Excerpt from The Interpretation of Life: In Which Is Shown the Relation of Modern Culture to Christian Science

There are doubtless many intelligent men, in the professional and business worlds, who are deeply interested in the things of the mind, and who would gladly familiarize themselves with the spiritual treasures of the best philosophical thought, were not such treasures so obscurely hidden in the depths of technical phraseology and recondite utterance as to render them practically non-existent for the general reader.

This volume attempts the ambitious and hazardous task of gathering up the best that has been thought and said by the noblest minds, in the past or present, and of putting it forth in such terms and within such limits as will render it appreciable to the popular intelligence.

The attempt, however, aims at more than a mere summation of ideas, or an eclectic, philosophical anthology, for there is presented, as the title of the volume indicates, an interpretation of life; but an interpretation made in the light of the highest and best thoughts of man. Everyone, in his way and measure, necessarily interprets life; for the mere fact of self-conscious intelligence involves some rational account of things. That is, the life of man, as a rational being, is always in itself an interpretation of some kind, no matter how humble and inadequate. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to familiarize ourselves, so far as possible, with the noblest thoughts, feelings, and purposes of those men who have lived most and best, or who have more largely, broadly, and deeply comprehended within themselves the meaning of life.

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