By Fra Bartolomeo
REBELS AND
REFORMERS
BIOGRAPHIES FOR
YOUNG PEOPLE
BY
ARTHUR & DOROTHEA PONSONBY
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1919
To
Elizabeth
and
Matthew
INTRODUCTION
This book is intended for young people who arebeginning to take an interest in historical subjects,and it may also be acceptable to those who are toobusy with their daily work to find much time oropportunity for continuing, as they would like a fullcourse of study. Many people have not the leisureto read a three-volume biography, and so they missknowing anything at all about some of the greatfigures in history.
We have tried here to tell quite simply the storyof the lives of a dozen great men, some of whom maynot be very familiar.
There are many books about men of action—soldiers,sailors, and explorers—but it is not so easyto find any simple account of men who have usedtheir minds and their pens, rather than the sword,in the work for the betterment of their country towhich they have devoted their lives.
We have chosen men who are not actually connectedwith one another in any way. But althoughthey lived in different lands and in different centuries,they are linked by the same qualities; the samestrain runs through them all of fearlessness, moralcourage, and independence of character. Most ofviiithem were accounted rebels in their day, but therebel of one century is often the hero of the next.Though there may be a strong resemblance in theaims of these men, their personalities are different.For instance, there could not be two men more unlikeone another than Voltaire and Tolstoy, yet theyboth devoted their energy and their genius to fightingsuperstition and shams. Most of our heroes recognizedno authority but that of their own conscience,and each of them helped in his way the advance ofprogress in his country and in the mind of humanity.
The twelve men chosen are not all perhaps themost famous, or what is commonly called the “greatest,”that might have been selected. But that is oneof the reasons we have written about them. Whileevery one knows the story of Galileo, but few mayhave read about Tycho Brahe; Luther is a familiarfigure and Savonarola, perhaps, only a name; manylives have been written of President Lincoln, butsome have never read of William Lloyd Garrison;Garibaldi is renowned, but Mazzini’s work for Italyhas not often been described.
We have done no more than just mention the political,scientific, or literary accomplishments of thesemen or their philosophy and religious thoughts, becausewe have wanted only to tell the story of theirlives. Struggles, difficulties, and dangers which haveto be encountered, ideas, ambitions, and even personalhabits and peculiarities, all make the true story ofixa man’s life inspiring and attractive. Ideas are themainspri