iv PREFACE 



The motive to write this book was the resultant 

 of these convincing thoughts. 



A frequent traveller or a long-time sojourner in 

 a foreign country might be better qualified to 

 entertain friends at home with an account of his 

 journeyings than can one whose observations have 

 been limited as to territory and time. Yet, en- 

 couraged by the assurance that this mission 

 afforded me special advantages such as are not 

 experienced by an ordinary traveller, I determined 

 to make a book-story of it. 



Men, whose privilege it is to be living in these 

 days, are wont to discourse upon or to read about 

 the wonderful achievements of human knowledge. 

 Like the ancient Athenians, much of our time is 

 spent in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear 

 some new thing. Happily the present age has 

 that to tell that is of vastly more practical value 

 to the world than was all the boasted wisdom of 

 the Hellenists in the early years of the Christian 

 era. 



Not alone in the discovery of new material 

 forces and the skilful unfolding of long-hidden 

 secrets along the lines of the applied sciences, but 

 also in the increase in knowledge of the will and 



