OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
TIMES.
An Engraving before us comprises the portraits of 50 distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain who were living in 1807-8, and who are here represented as assembled in the Upper Library of the Royal Institution ... we can easily conceive, as the preface to an accompanying volume of biographies informs us, that the collection and combination of these portraits occupied five years,—for some of them, at this distance of time, must have been discoverable with very great difficulty. Thus we have among them portraits of some of the inventors of whom we know very little in proportion to their acknowledged capacities, such for example as Trevithick the friend of Robert Stephenson, and Murdock the Achates of James Watt and introducer of gas ... there can be little doubt that the 50 physiognomies are derived from authentic originals in every case, great diligence having been employed in searching for such in the hands of their representatives ... as we said, this engraving must not be regarded only as a work of art, but as a collection of portraits of special interest, some of which are not attainable in any other form; while, as a whole, they are an appropriate monument of our greatest scientific epoch.
DAILY TELEGRAPH.
We may fairly commence the following remarks with unqualified praise of a work of art, which is intended to honour the distinguished men of science who were living in Great Britain early in the present century, and who, with one surviving exception, having passed into a deathless fame, are yet remembered by philosophers equally great, who were their contemporaries. Mr. Wm. Walker, with the assistance of Mr. Zobel, has produced a really great historical engraving from a design by Mr. Gilbert, representing an assemblage of fifty eminent chemists, engineers, astronomers, naturalists, electricians and mechanical inventors, grouped in the library of the Royal Institution. The scene is thoroughly appropriate, for these men were living in the years 1807-8, while the Royal Institution itself dates from 1800, having been founded to promote the application of science to practical uses. The period marked by the pictorial gathering in question, belonged to an era as complete and brilliant as any that British science has yet passed through. A glance round the circle of intensely thoughtful faces composing this great portrait group will revive many a page of instructive and ennobling history. We see in the centre, seated round a table, James Watt, Sir Isambard Brunel, John Dalton, &c.... Such men were our fathers—patient, indomitable, calmly and wisely bold, modestly self-reliant; ever watching, ever toiling, ever adding to the store of knowledge that was to benefit not them alone but the great human race. Such men are their sons who carry on the appointed work of improvement and civilization. To such men do we point as examples for our children. Their sterling qualities may be best summed up in the words of Lord Jeffrey, written of that same John Playfair to whom we have already referred. Their's was the understanding "at once penetrating and vigilant, but more distinguished, perhaps, for the caution and sureness of its march than for the brilliancy or rapidity of its movements: and guided and adorned through all its progress by the most genuine enthusiasm for all that is grand, and the justest taste for all that is beautiful."
ATHENÆUM.
Messrs. Walker and Son have published a large engraving of fifty-one distinguished men of science, alive in 1807-8, grouped together in the library of the Royal Institution. This engraving, which is a beautiful production, is described as designed by Gilbert, &c.... It is accompanied by a book, the frontispiece of which is a reduced copy of the engraving, for reference, &c.
ONCE A WEEK.
An earnest artist named William Walker, not being wholly absorbed in the pursuit of gain, but working with enthusiasm on his own perceptions of what is great in humanity and fitting in a nation, has for many years devoted himself to the task of gathering and grouping together the great men who were living in the early part of the present century.... This is of a verity a picture of great men—men whose instinct it was to work for the world and fight against misery: some of them wealthy and some of them poor; with visions perchance of wealth to come, but still working for the world's welfare as the only path through which to ensure their own,—the race of path-finders who are ever setting copies for the English nation to work by, and thus gain more results by the development of national energy. Accompanying the picture, which contains upwards of fifty portraits, some full figures, and some more or less hidden, but all admirably grouped, there is a volume, by Mr. Walker's son, giving a brief memoir of the salient points of each individual history; this also is well executed, and it forms a useful book of reference for those who would know more than the picture can tell.... Grateful are we to men like Mr. Walker, who has thus gathered together in groups the world's workers, with their images and superscriptions, that men may know their benefactors, and render to their memory that justice which was too rarely accorded to their lives. So, all honour to the work of both the father and the son, the picture and the book, in teaching the men of the present what they owe to men of the past.