Great Men as Prophets of a New Era By Newell Dwight Hillis REBUILDING EUROPE IN THE FACE OF WORLD-WIDE BOLSHEVISM THE BLOT ON THE KAISER'S 'SCUTCHEON Cloth, GERMAN ATROCITIES Cloth, Each 12mo. cloth, STUDIES OF THE GREAT WAR What Each Nation Has at Stake LECTURES AND ORATIONS BY HENRY WARD BEECHER Collected by Newell Dwight Hillis THE MESSAGE OF DAVID SWING TO HIS GENERATION Compiled, with Introductory Memorial Address by Newell Dwight Hillis ALL THE YEAR ROUND Sermons for Church and Civic Celebrations THE BATTLE OF PRINCIPLES A Study of the Heroism and Eloquence of the Anti-Slavery Conflict THE CONTAGION OF CHARACTER Studies in Culture and Success THE FORTUNE OF THE REPUBLIC Studies, National and Patriotic, upon the America of To-day and To-morrow GREAT BOOKS AS LIFE-TEACHERS Studies of Character, Real and Ideal THE INVESTMENT OF INFLUENCE A Study of Social Sympathy and Service A MAN'S VALUE TO SOCIETY Studies in Self-Culture and Character FORETOKENS OF IMMORTALITY 12mo. cloth, HOW THE INNER LIGHT FAILED 18mo. cloth, RIGHT LIVING AS A FINE ART A Study of Channing's Symphony 12mo. boards, THE MASTER OF THE SCIENCE OF RIGHT LIVING 12mo. boards, ACROSS THE CONTINENT OF THE YEARS 16mo. old English boards, THE SCHOOL IN THE HOME Great Men as Prophets of a New Era By NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS _Author of "The Investment of Influence," "A Man's Value to Society," "Great Books as Life Teachers"_ NEW YORK CHICAGO Fleming H. Revell Company LONDON AND EDINBURGH Copyright, 1922, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street Foreword Great institutions are the shadows that great men cast across the centuries. A great law, a great liberty, a great art or tool or reform represents a great soul, organized, and made unconsciously immortal for all time. Explorers trace the Nile or Amazon back to the lake in which the river takes its rise. Historians trace institutions back to some hero from whose mind and heart the life-giving movement pours forth. When the scholar travels back to the far-off beginnings of jurisprudence, he comes to some Moses, toiling in Thebes, to some Solon in Athens, to some Justinian in Rome. Not otherwise the renaissance of painting, sculpture, and architecture begins with some Giotto, some Michael Angelo, some Christopher Wren. Scholars often speak of history as narratory or philosophical, but in the last analysis, history is biographical. These studies were prepared for the students of Plymouth Institute in the belief that biography is life's wisest teacher, and that the lives of great men are the most inspiring books to be found in our libraries. N. D. H. _Plymouth Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y._ Contents