een
distinguished--biographies composed by some domestic friend, or by some
enthusiast who works with love. A term is unquestionably wanted for this
distinct class. The Germans seem to have invented a Platonic one, drawn
from the Greek, _psyche_, or the soul; for they call this the
_psychological life_. Another attempt has been made, by giving it the
scientific term of _idiosyncrasy_, to denote a peculiarity of
disposition. I would call it _sentimental biography_!

It is distinct from a _chronological_ biography, for it searches for the
individual's feelings amidst the ascertained facts of his life; so that
facts, which occurred remotely from each other, are here brought at once
together. The detail of events which completes the chronological
biography, contains many which are not connected with the peculiarity of
the character itself. The _sentimental_ is also distinct from the
_autobiography_, however it may seem a part of it. Whether a man be
entitled to lavish his panegyric on himself, I will not decide; but it
is certain that he risks everything by appealing to a solitary and
suspected witness.

We have two Lives of Dante, one by Boccaccio and the other by Leonardo
Aretino, both interesting: but Boccaccio's is the _sentimental life_!

Aretino, indeed, finds fault, but with all the tenderness possible, with
Boccaccio's affectionate sketch, _Origine, Vita, Studi e Costumi del
clarissimo Dante_, &c. "Origin, Life, Studies and Manners, of the
illustrious Dante," &c. "It seems to me," he says, "that our Boccaccio,
_dolcissimo e suavissimo uomo_, sweet and delightful man! has written
the life and manners of this sublime poet as if he had been composing
the _Filocolo_, the _Filostrato_, or the _Fiametta_," the romances of
Boccaccio--"for all breathes of love and sighs, and is covered with warm
tears, as if a man were born in this world only to live among the
enamoured ladies and the gallant youths of the ten amorous days of his
hundred novels."

Aretino, who wanted not all the feeling requisite for the delightful
"costumi e studi" of Boccaccio's Dante, modestly requires that his own
life of Dante should be considered as a supplement to, not as a
substitute for, Boccaccio's. Pathetic with all the sorrows, and eloquent
with all the remonstrances of a fellow-citizen, Boccaccio, while he
wept, hung with anger over his country's shame in its apathy for the
honour of its long-injured exile. Catching inspiration from the
br