INTRODUCTION 



Despite the many and wide differences so 

 obvious in every community — of age and sex, 

 of regional origins and historic groupings, of 

 occupations and interests, of experience and 

 intelligence, efficiency and originality, of edu- 

 cation, manners and morals, of wealth and 

 rank, and so on — each generation has more 

 in common than its individuals may realize. 

 Layman and cleric, pressman and prime 

 minister, message-boy and millionaire re- 

 spond not merely to their respective call- 

 bells, nor in common to the peal of general 

 rejoicing, to the tolling of sorrow; but through 

 their minds there vibrates also a certain uni- 

 son, a response, though it may be more or less 

 unconscious, to the key-notes of their age. 

 How this unison underlies the apparent 

 differences is easily seen on differing intel- 

 lectual levels. The boy in the train buys 

 Tit-Bits, but the man in the villa takes in the 

 new Britannica; the specialist concentrates 

 upon the "Proceedings" of his learned so- 

 ciety, while the university principal reviews 

 his "Calendar" of all the studies: so far they 

 seem widely apart. But, after all, their dif- 

 ferences are only of degree and not of kind; 



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