CONTAINING ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RELATIVE
TO HIS PERSONAL AND PUBLIC CHARACTER,

SELECTED FROM THE BEST AUTHORITIES.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

PHILADELPHIA:

CAREY AND HART.

P R E F A СЕ.

IN the composition of a Biography of Lord Bolingbroke for the American publishers, the meagre outlines sketched by Goldsmith, in the Life which was prefixed to Mallet's Edition, have been filled up with materials derived from various sources, some of which were, at the time, inaccessible to, and others were not made use of by, this ever pleasing but commonly indolent writer. Of these, the chief are two articles in the Edinburgh Review, the last of which is generally attributed to Lord Brougham; and one in the Quarterly, which contains extracts from the Marchmont Papers; and, also, the Memoirs of Lord Bolingbroke, by Mr. Cooke. Occasional use has been made of a small volume entitled Memoirs of the Life and Ministerial Conduct, &c., of Lord Bolingbroke; and of the article St. John, in the Biographia Britannica, from the latter of which Goldsmith chiefly drew both the details and reflections for his sketch.

Accuracy and impartiality have been studied in the following Biography, more than elegance and that labored eulogy, which so often defeats its purpose. The quick genius and diversified attainments of the author and the statesman, have not been allowed to cast a glare over the vices of the man and the specious hollowness of the pretended philosopher. The Life of Bolingbroke ought to be regarded, and in this light it is exhibited on the present occasion, as a warning but not an example; as a lurid meteor rather than a guiding star.

1*