In 1819, when he was eighty-three, the end came. "I feel," said the great man with a calm in strange contrast to the fearfulness and timidity that had accompanied him through life, "I feel that I am now come to my last illness." He passed away quietly and without suffering. They buried him in Handsworth Church--near to his partner, Boulton--and erected an imposing statue in Westminster Abbey, and beneath it Lord Brougham wrote his famous epitaph.
To us his life has much of pathos. Men have called him "the greatest inventor in all ages," "the most extraordinary man that the world has ever seen," but the long years of struggle and labour and waiting, the weakness of body and the oft depression of spirit, are to us not a little sad, specially when we remember how patiently he endured, how uncomplainingly he suffered, that we might profit, that he might, as Lord Brougham has it, "increase the power of man."
Large Crown 8vo, Bevelled Boards, Gilt Edges, with Illustrations.
"A lively tale of the Navy of to-day, by that popular writer."--_The Guardian._
"We say a great deal when we say it is quite up to the Author's usual level of exciting story telling."--_The British Weekly._
A Romance of the Days of Richard the Lion-hearted.
"A spirited, graphic story."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
Or, The World-wide Adventures of Willie Grant.
"We can commend this book is the best story for boys which we have read for many a day."--_English Churchman._
"Dr. Gordon Stables has written again the story of General Gordon, in 'For Honour not Honours,' and no English boy will tire of reading it."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
"A capital story of the Indian Mutiny. The boy who gets hold of this book is certain to thoroughly enjoy it."--_The Record._
"More than a mere Story of the Stirring Times of Old. The tale goes close to the heart of the reader, because it has come from the heart of the writer."--_Aberdeen Free Press._
"A dashing, graphic piece of work, well calculated to arouse the spirit of youth."--_Publishers' Circular._
"Splendidly told and well illustrated."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
"Here we have told with much spirit the story of Admiral Drake. We have plenty of stories of the sea, _but what could be better than this true tale_?"--_The Spectator._