Excerpt from Illustrated Biography: Or Memoirs of the Great and the Good of All Nations and All Times

In a work of the extended and general scope of the present one, that minute ness of detail to be found in volumes devoted to the biography of a single, or, at most, of a limited number of individuals, will not be looked for; nor, on the other hand will it be expected to possess the completeness, in a numerical sense, of the ponderous biographical dictionary. The design, in its preparation has been, to embrace within its covers sketches of the more prominent of those eminent persons of all ages and of all nations, whose names, to the popular car, are as familiar as household words, while the incidents of their lives are known to a comparatively few. The field of selection has been almost unlim ited, and it therefore can scarcely be presumed that names have not been omitted and others inserted whose position, in the judgment of some, should be reversed; or that the memoirs have uniformly a fullness of detail in proportion to their comparative importance. Yet it is hoped that the volume will be found as faultless in these respects as could be expected, when its comprehensive character, and the wide diversity of research its preparation required, are taken into consideration. It is also believed that no sketch has found a place upon its pages the subject of which can not justly rank with either the Great or the Good.

The greater proportion of the following memoirs have been prepared ex. Pressly for the work, and in those instances where the Editor has availed him self of the labors of others, the subject-matter has been so materially modified, either by abridgment, by the addition of important and interesting facts, or in; being altered in essential particulars to correspond with what was deemed more reliable testimony, that simple justice to the authors of the original sketches requires that he should assume the responsibility of them in their present form. They have been chronologically arranged, and extending, as they do, through a period of three thousand years, they may be found to possess an incidental interest, as types of successive eras in the world's history, and as illustrating the progress in civilization, arts, &c., of various nations, at different periods of their existence. Many of the engravings, also, have an historic value as delin'eations. Of the costumes of different countries and times, and through them may be' traced the changes in apparel which have occurred during past ages.

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