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Excerpt from Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, or Universal Dictionary of Knowledge, Vol. 9: Third Division, History and Biography, Vol. I; From the Antediluvian Period to the Time of Hannibal, A. M 1 to A. M. 3800 Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise; That last infirmity of noble minds. But it is an infirmity which we should be as little proud of displaying as we are of exhibitingthe traces of any hereditary disease. Biography of this kind, too, has another defect. It can rarely be made the centre of a general History of the times in which the individual lived, or even of the great; events in which he was engaged. His knowledge of the one must have been too limited, and, his views of the other too partial. We shall have the portrait of the general instead of the plan of the battle: and understand as little of the course of affairs, as a courtier who accompanies his sovereign in a state coach knows of the domestic economy of the cottages a mile distant from the road. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.