Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

OF THE

LIFE AND WRITINGS

OF THE

REV. CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN, D. D.

LATE

VICE-PROVOST OF THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM
IN BENGAL.

BY

THE REV. HUGH PEARSON, M. A.

OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD.

Ὅστις δ ̓ ἐπὶ μεγίστοις τὸ ἐπίφθονον λαμβάνει, ὀρθῶς βουλεύεται
μῖσος μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἐπιπολὺ ἀντέχει ἡ δὲ παραυτίκα τε λαμπρότης, και
ἐς τὸ ἔπειτα δόξα αείμνηστος καταλείπεται.

THUCYD.

THIRD EDITION.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

Printed by Strahan and Spottiswoode, Printers-Street;

FOR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, STRAND,
AND SOLD BY J. HATCHARD, PICCADILLY.

[ocr errors]

PREFACE.

THE observation of Lord Bacon, as to the deficiency in the biographical literature of his day, is certainly not applicable to the present times. We have rather to complain of excess than of defect. While ample justice has been done to the lives of eminent persons, it must be confessed, that accounts of obscure individuals have been unnecessarily multiplied,

The Author of the following Memoirs trusts that he shall not be deemed liable to the charge of having added to this number. The person to whose life and writings they relate is already well known to the world, and has established an undoubted claim to posthumous regard. The prominent station which Dr. Buchanan occupied in India, and the zeal and ability with which he laboured to promote the interests of Christianity in that country and throughout the eastern world, seem to demand some commemoration of

a 3

his character and exertions; and, unless the writer of these pages is much mistaken in his judgment, they describe "a person in whom," to use the language of the celebrated author just alluded to, "actions both great and small, public and private, are so blended "together," as to secure that "genuine, “native, and lively representation," which forms the peculiar excellence and use of biography.

[ocr errors]

There is this additional reason for giving to the public some account of Dr. Buchanan, that, from the nature of the subjects to which his attention was directed, he unavoidably incurred a considerable degree of displeasure on the part of those whose opinions or prejudices he felt it to be his duty to oppose. It is but reasonable, therefore, that his views and motives should be fully and fairly developed, that the world may have an opportunity of forming a just estimate of his character and labours.

How far the Author of the following Memoirs may have succeeded in this object, must be left to the public to determine. He is well aware of the difficulty pointed out

« PreviousContinue »