Men of Might

by A. C. Benson and H. F. W. Tatham

Michael Angelo Buonaroti

MEN OF MIGHT

STUDIES OF GREAT CHARACTERS

BY
A. C. BENSON, M.A.
AND
H. F. W. TATHAM, M.A.

NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION

LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD
41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, BOND STREET, W.
1921
[All rights reserved]

PREFACE.

 

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These biographies were compiled to read to small sets of boys, varying in age from fifteen to eighteen: it was found that many boys appreciated a certain literary precision, which could hardly be attained in discourses delivered extempore from notes; and the time at our disposal being necessarily somewhat short, it was found difficult to secure harmony and proportion in biographical lectures, unless the limits were carefully laid down beforehand. But it is intended that the lectures should be assisted by oral explanation and questions from time to time, and if a teacher were to see that any set of boys found interest in a particular biography, the sources from which it can be illustrated and supplemented are easily available.

It is no doubt the experience of many teachers that biography has the power of arresting and retaining the interest of a class to a degree that hardly any other literature possesses; and at the same time the well-known biographies are, as a rule, both too copious and too advanced both in expression and thought to be adapted for reading aloud to boys of average intelligence; so, in compiling these lives, we have kept in view the advantages of the learner rather than the pleasure of the lecturer, a point of view which a teacher is apt to overlook, the more enthusiastic for his subject he is.

We hope that the lectures may also prove useful to clergymen and religious teachers when dealing with classes of young people; and we have, therefore, avoided all that is controversial or denominational as far as possible.

The lectures have all been delivered to such classes as we have spoken of, and their practical value has thus, to a certain extent, been tested: that is to say, other similar lectures which failed to interest or please have been omitted.

As before stated many of the lectures are practically little more than compilations. Our obligations are due to Stanley's 'Life of Arnold,' to Miss C. A. Jones' 'Life and Times of St. Charles Borromeo,' to the 'Life of Henry Martyn,' to Mr. Cotter Morison's 'Life of St. Bernard,' to Dr. Kirton's and Mr. Tyerman's 'Lives of Wesley,' to Mr. Thomas Hughes' 'Livingstone,' to Colonel Butler's 'Gordon,' to Mr. Stobart's 'Islam,' to an unpublished lecture on Socrates by Dr. Goulburn, and to Mr. Clifford's 'Father Damien'; and our particular thanks are due to the author of the 'Life of Fenelon,' who, through Messrs. Longmans, has most kindly permitted us to make use of the masterly translations of letters and documents that appear in that delightful book.

We must also be permitted to express our thanks to H. E. Luxmoore, Esq., of Eton College, and the Rev. A. H. Baynes, Vicar of Christchurch, Greenwich, who have contributed three of the lectures.

A. C. B.
H. F. W. T.

Eton College,
May, 1892.

CONTENTS.

 

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PAGE

Socrates the Athenian ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

1

Mahomet ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

18

St. Bernard of Clairvaux ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

35

Girolamo Savonarola ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

60

Michael Angelo ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

76

Carlo Borromeo ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

91

Fénelon ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

111

John Wesley ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

144

George Washington ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

164

Henry Martyn ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

188

Dr. Arnold ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

213

David Livingstone ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

237

General Gordon ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

257

Father Damien ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

279

LIST OF PORTRAITS.

 

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Michael Angelo Buonaroti ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Frontispiece

Girolamo Savonarola ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

facing page 60

Carlo Borromeo ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

91

Franciscus de Fénelon ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

111

John Wesley ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

144

George Washington ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

164

Dr. Arnold ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

213

General Charles Gordon ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

257