nuchs, and slaves.

The intellectual night which settled on Europe, in consequence of that
great neglect of duty, is passing away; we live in the daybreak of
better things. Society is anxiously expecting light, to see in what
direction it is drifting. It plainly discerns that the track along which
the voyage of civilization has thus far been made, has been left; and
that a new departure, on all unknown sea, has been taken.

Though deeply impressed with such thoughts, I should not have presumed
to write this book, or to intrude on the public the ideas it presents,
had I not made the facts with which it deals a subject of long and
earnest meditation. And I have gathered a strong incentive to undertake
this duty from the circumstance that a "History of the Intellectual
Development of Europe," published by me several years ago, which has
passed through many editions in America, and has been reprinted in
numerous European languages, English, French, German, Russian, Polish,
Servian, etc., is everywhere received with favor.

In collecting and arranging the materials for the volumes I published
under the title of "A History of the American Civil War," a work of very
great labor, I had become accustomed to the comparison of conflicting
statements, the adjustment of conflicting claims. The approval with
which that book has been received by the American public, a critical
judge of the events considered, has inspired me with additional
confidence. I had also devoted much attention to the experimental
investigation of natural phenomena, and had published many well-known
memoirs on such subjects. And perhaps no one can give himself to these
pursuits, and spend a large part of his life in the public teaching of
science, without partaking of that love of impartiality and truth which
Philosophy incites. She inspires us with a desire to dedicate our days
to the good of our race, so that in the fading light of life's evening
we may not, on looking back, be forced to acknowledge how unsubstantial
and useless are the objects that we have pursued.

Though I have spared no pains in the composition of this book, I am
very sensible how unequal it is to the subject, to do justice to which
a knowledge of science, history, theology, politics, is required; every
page should be alive with intelligence and glistening with facts. But
then I have remembered that this is only as it were the preface, or
forerunner, of a body of literature, which the