Excerpt from Ridpath's Universal History, Vol. 9 of 16: An Account of the Origin, Primitive Condition and Ethnic Development of the Great Races of Mankind, and of the Principal Events in the Evolution and Progress of the Civilized Life Among Men and Nations, From Recent and Authentic Sources

It is to motives such as these that the great historical works of our century owe their ori gin. But for such reasons, Wilkinson, Ebers, Rawlinson, Duncker, and Curtius had never written; and the world would still be blindly following the unsifted stories of old. Thus much may be said, then, as to the general reasons for writing History.

The more particular motive which the Au thor of the present work has to offer to the pub lic for undertaking the composition of a book so comprehensive as the title indicates, is this: A desire to bring within the reach of the aver age reader a concise and accurate summary of the principal events in the career of the human race. The historical works produced in our century have nearly all been in the nature of special studies, limited in their scope to a particular epoch. The result has been that the works in question are so elaborate in detail and so recondite in method, that the common reader has neither courage to undertake nor time to complete them. Be fore a single topic can be mastered, he finds himself lost in a labyrinth. The synthesis of different periods, treated by different authors, seems impossible; he turns in discouragement from the task; and to him the history of the past remains a sealed' fountain.

It has thus come to pass that the average citizen, who, in the United States at least, is expected to have accurate general views on historical questions, may reasonably plead in bar that the historians, by not considering the limits of his time and Opportunity, have put the required knowledge beyond his reach.

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