In the several biographical sketches, impartiality has been aimed at, and not the indiscriminate encomium which is sought to be enjoined in the old maxim, De mortuis nil nisi bonum. Whilst the excellencies of the dead have been fairly estimated, the author has felt that the lessons of their lives would be incomplete were their failings omitted; for our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not." Meanwhile, the latter have been leniently dealt with. 66 The tone of the following pages has little or none of the melancholy of either of the classes whose celebrities it seeks to commemorate. Their births, and the leading events of their lives, are here told as well as their restingplaces, where, rather than seek to overwhelm the reader with gloom, we would enliven him with the brightness of hope. The feelings over these several Relics" may be various, like the chequerwork of their existence; but honour is, in some degree, due to all; and "Praising what is lost, Makes the remembrance dear." |