Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/104

* BIOGRAPHY. (1690-92), the lives of Oxford writers and bishops, and by Aubrev's Minutes of Lives (not published till 1813), containing sketches of Bucon, Milton, Hobbes, and others, 'these two writers, who depended lartrely upon anecdotes, were the forerunners of Boswell, whose Life of Br. Johnson (1791) is the most famous of Eng- lisli biographies. Since the appearance of this work, biograpliical literature has increased enor- niou^lv. There is no escape now for the man of letters Among noteworthy biographies, since Boswell, are Lockhart's *Ton (1836-38); Fors- ter's Dickens (187-2-74); Trevelyans Macaulay (1876); Cross's fipo(Y/c AViof (1884); Tenny- son, bv his son (1897) ; and Life and Letters of Hiixle'if, bv his son (1901). Cross adopted the novel phin of letting George Eliot speak through lier letters, chronologically arranged, and ehici- dated bv brief remarks. This method, which docs awav with the fulsome praises of the biog- rapher, is veiv attractive, and has, perhaps, led to a taste for the correspondence of literary men Among notable volumes of letters of re- cent date are Matthew Arnold's (1895) and Stevenson's (1900). Beginning with Dr. John- son's Lives of the Poets (1779-81), there is a lonf line of works in which biography is com- bined with criticism. To this class belong Macaulav's Lives of Milton, Addison, etc. ; Car- lyle's Lives of Burns, Sterliny, etc.; Grimms Michael Angela, and many series of which the typa is represented bv t)ie Enylish Men of Let- ters, the .American Men of Letters, and Les grands ecrivains fran^ais. Biographical diction- aries date from the Klticidarius Carmtnum et Historiarum (Holhuid. 1498). But the Nine- teenth Ccnturv was their Hounsliing period. Among the "best general dictionaries are the Bionraphic universelle, ancicnne ct moderne,new ed 4.T vols. (Paris, 1843-65) ; and the youvrllc biographic ginerale, 46 vols. (Pari.s, 18.r2-,. The best wojk of the kind publislied in the United States is Lippincott's Pronouncing Iho- graphical Dictionary, by Dr. Josepli Thomas. Alost nations have biographical dictionaries con- fined to their own celebrities. For Germany, there is the Allqemeine dciitsche Jiioyraphie. Ba- varian Acadcmv of Sciences (Leipzig, 18' o- 1000) • for ustria, the Bioyraphischcs Lexikon dcs Eaiserthums Oesterreich, ed. by Wurzbach (Vienna. lS.-)fi-S9) : for Holland, the Bwgraph- i<.rh Wonrdenhoek der yederhindrn. ed. ^'^n dor Aa (Haarlem, 1852-78); for Mgium. the Rio- qraphle nationale de Belyique (Brussels, 1866- ■95) • for Sweden. Binqraphicnl Unndbook. e<l. Hofber" (Stockholm. 1870: for Bussia and Spain, "there are also good biosrraphieal diction- aries Kn^land has the maimificent Dirlionnru Of yationnl liionraphy. 63 vols., ed Stephen (london 1885-1900), to which were added three sunplcmcntarv volumes in 1901: and the T'nit- ed States. Applcton's C/clopTdin of American Bioornphv, fi vols. (New York. 1887-89) a sev- enth volume appearing in 1900 as a supplement, and T-amb's Bioaraphicnl Dictionary of the Vnited fftntcs. For contemporary biography, we have Vapereau's DIctionnnire Universcl des('>n- 1emporain.'<. Men and Women of the Tune. Who s Who (London): and Who's Who in Amrnca (Chicago), revised annually. They contain only the names of persons still living. Belon.'in" to this department of literature iB the autobiography, i.e. the life of a person gQ BIOLOGY. written by himself. We may cite, for their charm, the Autobiography of the first Lord Herbert ol Cherbury; Benvenuto Cellini's Vita da luii medesimo scrilta; Rousseau's Confessions; Goethe's Dichtung und Wuhrheit ; Gibbon's Me- moirs; Franklin's .lii/o6io(/ra;jAi/; Scott's </our- nul; Newman's Apologia; and Buskin's Free- terila. This form of biography often runs into fiction, as in Borrow's Lavengro. The interest- ing development of biography, of which outlines are here presented, has never been adequately treated. See Excyclopjedia. BIOL'OGY (Fr. biologic, from Gk. j3<os, hios, life-f XA70S, logos, discourse). Biology is the youngest, and the most comprehensive, and the "most dillicult of all the sciences, and it is not strange that its spokesmen are not yet in accord as to its relation to the system of human knowl- edge as a whole; nor can he who reflects that human knowledge is itself a biological fact, and a constituent part of the subject-matter of bio- logical science, be surprised that this is the case. Opinions as to the objects and aims of bio- logical science may be roughly divided into two classes. On the one hand, we are tuld that biol- ogj- is resolved, in the long run, into the physics and chemistry of living inatter; while we are told, on the other hand, that the problems of life, among which those of mind must be included, are so foreign to the present scope and resources of chemistry and physics that they are best treated as constituting an independent realm of science, and a distinct intellectual discipline. CoxTRASTEU Views as to the Meaning of Biology. Future discovery may show to us a solid basis for the ojiinion that all the facts of biology, including those of consciousness and reason and volition and moral obligation, are, in ultimate analysis, movements of matter in ac- cordance wilh" the meclianical principles which hold good throughout the inorganic universe; and every thoughtful biologist will keep this con- simimation in mind as eminently W(utby of his best and most earnest and persistent labors. But the opinion that it has already been attained, or must in time be attained, is. at the present day, a ciccd, or article of faith, rather than a demonstrated fact; for no one has, as yet, manufactured a livin" being in a laboratory, nor can the writing of alioem. or the discovery of a lay of nature, or the performance of a deed of heroic self-sacri- fice be formulated, as vet. in terms of matter and motion. Faith is not science; nor is anything more antagonistic to the inspiraticm of sciciitilic discovery than the desire to discount its future progress by the declaration that what we hope soiire dav'to prove is now to be accepted as truth On the other hand, no one who reflects upon the past progress of science should, know- in"lv stand committed to any opinion that would not still be tenable, even if all the mam festations of life, including those of intellect and volition and duty, should some day be re duced to mechanics, and should prove to be new illustrations of the law and order which pervade the universe, as striellv defined as the move- ments of the planets in their orbits, rather than exceptions to law. and interruptions to the order of nature. He who. in the fear that duty may prove to be no .lutv, right and wrong neither right not wrong, "and freedom and moral responsibility