Excerpt from The Civilisation of Our Day: A Series of Original Essays on Some of Its More Important Phases at the Close of the Nineteenth Century There are few things more elevating than to withdraw one self for a brief period from the activity Of human life, with its hopes and fears, joys and disappointments; to quit the seething crowds striving for the acquisition of wealth, power, and such honours as men are able to confer, or, with the vast majority, struggling for the bare necessaries of life and, from a somewhat higher standpoint, to note the direction in which the mass of mankind is moving - to see whether or not a general advance is being made by our race towards a higher life and nobler ideals than those of its daily aspirations. A fitting time for such a survey is when the century is drawing to a close; and, without assuming to be infallible guides, we would invite our readers to join us in such an inquiry, direct ing our attention mainly to the advances which have been made during the latter half of the century, although, for pur poses of comparison, it may be desirable from time to time to refer briefly to a somewhat earlier period. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.