OF

MODERN LITERATURE,

AND

EMINENT LITERARY MEN,

(BEING A GALLERY OF LITERARY PORTRAITS,)

BY GEORGE GILFILLAN..

REPRINTED ENTIRE FROM THE LONDON EDITION.

VOL. I.

NEW-YORK:

D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY.

PHILADELPHIA :

GEO. S. APPLETON, 148 CHESNUT STREET.

MDCCCXLVI

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE Author of the following Sketches is aware that he may be accused of exaggeration and extravagance, particularly in his panegyrics of the various characters he has attempted to portray. He has only to plead, in mitigation of sentence, that his praise is perfectly sincere; that the men he has selected are, in his judgment, the leading lights-the decora'et tutamina of their age; that some of them are less known and less appreciated than they deserve; and that he is not afraid, once for all, to avow himself, even in this late age, a "Hero Worshipper," and to avow his conviction that, even now, there are many heroes.

Perhaps the life of every thinking man may be divided into three eras-the era of admiration, the era of action, and the era of repose. Should this division be esteemed correct, the Author would beg leave, as an additional apology, to suggest that, in the following work,

he has garnered up the results of his young love and wonder for the masterpieces of his country's genius; that, with it, one mental period of his history is closing, and that it is for the public to decide whether he be encouraged to gird up his loins for some other more manlike, more solid, and strenuous achievement.

MEA AOKK