"As in walking it is your great care not to run your foot upon a nail, or to tread awry, and strain your leg; so let it be in all the affairs of human life, not to hurt your mind, or offend your judgment. And this rule, if observed carefully in all your deportment, will be a mighty security to you in your undertakings.”—EPICTETUS.

List of Engravings.

MACAULAY AT THIRTEEN YEARS OF AGE-"TELLING BOOKS
FARADAY'S MASTER DESCRIBING THE ELECTRICAL MACHINE MADE

PAGE

3

BY HIM IN HIS LEISURE HOURS
DICKENS PLACING HIS FIRST LITERARY CONTRIBUTION IN THE
EDITOR'S BOX

34

YOUNG COBDEN ENTERING A LONDON WAREHOUSE TO PUSH HIS
WAY IN THE WORLD

GEORGE CRUIKSHANK IN THE ROYAL ACADEMY, STUDYING
WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS ENTERING EDINBURGH POOR

AND FRIENDLESS

44

64

:

94

. 129

FRANKLIN ENTERING THE NAVY AS A PETTY OFFICER
LINDSAY WORKING HIS PASSAGE TO LIVERPOOL IN THE ENGINE

PREFACE.

NO books are read with so much avidity or with

so much profit as books of biography. The lifestory of great men is a theme of wondrous power. Whence they came, their early difficulties, the barriers to their progress, their failures, their successes, and their ultimate triumphs, are severally invested with a charm of marvellous interest. The youth who has indolently foregone opportunities of improvement, in common with the young man who has been allured by the syren influences of pleasure to forget the earnestness of life, as well as the man of mature years just entering on the "sear and yellow leaf," are equally interested and profited by the recital of the incidents in the lives of the men who have "made their mark" on the times in which they lived. Precept, in such cases, can bear no comparison with example. The incredulous and desponding may doubt the realization of the precept; but point to example-to the instance where probity and industry have succeeded a life of listless idleness; to the man of broken fortunes, who has arisen from

the wrecks of a disappointed life, building up for himself a reputation, and attaining a needed provision for his declining years-surely such an instance would nerve the hopeless, filling him afresh with confidence and resolution that he also will succeed!

And equally profitable, if faithfully told, is the life of the man who has not succeeded. To know why, the pitfalls in which he fell, the rocks on which he was wrecked, the temptations which led to his ruin, this to the wise is priceless knowledge.

But leaving utility out of the question, in mere interest fiction cannot be compared with fact. The thrilling narrative of the most imaginative novelist is exceeded by the unvarnished tale "all too true." Hair-breadth escapes, dangers by flood and field, perilous adventures, wonderful discoveries, the metamorphosis of the rough boy into the famous manone day the associate of the stable, and then the companion of princes; one day living in the utmost obscurity, and then attaining a reputation resounding throughout Europe-these are the materials, the fascinating details of the biographer. Is it any wonder, then, that "lives of great men" are dearly treasured volumes in the home of peer or peasant?

Generally, it is considered that the age of wonders is passed, that all great things have been achieved, and that the men who were miracles of attainment lived at a period quite remote from the present. "Although the race of literary mammoths has become extinct,"