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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