what I miss in it and it is that lack of fundamental and
central thought that I have striven to supply. If I have succeeded in
that, I have no fear--all else will follow quickly, inevitably, as a matter
of course. For a fundamental conception, once it is formed and expressed,
has a strange power--the power of enlisting the thought and cooperation of
many minds. And no conception can have greater power in our human world
than a _true_ conception of the nature of Man. For that most important of
truths the times are ripe; the world is filled with the saddest of
memories, with gloom, forebodings and fear. Without the truth in this
matter, there can be no rational hope--history must go on in its dismal
course; but _with_ the truth, there is not only hope but certitude that
the old order has passed and that humanity's manhood dates from the
present day. That I have here presented the truth in this matter--the true
conception of the human class of life--I have personally no doubt; and I
have no doubt that that conception is to be the base, the guide, the
source of light, of a new civilization. Whether I am mistaken or not, time
will decide. I feel as Buckle felt in writing his _History of
Civilization_:

"Whether or not I have effected anything of real value ... is a
question for competent judges to decide. Of this, at least, I feel
certain, that whatever imperfections may be observed, the fault
consists, not in the method proposed, but in the extreme
difficulty of any single man putting into full operation all the
parts of so vast a scheme. It is on this point, and on this alone,
that I feel the need of great indulgence. But, as to the plan
itself, I have no misgivings. Of defects in its execution I am not
unconscious. I can only plead the immensity of the subject, the
shortness of a single life and the imperfection of every single
enterprise. I, therefore, wish this work to be estimated, not
according to the finish of its separate parts, but according to
the way in which those parts have been fused into a complete and
symmetrical whole. This, in an undertaking of such novelty and
magnitude, I have a right to expect, and I would moreover, add,
that if the reader has met with opinions adverse to his own, he
should remember, that his views are, perhaps, the same as those
which I too once held, and which I have abandoned, because, after
a wider range o