II. Popular Biography.
One of the most useful and pleasing forms under which knowledge can be presented to the general reader is that of the Biography of distinguished men, who have contributed to the progress of that knowledge in some one or other of its various departments. But it too frequently happens, that the biographical notices of great men consist rather of personal, trivial, and unimportant details, than of a clear and broad outline of the influence which they exerted upon the pursuit and upon the age in which they were distinguished. The true object of Biography is, while tracing the progress of an individual, to show not only what result his active life has produced on the well-being of his fellow-men, but also the position which he occupies as one of the “great landmarks in the map of human nature.”
Yet we are not satisfied with a biography which regards its subject in his public capacity alone: we are naturally curious to ascertain whether the same qualities which rendered him celebrated in public, followed him likewise into private life, and distinguished him there. We regard with interest, in his private capacity, the man who has been the originator of much public good: we look with an attentive eye on his behaviour when he stands alone, when his native impulses are under no external excitement; when he is, in fact, “in the undress of one who has retired from the stage on which he felt he had a part to sustain.”
But a detail of the public and private events in the life of a distinguished man, do not alone suffice to form a just estimate of his character. The reader requires to be made acquainted with the state of a particular branch of knowledge, at the time when the individual appeared, whose efforts extended its boundaries. Without this it is impossible to estimate the worth of the man, or the blessings and advantages conferred upon society by his means.
On the other hand, in tracing the history of any particular branch of knowledge, unless connected with Biography, we lose sight of individual efforts; they are mingled with the labours of others, or are absorbed into the history of the whole, and are consequently no longer individualized: hence we are likely to fail in recognising the obligations due to our distinguished countrymen, or to deprive of their just merit those of our foreign brethren, whose useful lives have influenced distant lands as well as their own.
With these views it is proposed that each Biography shall consist of three distinct portions:
1 The history of a particular department of knowledge, up to the time when the individual appeared by whom its boundaries were extended.
2 A general sketch of the life of such individual, with particular details of the improvements effected by him.
3 The progress of such branch of knowledge, from the date of such improvements up to our own times.
The following subjects will be immediately published:
Smeaton and Lighthouses.
Sir Joseph Banks and the Royal Society.
Sir Humphrey Davy and the Safety Lamp.
Linnæus and Jussieu; or, the Rise and Progress of Systematic Botany.
Cuvier and his Works; or the Rise and Progress of Zoology.
Brindley and Canals.
Watt and the Steam-engine.
Wedgwood and Pottery.
Telford and Roads and Bridges.
Caxton and the Printing Press.
Galileo and the Telescope.
Sir Isaac Newton and the Progress of Astronomical Discovery.
Sir Christopher Wren and St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Addison and the English Essayists.
Jeremy Taylor and some Account of his Times and Works.
Wilberforce and the Slave Trade.
Each work being a Popular Biography, with an Historical Introduction and Sequel.