BIOGRAPHY, (from ARK, life, and -,c4)", to write,) is a species of history which describes the lives of persons of eminence. In tracing the history of biography, we find it at first, in all countries, in the hands of the minstrels. The exploits of the chiefs were the subject of their song ; and, as their heroes were raised into demigods, actions were ascribed to them surpassing human ability. This was the fabu lous age of biography, when nothing was too mar vellous for credulity. In Iceland and in Arabia the harper was the first historian ; and both in ancient and modern Europe, the period of youthful romance preceded the sober day of truth. Legitimate bio graphy was scarcely known in Greece till that coun try had passed the age of manhood ; for what was done by Xenophon, in the institution of Cyrus, when Athens was in its glory, is of too equivocal authori ty to be classed under that head. It was not till the commencement of the 2d century, that Plutarch gave to biography the place which it now occupies among the departments of literature ; and to him we are indebted for a more intimate acquaintance with the principal characters of antiquity, than we have with many persons of the first distinction in modern times. Writers of greater elegance, and of more phi losophical views, may have followed in his track, but none have succeeded better in accomplishing the great ends of this species of writing, in combining entertainment and instruction, in stamping upon his productions the indubitable character of truth, in presenting a near and familiar view of the subjects of his records, and in filling up the sketches which the historian is obliged, by the nature and extent of his design, to leave to the biographer. During the long night of ignorance which preceded the revival of learning in Europe, biography, degraded from the rank it once held, was enlisted in the service of superstition. The only men of letters in those times were the ecclesiastics, who were disqualified, both by credulity and artifice, for the office of the historian. In their hands biography exhibited a strange mixture of truth and falsehood, gravity and puerility, simplicity and fraud. Fabulous without
being romantic, wanting both the authority of truth and the grace of fiction, their tales of wonder could neither instruct the judgment, nor delight the imagi nation. The subjects of their pen were supplied by the calendar of saints, some of whom were adorned with great virtues, and displayed a heroism in the de fence of their opinions which entitle them to the ve neration of posterity ; whilst others had no better title than is conferred by successful hypocrisy spread ing the cloak of sanctity over pride, avarice, and am bition. The narrative of their lives, instead of deve loping the nature of man, and marking the progress of passion or of intellect, was for the most part a re cord of nothing but miracles pretended to have been performed by themselves, or entailed upon their ashes. Since the restoration of letters, biography • has extended through a much greater space ? than it occupied in ancient literature. This was a natural consetrmce of the invention of the art of printing, by which the sources of information are multiplied, and made more certain, as well as more easy of access. To this advantage we arc indebted for Bayle's elaborate work, which even his great in dustry and acuteness of research could not have pro duced without it. The wide circulation of books, and the prodigious increase of the number of readers, to whom no literary productions are more generally acceptable than well written biographies, have enga ged a good portion of talent in this department ; and though it is true, that, in the long catalogue of bio graphies which the last century has supplied, many .•11 be found which have little to recommend them, either in the subject or in the execution, a list might easily be made out sufficiently honourable to modern literature. In this number, the works of such men as Middleton, Jortin, and Johnson, are entitled to particular notice, as specimens of fine writing, and as depositories of useful and ingenious remark ; and from the eulogies of the French academicians, and some periodical publications of our own country, a selection might be made, affording a display of more than ordinary elegance and ability.