prefatory in Praise of Biography.
 
Notwithstanding the Preference which may be vulgarly given to the Authority of
those Romance-Writers, who intitle their Books, the History of England, the
History of France, of Spain, etc. it is most certain, that Truth is only to be
found in the Works of those who celebrate the Lives of Great Men, and are
commonly called Biographers, as the others should indeed be termed Topographers
or Chorographers: Words which might well mark the Distinction between them; it
being the Business of the latter chiefly to describe Countries and Cities,
which, with the Assistance of Maps, they do pretty justly, and may be depended
upon: But as to the Actions and Characters of Men, their Writings are not quite
so authentic, of which there needs no other Proof than those eternal
Contradictions, occurring between two Topographers who undertake the History of
the same Country: For instance, between my Lord Clarendon and Mr. Whitlock,
between Mr. Echard and Rapin, and many others; where Facts being set forth in a
different Light, every Reader believes as he pleases, and indeed the more
judicious and suspicious very justly esteem the whole as no other than a
Romance, in which the Writer hath indulged a happy and fertile Invention. But
tho' these widely differ in the Narrative of Facts; some ascribing Victory to
the one, and others to the other Party: Some representing the same Man as a
Rogue, to whom others give a great and honest Character, yet all agree in the
Scene where the Fact is supposed to have happened; and where the Person, who is
both a Rogue, and an honest Man, lived. Now with us Biographers the Case is
different, the Facts we deliver may be relied on, tho' we often mistake the Age
and Country wherein they happened: For tho' it may be worth the Examination of
Critics, whether the Shepherd Chrysostom, who, as Cervantes informs us, died for
Love of the fair Marcella, who hated him, was ever in Spain, will any one doubt
but that such a silly Fellow hath really existed? Is there in the World such a
Sceptic as to disbelieve the Madness of Cardenio, the Perfidy of Ferdinand, the
impertinent Curiosity of Anselmo, the Weakness of Camilla, the irresolute
Friendship of Lothario; tho' perhaps as to the Time and Place where those
several Persons lived, that good Historian may be deplorably deficient: But the
most known Instance of this kind is in the true History of Gil-Blas, where the
inimitable Biographer hath made a notorious Blunder in the Country of Dr.