OUR history begins before we are born. We represent the hereditary influences of our race, and our ancestors virtually live in us.

Time passed by. I had furnished steam hammers to the principal foundries in England. I had sent them abroad, even to Russia. At length it became known to the Lords of the Admiralty that a new power in forging had been introduced.

In course of time the Brothers Cowper removed the manufacture of their printing machines from London, to Manchester. There they found skilled and energetic workmen, ready to carry their plans into effect.

Everything connected with war and warlike exploits is interesting to a boy.

We are born, we live, we disappear. One of the chilling aspects of history is the swiftness with which it carries us into oblivion.

When one begins to live by habit and by quotation, one has begun to stop living.