VII 

 HEROES OF INDUSTRY 1 



E3T of all, in our gallery of heroes, come 

 the heroes of industrial civilization, 

 the bold explorers who have enlarged 

 the area of the civilized world, and the men who 

 by inventive genius have added to the number 

 and complexity of the processes whereby human 

 wants are satisfied. In one sense it was doubt- 

 less well to place this group of heroes last ; for, 

 while the groups of greatest poets and founders 

 of religions carry us back into an almost myth- 

 ical antiquity ; and while art, philosophy, his- 

 tory, science, and politics have each and all of 

 them their illustrious representatives in ancient 

 as well as in modern times ; on the other hand, 

 we find that all the discoverers and inventors 

 who have been thought worthy to be included 

 among the hundred greatest men of history 



1 Preface to the eighth volume of The Hundred Greatest 

 Men ; Portraits reproduced from Fine and Rare Engravings, 

 London, 1880. 8 vols. 410. The eighth volume contains 

 " Inventors and Discoverers." 



I reprint this " preface " in this connection, because it 

 affords a good illustration of some of the points in the preced- 

 ing essay on Sociology and Hero-Worship. 

 184 



