A DICTIONARY OF BIOGRAPHY. COMPRISING THE MOST EMINENT CHARACTERS OF ALL AGES, NATIONS, AND PROFESSIONS. BY R. A. DAVENPORT. EMBELLISHED WITH NUMEROUS PORTRAITS. "No species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography, since none can be ADVERTISEMENT. IN composing the Manual of Biography which is here presented to the public acceptance, it has been a main object of the writer to include within the limits of a portable volume the lives of the most eminent men of all ages, countries, and professions, and to be concise, without being meagre in facts or dull in manner. Whether his efforts have been crowned with success it would not become him to decide: he submits that point to the judgment of the reader. Let it be remembered, however, that he who is confined in such a narrow circle labours under serious disadvantages. He must renounce the praise which he might gain by flowing sentences and apposite reflections, and must be content with compressing the greatest possible quantity of information into the smallest possible space, even though he accomplish his purpose by repeating the same forms of speech, and cramping the freedom of his periods. This volume contains memoirs of between four and five thousand individuals, of ancient and modern times, who have acquired celebrity by their works or their actions. Many of the names are not to be found in any English dictionary of biography. The Author has endeavoured to be strictly just in his statements and decisions; and so numerous are the documents which he has consulted that it would perhaps appear like ostentatious display were he to give a complete list of them. Many errors in preceding accounts have been silently rectified; and if in his own names and dates any incorrectness should be discovered, which he trusts there will not, he can with truth aver that they have not been occasioned by want of care. AUGUST 30, 1831. A DICTIONARY OF BIOGRAPHY. AAR AA, VAN DER, the name of an ancient and distinguished family in the Netherlands. Gerard van der Aa, and his sons Adolphus and Philip, bore a prominent part in the noble resistance to the tyranny of Philip II. and his agents, and contributed greatly to the liberation of the United Provinces from the Spanish yoke. ABB Venice, the Italian and German princes, England, and France. In the latter coun try he gained the esteem of the wily Richelieu, who declared that he had never known more than three great politicians, Oxenstiern, Viscardi, and Aarsens. He died in 1641. ABAUZIT, FIRMIN, a French writer, was born at Uzes, in 1679, and died at Geneva, in 1767. Though he published very little, he acquired an extensive scien AAGESEN, SVEND, a Danish historian, better known by his Latin name of SUENO AGONIS, flourished about the year 1186, and seems to have been secretary to Arch-tific reputation, and was esteemed, for his bishop Absalom, the minister of state, who directed him to write a compendium of the history of Denmark. Aagesen is also the author of a History of the Military Laws of Canute the Great. AARON of ALEXANDRIA, a Christian priest and physician, flourished early in the seventh century. His work, intituled Pandects, in thirty books, is a commentary, of no great merit, on the writings of the Greek physicians. Aaron was the first who wrote on the smallpox, which disease he considers to be of Egyptian origin. AARSENS, FRANCIS VAN, a Dutch statesman, the son of the secretary of state to the United Provinces, was born at the Hague, in 1673, and was early placed under the care of Duplessis Mornay. He was at first agent, and subsequently ambassador, from Holland to the court of France; but, after having resided there for fifteen years, and been in high favour, he gave such offence that he was recalled. On returning to his own country, he took an active and dishonourable part in the proceedings against Barneveldt. The remainder of his life was spent in diplomatic missions to genius, judgment, and profound learning, by the most eminent men of the age, many of whom consulted him upon difficult ques tions." You," said Newton, ❝ are a fit person to judge between Leibnitz and me." Rousseau has given a glowing panegyric upon him in the Nouvelle Heloise. The modesty of Abauzit was not less conspicuous than his erudition. ABBADIE, JAMES, a Protestant theologian, was born at Nay, in Bearn, in 1657, accompanied Marshal Schomberg to England, and was with him at the battle of the Boyne. Till he was promoted to the deanery of Killaloe, he officiated at the French church in the Savoy. As a preacher he was much admired; but was at length obliged to quit the pulpit by the failure of his memory. He died in Marylebone, in 1727. Abbadie's principal work is his Treatise on the Truth of the Christian Religion, which has been equally and justly applauded by Protestants and Catholics. His compositions, though formed in his mind, were sometimes not committed to paper till the moment when they were sent to the press. B |