DISRAELI, ISAAC, was born at Enfield in 1766. His father, Benjamin Disraeli, was the descendant of a family of Spanish Jews, who, driven from the Penineula in the 15th century by the persecutiona of the Inquisition, had settled In Venice, and there, to mark their race, had exchanged the Gothic•Spanish name they had hitherto borne for that of Disraeli—"a name never borne before or ainco by any other family" (the name was originally written D'Israoli ; but in his later years the subject of this memoir was in the habit of omitting the apostrophe). He bad come over to Eugland from Italy in 1748, and made a considerable fortune by commerce. Ile married in 1765 "the beautiful daughter of a family" of his own race "who had suffered much from persecution." She was a person of strong sense but uo imagination, whose ruling feeling was "a dislike for her race." The only child of this union was the subject of our notice. His sensitive and poetical character as a boy puzzled both his parents, and, in particular, occasioned continual discord between him and his mother. Jib father destined him for commerce; but from the first he showed a decided aversion to an active life, Educated first at a school neer Enfield, and then at Amsterdam, where the only advantage he received was that derived from access to a large library, be was not more than eighteen when, in spite of all that his father could say or do, he signified his intention of being a literary man. "He had written a poem of considerable length, which he wished to publish, against commerce." His father naturally opposed this intention, and accordingly "he enclosed his poem to Dr. Johnson with an Impassioned statement of his cane, complaining that he had never found a counsellor or literary friend. Ile left his packet himself at Bolt Court, where he was received by Mr. Francis Barber, the doctor's well known black servant, and told to call again in week." When he did call the packet was returned to him unopened, with a message that the doctor was too ill to read anything. The doctor, in fact, was then on his death-bed. In 1783 Dieraeli's father sent him to travel in France. On his return, finding Peter Pindar'a satires in everybody's mouth, he veutured anonymously to publish by way of corrective some verses " On the Abuse of Satire," which Walcot attributed to lisyley. About this time he became acquainted with Mr. Pye, afterwards poet laureate, who was of service to him in many ways, and who persuaded his father to allow him to follow his own iodination& Accordingly from about 1790, without any farther opposition on the part of his family, and with sufficient means supplied by his father (who survived till 1819, when be was nearly ninety years of ago), he was free to devote himself entirely to litera ture. His first efforts were in poetry and romauce. His early verses are forgotten; but a volume of romantic tales, including one called ' The Loves of Mejnouu and Leila,' published by him some time before the close of the 18th century, reached a accond edition. But,
though he had much poetic taste, ho was not fitted to be a poet or creative writer ; and he was not long in finding out that Ida true destiny was "to give to his country a series of works illustrative of its literary and political history "—in other words, to prosecute researches in literary history and gossip. It was iu the year 1790 that he published anonymously a little volume entitled Curiosities of Literature.' The success of this volume determined him to prosecute the walk which be had there entered upon. Accordingly, with the exception of the volume of romance above alluded to, and we believe, one other auonyinoua publication, all Mr. Disraeli'a farther productions during his long life consisted of the fruits of his literary and historical researches. These researches were prosecuted partly in the British Museum, where he was a constant visitor at a time when the readers who had access to its treasures were not more than half•a-dozen daily; partly in his own library, which, especially in the end of his life (when he resided on his own manor of Bmdenham in Buckinghamshire) was very extensive. The results of these researches were put forth from time to time either as additions to his 'Curiosities of Literature' (which thus eventually attained, in the eleventh edition published in 1839, the bulk of six volumes); or as independent publications. Among the independent publications may be mentioned his 'Essay on tho Literary Character ' originally published in 1795 ; his Calamities of Authors,' his Quarrels of Authors,' or 'Memoirs of Literary Controversy,' and his 'Inquiry into the Literary and Political Character of James the First '—works originally published between 1812 and 1822, and since then published collectively under the title of ' Miscellanies of Literature ;' and his ' Life and Reign of Charles the First,' published in five volumes at intervals between 1828 and 1831. In acknowledgment of this last work he was made D.C.L. by the University of Oxford. He contemplated a 'Life of Pope,' and also 'A History of the English Free-thinkers,' and had collected materials for both ; but a paralysis of the optic nerve which attacked him in 1839 prevented him from executing either. With the assistance of his daughter he selected from his manuscripts three volumes, which were published in 1841 under the title of ' Amenities of Literature.' His last yearn were spent in revising and re-editing his former works; and he died in 1343 at the age of eighty-two. "He was," says his eon, from whose memoir, prefixed to a new and posthumous edition of his ' Curiosities of Literature; wo have derived the foregoing particulars, "a complete literary character, a man who really passed his life in his library. Even marriage pro duced no change in these habits : he rose to enter the chamber where he lived alone with his books, and at night his lamp was ever lit within the same walls." In his old age his appearance was mild and venerable ; he had then become rather corpulent