|
PREFACE
In offering this volume
to the public, the writer trusts, that, with all its imperfections, it
will be found not uninteresting to his townsmen, or, perhaps, to the
general reader. At least it had frequently occurred to him, that an
amusing and instructive book might be made on the subject which he has
handled.
The volume does not contain one half of the lives which the author would
have wished to have placed in it. He has been obliged to lay aside
biographies which would have been well worthy of insertion. Those who do
not consider the difficulty of selling a large work will ask why they
have not got the lives of Gilbert Jack, Dr. William Barclay, Walter
Donaldson, John Johnston, David Wedderburn, Dr. Patrick Dun, Andrew
Cant, Provost Jaffray, the very learned Dr. John Forbes, Andrew Baxter
the metaphysician, the Gregories, Gibbs the architect, Mor-ison the
botanist, Baillie Skene, the Rev. John Bisset, Professor John Kerr, the
Gerards, and the Fordyces; to which we answer, that all these men are
fairly entitled to places in a collection of Aberdeen biographies, and
would all have been here had there been room for them.
This volume is the first of its kind, as far as the writer is aware,
that has been published in Scotland. On the Continent, numerous
compilations have been made of the biographies of men belonging to
particular cities. “The authors belonging to such and such towns,” says
Jeremy Collier, “have been taken care of by several collectors.
Thomasinus has given us a register of those of Padua; Bumaldi, those of
Bologna; Hieronymo Rubei has preserved those of Ravenna; Coria and
Ripamonte, those of Milan; Hugolino Verrino has mustered the writers of
Florence; Sanders has done as much for those of Ghent; and so has Julius
Puteanus for the lawyers of Yerona; Lewis Jacob has left an account of
the authors of Chalon upon the Saone; and the Sieur Pitton has done the
same for those of Aix in Provence.” To this list, furnished by Collier,
several additions might be made.
While the writer feels a warm interest in the honour of Aberdeen, he has
not judged it a wise method of promoting that honour to deal in
undeserved eulogiums on the eminent men whom it has produced. He also
could never discover the propriety of the practice, in common use, of
making every man a saint whose good fortune it has been to have his life
written; and he ventures to express an opinion, that the cause of
morality and truth is not in very safe keeping with writers who adopt
this system.
Without troubling the reader any further with professions, the writer
may be allowed to state,— with great deference, however, to the judgment
of those who think otherwise and may know much better,—that he conceives
that the great end and object of writing history should be, not the mere
settling of disputed dates and the fixing of contested localities, nor
even the clearing up of the family connexions of great men and the
tracing of (t endless genealogies which,” as the apostle says, e(
minister questions rather than godly edifying,” but the exhibition,
according to the writer’s ability, of human nature in its various
appearances—the exposure to the world of truth in all its loveliness,
and virtue with all her charms. This object, in favour of which he is
obliged to confess that he entertains a strong prejudice, the writer has
never lost sight of for an instant in these pages; but, directly or
indirectly, has framed every sentence in accordance with it. On this
account, perhaps he will not be very strongly reviled for stepping, as
he has sometimes done, out of his more immediate subject, in order to do
something, in an humble way, in vindication and support of the neglected
interests of sound morality and sound religion, as applicable to the
most trifling as well as to the most important actions of men.
You can download
this book here |
