PREFACE. THE reign of George III. may in some important respects. be justly regarded as the Augustan age of modern history. The greatest statesmen, the most consummate captains, the most finished orators, the first historians, all flourished during this period. For excellence in these departments it was unsurpassed in former times, nor had it even any rivals, if we except the warriors of Louis XIV.'s day, one or two statesmen, and Bolingbroke and Massillon as orators. But its glories were not confined to those great departments of human genius. Though it could show no poet like Dante, Milton, Tasso, or Dryden; no dramatist like Shakspeare or Corneille; no philosopher to equal Bacon, Newton, or Locke,-it nevertheless in some branches, and these not the least important of natural science, very far surpassed the achievements of former days, while of political science, the most important of all, it first laid the foundations, and then reared the superstructure. The science of chemistry almost entirely, of political economy entirely, were the growth of this remarkable era; while even in the pure mathematics a progress was made which nearly changed its aspect since the days of Leibnitz and Newton. The names of Black, Watt, Cavendish, Priestley, Lavoisier, Davy, may justly be placed far above the Boyles, the Stahls, the Hales, the Hookes of former times; while Euler, Clairaut, D'Alembert, Lagrange, La Place, must be ranked as analysts next after Newton himself, and above Descartes, Leibnitz, or the Bernouillis; and in economical science, Hume, Smith, and Quesnai really had no parallel, hardly any forerunner. It would also be vain to deny great poetical and dramatic genius to Goldsmith, Voltaire, Alfieri, Monti, and the German school, how inferior soever to the older masters of song. But, above all, it must not be forgotten, that in our times the mighty revolution which has been effected in public affairs, and has placed the rights of the people throughout the civilized world upon a new and a firm foundation, was brought about, immediately indeed by the efforts of statesmen, but prepared, and remotely caused, by the labours of philosophers and men of letters. The diffusion of knowledge among the community at large is the work of our own age, and it has made all the conquests of science both in recent and in older times of incalculably greater value, of incomparably higher importance to the interests of mankind, than they were while scientific study was confined within the narrow circles of the wealthy and the learned. Having, therefore, on retiring from office, more time left for literary pursuits than professional and judicial duties had before allowed me, I was not minded to waste, indolent and inactive, or enslaved by lower occupations, that excellent leisure "Non fuit consilium socordiâ atque desidiâ bonum otium conterere; neque vero agrum colendo, aut venando, servilibus officiis intentum, ætatem agere. Statutum res gestas populi nostri carptim, ut quæque memoriâ digna videbantur, perscribere; eo magis quod mihi a spe, metů, partibus reipublicæ, animus liber erat."* For I conceived that as portrait-painting is true historical painting Sall., Cat., cap. iv. in one sense, so the lives of eminent men, freely written, are truly the history of their times; and that no more authentic account of any age, its transactions, the springs which impelled men's conduct, and the merits which different actors in its scenes possessed, can be obtained than by studying the biography of the personages who mainly guided affairs, and examining their characters, which by their influence they impressed upon the times they flourished in. Such a work had moreover this advantage, that beside preserving the memory of past events, and the likeness of men who had passed from the stage, it afforded frequent opportunities of inculcating the sound principles of an enlightened and virtuous policy, of illustrating their tendency to promote human happiness, of exhibiting their power to exalt the genuine glory as well of individuals as of nations. Though I could entertain little doubt that this plan was expedient, no one could more doubt than I did the capacity brought to its execution, or feel more distrustful of the pen held by a hand which had so long been lifted up only in the contentions of the Senate and the Forum. My only confidence was in the spirit of fairness and of truth with which I entered on the performance of the task; and I now acknowledge with respectful gratitude the favour which the work has hitherto, so far above its deserts, experienced from the public, both at home, in spite of party opposition, and abroad, where no such unworthy influence could have place. It is fit that I also express my equal satisfaction at the testimony which has been borne to its strict impartiality by those whose opinions, and the opinions of whose political associates, differed the most widely from my own. That in composing the work I never made any sacrifice of those principles which have ever guided my public conduct, is certain; that I never concealed them in the course of the book is equally true; nay, this has been made a charge against it, as if I was at liberty to write the history of my own times, nay, of transactions in many of which I had borne a forward part, and not show what my own sentiments had been on those very affairs. But if my opinions were not sacrificed to the fear that I might offend the living by speaking plainly of the dead, so neither were truth and justice ever sacrificed to those opinions. The Statesmen of George the Third's age having thus formed the subject of the volumes first published, I then gave a more full and elaborate view of the Learned Men who flourished in the same period. In my opinion, these, the teachers of the age, covered it with still greater glory than it drew from the Statesmen and the Warriors who ruled its affairs. It was necessary to enter much more into detail here than in the other branch of the work, because a mere general description of scientific or of literary merit is of exceedingly little value, conveying no distinct or precise idea of the subject sought to be explained. It appeared the more necessary to discuss these matters minutely, because upon some of them much prejudice prevailed, and no attempt had hitherto been made to examine them completely, or even impartially. Of this a remarkable example is afforded by the want of anything that deserves the name of a Life of Voltaire, and by the great prejudices, both favourable and unfavourable to him, which, among different classes, exist on the subject. But it must also be observed that Dr. Black's discoveries have been far from attaining the reputation which they so well deserve as the foundation of modern chemistry; and justice to this illustrious philosopher required that the consequences arising from his modesty and his great indifference to fame should be counteracted by a full history of his scientific labours, comparing the state of the science as he found it with that in which |