vi
eminent Scotsmen have gone to their rest, and accordingly, in the present
issue of this Work, the Supplement has been enlarged by the incorporation of
over twenty additional biographies. Among these will be found notices of
Dr. CHAMBERS, the original editor of the Biographical Dictionary, Dr.
CANDLISH, Dr. FAIRBAIRN, Sir W. FAIRBAIRN, Dr. GUTHRIE, Dr. LIVING-
STONE, Sir CHARLES LYELL, Sir RODERICK MURCHISON, Sir J. Y. SIMPSON,
and others. The biographies have been carefully compiled from the best
available sources, some have been written and some revised by relatives of the
deceased, and the materials for some others have been derived from personal
and private information.
There being no more interesting and instructive history than the lives of the
men by whom history is made, there has been added to the work a full Chrono-
logical Index of the memoirs of which it is composed, by means of which the
reader is enabled to peruse them in the sequence of their dates, and thus
convert this Dictionary into an admirable biographical history of Scotland, of
its kind the most complete that has hitherto been published. In addition
there is appended an Alphabetical Index, in which is registered the principal
authorities and sources whence the materials of the biographies were derived.
The BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF EMINENT SCOTSMEN forms a com-
prehensive record of the achievements of those, in every walk of life, whose
memories are cherished by their countrymen, and whose deeds form the history
of their country; of those who, by their energy, wisdom, or bravery, their
patience, industry, learning, or writings, have been influential in preserving
its freedom or maintaining the rights of its people; who have been the leaders
in the progress of national civilization; and whose exertions have raised their
country to that proud eminence which it now occupies among the nations of
Europe. Among the biographies will be found a large number of an exceed-
ingly instructive character, calculated to form incentive examples to young
and ardent minds, and numerous instances of men who have risen from humble
circumstances and attained to high positions, and of those who have succeeded
in the pursuit of knowledge in spite of the greatest hardships and difficulties.
GLASGOW, July, 1875.