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the critical plan has been professedly adopted, there is in very few cases that decisive concurrence of opinion on which an Editor can rely.

It has been acknowledged, however, that of the two grand errors, that of redundancy may be committed with most impunity, not only because curiosity after the works of past ages has lately become more extensive, and is nourished by the superior attention bestowed on the contents of our great libraries, as well as by the formation of new and extensive libraries by opulent individuals; but because there are few lives so insignificant as not to be useful in illustrating some point of literary history. And, what is more important, it has often been found, since the progress of learning became to be more accurately traced, that persons once considered as insignificant, proved to be so only because little known. Still, as there are some general opinions which may be followed, some general inscriptions of fame which are too distinctly legible to be mistaken, the most ample spaces will be filled by those whose names are most familiar to scholars of all ages and nations.

In order, likewise, to obviate as much as possible the errors of selection, it is intended, in the present edition, to subjoin, throughout the whole series, very copious REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES. These in some similar works, particularly on the Continent, have been either wholly omitted, or given at second-hand so incorrectly as to be useless. But if collected from an inspection of the works referred to, where that is practicable, they will always serve to point out to the curious reader where farther information may be found, and at the same time, in lives that are sufficiently copious, may justify the Editor, who must in a thousand instances be guided by opinions which he has it not in his power to appreciate.

While references to authorities, however, are given, it has not been thought necessary to extend them to a degree of ostentatious minuteness. In referring, for example, to such a work as the Biographia Britannica, it cannot, for any useful purpose, be necessary to strip the margins of that work, of those minute references to a variety of books, pamphlets, and records, from which small particulars are taken; and the same remark may be applied to Moreri, the General Dictionary including Bayle, and other elaborate compilations of a similar nature. At the same time, the reader has a right to expect that the original and leading authorities should be carefully pointed out.

Another improvement intended in the present Edition, is that of a more copious list of each AUTHOR'S WRITINGS than has usually been thought necessary. Whatever may be the case with our contemporaries, we have no more certain criterion of past reputation and value, than frequency of reprinting, and no more certain method of estimating the learning and taste of past generations, than by inspecting the works from which they derived instruction. But in some cases over which oblivion seems to have cast her deepest shades, it may be sufficient to refer to original lists, and avoid that minuteness of description which belongs more strictly to the province of Bibliography.

In this part of the present undertaking, it has likewise been recommended, with great propriety, that the titles of Books should generally be given in their ORIGINAL LANGUAGES. Much difficulty has arisen to collectors of Books, as well as to the readers in public libraries, from having a translated title only, which is not to be found in catalogues, nor perhaps, upon that account, easily recollected by librarians. It is intended, therefore, to restore this necessary information, where it can be procured; but the Editor finds it due to himself, to add, that he has not always been so successful in recovering the proper titles of works, as could have been wished. The biographers of most nations have hitherto been partial to translated, and frequently abridged, titles; and whoever has consulted the French biographers, in particular, must be sensible of the great inconveniencies attending this plan, as well as that of naturalizing the NAMES of Authors, which is frequently done in such a manner as to create considerable confusion.

In adverting to this last source of perplexity, the Editor of every new collection of lives, must hope to find an excuse for those almost unavoidable errors to which he is exposed; and particularly to the danger of repeating the same life under two apparently different names. Even in the present volume, and notwithstanding the care that has been taken to avoid errors of this kind, ALESSI, GALEAS, is afterwards VOL. I.

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repeated under ALGHIZI-GALEAZZO. The Editor is aware that he is pleading bad example, rather than an excuse, when he adds, that he was led into this error by the editors both of the DICTIONNAIRE HISTORIQUE, and of that more accurate work the BIOGRAPHIE UNIVERSELLE.

There are few respects in which works of this kind have been more encumbered, than in the admission of Emperors, Kings, Sultans, &c. whose lives are merely passages of history, unintelligible, if short, and if prolix, by no means biographical. Of these a few have been formerly admitted, and may be supposed sanctioned by repetition; but as curiosity seldom looks to biographical collections for such subjects, very little addition will be made to this series, except in the case of some royal personages of our own country, whose private or public history continues to be interesting.

It only remains to be noticed that, according to the original plan, a preference will be given to the Worthies of our own country; a preference, however, not of selfish partiality, but of absolute necessity, as all foreign collections are notoriously deficient in the English series. For this it would be unfair to account either from want of learning or research. A more obvious reason is, that most of the foreign biographical collections have been made by Catholics, and in Catholic countries, where it would have been unsafe to enter into the merits of Englishmen of renown, either in Church or State. We owe it, however, to the illustrious founders of our Learning and Religion, we owe it to ourselves and to posterity, that no name should perish that was once enrolled on the lists of just and honourable fame.

The Editor is aware that, with every degree of circumspection, and the most sedulouse that can be preserved in the conduct of this un taking, it may not be possible in all cases to avoid the errors which have been pointed out, and to satisfy every expectation as to the plan proposed. He can only hope that he may be able, by an adherence to the above rules, to improve upon the labours of his predecessors: and for the defects unavoidable in a work of this magnitude, he relies with confidence on the candour of the Publick.

May 1, 1812.

*** Communications respecting persons lately deceased, or pointing out any other sources of information necessary to this work, may be addressed to the Editor, under cover to the Printers, Messrs. NICHOLS, Son, and BENTLEY, Red Lion Passage, Fleet-street.

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