he heavens and the earth more clearly, and so
made of them a more friendly home. Just as, too, there come times of
momentous progress in the physical world; the establishment of the
Copernican theory, the discovery of a new continent, the mastering of
electricity,--so there are periods of swift advance and discovery in
the spiritual life, and such a birth-hour, of travail and of joy, comes
in our own day.

In this hasty panorama of the past, then, the effort has been to give
real history. But every student knows how transcendent and impossible
a thing it is to recall in its entirety and fullness any phase of the
past. Even the specialist can but partially open a limited province.
So with what confidence can one with no pretensions to original
scholarship, however he may use the work of deeper students, express
his opinion on any special point in a survey of thirty centuries? If,
accordingly, any competent critic shall trouble himself to convict the
present writer of error: "This view of Epictetus confuses the earlier
and the later Stoics;" or "This account of the Hebrew prophets lacks
the latest fruit of research,"--or, other like defect,--acknowledgment
of such error as quite possible may be freely made in advance. But, in
our bird's-eye view of many centuries, any fault of detail will not be
so serious as it would be if there were here attempted a chain of
proofs, a formal induction, to establish from sure premises a safe
conclusion. Only of a subordinate importance is the detail of this
history. We say only: in this way, or some way like this, has been the
ascent. The contribution of the Stoic was about so and so; the Hebrew
prophet helped somewhat thus and thus. But the ultimate, the essential
fact we reach in the Ideal of To-day. Here we are on firm ground. The
law we acknowledge, the light we follow,--these may be expressed with
entire clearness and confidence. The test they invite is present
experiment. Nothing vital shall be staked on far-away history or
debatable metaphysics.

In the fivefold division of the book, "Our Spiritual Ancestry" is a
bird's-eye view of the main line of advance, which culminates in "The
Ideal of To-Day." A more leisurely retrospect of certain historical
passages is given in "A Traveler's Note-Book;" thoughts on the present
aspect are grouped under "Glimpses;" and "Daily Bread" introduces a
homely and familiar treatment.

I

OUR SPIRITUAL ANCESTRY

The ideas a