Embellished with a number of PORTRAITS of the most Distinguished BY JAMES HARDIE, A. M. VOL. I. NEW-YORK: PRINTED FOR THOMAS KIRK, No. 48, MAIDEN-LANE. 1805. PREFACE. AMONGST the various species of literary composition, there is, perhaps, none, which is more generally allowed to be productive of amusement and instruction, than BIOGRAPHY. The actions and characters of great men, naturally excite the most lively interest in the human mind; and, therefore, we cannot be indifferent respecting the memoirs of the lives of those excellent and eminent personages, who have been an ornament to the world, have enlightened it by literature and science, and by their virtues and abilities, have raised themselves to the highest pitch of reputation and honour amongst mankind. The world has produced a great many men, distinguished by elevated genius and exalted virtue, the perusal of whose atchievments and illustrious actions, must have a natural tendency to excite in us a generous emulation, and to animate us to the most worthy and laudable pursuits. The statesman may be expected to aspire after a greater degree of political knowledge, and to investigate the means of promoting, in the best manner, the interest of the state over which he is appointed to preside, by the examples of a Walsingham, a Burleigh, a Chatham, a Hancock, a Franklin, &c. The soldier and the seaman, may be animated to the pursuit of military honours, by the heroic actions of a Blake, a Du Quesne, a Howe, a Marlborough, a Green, a Montgomery, a Mercer, a Warren, a Wayne, &c. The disinterested patriot, who is a zealous advocate for liberty and a rational system of government, may be stimulated by the noble examples of a Hampden, a Russel, a Sydney, &c. And although ages may roll on, before it may fall to the lot of even a solitary individual to emulate the virtues of our immortal WASHINGTON, who was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen ;' and whose loss, the worthy and enlightened part of mankind, will, throughout the world, long continue to deplore: yet so bright an example of excellence held forth to public view, may tend to excite in the minds of our aspiring youth, a zeal to imitate at a humble distance, a pattern, which it is scarcely possible to equal; and may teach them, what human nature is capable of performing, when it duly relies on assistance from on HIGH. But to proceed the Divine, the Lawyer and the Physician may all be excited to aim at excellence, by the example of a Tillotson and a Witherspoon: a Cook, a Hale, a Holt and a Mansfield: a Boerhaave, a Sydenham, a Monroe and a Cullen.-And the man of letters and philosophical enquiry, may be incited to aspire after literary and scientific eminence, by the immortal honours of a Homer, a Virgil, a Milton, a Newton, a Des Cartes, a Thompson, a Rittenhouse, &c. And, although it be not in the power of every one to gather laurels in the field of Mars, to guide the helm of state amidst the turbulence of faction, to explore into the deep and hidden recesses of nature, to display the oratorial powers of a Cicero at the bar, or a Tillotson in the pulpit, or to acquire the well earned tame of a Galen or a Monroe, in the science of medicine, yet there are certain virtues which highly dignify the private citizen, the performance of which is in every one's power. Indeed it is possible for a man to be covered with all the splendour of glory: but if he be deficient in the more substantial virtues of patience, benevolence, |