Henry Gally prefixed this essay to his 1725 translation of the Moral Characters of Theophrastus. He explains what a character sketch is, how it differs from satire and history, and how La Bruyère and the moderns followed the Greek model. This edition reprints the essay with a modern introduction by Alexander H. Chorney.
A short, useful document of Augustan criticism for students of the essay and the character genre. Download the free EPUB.