THOUGHTS FROM THE PROGRESSIVE ERA

THE MEANING OF MODERN LIFE 

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE REAL MEANING OF THE PROGRESSIVE ERA OF THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY  THE ERA TODAY'S #GOP HATES

WHERE #RADICALS, #CONSERVATIVES AND #LIBERALS ALL AGREED THAT THE FUTURE WAS OURS TO BUILD  (IN FACT THEY WERE ALL CLASSIC LIBERALS, EVEN #FABIAN SOCIALIST HG WELLS )


II THE DANGER
Problems To Be Met 
Theodore Roosevelt, LL.D., 
President of the United States. 

VII. THE BIRTH OF CONSCIENCE 
Morality of Nature 
Prince Peter Alexeyevich Kropotkin. 

XXX. #ANARCHISM
Thou Shalt Not Kill
Count Leo Tolstoi.

XL OUR COUNTRY 
The Making of the Nation 
Woodrow Wilson, LL.D., 
President of Princeton University

XXVIII. THE TOILERS 

Labor Organizations in America 

Carroll D. Wright, LL.D., 

President of Clark College; 

former Labor Commissioner of the United States. 

XX. THE CHILD 
The Beginnings of the Mind 
H. G. Wells, B.Sc. 

IT INCLUDED SCIENCE AND METAPHYSICS

III. THE BELIEFS 
Religion, Science, and Miracle 
Sir Oliver Lodge, LL.D., 
President University of Birmingham, England. 

IN SHORT IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF #MODERNISM 

THEN THIS SMALL VOLUME OF ESSAYS (904 PAGES)  IS THE BOOK TO READ  HERE IS ITS CONTENTS AND FORWARD TO WET YOUR APPETITE 

texts

The meaning of modern life as sought for and interpreted in a series of lectures and addresses by the leaders of modern thought and modern action;

by Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis), 1870-1942

Published 1907

Lecture 

I. THE OUTLOOK 
The Trend of the Century 
^ Seth Low, LL.D., 
Former President of Columbia University. 


III. THE BELIEFS 
Religion, Science, and Miracle 
Sir Oliver Lodge, LL.D., 
President University of Birmingham, England. 

IV. THE SUCCESSES 
Five American Contributions to Civilization 
Charles W. Eliot, LL.D., 
President of Harvard University. 

V. THE BEGINNINGS 
The Man of the Past 
E. Kay Robinson. 

VI. THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 
Its Chemical Creation by Science 
John Butler Burke, M.A., 
Cambridge University. 

VII. THE BIRTH OF CONSCIENCE 
Morality of Nature 

Prince Peter Alexievitch Kropotkin. 

VIII. THE SOUL IN BEASTS 
Growth of Modern Idea of Animals 
Countess E. Martinengo Cesaresco. 

IX. THE FAILURE OF EVOLUTION 
Evolution and Marriage 
Alfred R. Wallace, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S. 

X. THE LATEST KNOWLEDGE 
Scientific Investigation and Progress 
Ira Remsen, LL.D., 
President of Johns Hopkins University 

XL OUR COUNTRY 
The Making of the Nation 
Woodrow Wilson, LL.D., 
President of Princeton University. 

Xil. PATRIOTISM AND POLITICS 
The Duties of Good Citizenship 
His Eminence James, Cardinal Gibbons. 

XIII. AMBITION 
The Conditions of Success 
Max Nordau, M.D., '' 
President of Congress of Zionists. 

XIV. OUR PAST 
The Lesson of the Past 
Maurice Maeterlinck. 

XV. ART 
The What and the How in Art 
William Dean Howells, A.M., L.H.D.. 

XVI. ART AND MORALITY 
Their Essential Union for Culture 
Ferdinand Brunetiere, LL.D., 
Ex-President of L'Academie
 Francaise. 

XVII. WOMAN 
Marriage Customs and Their Moral Value 
Elizabeth Diack, 
William S. Lilly, M.A., J.P., 
Secretary of the Catholic Society of Great Britain. 

XVIII. UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE 
The Essential Equality of Man and Woman 
' Frances Cobbe, William K. Hill. 

XIX. SOCIETY 
The Role of Women in Society 
Lady Mary Ponsonby. 

XX. THE CHILD 
The Beginnings of the Mind 
H. G. Wells, B.Sc. 

XXI. LIFE'S INTERCOURSE 
Language as the Interpreter of Life 
Benjamin Ide Wheeler, LL.D., 
President of the University of California. 

XXII. THE BOY 
His Preparation for Manhood 
Daniel Coit Oilman, LL.D., 
Former President of Johns Hopkins University 
and of the Carnegie Institution. 

XXIII. HOW TO THINK 
Edward Everett Hale, LL.D., 
Chaplain of the United State^ Senate. 

XXIV. THE GIRL 
The Thing To Do 
Whitelaw Reid, LL.D., 
Chancellor of the University of the State of New 
York; Ambassador to England. 

XXV. MANHOOD 
Selection of One's Life-Work 
E. Benjamin Andrews, LL.D., 
President of the University of Nebraska. 

XXVI. THE COLLEGE GRADUATE 
• The College Man in Business 
Charles F. Thwing, LL.D.,
President of Western Reserve University. 

XXVII. SPORT 
The Mission of Sport and Outdoor Life 
Grover Cleveland, LL.D., 
Ex-President of the United States. 

XXVIII. THE TOILERS 
Labor Organizations in America 
Carroll D. Wright, LL.D., 
President of Clark College; former Labor Com- 
missioner of the United States. 

XXIX. THE SOIL 
Land and Its Ownership in the Past 
Alfred R. Wallace, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., 
President of the Land Naturalization Society. 

XXX. ANARCHISM 
Thou Shalt Not Kill 
Count Leo Tolstoi. 

XXXI. WAR 
A Demonstration of Its Futility 
David Starr Jordan, LL.D., 
President of Leland Stanford University; 

Carl Schurz, LL.D., 
Former United States Senator. 

XXXII. ARBITRATION 
A League of Peace 
Andrew Carnegie, LL.D., 
Lord Rector St. Andrews University. 

XXXIII. HISTORY 
Value oj History in the Formation oj Character 
Caroline Hazard, M.A., Litt.D., 
President of Wellesley College. 

XXXIV. THE POWER OF RELIGION 
Religion Still the Key to History 
Simeon Eben Baldwin, LL.D., 
Former President American Historical Associa- 
tion, Professor of Constitutional Law at Yale 
University. 

XXXV. CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION 
Social Culture in Education and Religion 
William T. Harris, LL.D., 
Former United States Commissioner of Education. 

XXXVI. THE MYSTERIES 
What Has Psychic Research Accomplished? 
William F. Barrett, F.R.S., J.P., 
Royal College, Dublin; former President of the 
Society for Psychical Research. 

XXXVII. HYPNOTISM 
Its History, Nature, and Use 
Harold M. Hays, M.D., 
Mount Sinai Hospital. 

XXXVIII. THE WILL 
Its Cultivation and Power 
Jules Finot, LL.D., 
Editor of the Revue. 

XXXIX. OUR HOPE 
The Unknown God 
Sir Henry Thompson, M.D. 

XL. OUR GOAL 
The Making of a National Spirit 
Edwin A. Alderman. LL.D., 
President of the University of Virginia. 

Education and Democracy 
George Harris, LL.D., 
President of Amherst College. 

FOREWORD 

WHEN, as sometimes happens, a tattered manuscript of medieval times is resurrected from amid forgotten rubbish heaps, scholars hesitate and argue as to the century of its  production. Accidental outward marks may guide them ; but as to the thought, the outlook, the opinions, there is little to discriminate one century from the next, or the next. Mankind did march onward, it is true, but with such slow step that they seemed often to he merely marking time without advance. The unsolved problems of one generation were still disputed by their children's children. 

Now, however, we move at railroad speed. The problems of to-day are not those of two decades ago and at such accelerating rate do we rush onward that soon a year may see changes such as once engrossed a century. Nay, so swiftly are we swept 
face to face with new issues that the dead past at times forgets to bury its dead. There are elderly gentlemen among us, held  by a comfortable income in some eddy of the current, who still  maintain that the only vital issue of to-day is England's attitude towards us in the Civil War or the fact that Japan began her modern career under our tutelage in 1834. 

To these pleasantly reminiscent gentlemen, charming after- 
dinner speakers, interesting relics of an extinct age, the present 
series of addresses can possess little interest, except for its ''new- 
ness," the radical spirit of its thought. But to more active brains, 
to the men who, in office, in factory, or in field, are "making the 
nation'' of to-day, it must have an obvious value. Each one 
of us is so busy in his own life that he cannot keep abreast of the 
lives of others. A well- known literary man, a twenty years^ 
graduate of my college, wrote me the other day for a copy of the 
college register. By mistake a clerk forwarded him instead a 
pamphlet containing the requisites for admission to the freshman 
class, whereon my literary friend wrote back to me, only half 
in jest, that despite my vigorous hint he must abandon any idea 
of retaking his college course, as he could not possibly pass the 
entrance examinations. 

The schools of to-day do not teach what was taught twenty 
years ago. Our colleges are wholly different institutions. The 
man who closed his scholastic education in the " eighties,^^
 perhaps even in the "nineties,''^ and went out into life, his brain 
awhirl with certain problems which he and his generation must 
some day solve perforce, that man is surprised now by stumbling, 
in his newspaper, on some casual reference to his special diffi- 
culty as a thing done with, dismissed, and half forgotten. He 
realizes for a moment that the age has somehow swept along with- 
out him, that progress has passed him by. Then, being a busy 
man, he turns again to his own personal problem, with perhaps 
only a half-formed wish that he had kept more nearly abreast 
of the times, a half -formed resolve that ''some day'' he will "read 
up'' again. 

To that man, and to every one among us who seeks to maintain
 the fulness of his heritage as " heir to all the ages, " is offered 
the present series of addresses. They give the most recent thought 
on each vital issue of the moment. They are written by men and 
women, the foremost leaders of the battle. Each name is a guarantee
 not only that the address is notable and worth the reading, 
but also that it is broadly thoughtful and deeply true. These 
are no hurried, superficial views, held to-day to be dismissed 
to-morrow ; they are the meditated opinions of the greatest 
specialists. Each address is worth incorporating into the 
reader's permanent body of thought, his outlook upon life. 

Several of the series have already received the stamp of public 
approval. They have been delivered as recent speeches, some 
before vast audiences of the people, others before learned societies, 
small bodies of the selected few. Surely, under such circum- 
stances if ever, under the criticism and approval of his fellow men, 
restrained from exaggeration by the sceptic's smile, stimulated 
to passion and power by the applause of all whose voiceless 
thoughts he has nobly interpreted in speech, then if ever does a 
speaker rise above his hearers, above himself, and become '^inspired." 
Essays of inspiration these, and needful indeed was 
it that their earnest words should not perish on the breeze that 
caught them, but should be here preserved in print and given 
permanent weight — heralded to a wider audience. Others of the 
series have been written specially for this occasion. Others again 
have appeared in some temporary printed shape, and are now 
given permanent form. These, wherever necessary, have been 
revised by the author, or under his supervision, for the present 
purpose. 

For there is a purpose, an ''increasing purpose," which 
runs through them all. They are liot a hap- hazard collection 
of famous speeches, chance thrown together. Their themes have 
been laboriously selected, their sequence studied, their expression 
placed in the hands of those best fitted for the task. Thus, though 
each author speaks upon a different subject, there is a carefully 
outlined harmony runs through the whole. Here is, in brief, 
not many books, but one book. Each address does but face an- 
other aspect of the same great riddle and gives a strong man's 
reading of its secret. Taken as a whole, the series may be found 
to answer better than any one volume could, better than any one 
man could, the question that faces each among us, the question
suggested by the title as to the meaning, the cause, and the issue 
of the life we live. 

A special introduction for this opening number of the series 
seems scarcely needful. Seth Low is so widely known for his 
long and honorable career, as President of Columbia University 
during its period of widest development, as Mayor of New York 
in days of peculiar stress and strain, as one of the foremost citizens 
of our land in every moment of need, that his voice must every- 
where receive attention, his views command respect. This 
address, delivered by him before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of 
Harvard, was published in the Atlantic Monthly and is here 
reproduced by the kind permission of the publishers, after being 
revised under Mr. Low^s supervision for its present use. It 
looks, as its title page suggests, over the general field of life, and 
indicates briefly the general character of some of the problems 
which the ensuing addresses must view at closer range. 

Perhaps he who will go step by step with our authors through 
each one's thought may before closing with the last find himself 
strengthened to give his own answer to the riddle. He may 
take a new attitude more confident, more self-assured towards 
life itself. 

C. F. H.