Excerpt from Famous Boys, and How They Become Great Men: Dedicated to Youths and Young Men, as a Stimulus to Earnest Living Lord stanley said at Accrington, I believe that one of the most important volumes that could possibly be written - and when it is written it ought to find a place in every hamlet, almost in every cottage - would be a biographical record of a few selected instances of those eminent and illustrious persons who, in various occupations and departments of life, have raised themselves from the ranks. The reason is obvious. Biography serves the excellent purpose of informing the irresolute and desponding how the true man has not repined but worked. If his social position has been low - the first round on the ladder - the greater need to work in order to ascend. Has his education been neglected? Does he find him self, when he wakes up to his real position in life, ignorant of the mere rudiments of knowledge. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.