Towns > Glasgow > 1828-1912 - Post-Office annual Glasgow directory > 1856-1857

IN ACTIVE PREPARATION,
Illustrated by a Series of Portraits, beautifully engraved on Steel, copied from Original and Authentic
Sources, by the First Artists of the day,
CONTAINING
A SERIES OF ORIGINAL MEMOIRS
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OF ALL AGES AND ALL NATIONS,
BY WRITERS OF EMINENCE IN THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
Biography is unquestionably one of the most pleasing and instructive branches of general history ;
this has been felt and acknowledged in all ages. The ready access which it finds to the feelings
and sentiments of mankind, has its foundation in the inherent principles — the deep recesses of
human nature. The actions and sayings of eminent and learned men, even when living, excite
the curiosity and engross the attention of the world at large ; and when death has separated them
from worldly affairs, their aspirations and enterprises — their conflicts and triumphs — their joys
and sorrows, become the common patrimony of their descendants, and the cherished heritage of the
ardent and progressive spirits of future generations. Universal biography is a striking panorama
of the human family, from its earliest origin to the present hour : it exhibits the varieties of human
character under all the diversified circumstances of social life ; it is a faithful representation of all
that is valuable in mind, in action, and in imagination ; an exponent of those great principles that
touch the heart, giude the understanding, and adorn the conduct.
A biographical work is a constant spur to noble deeds and elevated pursuits. It is a general
summary of all those actions of mankind which deserve to be handed down to the admiration and
sympathy of the future, as well as a stem and impartial record of those that deserve to be branded
with infamy. Whatever influence mere wealth or social position may exercise for the moment
over our judgments of the passing actors on the world's great stage, such influence is not felt in a
work of this kind. Here nothing but mind working in its eflfects, whether for good or for evil, can
have a place — nothing but intrinsic excellence to be admired and commended, or flagitious vices
to be condemned and reprobated. High intellectual and moral qualifications constitute the admis-
sion card to the favourable notice of posterity. Matters of passing interest must be forgotten ; but
the memory of men of genius and talent endures for ages. It is a perennial fountain, from which
there are ever flowing copious streams of pleasurable excitement and valuable instruction. The
authors of every country, as has been justly remarked, are the unerring and lasting monuments of
its greatness, civilization, and power.
[For completion of Prospectus, see future Advertisements^]
Printed and Published by Williaji Mackenzie, London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.