The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-04-01
NOTICES OF NEW RooKs

VI U . UF N + w BOOKS.
RANDALL's LIFE OF JEFFERsoN.-Good biographies
are landmarks left by preceding travellers along
the shores of ages. The best possible form in which
the lives of eminent persons can be handed down to
poserity, is the autobiographical but very few of
those who have stood prominent in the worlds eye
have been willing to leave behind them, faithful
portraiture of themselves. The number of really
good auto-biographies may be readily counted
upon the fingers. The choicest extan are the Life
of BENvENuTo CELLNI; the life of LORD HERBERT OF
CHERBURY; the MEMOIRS OF GRAMMoNT, and the Con-
FEssIoNs OF JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU BoswELL's
LIFE OF JOHNSON is the best specimen we possess of
English biography. Its very minuteness of detail,
and garrulous unreserve, while chasing it among
the most fascinating works of its kind has damned
its egotstical author to immortal fame
Notwithstanding the remarkable events that have
TRANSFERRED IN our own country during the past
three-quarters of a century, American biography
has, heretofore been the dulest drest and prosiest
of reading. That eccentric clergymen, Mason L..
Weems, struck the right vein but he trusted too
much to his imagination for his facts and is there
fore worthless authority. Nevertheless his
sketches spirited and vivacious, semi-dramatic
biographies of WASHINGTON, PENN and MARION.
were wonderfully popular in their day, and
even now may be read with RELISH Jared Sparks
gravely and decorously buried 'the father of his
country beneath the literary cairn that indefati-
gable compiler accumulated in honor of his mem
ory. Irving, in his recent biography, has done
much towards rescuing WASHINGTON from the strata
of rubbish that earlier admirers had zealously piled
about him; while Parton has attempted, though
with but partial success, to reverse the verdict
which was pronounced against AARON BURR by his
contemporaries. Immediately succeeding these man.
ifest improvements upon previous American biogra-
phies, We have LIFE OF HAMILTON, by his son ; and
now, ADLER than either of the above because written
in more phlosophic spirit, and exhibiting a more
thorough acquaintance with the annals of the time
the first volume of RANDALL's LIFE OF JEFFERSON
makes its appearance.
To write worthily the life of so eminent a man
demanded earnestness of purpose; sound Judgment
in colatng existing authorities; in suppressing YER
biage, and in selecting, froma chaos of manuscript
only those details which were most interesting
either as throwing additional light upon the history
of the period to which they refer, or as tending to
eucidate the character of the person by whom they
were written, or whose life they illustrated Mr.
Randall appears to have fulfilled these conditions to
more than ordinary degree. The volume before
us brings down the life of JEFFERSON to the veal
l79l and will be found interesting to the general
reader, as it is PROFESSIONALLY valuable to the poll
tician and the historical student. The best praise
we can accord to this able work is, that Mr. Ran
dali has risen to the level of his subject and ha
used judiciously the abundance of material which
the family of Jefferson placed in his hands W,
regard it as the best specimen of American biogra
ply yet published The style is clear, glowing
and forcible; the interest is well sustained; Will
the character of Jefferson, both as private citizel
and as of the foremost statesmen of the revolu
tionary era, is portrayed with unusual skill ant
| fidelity.
| The typographical execution of this importan
work, with its accompanying illustrations, reflect
great credit upon the publishers, Messrs. Derby 4
Jackson ofNew York whose authorized agent is nov
in this city for the purpose of taking up subscrip
lions to the present and the forthcoming volumes