ABSTRACT
To attempt to describe our own times in full extent, in such a manner as to bring the description down to the level of nineteenth-century comprehension, would be a task occupying far more time than I am able to devote to it. But I believe that an account of the present condition of man, so rendered as to show forth the comparison between this age and the past, would be of inestimable service to you, in aiding you to grasp the facts of history that tell the Era of Development. By comparing things as they are with things as they have been, is to be found, perhaps, the only true means of really estimating the scope of thought at any defunct period; and, without a history-student is able so to gain an insight into the mental character of the age he is studying, it stands to reason that he is unable to properly and thoroughly understand the details of it. Such is the view I hold, and it is that which has led me into these discourses; I am only sorry that time does not permit me—for the present at least—to pursue this method of instruction much farther.
