We are probably in near neighborhood to inventions and improvements soon to eclipse all foregone wonders. The greatest proficient in letters, art, or science, is merely a flugelman in the army of knowledge, and if called to proclaim the miracle of to-day, doubtless he will be further summoned to announce the reward of nocturnal marchings, by the news of a greater miracle, to-morrow. Every year finds us a new stadium in advance; but it is only at great culminating eras that civilization seems to become aware of the actual speed of its reformatory motion. Victory always remains with the new spirit, and freedom, like truth, never can become old; they are in God, and thereby the final battle and widest conquest must eventually be secured. Not one great campaign was ever lost to humanity, nor ever will be. Every historical nation bears in its bosom the germs of more prolific and ennobling fruits, which their successors will employ to subdue and adorn hardier and richer fields. The scenery changes with each act performed, but the plot goes steadily forward. Providence is making the tour of the world, and every new phase of civilization is an additional proof of a divinely identical plan. As the age to come shall lapse continuously upon the tombs of empires and generations of mankind, we believe that this era will not descend undistinguished among the centuries past. The present march of the human mind, and the exalted ends it has in view, are so remarkable, that the period of our existence will ever be distinguished in the esteem of those who will come after us. From the past and the present a glorious future must succeed. We may most reasonably hope that the age now transpiring, the age we have seen born, and which will see us buried, will transmit to our children and their remotest posterity, increasing virtues, and perpetually lessened wrongs. Such, in fine, is the profound and joyous conviction of the author, and to elucidate which has been consecrated a considerable portion of what leisure he has been able to command during the past seven years. Herein will not be found one local allusion, or envenomed word, designed to wound any sect or section. But, with one absorbing purpose, he has pressed steadily forward, laying all available resources under contribution, to show how each advancing epoch recasts the history of the past, and foretokens the future, in contemplating it from its own point of view. Let us fondly hope that, on the side of the globe opposite to the first Ararat, shall a second be reached by the Ark of conservative civilization, whereon human reason and divine righteousness will repose in the sublimest earthly union, and thence send down a perfected race to propagate their virtues, and redeem mankind. ELM. NEW YORK, July 4th, 1856. CONTENTS. PART FIRST. AGE OF PERICLES. Chapter I.--Literature 21 II.--Art 48 III.--Science 71