Sir Hans Sloane was a man of the most respectable character, being distinguished not less for his liberality and patriotic zeal, than by his attainments in science. The most important of his works is the Natural History of Jamaica, of which the first volume appeared in 1707, the second not till 1725. He was a governor of most of the hospitals of the metropolis, to which he left considerable sums. He set on foot the scheme of a dispensary for the poor; gave the Apothecaries' Company a piece of ground for a botanic garden; and on many occasions exerted himself effectually for the public benefit. Such a man is undoubtedly worthy of more honour and admiration than the mere author, who, it may be from the most selfish motives, labours in solitude to enlighten the world and illustrate himself: "The good that men do too often dies with them," and as books are legacies of which the benefit is more extended than that of individual acts of generosity or patriotism, people are ever ready to laud an author, even although they may not clearly see wherein his merit lies; while the truly good, whose lives are a continued scene of beneficence, have but a slight hold on the admiration of posterity. The share which Sir Hans Sloane had in the establishment of the British Museum is the circumstance on which his reputation seems now chiefly to depend. Having made an extensive museum of natural history, medals, books, and manuscripts, he bequeathed it to the public, on condition that L20,000 should be paid to his executors,--a sum far from equal to the value of the collection. In 1753, an act was passed by the legislature for purchasing it and the Harleian manuscripts, as well as for procuring a general repository for their better reception and more convenient use, the Cottonian library included. In this manner commenced the British Museum, which, by the numerous and extensive additions made to it, has become worthy of the greatest empire of modern times; although, in the department of natural history, it is admitted to be still much inferior to the National Museum of France, and, in several branches of zoology, to be surpassed by many collections in Britain.