WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



LIVES OF THE ENGINEERS 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON VOL. V. 

 [THE LOCOMOTIVE GEORGE AND ROBERT STEPHENSON] 



"It is a singular fate that some of the world's greatest benefactors should pass 

 from the world with their history comparatively unnoticed. . . . and we rightly 

 rejoice when the claims of any of them are vindicated when, from the hidden 

 company of the Brindleys and Watts, men risen from the ranks to do world-wide 

 service, and incidentally to be the architects of their country's later greatness, we 

 can obtain the authentic history of such a creator as George Stephenson. It is not 

 too much to say, that by Mr. Smiles, who has performed this office with eminent 

 success, a considerable void is filled up in the page of modern history. We see the 

 vast proportions of our modern achievements, and the epic story of this age of iron, 

 more than half comprised in the feats of its strongest and most successful worker. 

 The worker himself, with his noble simplicity and energy, his zeal for his kind, his 

 native-born gentleness, and indomitable tenacity, would probably have been 

 eminent in any age or condition of society ; but, in virtue of his actual achieve- 

 ments and the obstacles he surmounted, of his struggles and triumphs, we may 

 designate him a hero, and ask, in defence of this arbitrary title, what real conditions 

 of heroism were there wanting." The. Times. 



" We should like to see this biography in the hands of all our young men. One 

 breathes a healthy, bracing atmosphere in reading this book. It sets before us a 

 tine instance of success in life attained purely in the exercise of genuine qualities. 

 There was no sham about George Stephenson. . . . He was a great and good man, 

 and we can give the ' Life ' no higher praise than to say that it is worthy of its 

 subject. Mr. Smiles is so anxious to place the character and career of Stephenson 

 justly before his readers, that he quite forgets himself. . . . We do not know that 

 there ever lived an individual to whom each separate inhabitant of Great Britain 

 owes so much of real tangible advantage." Fraser's Magazine. 



"Whether the remarkable character of George Stephenson, or the work which 

 he accomplished, or the manner in which the story of both is here told, be con- 

 sidered, there is but one judgment to be pronounced upon this book, and that is an 

 xinqualified approval. There is not a youth in the kingdom, whether high-born or 

 low-born, who would not find in its perusal a healthy and elevating stimulus. The 

 demand for the larger work, from which this has been condensed, has been so great, 

 that we are encouraged to believe that in this, its cheaper form, it will have an 

 enormous circulation. We earnestly hope it may. Let no youth or young man 

 who may read these lines omit to procure it ; as -a possession, if possible ; if not, 

 for perusal." Mechanics' Magazine. 



"It is the fate of few men, even of those who are the most signal public 

 benefactors, to be known .and appreciated by the generation in which they live. 

 The fame of George Stephenson spread slowly, and, great as it has at last become, 

 we cannot question that it will continue to increase with time. Not only is he a 

 surprising example of a labourer raising himself to wealth and eminence without 

 one solitary advantage except what he derived from his own genius; but the 

 direction which that genius took has stamped his name upon the most wonderful 

 achievement of our age. . . . He died, leaving behind him the highest character for 

 simplicity, kindness of heart, and absolute freedom from all sordidness of disposi- 

 tion. His virtues are very beautifully illustrated, and by no means exaggerated, 

 in his Life by Mr. Smiles. . . . There is scarcely a single page of the work which is 

 not suggestive, and on which it would not be profitable to institute inquiry into 

 the results of past experience as compared with present practice. The whole 

 ground is novel, and of the highest interest." Quarterly Revietv. 



