Autobiography

XI

Hume’s original: "Hume's"; referring to the philosopher David Hume, whose brief autobiography My Own Life (1776) was highly regarded for its concise honesty. example could excuse my undertaking. However, it would not be difficult to list here a long series of ancient and modern authors who have left behind their own portraits in various forms. Such portraits are often the most interesting—indeed, sometimes the only attractive—part of their writings; and as long as they are written sincerely and honestly, we rarely complain about the detail and precision of such memoirs. The life stories of Pliny the Younger A Roman lawyer and author whose letters provide a window into the social and political life of the 1st century AD., Petrarch The 14th-century Italian poet and scholar whose letters were central to the development of Humanism., and Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus, the great Renaissance humanist whose extensive correspondence documented the intellectual shifts of the Reformation era. are very attractively expressed in the letters they left to the world. The essays original: "Versuche"; a reference to the literary genre of the 'Essay' established by Montaigne. of Montaigne and William Temple Sir William Temple (1628–1699), an English diplomat and essayist admired for his prose style. lead us, as it were, into the innermost chamber and the sanctuary of their authors' souls. We smile without contempt at the stubborn passions of Benvenuto Cellini A Florentine sculptor and goldsmith whose autobiography is famous for its colorful tales of brawls and artistic triumphs., and the droll follies of Colley Cibber An English actor-manager and Poet Laureate; his memoirs were often mocked for their vanity but praised for their theatrical history.. The confessions of Rousseau and Saint Augustine Referring to the Confessions of both Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1782) and St. Augustine of Hippo (c. 400 AD), which revolutionized the exploration of the inner self. unlock for us the most secret windings of the human heart; the commentaries of the lea- The word "ge-lehr..." (learned) is split here by the page break.