the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.

What though, in his old age, he momentarily lost faith in his own
prediction, as prophets in their hours of depression and doubt
generally do; the words had remained eternal testimony to the seership
of a poet's heart, the insight that is given to faith.

I was still in the library when some hours later Dr. Leete sought me
there. "Edith told me of her idea," he said, "and I thought it an
excellent one. I had a little curiosity what writer you would first
turn to. Ah, Dickens! You admired him, then! That is where we moderns
agree with you. Judged by our standards, he overtops all the writers of
his age, not because his literary genius was highest, but because his
great heart beat for the poor, because he made the cause of the victims
of society his own, and devoted his pen to exposing its cruelties and
shams. No man of his time did so much as he to turn men's minds to the
wrong and wretchedness of the old order of things, and open their eyes
to the necessity of the great change that was coming, although he
himself did not clearly foresee it."

Chapter 14

A heavy rainstorm came up during the day, and I had concluded that the
condition of the streets would be such that my hosts would have to give
up the idea of going out to dinner, although the dining-hall I had
understood to be quite near. I was much surprised when at the dinner
hour the ladies appeared prepared to go out, but without either rubbers
or umbrellas.

The mystery was explained when we found ourselves on the street, for a
continuous waterproof covering had been let down so as to inclose the
sidewalk and turn it into a well lighted and perfectly dry corridor,
which was filled with a stream of ladies and gentlemen dressed for
dinner. At the comers the entire open space was similarly roofed in.
Edith Leete, with whom I walked, seemed much interested in learning
what appeared to be entirely new to her, that in the stormy weather the
streets of the Boston of my day had been impassable, except to persons
protected by umbrellas, boots, and heavy clothing. "Were sidewalk
coverings not used at all?" she asked. They were used, I explained, but
in a scattered and utterly unsystematic way, being private enterprises.
She said to me that at the present time all the streets were provided
against inclement weather in the manner I saw, the apparatus being
ro