Copyright, 1900, by the Author.

TO THE MEMORY
OF
JAMES LICK

who, by his munificent bequests to

SCIENCE, INDUSTRY, CHARITY AND EDUCATION

has indicated in the manner of their
disposal, that humanity, wisdom, and enlightenment, arising
out of the convictions of modern thought, which holds these,
his beneficiaries to be the noblest and divinest pursuits of
mankind, and the only possible agencies in the betterment of
society.

This Book is reverently inscribed

By the Author.

Any one advanced in life who has enjoyed opportunitiesof knowledge derived from association with men andbooks, and who has an inclination to reach the bottomof things by his own independent thought, is apt toarrive at conclusions regarding the world and societyvery different from those which had been early impressedupon him by his superiors and teachers. From a suspicion,at first reluctantly accepted, but finally confirmedbeyond a doubt, he finds that he has been deceived inmany things. The discovery arouses no indignationbecause he knows that his early instructors were in mostcases the victims of misdirection themselves, and aretherefore not to be held accountable for the promulgationof errors which they had mistaken for truths. His self-emancipationhas so filled his mind with a better hopefor the future of the world, and a higher opinion of hisfellow men, that the delight and satisfaction of the discovery[Pg 6]overcomes every sentiment except pity for thosewho had been leading him astray, and if the feeling ofcondemnation or censure comes to his mind at all, it isonly for those few who live and thrive upon those delusionshaving their origin in the past, and whose chief purposein life is to keep them alive and to bolster them upamong the multitude.

In the new light that has come to him, the world andsociety have been transformed to his view and understanding.He discovers goodness in many places where histeachers had denied its existence, and its definition hasbecome so changed, under his broader vision, thathumanity seems teeming with it everywhere, and is ruledby it, and those departments of it most affecting societyhe observes to be increasing, and that instead of like anexotic in uncongenial soil, hard to be retained by mankind,it is perpetuated and cherished by natural humanimpulses. He finds, also, that the sum of badness in theworld has been greatly exaggerated by his teachers, andthat those branches of it most interfering with the welfareof society are gradually being lessened, and are likelyto work out their extinction by the penalties of publicdisapproval. These convictions make the world seem a...