Excerpt from The Philosophy of Civilization: A Sociological Study I embrace this opportunity to bring a special plea to the notice of my readers. Having been compelled, by official duty, to be constantly absent from the place Where the printing of this work was going on, the cor rection of proof-sheets, which came to me, on my journeys in China, in an uncomfortably irregular manner, had to be done in a traveller's mood. I must therefore solicit the indulgence of my readers, with regard to the errors that have been overlooked at the proof-revisions. 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.