whofe fortune we contemplate; fo that we feel, while the deception lafts, whatever motions would be excited by the fame good or evil happening to. ourselves.

Our paffions are therefore more strongly moved, in proportion as we can more readily adopt the pains or pleasure propofed to our minds, by recognifing them as once our own, or confidering them as naturally incident to our ftate of life. It is not eafy for the most artful writer to give us an interest in happiness or mifery, which we think ourselves never likely to feel, and with which we have never yet been made acquainted. Hiftories of the downfal of kingdoms, and revolutions of empires, are read with great tranquillity; the imperial tragedy pleases common auditors only by its pomp of ornament and grandeur of ideas; and the man whose faculties have been engroffed by bufinefs, and whofe heart never fluttered but at the rife or fall of ftocks, wonders how the attention can be feized, or the affection agitated, by a tale of love.

Thofe parallel circumftances,and kindred images, to which we readily conform our minds, are, above all other writings, to be found in narratives of the lives of particular perfons; and therefore no fpecies of writing feems more worthy of cultivation than biography, fince none can be more delightful or more useful, none can more certainly enchain the heart by irrefiftible intereft, or more widely diffuse inftruction to every diverfity of condition.

The general and rapid narratives of history, which involve a thousand fortunes in the bufinefs of a day, and complicate innumerable incidents in one great tranfaction, afford few leffons applicable,

to

to private life, which derives its comforts and its wretchedness from the right or wrong management of things, which nothing but their frequency makes confiderable, Parva fi non funt quotidie, fays Pliny, and which can have no place in those relations which never defcend below the confultation of fenates, the motions of armies, and the schemes of confpirators.

I have often thought that there has rarely paffed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful. For, not only every man has, in the mighty mafs of the world, great numbers in the fame condition with himself, to whom his mistakes and miscarriages, escapes and expedients, would be of immediate and apparent use; but there is fuch an uniformity in the state of man, confidered apart from adventitious and feparable decorations and disguises, that there is scarce any poffibility of good or ill, but is common to human kind. A great part of the time of those who are placed at the greateft diftance by fortune, or by temper, must unavoidably pass in the fame manner, and though, when the claims of nature are fatisfied, caprice, and vanity, and accident, begin to produce diferiminations and peculiarities, yet the eye is not very heedful or quick, which cannot discover the fame caufes ftill terminating their influence in the fame effects, though fometimes accelerated, fometimes retarded, or perplexed by multiplied combinations. We are all prompted by the fame motives, all deceived bythe fame fallacies, all animated by hope, obftructed by danger, entangled by defire, and feduced by: pleasure.

It is frequently objected to relations of particular lives, that they are not diftinguished by any

ftriking

ftriking or wonderful viciffitudes. The fcholar who paffed his life among his books, the merchant who conducted only his own affairs, the priest, whose fphere of action was not extended beyond that of his duty, are confidered as no proper objects of publick regard, however they might have excelled in their feveral stations, whatever might have been their learning, integrity, and piety. But this notion arifes from false measures of excellence and dignity, and must be eradicated by confidering, that? in the esteem of uncorrupted reafon, what is of most use is of most value.

It is, indeed, not improper to take honeft advantages of prejudice, and to gain attention by a celebrated name; but the bufinefs of the biogra→ pher is often to pass flightly over those performances and incidents, which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domeftick privacies, and difplay the minute details of daily life, where exterior appendages are caft afide, and men excel each other only by prudence and by virtue. The account of Thuanus is, with great propriety, faid by its author to have been written, that it might lay open to posterity the private and familiar character of that man, cujus ingenium et candorem ex ipfius fcriptis funt olim femper miraturi, whose candour and genius will to the end of time be by his writings preserved in admiration.

There are many invifible circumftances which, whether we read as enquirers after natural or moral knowledge, whether we intend to enlarge our science, or increase our virtue, are more important than publick occurrences. Thus Salluft, the great master of nature, has not forgot, in his account of Catiline, to remark that his walk was now quick,

and

and again flow, as an indication of a mind revolving: fomething with violent commotion. Thus the ftory of Melancthon affords a ftriking lecture on the value of time, by informing us, than when he made an appointment, he expected not only the hour, but the minute to be fixed, that the day might not run out in the idleness of fufpenfe; and all the plans and enterprizes of De Wit are now of lefs importance to the world, than that part of his personal character, which represents him as careful of his health, and negligent of his life.

But biography has often been allotted to writers who seem very little acquainted with the nature of their task, or very negligent about the performance. They rarely afford any other account than might be collected from publick papers, but imagine themselves writing a life when they exhibit a chronological series of actions, or preferments; and fo little regard the manners or behaviour of their heroes, that more knowledge may be gained of a man's real character, by a fhort coverfation with one of his fervants, than from a formal and ftudied narrative, begun with his pedigree, and ended with his funeral.

If now and then they condescend to inform the world of particular facts, they are not always fo happy as to felect the most important.. I know not well what advantage pofterity can receive from the only circumftance by which Tickell has diftinguished Addison from the rest of mankind, the irregularity of his pulse: nor can I think myself overpaid for the time fpent in reading the life of Malherbe by being enabled to relate, after the learned biographer, that Malherbe had two predominant opinions; one, that the doofeness of a fingle woman

might destroy all her boast of ancient defcent; the other, that the French beggars made ufe very improperly and barbaroufly of the phrafe noble Gentle man, becaufe either word included the fense of both.

There are, indeed, fome natural reasons why thefe narratives are often written by fuch as were not likely to give much inftruction or delight, and why most accounts of particular perfons are barren: and useless. If a life be delayed till intereft and envy are at an end, we may hope for impartiality, but must expect little intelligence; for the incidents which give excellence to biography are of ar volatile and evanefcent kind, fuch as foon efcape the memory, and are rarely tranfmitted by tradition. We know how few can pourtray a living acquaintance, except by his moft prominent and obfervable particularities, and the groffer features of his mind; and it may be easily imagined how much of thislittle knowledge may be loft in imparting it, and how foon a fucceffion of copies will lofe all refemblance of the original.

If the biographer writes from perfonal knowledge, and makes hafte to gratify the publick cu riofity, there is danger left his intereft, his fear, his gratitude, or his tenderness, overpower his fidelity, and tempt him to conceal, if not to invent. There' are many who think it an act of piety to hide the faults or failings of their friends, even when they. can no longer suffer by their detection; we therefore fee whole ranks of characters adorned with uniform panegyrick, and not to be known from one another, but by extrinfick and cafual circum ftances. "Let me remember," fays Hale, "when "I find myself inclined to pity a criminal, that

"there