"And now I am coming, in this rapid sketch, to that period of activity and
change which Thorwald has described to you in its industrial features. In
portraying some of the evils of those days, arising from our almost
ineradicable selfishness, he was obliged to make his picture a somber one,
a necessity under which, happily, I am not placed. Looking at the times,
not as compared with the present era but with what had gone before, which
was the only comparison the people of that day could make, there was much
room for encouragement. It was, in truth, a bright day, whose beauty,
however, consisted not so much in the realization of happiness as in the
promise of still brighter days to come. Material prosperity abounded,
education flourished, and religion was beginning to creep down from men's
heads into their hearts. Wrongs were righted, justice enthroned, and
philanthropy sprang into being. Even while there was so much evil, and
while some men seemed to be trying all they could to keep back the
breaking dawn, the day was surely coming.
Pages:
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473