as it contributes to recommend them to themselves, by proving that they have not loft the regard of others; and heaven feems to indicate the duty even of barren compaffion, by inclining us to weep for evils which we cannot remedy. NUMB. 60. SATURDAY, October 13, 1750. Quid fit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, HOR. • Whose works the beautiful and base contain, Of vice and virtue more inftru&tive rules, Than all the fober fages of the schools. FRANCIS. A LL joy or forrow for the happiness or calamities of others is produced by an act of the imagination, that realifes the event however fictitious, or approximates it however remote, by placing us, for a time, in the condition of him 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 ftrongly 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 intereft in happiness or mifery, which we think ourfelves never likely to feel, and with which we have never yet been made acquainted. Hiftories of the downfal of kingdoms, 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 whofe faculties have been engroffed by bufinefs, and whofe heart never fluttered but at the rife or fall of the ftocks, wonders how the attention can be feized, or the affection agitated, by a tale of love. Those 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 irresistible intereft, or more widely diffuse inftruction to every diverfity of condition. The general and rapid narratives of hiftory, which involve a thousand fortunes in the bufinefs of a day, and complicate innumerable incidents in one great tranfaction, afford few leffons applicable 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 mass of the world, great numbers in the fame condition with himfelf, to whom his mistakes and mifcarriages, mifcarriages, escapes and expedients, would be of immediate and apparent ufe; but there is fuch an uniformity in the state of man, confidered apart from adventitious and feparable decorations and difguifes, 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 greatest distance by fortune, or by temper, muft unavoidably pass in the fame manner, and though, when the claims of nature are fatisfied, caprice, and vanity, and accident, begin to produce discriminations and peculiarities, yet the eye is not very heedful or quick, which cannot difcover 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 by the fame fallacies, all animated by hope, obftructed by danger, entangled by defire, and feduced by pleafure. It is frequently objected to relations of particular lives, that they are not diftinguished by any striking or wonderful viciffitudes. The fcholar who paffed his life among his books, the merchant who conducted only his own affairs, the priest, whose sphere 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 falfe measures of excellence and dignity, and must be eradicated by confidering, that in the esteem of uncor rupted reason, what is of most use is of most value. It is, indeed, not improper to take honest advantages of prejudice, and to gain attention by a celebrated name; but the business of the biographer is often to pafs flightly over thofe performances and incidents, which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestick privacies, and display 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 pofterity the private and familiar character of that man, cujus ingenium et candorem ex ipfius fcriptis funt olim femper miraturi, whofe candour and genius will to the end of time be by his writings preserved in admiration. There are many invifible circumstances which, whether we read as enquirers after natural or moral knowledge, whether we intend to enlarge our fcience, or encrease 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 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, that 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 perfonal character which reprefents him as careful of his health, and negligent of his life. But But biography has often been allotted to writers who feem 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 themfelves 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 short converfation with one of his fervants, than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree, and ended with his funeral. If now and then they condefcend 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 circumstance by which Tickell has diftinguished Addison from the reft of mankind, the irregularity of his pulfe: nor can I think myself overpaid for the time spent in reading the life of Malherb, by being enabled to relate, after the learned biographer, that Malherb had two predominant opinions; one, that the looseness of a fingle woman might deftroy all her boast of ancient defcent; the other, that the French beggars made ufe very improperly and barbarously of the phrase noble Gentleman, because either word included the sense of both. There are, indeed, fome natural reasons why these narratives are often written by fuch as were not likely to give much instruction or delight, and why most accounts of particular perfons are barren and ufelefs. If a life be delayed till intereft and envy are at an end, we may hope for impartiality, but must expect VOL. IV. Сс little |