Lawyer, and the Physician, may all be excited to aim at excellence in their feveral profeffions by the examples of a BARROW and a TILLOTSON; a COKE, a HALE, and a HOLT; a HARVEY, a SYDENHAM, and a MEAD. The Seaman and the Soldier may be ani. mated to the pursuit of military honours, by the heroic actions of a BLAKE and a MARLBOROUGH; and the difinterested Patriot, who feels for the honour and the interest of his country, and who is a zealous advocate for liberty, and the common rights of mankind, may be animated by the noble examples of a HAMPDEN, a RUSSEL, a MARVEL, and a SYDNEY. And the man of letters and philofophical inquiry may be incited to afpire after literary and fcientific eminence, by the immortal labours of a MILTON, a BACON, a BOYLE, a NEWTON, and a LOCKE.

BUT it is not eminence in arms, in arts, or in fcience only, that we may be taught to afpire after, in the perufal of the lives of the moft eminent of our countrymen. It may also ftimulate us to aim at the acquifition of what is of still more value and importance, and at the fame time univerfally attainable, Moral Excellence. It is not in the power of every man to be a great Statefman, General, or Philofopher; but every man may cultivate and practise tem, perance, integrity, benevolence, and humanity. He who cannot enter into any competition with those who have diftinguished themfelves by their wit, their eloquence, or their learning, may at least learn to imitate their virtues. And even the lives of bad: men, fuch whofe eminence of. ftation or abilities have rendered their actions fufficiently important to be properly introduced in a work of this kind, may be.

read

read with confiderable advantage. The deformity of: vice, as well as the beauty of virtue, is beft exhibited in real characters; a juft reprefentation of which must have a natural tendency to excite in us a love and efteem for the one, and an hatred and contempt of the other. We cannot read the lives of Bonner, of GARDINER, or of JEFFERIES, without feeling a just deteftation of bigotry, religious perfecution, injustice, and cruelty.

THERE is, we apprehend, the greater propriety in a work of the kind now offered to the Public, because there is no Collection of British Lives hitherto published, but what is either too voluminous, and of too high a price for the generality of readers; or of too inconfiderable a fize to admit of any tolerable justice being done to the many eminent persons who have flourished in thefe kingdoms. Those works of the kind which more particularly deferve to be mentioned, are the Biographia Britannica, the General Dictionary, and the New and General Biographical Dictionary in twelve volumes, 8vo. The latter is in many respects a valuable work; but fo large a part of it is taken up with foreign lives, as rendered thofe of the most eminent perfons in Great Britain neceffarily fhort and imperfect; and of the two other works, as the one is feven volumes, folio, and the other, ten, it cannot be supposed that they can come into ordinary hands, or that works of fo large a fize can be very generally read.

In the compilation of this Work, we have had recourse to all the publications that have been mentioned; and in particular, it would be injuftice not

to acknowledge that we have derived very confiderable affistance from that elaborate Work, the Biographia Britannica. But notwithstanding this, we flatter ourselves that thofe who are in poffeffion of that larger publication, will not find this Work wholly unworthy of their attention. For befides the publications already mentioned, and other hiftorical and biographical Dictionaries, we have made ufe of fome hundred volumes of fingle lives, and hiftorical and biographical collections; befides occafionally making ufe of manufcripts, particularly thofe in the British Museum, when we could meet with any that were adapted to our purpose. So that, in the course of our Work, a great variety of authors have been confulted and compared; the lives have been fresh drawn up, and fome introduced that were in no former collection; many mistakes of preceding writers have been corrected; and many facts, actions, and characters, placed in a new, and, it is prefumed, in a juft point of view.

In the characters of individuals, we have fometimes differed from our biographical predeceffors. We have not been difpofed to lavish our encomiums on fome characters, on whom the incenfe of praise has been bestowed in the moft liberal manner by preceding writers. In these cases, however, we hope we have been influenced, not by prejudice, but by reafon and by truth. We would wish to be impartial; but we cannot fuppofe that commendations are due to the oppreffors of mankind, to those who have been employed in trampling on the rights of human nature, however dignified by royal favour, or however elevated by title or by ftation.

IT

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IT has been fometimes objected to biographical writers, that they are too apt to introduce ordinary actions and circumftances, and particulars of fo common a nature, that no moral wifdom is to be derived from their narrations, or any accurate ideas to be formed of the perfons whofe lives they undertake to relate. But it fhould be remembered, that this may frequently refult more from neceffity, than from any fault in the writer. Incidents of an interesting and characteristic kind, however diligently fought, are not always to be found. "The incidents," fays an ingenious writer," which give excellence to Biography, are of a volatile and evanefcent kind, fuch as foon "efcape the memory, and are rarely tranfmitted by "tradition." It may also be observed, that there are many particulars and circumstances, which, tho' of too general a nature to illuftrate the character, or to point out the peculiar qualities or difpofitions of the man, are yet fo neceffary in any regular account of him, that the omiffion of them would be cenfured as a defect by almost every reader. However, we have chiefly attended to the more important and inftructive parts of Biography; and wherever fuch incidents or anecdotes were to be obtained, as had a natural tendency to throw light upon a character, to point out its peculiarities, or to illuftrate any moral fentiment, we have always endeavoured to introduce them in our Work.

As we have endeavoured to do juftice to the most eminent men which thefe nations have produced, fo we have not been inattentive to female excellence; but have introduced accounts of Ladies who have been diftinguished for their piety, the amiableness of

their manners, their learning, and their ingenuity; fuch, in fhort, who were ornaments to their own age, and, patterns to fucceeding ones. In the plan of our Work, we have preferred the Chronological order to that of the Dictionary form. The lives of perfons who were cotemporaries with each other, are beft read together, as one frequently throws a light upon another; and a regard to the order of time feems the moft natural difpofition of fuch a Work, and more productive of pleasure and inftruction, than the placing of the lives of fuch perfons together as lived at very remote periods from each other. The great advantage of the Dictionary form is, the facility of finding any particular life; but this advantage we have endeavoured to fupply by proper Indexes." In fhort, we have endeavoured to render this Series of British Lives ufeful, accurate, entertaining, and inftructive; and we would now fubmit it, with a be coming deference, to the candour of the Public.