PREFACE. As the utility of biography cannot be questioned, any comment on its importance would be superfluous. Without it, history is defective, and chronology uninteresting. It is by the recital of particular facts, and the display of minute circumstances, that the reader's attention is arrested, and the knowledge of great events imprinted on his memory. But however pleasing or valuable in itself, it is capable of receiving considerable aid and embellishment from sculpture, and painting. What history records, they exhibit; and if, by the perusal of brilliant exploits, and the contemplation of magnanimous actions, the judgment be regulated, and the mind enlarged, the correct and skilful delineation of them, no less forcibly enchants the fancy, and informs the understanding. The union, therefore, of History, Painting, and Sculpture, and their dependence upon each other is so apparent, as to render unnecessary any further observation. The design of the present work being to combine instruction with amusement; and to blend the labours of the historian, with the happiest efforts of the pencil, the proprietors flatter themselves that, to the literary student and the artist, it will be found of considerable use. By those who delight in reflecting on the fortunes, the talents, and the achievments of illustrious men, it will be regarded with peculiar interest, as displaying the AUTHENTIC PORTRAITS of personages whose virtues and defects, whose daring projects or literary attainments, they may admire, censure, or extol. The HISTORIC GALLERY rests its pretensions to public patron age upon a still stronger basis. Presenting to the contem plation of the artist and the connoisseur, specimens of the most esteemed works of the best masters, this publication, it is presumed, will contribute to the advancement of science; assist in diffusing a knowledge of what, for ages, has been highly appreciated and enthusiastically admired and instil into the mind of the most indifferent observer of ideal excellence, a taste for the polite arts. If considered as a book of reference alone, THE HISTORIC GALLERY cannot fail of being most useful, instructive, and entertaining, the whole being compiled with some care from the best biographical sources, and being replete with the requisite classical knowledge, will be found useful for educational purposes, and conduce to the attainment of mental and moral improvement. The details of actual life, interest all, beyond most other species of reading. Hence, if we would raise up Howards, Franklins, Miltons, and Newtons, to bless the world, we must present our youth, not with a dry abstract of the principles which form such characters, but with a portrait of those living and glowing spirits themselves; for a single forcible delineation of a Nero, or a Caligula, will do more to save us from a repetition of their vices, than a volume of mere warnings and philippics thereon. Man is naturally imitative. Here, in numerous instances, he will find noble models. For those of a different character we have only to say: "Learn to be wise by others' harm, |