Preface

The first of these articles was published about seven years ago – to be precise, it appeared in 1898, in the December number of the New Ireland Review. The remaining five of the series of six articles were also published in the same review – the last, The Battle of Two Civilizations, appeared in August, 1900. On the 1st of September of that year the LEADER was started. The articles contain the reflections, the arguments, and register the convictions that led up to the starting of the LEADER. They are republished practically as they were written, and no effort has been made to bring them up to date.

They are to be read as having been published prior to the starting of the LEADER, and as efforts to grapple with and diagnose the situation that then – existed. The last article was republished in a volume containing a collection of essays by various writers. It was revised for that purpose, and part was omitted, and a slight addition made. The article now appears in its original form plus the later addition. I have added nothing to the articles, and the total amount of the subtractions would equal only about four or five lines.

The author believes that the republication is opportune at the present time, and that the volume will be welcomed by the serious and sincere thinkers who are the inspiration and the mainstay of all intellectual and moral movements.

D. P. M.