Vlll PREFACE-DEDICATION 



in the dust smells of blood and iron. The 

 great annihilator has come and fear travels 

 with him. 



" Familiar facts/' you will say. Yes ; and not 

 unfamiliar the knowledge that with the coming 

 of civilization the grasses and the wild flowers 

 perish, the forest falls and its place is taken 

 by brambles, the mountains are blasted in the 

 search for minerals, the plains are broken by 

 the plow and the soil is gradually washed into 

 the rivers. Last of all, when the forests have 

 gone the rains cease falling, the streams dry up, 

 the ground parches and yields no life, and the 

 artificial desert the desert made by the tramp 

 of human feet begins to show itself, Yes ; 

 everyone must have cast a backward glance and 

 seen Nature's beauties beaten to ashes under 

 the successive marches of civilization. The 

 older portions of the earth show their desolation 

 plainly enough, and the ascending smoke and 

 dust of the ruin have even tainted the air and 

 dimmed the sunlight. 



Indeed, I am not speaking figuratively or 

 extravagantly. We have often heard of " Sunny 

 Italy " or the "clear light" of Egypt, but be- 

 lieve me there is no sunlight there compared 

 with that which falls upon the upper peaks of 



