The following pages are intended to convey to the general reader a brief but correct account of the illustrious dead, whose names _are_ for ever associated with one of the most brilliant eras in British science. It will be remembered that, in the earliest years of the present century, the world witnessed the control and application of steam by Watt, Symington and Trevithick; the great discoveries in physics and chemistry by Dalton, Cavendish, Wollaston and Davy,--in astronomy by Herschel, Maskelyne and Baily; the inventions of the spinning-mule and power-loom by Crompton and Cartwright; the introduction of machinery into the manufacture of paper, by Bryan Donkin and others; the improvements in the printing-press, and invention of stereotype printing, by Charles Earl Stanhope; the discovery of vaccination by Jenner; the introduction of gas into general use by Murdock; and the construction (in a great measure) of the present system of canal communication by Jessop, Chapman, Telford and Rennie. During the same period of time were likewise living Count Rumford; Robert Brown, the botanist; William Smith, "The Father of English Geology;" Thomas Young, the natural philosopher; Brunei; Bentham; Maudslay; and Francis Ronalds, who, by securing perfect insulation, was the first to demonstrate the practicability of passing an electric message through a lengthened space; together with many others, the fruits of whose labours we are now reaping. The following pages briefly record the births, deaths, and more striking incidents in the lives of those benefactors to mankind. "Lives of great men all remind us we may make our lives sublime."--The truth of this is strongly enforced in the brief memoirs which are included in this volume. They teach us that mental power, used judiciously and applied with industry, is capable of producing vast changes in the crude productions of Nature. Beyond this, they instruct us that men, who fulfil the commands of the Creator and employ their minds, in unwearying efforts to subdue the Earth, are rarely unrewarded. They aid in the march of civilization, and they ameliorate the conditions of humanity. They win a place amongst the great names which we reverence, and each one "becomes like a star "From the abodes where the Eternals are." ROBERT HUNT. WILLIAM ALLEN, F.R.S. Born August 29, 1770. Died December 30, 1843.