In the annals of INVENTION and DISCOVERY, it may be said without undue
boasting, no nation of modern times can lay claim to such an eminent
position as Great Britain; and her many ingenious and intrepid
adventurers into what they found unknown regions of the arts, the
sciences, and the earth's surface, have so largely contributed to raise
her to her great place and power, that it is mere justice and
self-interest to bestow on them grateful rewards in life, and renown
after death. In this little volume are brought together a number of
sketches and memoranda, illustrating the history of discovery, and the
lives and labours of inventors and explorers, not of our own country
alone, but of others--for knowledge is of no country, but of all. The
object of the collector has been rather to present the popular than the
strictly scientific side of his subject--to furnish materials of
interest and amusement, as well as instruction; and if now and then he
has been tempted to stray into bye-paths of anecdote and gossip, excuse
may readily be found in the fact that the private life of our men of
science, often singularly noble and full of character, is apt to be
altogether obscured by the brilliancy of the results of their secret and
silent toil. This volume will have served its purpose, if it excites an
appetite for fuller and deeper inquisition into the sources of British
greatness and of modern civilisation.
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