ot written
recently after their deaths, seems to be an omission that does no honour
to the republic of letters. Their contemporaries, in general, looked on
with calm indifference, and suffered wit and genius to vanish out of the
world in total silence, unregarded and unlamented. Was there no friend
to pay the tribute of a tear? No just observer of life to record the
virtues of the deceased? Was even envy silent? It seemed to have been
agreed, that if an author's works survived, the history of the man was
to give no moral lesson to after-ages. If tradition told us that Ben
Jonson went to the Devil tavern; that Shakespeare stole deer, and held
the stirrup at play-house doors; that Dryden frequented Button's
coffee-house; curiosity was lulled asleep, and biography forgot the best
part of her function, which is, to instruct mankind by examples taken from
the school of life. This task remained for Dr. Johnson, when years had
rolled away; when the channels of information were, for the most part,
choked up, and little remained besides doubtful anecdote, uncertain
tradition, and vague report.

"Nunc situs informis premit et deserta vetustas."

The value of biography has been better understood in other ages, and in
other countries. Tacitus informs us, that to record the lives and
characters of illustrious men, was the practice of the Roman authors, in
the early periods of the republic. In France, the example has been
followed. Fontenelle, D'Alembert, and monsieur Thomas, have left models
in this kind of composition. They have embalmed the dead. But it is
true, that they had incitements and advantages, even at a distant day,
which could not, by any diligence, be obtained by Dr. Johnson. The wits
of France had ample materials. They lived in a nation of critics, who
had, at heart, the honour done to their country by their poets, their
heroes, and their philosophers. They had, besides, an academy of
belles-lettres, where genius was cultivated, refined, and encouraged.
They had the tracts, the essays, and dissertations, which remain in the
memoirs of the academy, and they had the speeches of the several members,
delivered at their first admission to a seat in that learned assembly.
In those speeches the new academician did ample justice to the memory of
his predecessor; and though his harangue was decorated with the colours
of eloquence, and was, for that reason, called panegyric, yet, being
pronounced before qualified judges, who