The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) and Two Rambler papers (1750) | Page 9

our State of Life. It is not easy for the most artful Writer to
give us an Interest in Happiness or Misery, which we think ourselves
never likely to feel, and with which we have never yet been made
acquainted. Histories of the Downfall of Kingdoms, and Revolutions of
Empires are read with great Tranquillity; the imperial Tragedy pleases
common Auditors only by its Pomp of Ornament, and Grandeur of
Ideas; and the Man whose Faculties have been engrossed by Business,
and whose Heart never fluttered but at the Rise or Fall of Stocks,
wonders how the Attention can be seized, or the Affections agitated by
a Tale of Love.
Those parallel Circumstances, and kindred Images to which we readily
conform our Minds, are, above all other Writings, to be found in
Narratives of the Lives of particular Persons; and there seems therefore
no Species of Writing more worthy of Cultivation than Biography,
since none can be more delightful, or more useful, none can more
certainly enchain the Heart by irresistible Interest, or more widely
diffuse Instruction to every Diversity of Condition.
The general and rapid Narratives of History, which involve a thousand
Fortunes in the Business of a Day, and complicate innumerable
Incidents in one great Transaction, afford few Lessons applicable to
private Life, which derives its Comforts and its Wretchedness from the
right or wrong Management of Things that nothing but their Frequency

makes considerable, Parva si non fiunt quotidie_, says _Pliny, and
which can have no Place in those Relations which never descend below
the Consultation of Senates, the Motions of Armies, and the Schemes
of Conspirators.
I have often thought that there has rarely passed a Life of which a
judicious and faithful Narrative would not be useful. For, not only
every Man has in the mighty Mass of the World great Numbers in the
same Condition with himself, to whom his Mistakes and Miscarriages,
Escapes and Expedients would be of immediate and apparent Use; but
there is such an Uniformity in the Life of Man, if it be considered apart
from adventitious and separable Decorations and Disguises, that there
is scarce any Possibility of Good or Ill, but is common to Humankind.
A great Part of the Time of those who are placed at the greatest
Distance by Fortune, or by Temper, must unavoidably pass in the same
Manner; and though, when the Claims of Nature are satisfied, Caprice,
and Vanity, and Accident, begin to produce Discriminations, and
Peculiarities, yet the Eye is not very heedful, or quick, which cannot
discover the same Causes still terminating their Influence in the same
Effects, though sometimes accelerated, sometimes retarded, or
perplexed by multiplied Combinations. We are all prompted by the
same Motives, all deceived by the same Fallacies, all animated by
Hope, obstructed by Danger, entangled by Desire, and seduced by
Pleasure.
It is frequently objected to Relations of particular Lives, that they are
not distinguished by any striking or wonderful Vicissitude. The Scholar
who passes his Life among his Books, the Merchant who conducted
only his own Affairs, the Priest whose Sphere of Action was not
extended beyond that of his Duty, are considered as no proper Objects
of publick Regard, however they might have excelled in their several
Stations, whatever might have been their Learning, Integrity, and Piety.
But this Notion arises from false Measures of Excellence and Dignity,
and must be eradicated by considering, that, in the Eye of uncorrupted
Reason, what is of most Use is of most Value.
It is, indeed, not improper to take honest Advantages of Prejudice, and

to gain Attention by a great Name; but the Business of the Biographer
is often to pass slightly over those Performances and Incidents, which
produce vulgar Greatness, to lead the Thoughts into domestick
Privacies, and display the minute Details of daily Life, where exterior
Appendages are cast aside, and Men excel each other only by Prudence,
and by Virtue. The Life of Thuanus is, with great Propriety, said by its
Author to have been written, that it might lay open to Posterity the
private and familiar Character of that Man, _cujus Ingenium et
Candorem ex ipsius Scriptis sunt olim simper miraturi_, whose
Candour and Genius his Writings will to the End of Time preserve in
Admiration.
There are many invisible Circumstances, which whether we read as
Enquirers after natural or moral Knowledge, whether we intend to
enlarge our Science, or encrease our Virtue, are more important than
publick Occurrences. Thus Salust, the great Master, has not forgot, in
his Account of Catiline_, to remark that his Walk was now quick, and
again slow_, as an Indication of a Mind revolving something with
violent Commotion. Thus the Story of Melancthon affords a striking
Lecture on the Value of Time, by informing us that when he