Duty, with Illustrations of Courage, Patience, & Endurance, by Samuel Smiles, John Murray, 1886. Prize binding.

This handsome tree-calf prize volume was awarded to Charles Thomson in 1886, while a pupil at Hutchesons' Boys' Grammar School, Glasgow, several years before the remarkable sequence of prizes he subsequently won at the University of Glasgow. The presentation label records the award to Charles Thomson for Mathematics during the Session 1885-86, under the authority of Hutchesons' Educational Trust, Boys' Grammar School, with facsimile signatures of Thomas Menzies, Rector, and William Wilson, Chairman. The volume provides an interesting early record of Thomson's academic achievement: he subsequently attended the University of Glasgow, where he won fifteen prizes across a notably broad range of subjects before graduating M.A., and later pursued a career in education.

Samuel Smiles' Duty, with Illustrations of Courage, Patience, & Endurance belongs to the series of enormously popular works of Victorian moral and social instruction for which Smiles (1812-1904) became famous. Following the success of Self-Help, Smiles used historical and biographical examples to illustrate qualities he regarded as essential to individual character and public life. Duty considers personal responsibility, courage, perseverance, self-discipline and devotion to others, drawing upon the lives and actions of soldiers, sailors, physicians, missionaries, philanthropists and other historical figures. First published in 1880, the work became a characteristic Victorian prize book, its emphasis upon diligence and moral character making it particularly suited to presentation for academic achievement.

Duty, with Illustrations of Courage, Patience, & Endurance, by Samuel Smiles, LL.D. A New Edition.

Published by John Murray, London, 1886. Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.

A good full tree-calf leather hardback with gilt-tooled spine, raised bands and red morocco title label. With the Hutchesons' crest stamped in gilt to the rear board and gilt borders to both covers. Some rubbing and shelf wear commensurate with age, including wear to joints. The endpapers are split along the gutters at both inner hinges, although the underlying binding remains firm and secure.

With marbled endpapers and matching marbled text block edges. With prize presentation label to the front pastedown, completed in manuscript for Charles Thomson, recording the award of the Mathematics Prize for Session 1885-86 at Hutchesons' Educational Trust, Boys' Grammar School. The printed label bears facsimile signatures of Thomas Menzies, Rector, and William Wilson, Chairman.

The text is remarkably bright and clear throughout, with no spotting.

A handsome volume.

Text in English.

xv + 430pp.

Dimensions: approximately 185mm high x 127mm wide x 29mm deep.

Weight: Approximately 578g (unpacked).