Book Description

Excerpt from The Four Civilizations of the World: An Historical Retrospect This volume was not meant as a mere epitome of historical facts. Its chief aim was to trace the rise of what is usually denominated Modern Civilization; or, as I have called it, the Fourth Civilization. Both these terms have reference to what is familiarly known as the popular or democratic element. Before seeking to indicate its first appearance in the world, I thought it judicious to glance cursorily at the earlier civilizations in Asia, Africa, and Europe, in order to show that under their sway mankind was divided into two classes, the upper and the lower, and that to the former was assigned the privilege of government, whilst on the latter was enjoined the duty of obedience. In none of these anterior civilizations can be traced any vestige of the popular element. In common with many profound thinkers, I date its origin to the doctrines of the Christian religion. Certain it is that as Christianity spread, the masses awoke from the lethargy of ages. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.