Beacon Lights of History, Volume 14: The New Era / A Supplementary Volume, by Recent Writers, as Set Forth in the Preface and Table of Contents

E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
LORD'S LECTURES
AUTHOR OF THE OLD ROMAN WORLD, MODERN EUROPE, ETC., ETC.
A SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUME, BY RECENT WRITERS, AS SET FORTH IN THE PREFACE AND TABLE OF CONTENTS.
In preparing the new edition of Dr. Lord's great work, it has been thought desirable to do what the venerable author's death in 1894 did not permit him to accomplish, and add a volume summarizing certain broad aspects of achievement in the last fifty years. It were manifestly impossible to cover in any single volume--except in the dry, cyclopaedic style of chronicling multitudinous facts, so different from the vivid, personal method of Dr. Lord--all the growths of the wonderful period just closed. The only practicable way has been to follow our author's principle of portraying selected historic forces ,--to take, as representative or typical of the various departments, certain great characters whose services have signalized them as Beacon Lights along the path of progress, and to secure adequate portrayal of these by men known to be competent for interesting exposition of the several themes.
Thus the volume opens with a paper on Richard Wagner: Modern Music, by Henry T. Finck, the musical critic of the New York Evening Post , and author of various works on music, travel, etc.; and then follow in order these: John Ruskin: Modern Art, by G. Mercer Adam, author of A Précis of English History, recently editor of the Self-Culture Magazine and of the Werner Supplements to the Encyclopaedia Britannica; Herbert Spencer: The Evolutionary Philosophy, and Charles Darwin: His Place in Modern Science, both by Mayo W. Hazeltine, literary editor of the New York Sun , whose book reviews over the signature M.W.H. have for years made the Sun's book-page notable; John Ericsson: Navies of War and Commerce, by Prof. W.F. Durand, of the School of Marine Engineering and the Mechanic Arts in Cornell University; Li Hung Chang: The Far East, by Dr. William A. P. Martin, the distinguished missionary, diplomat, and author, recently president of the Imperial University, Peking, China; David Livingstone: African Exploration, by Cyrus C. Adams, geographical and historical expert, and a member of the editorial staff of the New York Sun ; Sir Austen H. Layard: Modern Archaeology, by Rev. William Hayes Ward, D.D., editor of The Independent , New York, himself eminent in Oriental exploration and decipherment; Michael Faraday: Electricity and Magnetism, by Prof. Edwin J. Houston of Philadelphia, an accepted authority in electrical engineering; and, Rudolf Virchow: Modern Medicine and Surgery, by Dr. Frank P. Foster, physician, author, and editor of the New York Medical Journal .