Living as we do in the closing year of the twentieth century, enjoyingthe blessings of a social order at once so simple and logical that itseems but the triumph of common sense, it is no doubt difficult forthose whose studies have not been largely historical to realize thatthe present organization of society is, in its completeness, less thana century old. No historical fact is, however, better established thanthat till nearly the end of the nineteenth century it was the generalbelief that the ancient industrial system, with all its shocking socialconsequences, was destined to last, with possibly a little patching, tothe end of time. How strange and wellnigh incredible does it seem thatso prodigious a moral and material transformation as has taken placesince then could have been accomplished in so brief an interval! Thereadiness with which men accustom themselves, as matters of course, toimprovements in their condition, which, when anticipated, seemed toleave nothing more to be desired, could not be more strikinglyillustrated. What reflection could be better calculated to moderate theenthusiasm of reformers who count for their reward on the livelygratitude of future ages!
The object of this volume is to assist persons who, while desiring togain a more definite idea of the social contrasts between thenineteenth and twentieth centuries, are daunted by the formal aspect ofthe histories which treat the subject. Warned by a teacher's experiencethat learning is accounted a weariness to the flesh, the author hassought to alleviate the instructive quality of the book by casting itin the form of a romantic narrative, which he would be glad to fancynot wholly devoid of interest on its own account.
The reader, to whom modern social institutions and their underlyingprinciples are matters of course, may at times find Dr. Leete'sexplanations of them rather trite—but it must be remembered that toDr. Leete's guest they were not matters of course, and that this bookis written for the express purpose of inducing the reader to forget forthe nonce that they are so to him. One word more. The almost universaltheme of the writers and orators who have celebrated this bimillennialepoch has been the future rather than the past, not the advance thathas been made, but the progress that shall be made, ever onward andupward, till the race shall achieve its ineffable destiny. This iswell, wholly well, but it seems to me that nowhere can we find moresolid ground for daring anticipations of human development during thenext one thousand years, than by "Looking Backward" upon the progressof the last one hundred.
That this volume may be so fortunate as to find readers whose interestin the subject shall incline them to overlook the deficiencies of thetreatment is the hope in which the author steps aside and leaves Mr.Julian West to speak for himself.
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