12 WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



LIFE OF ROBERT DICK 



(BAKER, OF THURSO), GEOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 

 WITH A PORTRAIT AND 50 ILLUSTRATIONS. Crown Svo. 12s. 



"Robert Dick's life, from beginning to end, was a series of struggles with 

 adversity. Late in life, when his marvellous knowledge of local natural history 

 became known, he enjoyed the correspondence of many eminent naturalists and 

 collectors ; but, among these correspondents, how few knew anything about his 

 private circumstances ; how few dreamed that while he was generously presenting 

 them with fossil fish from the Old Red Sandstone, or with rare plants from the flora 

 of Caithness, he found it hard, in spite of extreme frugality, to earn sufficient 

 to support himself and his faithful housekeeper. 



" On the publication of Hugh Miller's writings, Dick became deeply interested in 

 geology. His indefatigable industry, and the energy with which he always threw 

 himself into any new study, soon led to important discoveries. Many a new fossil 

 was carefully hammered and chiselled out of the Old Red Sandstone, and duly 

 packed off to Hugh Miller. . . . Another friend with whom Dick regularly corre- 

 sponded was Mr. Charles Peach, of the Coast Guard Service. Mr. Peach is a man 

 almost as remarkable as Dick himself, and we feel indebted to Mr. Smiles for 

 having devoted a chapter to a sketch of his career. Those who enjoy Mr. Peach's 

 acquaintance will also be glad to find in the volume an excellent portrait of this 

 fine old naturalist. . . . The story here told is one of such absorbing interest that, 

 from the first page to the last, the author keeps his reader in deep sympathy with 

 his hero. Mr. Smiles's volume will be a more enduring monument to the scientific 

 baker than the obelisk which proudly keeps guard over his grave iu the cemetery 

 at Thurso." Professor Rudler in the Academy. 



" Robert Dick was one of those remarkable men of whom our country is justly 

 proud. Belonging by birth, means, and position to the lower orders, spending a life 

 of unceasing labour and not a little privation, earning his bread, to the last, by the 

 sweat of his brow constantly on ' poortith's brink,' he yet, by dint of hard toil 

 and indomitable perseverance, became an accomplished geologist and a profound 

 botanist, and has taken a high and permanent place among the eminent scientific 

 men of the age. . . . Dr. Smiles has produced a deeply interesting biography of this 

 most laborious, unselfish, and modest Scottish worthy. We have read it with 

 mingled feelings of admiration, sorrow, and indignation." North British Daily 

 Mail. 



"Mr. Smiles has shown us the familiar traits of a man as faithful and self- 

 helping as any who were ever rewarded with the outwai'd success which takes the 

 eye of the world ; a man who, though shrewd and practical, never allowed worldly 

 views to conflict with his ideal ; who, in all simplicity, without complaining, or 

 ignoble greed of fame, followed out the bent of his singular genius. "Belfast 

 Northern Whig. 



"The story of a man quite as interesting as Thomas Edward, quite as self- 

 helpful, and perhaps more gifted as regards thought : certainly of a more poetical, 

 meditative, and humorous turn. Dick is from first to last an original, not a mere 

 working geologist or botanist, but a man with a character distinctly his own alike 

 in all his relationships ; and he never speaks, never writes the simplest letter, but 

 he casts modest, unpretentious light upon the very deepest problems. . . . The 

 portrait of Dick is etched with all M. Rajon's peculiar power, giving at once the 

 idea of great observation, fine thought, emotion, self-restraint, and pawky humour, 

 as seen in the twinkle of the eyes, that so distinguished the original of it. And 

 little less can be said of the admirable portrait of Mr. Peach, whose life so nicely 

 matches that of Dick. No more readable and attractive book of the kind have 

 we ever had in hand ; let our readers be sharers in our pleasure by procuring it." 

 Nonconformist. 



