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1 Prologue Almost every human being who has walked the face of the earth has come andgonewithoutanidentifiabletrace.“Numberlessinfinityofsoules”live on in their descendants, leaving no record of themselves as unique individuals , with wondrous experience and knowledge accumulated over a lifetime, who then perished. There are, however, the select few, the people who have been canonized to become an integral part of popular thought and culture, whose names are known to all. Far greater in number are the heroes who in their time were widely known for their achievements, but are now largely forgotten. Their remarkable contributions are unheralded today, memory of them has fallen away, and they only come to life occasionally, if by chance the written record, what little there is of it, is scrutinized. We are able to learn something about members of this multitude through records maintained in archives, always available to the curious. William Maclure (1763–1840), a peculiarly elusive soul, was one of these special people who today is almost unknown. A successful merchant, he retired a wealthy man in his early thirties to become a seminal geologist and a philanthropist, and then in a stunning change of directionwentontotrytosetrightthesocialinjusticesoftheworldthrough education of the young. His achievements will be revealed by a telling of his story. ...

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