PREFATORY NOTE. 





HE series of popular biographies in which the present 

 volume is included, is issued by the publishers with 

 the view of meeting the steadily increasing demand 

 for biographical reading of a wholesome and instructive 

 character. To those who have afterwards to mmgle actively 

 in practical life, there is always something stimulating in 

 noting how those who have gone before — men eminent in 

 many departments — may have conducted themselves in the 

 battle of life. Perhaps as in everyday life, example is here 

 also more powerful than precept; the less moralizing the 

 better, the influence and practical lesson from each career 

 coming home almost insensibly, yet none the less powerfully, 

 to the reader. The two first sketches in the book are quoted 

 from a well-known work, the late Professor Craik's Pursuit of 

 Knmvledge tender Difficidties, London, 1830; William Cobbett 

 appeared many years ago in Taifs Magazine. The remaining 

 articles have been specially prepared or selected for the 

 present volume. 



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