"This," I said, "is certainly a work in which I am most anxious to
engage, just as soon as I can qualify myself for the task, and I
shall certainly need all the help I can get. I do indeed want the
people of America, the great republic of the outer world, to learn
that the highest ideals of their revolutionary sires, are not mere
'glittering generalities,' but realities, and have been carried out
to their logical culmination in this country with the most beneficent
results to humanity. To this end, that they should not only learn
this most significant fact, but that they should have laid before
them a clear and concise statement of the methods that have been used
so successfully to produce these results and evolve this wonderful
Altrurian civilization. I most keenly realize that it is my duty
to accomplish this work for humanity, but when I think of the vast
libraries, written in a strange tongue, that must not only be read but
studied, in order to trace the operation of the evolutionary forces
which have produced these grand results, I am overwhelmed at the
contemplation of the magnitude of the task set before me."
"Do not be alarmed," said Oqua, "at the multitudinous array of
ponderous volumes. These records are only preserved for reference. The
scholars of every age have been over them, with the special object in
view of condensing and simplifying their lessons, for the benefit of
students who could not afford to neglect other studies of the most
pressing importance, in order to familiarize themselves with the
details of so many thousands of years of history. Hence the lessons of
permanent value, such for instance as relate to the social, economic
and ethical progress of the people, have been carefully arranged in
the form of attractive condensations, with marginal references to the
authorities. With these lessons from History, designed for the use of
the pupils in our schools, the students can rapidly trace every step in
our progress, from the original half-civilized condition down to the
present time, and if there is any matter which they wish to examine
more closely, the marginal references will direct them to volume and
page. So, my dear Nequa, you will find that the greater part of your
work which looks so overwhelming, is ready made for you, in our School
Concordances. Another thing will help you; these lessons of progress
have all been treated in the shape of allegories and historical
romances, in order to make them attractive. Perhaps you could not
transmit them to your own people in a better shape, than by translating
some of the works that bear directly upon what they need to understand.
These works trace in a most attractive form the operation of every
evolutionary force which has contributed to our Altrurian civilization
as you find it to-day."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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