portion of art; not only the tribute 
to individual virtue, but to virtue itfelf. 
It is, indeed; the peculiar charm of 
~fiich biography to addrefs itfelf to the 
domeftic and the local paffions; to reflect 
the image of our own exiftence; and to 
awaken in YOuTH the feelings of Fame ; 
to put a new pulfe in their heart ; to open to 
their view the univerfe; and to extend the 
fenfe of exiftence to the next generation. © 
The fecret fafcination of biography, on & 
heart capable of profound mmprefhons, has 
been fo often acknowledged ! and what 
great men has not the perefal of Plutarch ° 
created ! 
But the ftudy of ancient has not an 
equal intereft with modern biography. ~ 
Our fympathy 1s always proportioned t6 
the approximation of its object. There is 
ever a diffimilarity in the manners, the 
characters, and the fituation of nations, at 
of individuals; even every age has a 
genius of its own. Socrates, Apelles, 
and Themiftocles, like the remoteft ftars, 
whofe magnitude the curious aftronomers 
may calculate, lofe the fenfation their mag- 
nificence might communicate by that 
aweful interval that feparates them from 
the common eye; but Johnfon, Reynolds, 
and Cook, are flars that fhed their in- 
fluence in our common path, and are 
viewed without the effort of imagination. 
The clofe of every year terminates the 
career of fome eminent perfons. ‘Their 
actions, or their labours are regiftered im 
fame periodical obituary ; but it is evident 
that that can be no place to animate with 
that popular eloquence which adorns the 
fevereft truths, with thofe graces that {peak 
to the imagination ; with that illuminating 
criticifm which warms, as well as en- 
lightens ; fixing that tafte, which it found 
uncertain and hefitating ; and infpires our 
youth (the citizens of the next age) with 
that fpirit of emulation, that forms us te 
imitate what we are taught to love. 
A work confecrated to the memory of 
men illuftrious in the fciences and the 
arts, or dignified by an extraordinary 
force of charaéter, might be annually com- 
pofed, and offered to our youth, asa fub- 
lime and enchanting fchool of genius and 
of rectitude. Thefe precious volumes. 
would contain the traits that charaéterife ~ 
a great man; trace, with a lucid retrogref- 
_ fron, the progre{s, the obftacles, and the 
pertection of their talents; unfold their 
~ ftudie 





