[Page 32: Dr. Johnson on biography.]
If authority be required, let us appeal to Plutarch, the prince of
ancient biographers. [Greek: Oute tais epiphanestatais praxesi pantos
enesti daelosis aretaes ae kakias, alla pragma brachu pollakis, kai
raema, kai paidia tis emphasin aethous epoiaesen mallon ae machai
murionekroi, kai parataxeis ai megistai, kai poliorkiai poleon.] Nor is
it always in the most distinguished atchievements that men's virtues or
vices may be best discerned; but very often an action of small note, a
short saying, or a jest, shall distinguish a person's real character
more than the greatest sieges, or the most important battles[104].'
To this may be added the sentiments of the very man whose life I am
about to exhibit.
'The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those
performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the
thoughts into domestick privacies, and display the minute details of
daily life, where exteriour appendages are cast aside, and men excel
each other only by prudence and by virtue. The account of Thuanus is
with great propriety said by its authour to have been written, that it
might lay open to posterity the private and familiar character of that
man, _cujus ingenium et candorem ex ipsius scriptis sunt olim semper
miraturi_, whose candour and genius will to the end of time be by his
writings preserved in admiration.
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