BIOG'RAPHY (Gk. tittos, Mos. life yplubm, graphein, to write). term applied to that de partment of literature which treats of the of individuals. The mode of treatment, especially in modern times, is far from uniform. In some cases biography approaches the sphere of phi losophy; in others, that of history; while in the majority it assumes, to a large extent, the char acter of analytic or descriptive criticism. To none of these modes, theoretically considered, can there be any valid objection; everything de pends on the judiciousness of the biographer. The great points which lie must keep perpetually in view are the personality and characteristics of his subject. If these are buried under a load of digressive dissertations, his book, however valu able or interesting, ceases to be a biography ex cept in name. Such a book, for example. is Mas Life Milton. Anciently. biography was more of a mere curriculum than it is now; that is to say, the leading incidents of a man's life were narrated in their without any elaborate attempt to analyze the character from which they emanated. Like an cient history, it was possessed of a simple great ness, a stately dignity of narrative, colored here and there. but sparingly, with grave eulogy or censure. Modern biography, on the other hand, like modern history, is full of elucidations. criti cisms, and disquisitions; and, if wanting in the severe grace of its classic predecessors, it is much more lively, acute, and expansive.
Biographical literature has existed from an early period. The oldest historical books of the Jews abound with beautiful examples of it, such as the lives of the Patriarchs and the story of Ruth. Indeed, the mythologies of all ancient nations are but the lives of heroes and gods. Of purely biographical works, the most valuable that has come down to us from the Greeks is the Parallel Lives by Plutarch.writ ten about the close of the First Century after Christ. Roman litera ture also possessed an admirable specimen in the Life of Agricola by his son-in-law, Taeitus. Be sides these may be mentioned the Lives of the Tscelce etesars (in Latin). by Suetonius. and .-tpollonius of Tyana (in Greek), by Philostra tus, Lives of the Sophists (in Greek), by Philo stratus, and a Life of Plato (in Greek), by Olym piodorus of Alexandria. Coming down to a later period we meet Saint Jerome's Lives of the Fathers; while biographies, more or less com plete, of saints, martyrs, bishops, etc., are scat• tered profusely through private ecclesiastical lit erature. The monks of the Middle Ages employed their leisure in weaving legends that abound in superstition and absurdities. Modern biographi cal literature really dates from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries. Among the valuable works that then appeared may he mentioned Vasari's Lives of the Painters (Florence. 1550) ;
the Acta S'a net o m ( q.v .) ; 11 moires pour serrir ii Phistoire des six silwles de realise, I() vole. (Paris, 1693) Thomas Stanley's History of Philosophy, containing the lives, opinions, actions, and dis courses of philosophers of every sect (first edi London. 1655-62: 4th edition, with Life, London. 1743) : 11:Me's Dietionnaire historique et critique (Rotterda in. 1697 ) .
In England and elsewhere, the biography of the man of letters is a late development. The men who visited the Globe Theatre never thought of writing the life of Shakespeare. To them the career of the dramatist seemed eventful, for it was in no wise connected with the great affairs of Church and State. The signs of a new era appeared with the publication of charming Lives (1670), comprising Donne. lVotton. Hooker. and Herbert. This list, however, contains the name of no one who voted himself wholly to letters. Walton's ume was followed by Wood's A /Imam• Oxonicnses (1090-92), the lives of Oxford writers and bishops, and by Aubrey's Minutes of Lives (not published till 1813), containing sketches of Bacon, 31ilton. Hobbes, and others. These two writers, who depended largely upon anecdotes, were the forerunners of Boswell, whose Life of Dr. Johnson. (1791) is the most famous of Eng lish biographies. Since the appearance of this work. biographical literature has increased enor mously. There is no escape now for the man of letters. Among noteworthy biographies, since Boswell, are Lockhart's Xeott (1836-38) ; Fors ter's Dickens (1872-74) : 'Crevelyan's Macaulay (1870 ; Cross's GeOry(' Eliot (I8S4) ; Tenny son, Is- his son (18971; and Life and Lett, rs of Hitxlcy, by his son (1901). Cross adopted the novel plan of letting George Eliot speak through her letters, chronologically arranged, and eluci dated by brief remarks. This method, which does away with the fulsome praises of the biog rapher, is very attractive. and has, perhaps. led to a taste for the correspondence of literary men. Among notable volumes of letters of re cent date are Matthew Arnold's (1895) and Stevenson's (194)01. Beginning with Dr. John son's Lives of the Poets (1779-81), there is a long line of works in which biography is com bined with criticism. To this class belong .11aeaulay's Lives of Milton, Addison, etc.: Car lyle's Lives of Burns, Sterling, etc.: Grinun's :Michael Angelo, and many series of which the type is represented by the English flee of Let ters, the American Men of Letters, and Les grads ecrivains francais. Biographical diction aries ante from the Elucidarius Carminuin et Ilistoriarum (Holland, 1498). But the Nine teenth Century was their flourishing period.