OR, LIVES OF SELF-MADE MEN. Compiled and Arranged BY ROBERT COCHRANE, THE ENGLISH ESSAYISTS,' ་ EDITOR OF TREASURY OF BRITISH ELOQUENCE,' 'TREASURY OF 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 mingle 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 Knowledge under Difficulties, London, 1830; William Cobbett appeared many years ago in Tait's Magazine. The remaining articles have been specially prepared or selected for the present volume. |