Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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1213

Mr Faraday

Faraday’s work on electromagnetism made him an architect of modern living, and one of Albert Einstein’s three most revered physicists.

American physicist Albert Einstein kept three portraits on his wall, men who had inspired his own world-changing study of physics. They were all British: Sir Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, and Michael Faraday (1791-1867).

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Picture: Painted by Thomas Phillips in 1842, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

1214

On Equal Terms

An aristocratic statesman was choked with emotion as he reflected on Britain’s creative social mobility.

The Industrial Revolution increased social mobility beyond all measure. Some shook their heads, but for most people, from ordinary working men to aristocratic statesmen, it was a matter of celebration and pride.

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Picture: © Ian Capper, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

1215

Sir Sandford Fleming

What George Stephenson was to the railways of England, Sandford Fleming was to the railways of Canada.

At the start of the nineteenth century, railways brought a handful of struggling colonies together to form a great nation, and Sandford Fleming (1827-1915), then just a young Scottish surveyor from Kirkcaldy, played as important a part in that as any other man.

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Picture: © Andrew Bowden, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

1216

As Good as his Word

Benjamin Disraeli did not make a promising start to his Parliamentary career - but he did start with a promise.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime Minister, oversaw the expansion of the electorate as well as a range of social reforms aimed at improving the living and working conditions of the poorer classes. He was also an accomplished novelist, though his first attempts had been cruelly mocked by the critics, and his early political career fared little better.

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Picture: Photo by Henry Lenthall (1819-1897), from the Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

1217

The Knight’s Tale

Two noble youths of ancient Thebes fall for the same princess.

Chaucer’s twenty-four ‘Canterbury Tales’, told by pilgrims travelling from London to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury in the late 14th century, open with the Knight’s Tale. A curious blend of Norman chivalry and classical mythology, it reminds us that any civilisation worthy of the name is firmly founded on Greco-Roman culture.

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Picture: © Sarah G. Perun, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.. Source.

1218

Sweet and Sour

The great Dr Johnson argues that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Samuel Johnson, one of England’s literary giants, encourages us to employ as much courtesy and good cheer as we can muster in our dealings with those who disagree with us, appealing to no less than the Apostle St Peter for authority.

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Picture: © Pashadizel, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.