THERE is perhaps no department of Science, or Literature–no branch of the Belle-Lettres–no labour of the Annalist, more interesting to ourselves, or more beneficially instructive to posterity, than the delineation of the lives and transactions of persons distinguished by their talents, virtue, heroic valour, or eminent success in their pursuits, whether in the Camp, the Senate, the Seat of Justice, or on the mighty Deep. In relating their actions, the Seaman and the Soldier are animated, the Statesman is enlightened, and the Citizen interested and informed. In reading the immortal pages of the amiable Plutarch, our energies are awakened by examples of the most heroic valour, by the noblest instances of self-control, magnanimity, patriotism, and piety–and however short may have been the hero's career, his example is not without its effect.