Book Description

Excerpt from Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 3: Baker-Beadon M. Voltaire. He is a pretty good master of the Latin and understands some Creek, is reck oued no bad arithmetician for his years. And knows a great deal of natural history. Both from readin and observation. So that by the grace of God I hepe he will become a virtu ous and useful man.' Communications from David Erskine Baker were printed in the Transactions of the Royal Societ v, ' xliii. 510. Xliv. 529. Xlv. 598, xlvi. 467. Xlvnr. 564. But the father's hopes of a scientific career for his son were not to be fulfilled. Having married the daughter of a Mr. Clendon. A clerical em piric. The young man loined a corn v of strolling actors. In he publis ed his useful and fairly accurate Companion to the Play House. in two duodecimo volumes. A revised edition, under the title of Biographia Dmmatim.' appeared in 1782, edited by Isaac Reed. In the second edition Baker's name is 'ven amon the list of dramatic authors, an we are to d that being adopted by an uncle, who was a silk throwster in Spital Fields. He succeeded him in his business: but wanting the prudence and attention which are necessary to secure success in trade he soon failed.' Stephen J ones. The editor of the third edition says that he died in oh scurity at Edinburgh about 1770. In Notes and Queries, ' 2nd ser. Xii. 129, he is stated to have died about 1780. And the authority given is Harding's 'biographical Mirror;' but in that book there is no mention at all of Baker. Nichols (literary Anecdotes v. 277) fixes 16 Feb. 1767 as the date of hrs death. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.