Others there have
been, who, from the times when their young lives first, as it were,
peeped over the horizon, seemed at once to--
"'Flame in the forehead of the evening sky,'"
--Whose lengthening years have been but one growing
splendor, and who at last--
"------Leave a lofty name,
A light, a landmark on the cliffs of fame."
CHAPTER I
ANCESTRY AND BIRTH
All history, says Emerson, "resolves itself into the biographies of a
few stout and earnest persons." These remarks find exemplification in
the life of William Ewart Gladstone, of whom they are pre-eminently
true. His recorded life, from the early period of his graduation to his
fourth premiership, would embrace in every important respect not only
the history of the British Empire, but very largely the international
events of every nation of the world for more than half a century.
William Ewart Gladstone, M.P., D.C.L., statesman, orator and scholar,
was born December 27, 1809, in Liverpool, England. The house in which he
was born, number 62 Rodney Street, a commodious and imposing
"double-fronted" dwelling of red brick, is still standing. In the
neighborhood of the Rodney Street house, and a few years before or after
the birth of William E.
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