enjoyed the peculiar privilege of unrestrained access to the stores of original documents, as well as of anecdotes, by which this volume has been enriched. This circumstance may be a sufficient guarantee of the genuineness and interesting nature of the materials from which he has had to select; and the care bestowed in moulding them to their present form will be well repaid, if it secures a complete and accurate history of the life of one whom the common consent of mankind has now placed "at the head of all inventors, in all ages "and nations."
The checkered career of so great a man,-now dark with shadows, now bright with lights,-may well teach the stern truth,
"That life is not as idle ore,
"But iron dug from central gloom,
"And heated hot with burning fears,
"And dipp'd in baths of hissing tears, "And batter'd with the shocks of doom
yet it is full of hope and encouragement to those who read its lesson aright. For it sets forth the dignity of that intellectual pre-eminence, which crowns perseverance in honourable toil;—the lustre of that nobility of soul, which finds its highest scope even amid humble pursuits;-the majesty of that wisdom, which intently, tranquilly, and reverently searches out the mysterious works and ways of Creation.
"Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
"Nor in the glistering foil
"Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies;
"But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes
"And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;
"As He pronounces lastly on each deed,
"Of so much fame in Heaven expect thy meed.” †
* Tennyson, In Memoriam,' § cxvi.
Milton, Lycidas,' l. 78-84.