I have often heard it observed by the readers of biography, that the characters are generally too high painted; and that the _good_ or _bad_ qualities of the person pretended to be faithfully represented, are displayed in stronger colours than are to be found in nature. To this the lovers of hyperbole reply, that _virtue_ cannot be drawn too beautiful, nor _vice_ too deformed, in order to excite in us an ambition of imitating the _one_, and a horror at the thoughts of becoming any way like the _other_.--The argument at first, indeed, seems to have some weight, as there is nothing, not even precept itself, which so greatly contributes whether to rectify or improve the mind, as the prevalence of example: but then it ought to be considered, that if the pattern laid down before us, is so altogether angelic, as to render it impossible to be copied, emulation will be in danger of being swallowed up in an unprofitable admiration; and, on the other hand, if it appears so monstrously hideous as to take away all apprehensions of ever resembling it, we might be too apt to indulge ourselves in errors which would seem small in comparison with those presented to us.--There never yet was any one man, in whom all the _virtues_, or all the _vices_, were summed up; for, though reason and education may go a great way toward curbing the passions, yet I believe experience will inform, even the _best_ of men, that they will sometimes launch out beyond their due bounds, in spite of all the care can be taken to restrain them; nor do I think the very _worst_, and most wicked, does not feel in himself, at some moments, a propensity to good, though it may be possible he never brings it into practice; at least, this was the opinion of the antients, as witness the poet's words: All men are born with seeds of _good_ and _ill_; And each shoot forth, in more or less degree: _One_ you may cultivate with care and skill, But from the _other_ ne'er be wholly free. The human mind may, I think, be compared to a chequer-work, where light and shade appear by turns; and in proportion as either of these is most conspicuous, the man is alone worthy of praise or censure; for none there are can boast of being wholly bright. I believe by this the reader will be convinced he must not expect to see a faultless figure in the hero of the following pages; but to remove all possibility of a disappointment on that score, I shall farther declare, that I am an enemy to all _romances_, _novels_, and whatever carries the air of them, tho' disguised under different appellations; and as it is a _real_, not _fictitious_ character I am about to present, I think myself obliged, for the reasons I have already given, as well as to gratify my own inclinations, to draw him such as he was, not such as some sanguine imaginations might with him to have been.