442 WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



By the same Author, post 8vo, 6s., 



INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY: 



IRON- WORKERS AND TOOL-MAKERS. 



"Mr. Smiles has hit upon a rich vein of ore, and works it with great success. He 

 Las the art of biography, which is by no means so easy of attainment as, judging from 

 the number of persons who attempt this species of composition, one would imagine it to 

 be. Memoirs are countless, but the number of biographies that can be accepted as suc- 

 cessful works of art are very few indeed. Mr. Smiles is not only a skilful workman, he 

 has chosen a new field of work. Hitherto the great biographies have been written of 

 soldiers and sailors, and statesmen, poets and artists, and philosophers. It would seem 

 as if these only were the great men of the world, as if these only were the benefactors of 

 mankind, whose deeds are worthy of memory. The suspicion has arisen that, after all, 

 there may be other heroes than those of the pen, the sceptre, and the sword. There are, 

 indeed, men in various walks of life whose footsteps are worthy of being traced ; but, 

 surely, considering what England is, and to what we owe most of our material greatness, 

 the lives of our Engineers are peculiarly worthy of being written. ' The true Epic of our 

 time,' says Mr. Carlyle, ' is not Anns and the man, but Tools and the man an infinitely 

 wider kind of Epic.' Our machinery has been the making of us ; our iron-works have, 

 in spite of the progress of other nations, still kept the balance in our hands. Smith-work 

 in all its branches of engine-making, machine-making, tool-making, cutlery, iron ship- 

 building, and iron-working generally, is our chief glory. England is the mistress of 

 manufactures, and so the queen of the world, because it is the land of Smith ; and Mr. 

 Smiles's biographies are a history of the great family of Smith. Many of the facts which 

 he places before us are wholly new, and are derived from the most likely sources. 

 Thus, Maudslay's partner Mr. Joshua Field, and his pupil Mr. Nasmyth, supplied the 

 materials for his biography. Mr. John Penn supplied the chief material for the memoir 

 of Clement. And so of the other memoirs ; though they necessarily go over much well- 

 trodden ground, they contain also much original information, expressed with great clear- 

 ness, and with a practised skill which renders the reader secure of entertainment in 

 every page." Times. 



" This is not a very large book, but it is astonishing how much individual, conscien- 

 tinns, and thoroughly original search has been required for its composition, and how 

 much interesting matter it contains whch we possess in no other form. Mr. Smiles 

 rescues no name, but many histories, from oblivion. His heroes are known and grate- 

 fully remembered for the benefits they have conferred on mankind, bnt our knowledge 

 of our benefactors has hitherto been mostly confined to our knowledge of the benefit. 

 It was reserved for Mr. Smiles to discover in the workshop, heroes as true as ever hurled 

 their battalions across a battle-field, and to present us with much-enduring, much- 

 endeavouring, and brave men, where hitherto we had been content with disembodied, 

 almost meaningless names. The present work is further distinguished, not indeed 

 from its predecessors, but from much of the current literature, by the exquisitely 

 pellucid English, the vigorous but unobtrusive style, in which the narratives are con- 

 veyed. The value of the work before us is doubled, and the time required for perusing, 

 and especially for consulting it halved, by the full and minute index in which its contents 

 are tabulated." Edinburgh Daily Review. 



1 ' This is one of the most delightful books we have ever read. It is at once practical, 

 instructive, and suggestive. Whoever wishes to benefit his young friends will present 

 them every one with a copy of this book. Whatever struggling mechanic who, feeling 

 that there is something beyond what lie now knows or can execute, yet hesitates or 

 fears, let him read this book. It is a sovereign panacea for doubt or cowardice. Who- 

 ever takes delight in watching the development of knowledge and in ascertaining the 

 sources of the privileges which surround him, let him possess himself of this book, and 

 we can promise him a treat of no ordinary character." Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 



