Men of thought, be up and stirring. C. Mackay. [Courage and Activity.] This spirited song appeared in his Voices from the Crowd, 1816 (4th ed., 1851, p. 7). Its author, Charles Mackay, the well known writer, was born at Perth, 1814, and died Dec. 24, 1889.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)