We shall never envy the honors, which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if we can be numbered among the writers who have given ardor to virtue and confidence to truth. Dr. Johnson.

BIOGRAPHY.

THE HONORABLE WILLIAM HEATH.

THE aged and venerable subject of this very brief and imperfect sketch was born at Roxbury, (Mass.) March 2, (old style) 1737. He descended from an ancient family, and is of the fifth generation who have inherited the same estate. His education was that of a farmer. A fondness for military exercises, and a desire to " gain a name in arms," appear to have been the ruling passions of his youth-passions, which maturer years and the peculiar situation of our country, ripened into the most inflexible patriotism, and rendered him a zealous defender of our national independence.

He was early called by the voice of his country to take an active part in the contest with Great Britain, which ended in our emancipation from her authority. On the 9th February, 1775, he, with others, was appointed, by the Massachusetts provincial congress, a General, to command the militia, in case they should be ordered out to oppose the British army then in Boston. He commanded the militia in the battle at Lexington, April 19; and after the British troops had retreat ed to Charlestown, he marched the militia to Cambridge, where they lay on their arms during the night. On the next day he issued his general orders-the first issued in the revolutionary war.

VOL. II,

1