Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by

WHITTEMORE, NILES, AND HALL.

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts

CAMBRIDGE:

ALLEN AND FARNHAM, STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS.

INTRODUCTION.

THE contents of this volume have been collected from the Eighth Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, which is now passing through the press. The magnitude of that work places it quite beyond the reach of most persons; yet these Biographies which it entombs are such as every one would gladly possess. I am sure of rendering a grateful service to the public by disinterring and placing them within the reach of all.

The brevity of these compositions will recommend them to the mass of readers. Few persons have leisure to peruse voluminous memoirs of every distinguished man, yet few persons would be content to forego all knowledge of such men. A compact Biography like these, presenting a clear and distinct outline of the life, and producing a clear and distinct impression of the character, meets the necessity. Nor does this condensation involve the sacrifice of any essential feature. "I think," remarks Peter Bayne, "that Mr. Carlyle has demonstrated that a biography can be given in the compass of a review-article; his essay on Burns I con

sider, in the full signification of the term, one of the most perfect biographies I ever looked into."* Mr. Bayne has furnished illustrations of his remark not less convincing, in his biographical chapters on Budgett, Wilberforce, and others.

For the few men of learned leisure, works voluminous with detail, like Boswell's Life of Johnson, must still be printed; but those who must run as they read will demand biographies that can be comprehended "within the compass of a review-article."

Some of the writers of these pieces are possibly but little known to the general reader, nor am I able to add much to his information beyond the statement that they are among the select contributors to the Encyclopædia. Mr. SPALDING, the author of the first and third pieces, is Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the University of St. Andrews. He is the author of a History of English Literature and of a work on Italy and the Italian Isles. Besides the sketches of Addison and Bacon, he has contributed to the Encyclopædia two articles of some length under the words "Fable" and "Fallacy." His style is agreeable, and his literary and moral judgments are mild but discriminating and independent. Mr. DIXON is known as a popular writer, chiefly through his book on Prison Life in Europe. His controversy with Macaulay respecting the character of William Penn has also contributed to give currency to his name in the literary world. His sketch of Howard in this volume is a remarkable

*The Christian Life, Social and Individual. By Peter Bayne, M. A. Boston: Gould & Lincoln, 1856.