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PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
these Anecdotes have abundantly verified this remark. Though I have applied to the most authentic sources, and in general have been favoured with the most liberal communications, some subsequent discoveries have often rendered it necessary to compile a second article, sometimes a third or fourth, concerning the same Writer[1]. In such cases, it becomes necessary to request the Reader’s indulgence, and to refer him to the Index. There are other instances, where, after every possible enquiry, it has hardly been practicable to collect a single circumstance of private persons, though of eminence in letters, except the date of their death. “The incidents which give excellence to biography are of a volatile and evanescent kind, such as soon escape the memory, and are rarely transmitted by tradition[2];” and “Lives can only be written from personal knowledge, which is growing every day less, and in a short time is lost for ever. What is known, can seldom be immediately told; and when it might be told, it is no longer known[3].”
I had once an intention to give an alphabetical list of all the friends who have kindly assisted me with information: but they are now so numerous, that to name them would certainly be considered as ostentation; and to some of them (to Sir John
- ↑ “A man who has a deep and extensive acquaintance with a subject, often sees a connexion and importance in some smaller circumstances, which may not immediately be discerned by others; and, on that account, may have reasons for inserting them, that will escape the notice of artificial minds.”Kippis.
- ↑ Rambler, No. 60.
- ↑ Dr. Johnson, in the Life of Addison.
Pringle,
