N the following pages I have set forth the lives of some noble Englishmen, for the special in

struction and entertainment of English boys. How they got along in the old days, suffering and doing; how to use the language of Carlyle-how, and under what circumstances, they resisted the devil and triumphed over him; or struck their colours, and were trodden under foot by him;-how, in short, the perennial Battle went which men name Life-which we also in these new days, with indifferent fortune, have to fight-I have endeavoured to show in all faithfulness and simplicity. I do not say that any one of the heroic men here chronicled furnishes in all things an example to be followed, or a model to be imitated; but the more nearly my readers approach them, in the whole, the more likely will they be to do their duty towards their neighbours and towards their country. And the cardinal object of this volume is to illustrate the Law of Duty; to show that true happiness and real success can only be attained by those who