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PREFACE
PREFACE
If the preface of a book be a plea to the reader, its force must lie in the aims of the author. In the following pages his main aim has been to be of service to somebody. That is a principle, which, amid the ravelment, perplexity, and entanglements of the world, always finds a pathway open. Such a principle is as an All-Seeing Eye, to which he who acknowledges it, is amenable, since it makes plain to him the devious, time-serving byways he should avoid. The writer has no interest, no taste, no t
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CHAPTER I. CONCERNING BYGONES PREFATORY
CHAPTER I. CONCERNING BYGONES PREFATORY
It was a saying of Dryden that "Anything, though ever so little, which a man speaks of himself, in my opinion, is still too much." This depends upon what a writer says. No man is required to give an opinion of himself. Others will do that much better, if he will wait But if a man may not speak of himself at all—reports of adventure, of personal endeavour, or of service, will be largely impossible. To relate is not to praise. The two things are quite distinct. Othello's imperishable narrative of
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CHAPTER II. PERSONAL INCIDENTS
CHAPTER II. PERSONAL INCIDENTS
These pages being autobiographic in their nature, something must be said under this head. I was born April 13, 1817, which readers complained I omitted to state in a former work* of a similar kind to this, probably thinking it a "Bygone" of no importance. It was in 1817 that Robert Owen informed mankind that "all the religions in the world were in error," which was taken to mean that they were wrong throughout; whereas all the "Prophet of the City of London Tavern" sought to prove was that all f
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CHAPTER III. OTHER INSTANCES
CHAPTER III. OTHER INSTANCES
My first public discussion in London was with Mr. Passmore Edwards—personally, the handsomest adversary I ever met. A mass of wavy black hair and pleasant expression made him picturesque. He was slim, alert, and fervid. The subject of debate was the famous delineation of the Bottle, by George Cruikshank, which I regarded as a libel on the wholesome virtue of Temperance. Exaggerations which inform and do not deceive, as American humour, or Swift's Lilliputians, Aztecs, and giants of Brobdingnag,
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CHAPTER IV. FIRST STEPS IN LITERATURE
CHAPTER IV. FIRST STEPS IN LITERATURE
Surely environment is the sister of heredity? Mr. Gladstone once said to me that "The longer he lived the more he thought of heredity." Next to heredity is environment—the moulder of mankind. My first passion was to be a prize-fighter. Nature, however, had not made me that way. I had no animosity of mind, and that form of contest was not to my taste. But prize-fighting was part of the miasma the Napoleonic war had diffused in England. It was in the air; it was the talk of the street "Hammer" Lan
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CHAPTER V. GEORGE ELIOT AND GEORGE HENRY LEWES
CHAPTER V. GEORGE ELIOT AND GEORGE HENRY LEWES
More than acquaintanceship, I had affectionate regard for George Henry Lewes and George Eliot. Lewes included me in the public list of writers and contributors to the Leader —the first recognition of the kind I received, and being accorded when I had only an outcast name, both in law and literature, I have never ceased to prize it. George Eliot's friendship, on other grounds I have had reason to value, and when I found a vacant place at the head of their graves which lie side by side, I bought i
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CHAPTER VI. WHEN BIRMINGHAM WAS A TOWN
CHAPTER VI. WHEN BIRMINGHAM WAS A TOWN
When Birmingham was a town it had a national reputation for Liberalism. At present I prefer to call myself a "townsman" rather than a "citizen." The old pride of owning to being a Birmingham man is merged into the admission of being born in Warwickshire. Some of the political scenes in its town days may be instructive to its present-day citizens. The famous Birmingham Political Union of 1832 was "hung up like a clean gun" on G. F. Muntz's suggestion and never taken down. Many years later a new U
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CHAPTER VII. THE TENTH OF APRIL, 1848—ITS INCREDIBILITIES
CHAPTER VII. THE TENTH OF APRIL, 1848—ITS INCREDIBILITIES
It is not easy to determine which of many historic incidents of interest should take precedence. The 10th of April, known as the day of Chartist Terror—still spoken of in hysterical accents—will do, as it shows the wild way with which sober, staid men can write history. I was out that day with the Chartists, and well know how different the facts were from what is believed to be the peril of the metropolis on that day. I have long regarded it as one of the "bygones" having instruction in them. Th
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CHAPTER VIII. THE CHARTISTS OF FICTION
CHAPTER VIII. THE CHARTISTS OF FICTION
The Chartists have made as much noise in the world as they knew how—yet to the generation of to-day they are ambiguous. They have had no historian. Carlyle went to look at them in prison, and defamed them with that bitterness and contempt he had for partisans who lacked the sense of submission to the dictates of those superior persons who knew what was best for everybody, of whose aspirations they knew nothing, and for whose needs they had no sympathy. Chartism, however, has won conspicuous trea
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CHAPTER IX. THE OLD POSTILLION
CHAPTER IX. THE OLD POSTILLION
Besides Church Chartists and Positivist Chartists, there were Tory Chartists, of whom I add an account, and a list of those among them who were paid in the days of their hired activity. But the business of this chapter is with the Old Postillion, the founder of the real Chartists, who taught them and who knew them all. Of course I mean Francis Place, who was always ready to mount and drive the coach of the leaders of the people. Though he took that modest and useful position, it was he who deter
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CHAPTER X. MEETING BREAKERS—LIST OF THOSE PAID FOR DOING IT
CHAPTER X. MEETING BREAKERS—LIST OF THOSE PAID FOR DOING IT
The enfranchisement of the working class, for which Place worked so unceasingly, could not come—in the ordinary course of things English—until the middle class had succeeded in their contest with their feudal masters. By the possession of the vote in 1832, the middle class became a rival power to the aristocracy; and that power would be greatly augmented if the middle class should favour the extension of the franchise to the working class, as many of them were naturally inclined to do. The Tory
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CHAPTER XI. TROUBLE WITH HER MAJESTY
CHAPTER XI. TROUBLE WITH HER MAJESTY
I. References are continually made in the Press to certain events recorded in this chapter founded upon statements made by myself, but lacking details and without the official substantiating documents. The original summonses and other legal instruments were preserved, and copies of them are given herein. Reports only would be incredible to the new generation, and it is necessary to publish them to give authenticity to the narrative of what really took place. It seems better to say "Trouble with
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CHAPTER XII. UNFORESEEN QUALITIES IN PUBLIC MEN
CHAPTER XII. UNFORESEEN QUALITIES IN PUBLIC MEN
I. Without noticing unexpected qualities now and then, and remembering them, many are needlessly discouraged in purposes of improvement. The two Bramwells, the judge and his brother Frederick, were both men of great parts. This narrative relates to the Judge, who could do mischief at will—and did it. It was Baron Bramwell who protected the bribers of Berwick. It is to judges of his political proclivities, to whom bribers look still for countenance. Young men of to-day enjoy advantages unknown to
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CHAPTER XIII. THE COBDEN SCHOOL
CHAPTER XIII. THE COBDEN SCHOOL
There never was a "Manchester School," though a volume has been published upon it. It never had professor nor special tenets. Manchester stands for Free Trade and nothing more. Its three great leaders—Thomas Thomasson, Richard Cobden, and John Bright—were also for Peace, Retrenchment, and Reform, for the extension of the suffrage, and the repeal of the taxes upon knowledge, because they were essential to the popularity and maintenance of Free Trade. But Manchester took no special interest, save
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CHAPTER XIV. HARRIET MARTINEAU, THE DEAF GIRL OF NORWICH
CHAPTER XIV. HARRIET MARTINEAU, THE DEAF GIRL OF NORWICH
There is a romance in the title of this chapter, should some one arise to write it It was Lord Brougham who first spoke of Harriet Martineau as the "deaf girl of Norwich," which does more than any other words written about her to suggest a great disadvantage under which she accomplished more than any other woman ever attempted. The phrase quoted occurs in one of those letters which show that kindly feeling and genuine interest in progress was natural to Lord Brougham, though obscured by the turb
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CHAPTER XV. HARRIET MARTIN EAU—FURTHER INCIDENTS IN HER SINGULAR CAREER
CHAPTER XV. HARRIET MARTIN EAU—FURTHER INCIDENTS IN HER SINGULAR CAREER
If the reader is curious to know what really were the opinions of these two distinguished offenders (H. Martineau and H. G. Atkinson), I recite them. In the book Dr. Martineau reviewed, Mr. Atkinson said:— "I am far from being an Atheist I do not say there is no God, but that it is extravagant and irreverent to imagine that cause a Person." Miss Martineau herself writes in the same series of letters:— "There is no theory of a God, of an author of Nature, of an origin of the universe, which is no
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CHAPTER XVI. THE THREE NEWMANS
CHAPTER XVI. THE THREE NEWMANS
In one of the last conversations I had the pleasure to hold with Mr. Gladstone, I referred to the "three Newmans" and their divergent careers. He said he never knew there were "three." He knew John Henry, the Cardinal (as he afterwards became), at Oxford. He knew Francis William there, who had repute for great attainments, retirement of manner, and high character; but had never heard there was a third brother, and was much interested in what I had to tell him. The articles of Charles Newman I pu
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CHAPTER XVII. MAZZINI IN ENGLAND-INCIDENTS IN HIS CAREER
CHAPTER XVII. MAZZINI IN ENGLAND-INCIDENTS IN HIS CAREER
Giuseppe Mazzini, whom Englishmen know as Joseph Mazzini, was born in Genoa, June 22, 1805, and died in Pisa, March 10, 1872. He spent the greater part of forty years of his marvellous life in London. * Some incidents of his English career, known to me, may increase or confirm the public impression of him. Never strong from youth, abstemious, oft from privation, and always from principle, he was as thin as Dumas describes Richelieu. Arbitrary imprisonment, which twice befel him, and many years o
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CHAPTER XVIII. MAZZINI THE CONSPIRATOR
CHAPTER XVIII. MAZZINI THE CONSPIRATOR
There have been many conspirators, but Mazzini appears to have been the greatest of them all. In one sense, every leader of a forlorn hope is a conspirator. Prevision, calculation of resources, plans of campaign—mostly of an underground kind—are necessary to conspiracy. The struggles of Garrison and Wendell Phillips for the rescue and sustentation of fugitive slaves are well-known instances of underground conspiracy. There the violence of the slave-owner made conspiracy inevitable. In despotic c
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CHAPTER XIX. GARIBALDI—THE SOLDIER OF LIBERTY
CHAPTER XIX. GARIBALDI—THE SOLDIER OF LIBERTY
Dining one day (June 29, 1896) at Mr. Herbert Spencer's, thirty years after Garibaldi left England, Professor Masson, who was a guest of Mr. Spencer, told me that Garibaldi said to Sir James Stansfeld that "the person whom he was most interested in seeing in England was myself." This Garibaldi said at a reception given by Mr. Stansfeld to meet the General—as we had then begun to call him. I was one of the party; but Mr. Stansfeld did not mention the remark to me, and I never heard of it until Pr
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CHAPTER XX. THE STORY OF THE BRITISH LEGION—NEVER BEFORE TOLD
CHAPTER XX. THE STORY OF THE BRITISH LEGION—NEVER BEFORE TOLD
General de Lacy Evans is no longer with us, or he might give us an instructive account of the uncertainty and difficulty of discipline in a patriotic legion which volunteers its services without intelligently intending obedience. When I became Acting Secretary for sending out the British Legion to Garibaldi, I found no one with any relevant experience who knew what to expect or what to advise. Those likely to be in command were ready to exercise authority, but those who were to serve under them
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CHAPTER XXI. JOHN STUART MILL, TEACHER OF THE PEOPLE
CHAPTER XXI. JOHN STUART MILL, TEACHER OF THE PEOPLE
One reason for commencing with the remark that John Stuart Mill was born on May 20, 1806, at No. 13, Rodney Street, Islington, London, is to notify the coincidence that Gladstone, another man of contemporaneous distinction, was born in Rodney Street, Liverpool, three years later. Rodney Street, London, where Mill was born, was a small, narrow, second-rate, odd, out-of-the-way suburban thoroughfare. But in those days Islington had the characteristics of a rural retreat A little above this Rodney
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(continued)
(continued)
Mill was so entirely serious in his pursuit of truth, and entirely convinced of the advantages of its publicity, that he readily risked conventional consequences on that account. He held it to be desirable that those who had important convictions, should be free to make them known, and even be encouraged to do so. In thinking this he was in no way compromised by, nor had he any complicity with, the convictions of others. But this did not prevent him being made answerable for them, as in the case
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CHAPTER XXIII. ABOUT MR. GLADSTONE
CHAPTER XXIII. ABOUT MR. GLADSTONE
Mr. Gladstone's career will be the wonder of other generations, as it has been the astonishment of this. Mr. Morley's monumental "Life" of him will long be remembered as the greatest of all contributions to the education of the British politician. It is a life of Parliament as well as of a person. Those who remember how Carpenter's "Political Text Book" was welcomed will know how much more this will be valued. Never before was a biography founded on material so colossal. Only one man was thought
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CHAPTER XXIV. CONVERSATIONS WITH MR. GLADSTONE
CHAPTER XXIV. CONVERSATIONS WITH MR. GLADSTONE
Were I to edit a new journal again I should call it Open Thought . I know no characteristic of man so wise, so useful, so full of promise of progress as this. The great volume of Nature, of Man and of Society opens a new page every day, and Mr. Gladstone read it. It was this which gave him that richness of information in which he excited the admiration of all who conversed with him. Were Plutarch at hand to write Historical Parallels of famous men of our time, he might compare Voltaire and Glads
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CHAPTER XXV. HERBERT SPENCER, THE THINKER
CHAPTER XXV. HERBERT SPENCER, THE THINKER
A star of the first magnitude went out of the firmament of original thought by the death of Herbert Spencer. His was the most distinctive personality that remained with us after the death of Mr. Gladstone. Spencer was as great in the kingdom of science as Mr. Gladstone was in that of politics and ecclesiasticism. Men have to go back to Aristotle to find Spencer's compeer in range of thought, and to Gibbon for a parallel to his protracted persistence in accomplishing his great design of creating
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CHAPTER XXVI. SINGULAR CAREER OF MR. DISRAELI
CHAPTER XXVI. SINGULAR CAREER OF MR. DISRAELI
I prefer the picturesque name of Disraeli which he contrived out of the tribal designation of "D'Israeli." Had it been possible he would have transmuted Benjamin into a Gentile name. Disraeli is far preferable to the sickly title of Beaconsfield, by which association he sought to be taken as the Burke of the Tories, for which his genius was too thin. Disraeli is a fossilised bygone to this generation; though in the political arena he was the most glittering performer of his day. Men admired him
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I
I
Political readers will long remember the name of Joseph Cowen, who won in a single night the reputation of a national orator. All at once he achieved that distinction in an assembly where few attain it. After a time he retired to his tent and never more emerged from it. The occasion of his first speech in Parliament was the introduction of the Bill for converting the Queen into an Empress. Queen was a wholesome monarchical name, which implied in England supremacy under the law; while Empress, al
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II
II
But the act which most wounded him occurred at the Elswick works of Lord Armstrong. Mr. Cowen was returning one day in his carriage at a time of political excitement. Some of the crowd threw mud upon his coach, and, if I remember rightly, broke the windows. Just before, when the workmen were on strike, they went to Mr. Cowen—as all workmen in difficulties did. He found they did not know their own case, nor how to put it He employed legal aid to look into the whole matter and make a statement of
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CHAPTER XXIX. THE PERIL OF SCRUPLES
CHAPTER XXIX. THE PERIL OF SCRUPLES
An outlaw is seldom considered a pleasant person, and naturally occupies a dubious place in public estimation. His position is worse than that of an exile, who, if once allowed to return, is reinstated in society, but the outlaw of opinion is never pardoned. Where justice turns upon the hinge of the oath, there is no redress for him who has scruples as to taking it. He who has scruples exposes himself to unpleasant comments. He is counted a sort of fastidious crank. All the while it is known tha
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CHAPTER XXX. TAKING SIDES
CHAPTER XXX. TAKING SIDES
Every one of manly mind, every person of thought and determination, takes sides upon important questions. Those who say they are indifferent which side prevails, are indifferent whether good or evil comes uppermost. Those who are afraid to choose a side, command only the cold respect accorded to cowardice. Those who sit upon a fence to see which side is likely to prevail before they jump down, are not seeking the success of a principle, but their own interests. In most questions—as in business—t
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CHAPTER XXXI. THINGS WHICH WENT AS THEY WOULD
CHAPTER XXXI. THINGS WHICH WENT AS THEY WOULD
I commence with Judge Hughes' first candidature. There are cases in which gratitude is submerged by prejudice, even among the cultivated classes. There was Thomas Hughes, whose statue has been deservedly erected in Rugby. Three years before he became a member of Parliament I told him he might enter the House were he so minded. And when opportunity arose I was able to confirm my assurance. One Friday afternoon in 1865 some Lambeth politicians of the middle and working classes, whom Bernal Osborne
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CHAPTER XXXII. STORY OF THE LAMBETH PALACE GROUNDS
CHAPTER XXXII. STORY OF THE LAMBETH PALACE GROUNDS
Seed sown upon the waters, we are told, may bring forth fruit after many days. This chapter tells the story of seed sown on very stony soil, which brought forth fruit twenty-five years later. In 1878, Mr. George Anderson, an eminent consulting gas engineer, in whom business had not abated human sympathy, passed every morning on his way to his chambers in Westminster, by the Lambeth Palace grounds. He was struck by the contrast of the spacious and idle acres adjoining the Palace and the narrow, d
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CHAPTER XXXIII. SOCIAL WONDERS ACROSS THE WATER
CHAPTER XXXIII. SOCIAL WONDERS ACROSS THE WATER
Being several times in France, twice in America and Canada, thrice in Italy and as many times in Holland, under circumstances which brought me into relation with representative people, enabled me to become acquainted with the ways of persons of other countries than my own. There I met great orators, poets, statesmen, philosophers, and great preachers of whom I had read—but whom to know was a greater inspiration. Thus I learned the art of not being surprised, and of regarding strangeness as a cur
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CHAPTER XXXIV. THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH AT SEA
CHAPTER XXXIV. THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH AT SEA
The voyage out to America described in the last chapter included an instance of the extraordinary behaviour of the Established Church at sea, which deserves special mention as it is still repeated. There is an offensive rule on board ships that the service on Sunday shall be that of the Church of England, and that the preacher selected shall be of that persuasion. Several of the twelve ministers of religion among the passengers of the Bothnia in 1879 were distinguished preachers, whereas the cle
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CHAPTER XXXV. ADVENTURES IN THE STREETS
CHAPTER XXXV. ADVENTURES IN THE STREETS
Were I persuaded, as many are, that each person is a subject of Providential care, I might count myself as one of the well-favoured. I should do so, did it not demand unseemly egotism to believe the Supreme Master of all the worlds of the Universe gave a portion of His eternal time to personally guide my unimportant footsteps, or snatch me from harm, which might befall me on doing my duty, or when I inadvertently, negligently, or ignorantly put myself in the way of disaster. Whatever may be the
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CHAPTER XXXVI. LIMPING THRIFT
CHAPTER XXXVI. LIMPING THRIFT
Thrift is so excellent a thing—is so much praised by moralists, so much commended by advisers of the people, and is of so much value to the poor who practise it—that it is strange to see it retarded by the caprices of those who take credit and receive it, for promoting the necessary virtues. Insurance societies continue to recommend themselves by praising prudence and forethought which provides for the future. Everybody knows that those who do not live within their income live upon others who tr
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CHAPTER XXXVII. MISTRUST OF MODERATION
CHAPTER XXXVII. MISTRUST OF MODERATION
Temperance is restraint in use. Abstinence is entire avoidance, which is the wise policy of those who lack the strength of temperance. How necessary entire abstinence is to many, I well know. When the drink passion sets in, it leads to an open grave. The drinker sees it, and knows it, and, with open eyes walks into it. He who realises the danger, would, as Charles Lamb said— For such there is no salvation save entire abstinence. Thousands might have been saved but for the fanaticism of abstinenc
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CHAPTER XXXVIII. PENAL CHRISTIANITY
CHAPTER XXXVIII. PENAL CHRISTIANITY
Predatory Christianity would not be far from the mark. Christianity is of the nature of a penal settlement where independent-minded persons are made to expiate the sin of thinking for themselves. There can be no real goodwill in any one who is not for justice and equality. No cause can command respect, or can claim a hearing from others which is not based on absolute fairness. Many well-meaning Christians never inquire whether the great cause they have at heart fulfils this condition. In the pas
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CHAPTER XXXIX. TWO SUNDAYS
CHAPTER XXXIX. TWO SUNDAYS
None of our Sunday Societies or Sunday Leagues seem ever to have thought of the advantages of advocating as I have long done—two Sundays—a Devotional Sunday and a Secular Sunday. The advocacy of two Sundays would put an end to the fear or pretence that anybody wants to destroy the one we have. The Policy of a Second Sunday is a necessity. It would put an end to the belief that the working classes are mad, and not content with working six days want to work on the seventh. It would preserve the pr
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CHAPTER XL. BYWAYS OF LIBERTY
CHAPTER XL. BYWAYS OF LIBERTY
It is worth while recording the curious, not to say ignominious, ways from which justice to new thought has emerged. In the 5 and 6 Victoriæ, cap. 38, 1842, the trial of eighteen offences were removed from the jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace in Quarter Sessions and transferred to the Assize Court. Persons accused were often subject to magisterial intolerance, ignorance and offensiveness. Among the transferred offences were forgery, bigamy, abductions of women. "Blasphemy and offences again
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CHAPTER XLI. LAWYERS' LICENCE
CHAPTER XLI. LAWYERS' LICENCE
The extraordinary legal licence of disordered and offensive imputation has been limited since 1842. In those days, officers of the law, who always professed high regard for morality and truth, had no sense of either, when they were drawing up theological indictments. In the affair at Cheltenham I delivered a lecture on Home Colonies (a proposal similar to the Garden Cities of to-day), to which nobody objects now. As I always held that discussion was the right of the audience, as self-defensive a
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CHAPTER XLII. CHRISTIAN DAYS
CHAPTER XLII. CHRISTIAN DAYS
Many religious thinkers, ecclesiastical and Nonconformist, whose friendship I value, will expect from me in these autobiographic papers some account of the origin of opinions in which they have been interested. Sermons, speeches, pamphlets, even books have been devoted to criticism of my heresies. It is due to those who have taken so much trouble about me that I should explain, not what the opinions were—that would be irrelevant here—but how I came by them. That may be worth recounting, and to s
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CHAPTER XLIII. NEW CONVICTIONS WHICH CAME UNSOUGHT
CHAPTER XLIII. NEW CONVICTIONS WHICH CAME UNSOUGHT
These singular instances of bygone experience of a religious student, of which few similar have ever been given, must be suggestive—perhaps instructive—to religious teachers in church and chapel, engaged in inculcating their views. How much happier had been my life had there then existed that tolerance of social effort, that regard of social needs, that consideration of individual aspiration, which happily now prevail. This chapter will conclude what Herbert Spencer would call the "natural histo
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CHAPTER XLIV. DIFFICULTY OF KNOWING MEN
CHAPTER XLIV. DIFFICULTY OF KNOWING MEN
Events of the mind as well as of travel may be worth remembering. Columbus, high on a peak of Darien, saw an unexpected sight—never to be forgotten. Of another kind, as far as surprise was concerned, though infinitely less important in other respects, was my first reading of a passage of Pascal, which more than any other revealed to me a new world of human life. The passage was the well-known exclamation:— "What an enigma is man? What a strange, chaotic and contradictory being? Judge of all thin
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CHAPTER XLV. IDEAS FOR THE YOUNG
CHAPTER XLV. IDEAS FOR THE YOUNG
There are people who live many years and never grow old. We call them "young patriarchs." Limit not the golden dreams of youth, which, however, would be none the worse for a touch of the patriarch in them. There is sense in youth, and it will assimilate the experience of age if displayed before rather than thrust upon it. Youth should be incited to think for itself, and to select from the wisdom it finds in the world. Then the question comes—what is safe to take? That is the time for words of su
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CHAPTER XLVI. EXPERIENCES ON THE WARPATH
CHAPTER XLVI. EXPERIENCES ON THE WARPATH
The late Archbishop of Canterbury spoke derisively of agitators. The Rev. Stewart Headlam asked whether "Paul, and even our Lord Himself, were not agitators." Mr. Headlam might have asked, where would the Archbishop be but for that superb, irrepressible agitator Luther? The agitator is a public advocate who speaks when others are silent. Mr. C. D. Collet, of whom I here write, was an agitator who understood his business. Agitation for the public welfare is a feature of civilisation. In a despoti
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CHAPTER XLVII. LOOKING BACKWARDS
CHAPTER XLVII. LOOKING BACKWARDS
It seems to me that I cannot more appropriately conclude these chapters of bygone events within my own experience, than by a summary of those of the past condition of industry which suggest a tone of manly cheerfulness and confidence in the future, not yet common among the people. Changes of condition are not estimated as they pass, and when they have passed, many never look back to calculate their magnificence or insignificance. This chapter is an attempt to show the change of the environment o
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