HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1884 Copyright, 1884, 29273 All rights reserved. The Riverside Press, Cambridge: ACE UNI EDITORIAL NOTE. THE author of the Essays here brought together resided in Berlin from the time when his health broke down in 1871 until his death in 1879. In leaving New York he had expected to lead the life of a scholar, and to prosecute the study of Egyptian antiquities in their relation to the Bible, amid all the advantages which are offered in the libraries, museums, and lecture-rooms of the German capital. But his dominant interest in civil and religious liberty, and in all social movements which involved the discussion of fundamental principles, forbade him to be a recluse; and he responded, notwithstanding the prolonged physical sufferings by which he was hindered, to frequent calls for speeches and essays in different countries where exciting questions were under discussion, and where he believed that the voice of an American familiar with European affairs might help on the deliberations of the friends of human progress. Many of his addresses were widely distributed in different languages. Some of them have permanent value. In this belief, they are offered to those who love and honor the name of a fearless, eloquent, and enlightened |