PREFACE. WE beg to present the First Volume of THE BIOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE to the world. The First Number was issued into existence with a Prospectus from which we extract the following: "The Great Man frequently makes the Great Age. Great Ages are the beacon lights of history, and the grandest manifestations of the power and dignity of our race. How important, then, that we should acquaint ourselves with the rise and growth of great men, of their birth and childhood, their progress in learning, their earlier efforts, and maturer struggles; their trials, vicissitudes, difficulties, sorrows, hopes, aspirations, and successes; their chequered or brilliant lives, and stormy and triumphant deaths; their influence on the world's destinies, and their relation to the past, the present, and the future. In reading and studying the lives of other men, we become acquainted with the capabilities and possibilities of our own. romance. "Perhaps no species of literature is more interesting to the general reader than Biography. The life of a great poet, or statesman, or divine, or philosopher, or artist, or historian, is generally bounded by a beautiful. In the faithful records of the world's most illustrious ones, may frequently be seen a verification of the maxim, that truth is more strange than fiction. Biographical Literature legitimately combines the charms of the poem, with the most substantial teachings of history. In a well-written. Biography the reader finds that which is useful blended with that which is captivating, and that which pleases and excites united with that which is personally interesting. "Lives of great men all remind us 66 We may make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints which, perhaps, another Sailing o'er life's solemn main, Gratifying as it is to know that Biographical Literature is so extensively read in England, it is surprising that no periodical exclusively devoted to it has yet appeared; and especially when the country teems, as it does, with such a variety of cheap Journals and Magazines. "To supply a desideratum in our periodical literature, it has been decided to publish monthly, price Sixpence, THE BIOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE. It will contain the Lives of Great Men and Women, and particularly those of the present age; such as Sir Robert Peel, Wordsworth, Schiller, Dr. Channing, Sir Humphrey Davy, Goethe, Byron, Schlegel, Southey, Chateaubriand, William Allan, S. T. Coleridge, Campbell, John Quincy Adams, Louis Philippe, Elizabeth Fry, Joanna Baillie, Neander, Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Arnold, Clarkson, Jeremy Bentham, Pestalozzi, Dr. Lingard, William Knibb, Shelley, Miss Edgeworth, Fenimore Cooper, William Cobbett, Sir Walter Scott, Edward Baines, Fichte, Fulton, Beethoven, Sheil, Sismondi, Edmund Kean, and scores of others equally celebrated as statesmen, inventors, generals, poets, travellers, discoverers, painters, sculptors, orators, reformers, educators, thinkers, and actors, who have so recently passed away from the great stage of human action. "The BIOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE will also give the Lives of the Great Men of other ages, and especially when any recent research has thrown new light on historical characters. "The BIOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE will also contain elaborate Sketches of the Great Men now living and acting; such as Humboldt, Lamartine, Daniel Webster, Brougham, Strauss, Kossuth, Longfellow, Sir David Brewster, Cardinal Wiseman, Wellington, Pope Pius IX., and Lord Palmerston." How far we have succeeded in our designs and in the fulfilment of our promises may be ascertained by a perusal of this volume. Biographical Literature is at all times, and must of necessity be to almost all persons, interesting and instructive. It was never more cultivated and read than at present; and, as the years and ages pass away, it will be still more highly appreciated and more eagerly perused. One of the most gratifying signs of the times, to our minds, is to see so many of the principal authors of the world devoting their genius and time to the production of Biographical works, and the ready sales such works command. But some persons who wish to get such books cannot, on account of their price; and others, to whom expense is a trifling consideration, could not read them for want of time. To suit the convenience of such persons-and they comprehend the bulk of the reading public-this work was established and is sustained. It gives the lives of illustrious men within reasonable limits, so that the reader may be made acquainted with all the principal actions and events which characterise their histories, without having to traverse a wide field of reading and research. An advertisement of the Magazine states: "The object of this work is to give elaborate and life-like sketches of great men and women, past and present, and to show their influence on the world's destinies, and their relation to the past, the present, and the future. The Lives, which are contributed by first-rate writers, combine the most accurate historical data, with a critical analysis and philosophical reviews of the characters considered." In speaking of THE BIOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE, a respectable weekly cotemporary says: "The aim of these biographical portraitures is not limited merely to a connected narrative of the leading incidents in the outer lives of the eminent persons portrayed, but to present a succinct and searching portrait of the inner man; and that aim, we can safely affirm, is successfully carried out. The sketches are written in a spirit discriminating and impartial, and in language vigorous and fresh." Another reviewer states: "We like this serial; indeed every one who reads it cannot fail to be pleased with it. There is an irresistible charm in the development of mind. We gaze with intense, indescribable feelings at the mind-maturing process to which the choice spirits of the earth are subjected; their struggles with appalling difficulties that wellnigh overwhelm them; the conquests they achieve by indomitable courage and untiring perseverance; the noblywon laurels which at last entwine their brows: and we read and pondered over their histories with an enthusiasm akin to that which impels to greatness.” Another Reviewer, equally respectable, says: "The work fills a hiatus felt in our modern periodical literature, in a manner which does considerable credit to its Editor. If it were confined chiefly to repeating lives of men of past ages, and bringing their biographies, month by month, before the public, to be read in regular course with other works, it would do much; but the aim of the Magazine is beyond this, for those who have just passed from the world's stage, and others who yet are amongst us, are made the subjects of memoirs, which bear internal evidence of being reliable and genuine." We merely quote these as samples of the many reviews and notices with which THE BIOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE has been favoured; and we here tender our warmest thanks to the conductors of the Metropolitan and Provincial Press, for the unsolicited expression of their opinions on the merits of this Magazine. Though the Lives it contains are presented to the public periodically, they do not partake of the ephemeral nature which distinguish magazines generally. The work possesses historical value on account of the permanent and standard character of its contents. It will continue to advance; and the longer it exists, and the more knowledge and experience its conductors realise, the more worthily will they strive to perform their work. |