MEMOIRS 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. "Οστις δ' επί μεγίστους το επίφθονον λαμβάνει, ορθώς βουλεύεται THUCYD. . NEW-YORK: POBLISHED BY KIRK AND MERCEIN, NO. 22 WALL-STREET, PREFACE. THE observation of Lord Bacon, as to the deticiency in the biographical department of literature in bis 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 unnecessa. rily multiplied. The Author of the following Memoirs trusts that he will not be deemed liable to this charge. 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 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 “gen“uine, native, and lively representation,” which forms the peculiar excellence and use of biography. |