S6 
he always cherished the 
him 
most 
grateful 
tion. 
He 
W38 
the 
first 
who 
urged 
him 
to 
tempt historical composition ; 
and, 
above all, 
he 
had made 
was the first who 
him 
acquainted with 
the 
the 
magnanimous tales of Plutarch; perhaps, 
greatest favour which could be conferred on 
a youthful mind, 
susceptible of 
impressions from 
the 
sublime 
and 
beautiful 
of 
human 
actions, 
which 
HO 
author 
has 
better 
illustrated 
than 
that 
celebrated 
Biographer, 
who 
may 
indeed 
be 
without hyperbole, 
regarded, almost 
as the recor- 
and the tutor of modern ge- 
der of antient worth, 
nius. 
In 
his 
peculiar class, 
Plutarch 
stands 
still 
alone, at least no author in any of the living 
languages appears to be yet truly sensible of the 
secret 
CEIIJSG 
by 
which 
his 
sketches 
 Ve 
that 
direct impulse to the elements of genius, by which 
the vague and 
feelings 
wandering 
of 
1_1n8PPrOPri' 
ated 
strength 
are 
converted 
into 
an 
uniform 
energy :1 
endowed 
with 
productive 
action . 
Plu- 
tarch, like the sculptors of antiquity, 
has selected 
only 
the 
great 
and 
elegant 
traits 
of 
character ; 
and 
hence 
his 
lives, 
like 
are 
those statues which 
all 
the models of art, possess, with 
that is graceful 
and noble in human nature, the particular features