INTRODUCTION.

THE art of imparting to the solidity of

marble and durability of brass the features of departed Worthies, had crouded the cities of Greece and Italy with innumerable statues; and the inhabitant, in passing through the streets, found himself in company with those philosophers or warriors who, centuries before, had merited these lasting

a

honors from the gratitude of their country. The portrait-painters, since the revival of the art of Painting, have not only multiplied the resemblances of our public characters, but also animated the walls of our apartments with the likenesses of friends of whom death has bereft us; and the wonders of the pallet allow us to identify beings whose very sepulchres Time has already converted to dust. The art of Engraving justly boasts of a still higher advantage-that of multiplying also, and to an almost infinite number, with very little trouble, the works of the two sister-Arts, by placing under the eye of every one, faithful copies of Statues, Busts, Cameos, or Paintings, dispersed throughout the world.

To these considerations all biographical publications, adorned and enriched with portraits, owe their origin. The adjoining print, as if standing by in order to vouch for the truth of the Author's narrative, aids considerably the memory of the reader, and strikes the imagination of the physiognomist who sees, or thinks he sees, in the countenance of the man, an evidence of all, or at least part of that which is related of him.

It is proper to observe here, that in our present selection we have been directed less by the purity or goodness of the character represented, than by its singularity, or the interest it may excite in the mind of the Public. For, a biographer is rarely enabled

to delineate a character of uniform and un

mixed merit, and to exhibit it to posterity, as an unsophisticated type, for instruction and imitation. Such is the frailty of the nature of man; so powerful are the attractions by which he is allured, and the passions which agitate and often deform him; so artfully concealed, and so delusive the snares, which surround him in every stage of existence; that the history of the greater number even of eminent men, is to be studied rather for the investigation of errors in order to avoid them, than contemplated as the mirror of personal perfection.

Under these circumstances, it was utterly impracticable to follow in this work any