WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



this country. He puts his history into the most interesting form by developing it 

 through successive stories of the Lives of the Engineers. Although his subject is 

 one of the most curious and important in the whole history of civilisation, and 

 abounds in details that are known to delight even our boys, the ground Mr. Smiles 

 traverses is to a remarkable degree his own peculiar possession." Examiner. 



" Two beautifully illustrated volumes, in which the biographical, historical, and 

 mechanical materials are graphically adjusted, and in which we have presented to 

 us a comprehensive and minute record of English engineers and engineering. By 

 his narrative Mr. Smiles has better instructed us in our obligations to our bene- 

 factors. The whole theme is full of interest to all orders of mind ; and in using 

 his materials he has laboured to make his work as complete in every respect as 

 possible." British Quarterly Review. 



"In tracing the history of English Engineering from the beginning, Mr. Smiles 

 really gives a history of English civilisation. He has produced a kind of philoso- 

 phical biography, the progress of discovery and industrial conquest having 

 necessarily a general correspondence with the mental development of the great 

 representatives of man's external action. We think Mr. Smiles has done what 

 was well worth the doing, with skill, with honesty, with purpose, and with taste." 

 Westminster Revieiv. 



" The ' Lives of the Engineers ' are written in a clear and flowing style, marked 

 by good sense and enlivened by humour ; they are full of curious information, con- 

 veyed in a most lucid and easy description ; and each successive hero is drawn 

 with an appreciation of character, and a minute exhibition of personal traits, which 

 sets the man almost visibly before us in his distinct individuality, and lends to the 

 history of his struggling genius a touch of almost dramatic interest. To produce 

 this result, much hidden labour must have been employed ; for it is the effect of a 

 most careful selection and rigid condensation of abundant though dry materials. 

 Mr. Smiles has happily hit the mean between the barrenness of a brief epitome 

 and the dreary wilderness of a maze of detail. What he gives is clear, intelligible, 

 and interesting. But he has not trusted entirely to his literary excellence, great 

 as it is ; his volumes derive an additional charm from their numerous and happy 

 illustrations. Every work of note which has to be described is accompanied by a 

 map or plan ; every district, ennobled by the birth or enriched by the labours of 

 an engineer, is mapped on the margin of the page ; and bridges, haibours, roads, 

 and aqueducts are turned by the skill of the artist into most effective decorations. 

 The history of the engineers is not only the history of great conquests over nature, 

 but also of the triumphs of industry and genius over the artificial obstacles of 

 social rank. It presents the most striking instances of that Self-help which Mr. 

 Smiles has elsewhere chronicled. The full merits of these two charming volumes 

 can be learned only from a perusal of them." The Guardian. 



" There may be many here who have made themselves acquainted with a book 

 that cannot be too widely brought into public notice I mean the recent publica- 

 tion of a popular author, Mr. Smiles, entitled ' The Lives of the Engineers.' There 

 may be those here who have read the Life of Brindley, and perused the record of 

 his discouragement in the tardiness of his own mind, as well as in the external cir- 

 cumstances with which he determined to do battle, and over which he achieved 

 his triumph. There may be those who have read the exploits of the blind Metcalfe, 

 who made roads and bridges in England at a time when nobody else had learned 

 to make them. There may be those who have dwelt with interest on the achieve- 

 ments of Smeaton, Rennie, and Telford. In that book we see of what materials 

 Englishmen are made. These men, who have now become famous among us, had 

 no mechanics' institute, no libraries, no classes, no examinations, to cheer them on 

 their way. In the greatest poverty, difficulties, and discouragements, their 

 energies were found sufficient for their work, and they have written their names 

 in a distinguished page of the history of their country." The Right Hon. W. E. 

 Gladstone at Manchester. 



" I have just been reading a work of great interest, which I recommend to your 

 notice I mean Smiles's ' Lives of the Engineers.' No more interesting books have 

 been published of late years than those of Mr. Smiles his ' Lives of the Engineers,' 

 his 'Life of George Stephenson,' and his admirable little book on 'Self-help,' a 

 most valuable manual." The Right Hon. Sir Stafford Northcote at Exeter. 



