em, and their ruin,
though it may have been delayed, is none the less certain. For the
permanency of any such system it is essentially necessary that it
should include with its own organization a law of change, and not
of change only, but change in the right direction--the direction in
which the society interested is about to pass. It is in an
oversight of this last essential condition that we find an
explanation of the failure of so many such institutions. Too
commonly do we believe that the affairs of men are determined by a
spontaneous action or free will; we keep that overpowering
influence which really controls them in the background. In
individual life we also accept a like deception, living in the
belief that everything we do is determined by the volition of
ourselves or of those around us; nor is it until the close of our
days that we discern how great is the illusion, and that we have
been swimming, playing, and struggling in a stream which, in spite
of all our voluntary motions, has silently and resistlessly borne
us to a predetermined shore.'

These lines were written before the commencement of our civil war. The
following sentence, taken from the postscript to the preface, gives
them, at this time, additional significance:

'When a nation has reached one of the epochs of its life, and is
preparing itself for another period of progress under new
conditions; it is well for every thoughtful man interested in its
prosperity to turn his eyes from the contentions of the present to
the accomplished facts of the past, and to seek for a solution of
existing difficulties in the record of what other people in former
times have done.'

Guided by this law of development, Professor Draper sets out on his task
of investigating the course of European progress. For the purpose of
facilitating this investigation, he divides the intellectual progress of
the nations examined, into five periods: 1, The Age of Credulity; 2, The
Age of Inquiry; 3, The Age of Faith; 4, The Age of Reason; 5, The Age of
Decrepitude; corresponding with the five divisions of individual life,
as previously stated, from infancy to old age. The general line of
examination and its results may be stated by giving the opening
paragraphs of his closing chapter:

'The object of this book is to impress upon its reader a conviction