That  the  ignorant  may  have  their  prejudices  as  well  as
the  learned  cannot  be  disputed;  but  we  see  and  despise
vulgar  errors:  we  never  bow  to  the  authority  of  him  who
has  no  great  name  to  sanction  his  _absiirdities4  The  par-
tiaiity  which  blmds  a'biographer  to  the  defects  of  his  hero,
in  proportion  as  it  is  gross,  ceases  to  be  dangerous ;  but  if
it  be  concealed  by  the  appearance  of  candour,  which  men
of  great  abilities  best  know  how  to  assume,  it  endangers
our  judgment  sometimes,  and  sometimes  our  morals.  If
her  Grace  the  Duchess  of  Newcastle,  instead  of  penning
her  lord's  elaborate  eulogium,  had  undertaken  to  write  the
life  of  Savage,  we  should  not  have  been  in  any  danger  o^
mistaking  an  idle,  ungrateful  libertine  for  a  man

viii


PREFACE

and  virtue.  The  talents  of  a  biographer  are  often  fatal  to
his  reader.  For  these  reasons  the  public  often  judiciously!
countenance  those  who,  without  sagacity  to  discriminate
character,  without  elegance  of  style  to  relieve  the  tedious-
ness  of  narrative,  without  enlargement  of  mind  to  draw
any  conclusions  from  the  facts  they  relate,  simply  pour
forth   anecdotes,  and    retail   conversations,    with   all   the

minute  prolixity  of  a  gossip  in  a  country  town.  1

The  author  of  the  following  Memoirs  has  upon  these  ^  "^^^^^
grounds  fair  claims  to  the  public  favour  and  attention ;  he   ^^
was  an  illiterate  old  steward,  whose.f>artiality  to  the  family  j^^^   ^
in  which  he'~'\v^r§^r^edraa3Zlom,  nm^  the  p**^

reader.  He  tells  the  history^  of  the  Rackrent  family  in  his
vernacular  Idioin^^andjnthe  full  confidence  that^ir^atrick,
Sir  Murtagh,  Sir  Kit,  an3  Sir  Condy  RacTcrent's  affairs  will
be  as  interesting  to  all  the  world  as  they^were  to  himself.
