Beacon Lights of History, Volume 14

A free download from http://www.dertz.in


Beacon Lights of History,
Volume 14

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Beacon Lights of History, Volume XIV,
by John Lord
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Beacon Lights of History, Volume XIV
Author: John Lord
Release Date: January 9, 2004 [eBook #10649]
Language: English
Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEACON
LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME XIV***
E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

LORD'S LECTURES
BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME XIV
THE NEW ERA
A Supplementary Volume, by Recent Writers, as Set Forth in the
Preface and Table of Contents.
BY JOHN LORD, LL.D.,
AUTHOR OF "THE OLD ROMAN WORLD," "MODERN
EUROPE," ETC., ETC.

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.
In preparing the new edition of Dr. Lord's great work, it has been
thought desirable to do what the venerable author's death in 1894 did
not permit him to accomplish, and add a volume summarizing certain
broad aspects of achievement in the last fifty years. It were manifestly
impossible to cover in any single volume--except in the dry,
cyclopaedic style of chronicling multitudinous facts, so different from
the vivid, personal method of Dr. Lord--all the growths of the
wonderful period just closed. The only practicable way has been to
follow our author's principle of portraying selected historic forces,--to
take, as representative or typical of the various departments, certain
great characters whose services have signalized them as "Beacon
Lights" along the path of progress, and to secure adequate portrayal of
these by men known to be competent for interesting exposition of the
several themes.
Thus the volume opens with a paper on "Richard Wagner: Modern
Music," by Henry T. Finck, the musical critic of the New York Evening
Post, and author of various works on music, travel, etc.; and then
follow in order these: "John Ruskin: Modern Art," by G. Mercer Adam,

author of "A Précis of English History," recently editor of the
_Self-Culture Magazine_ and of the Werner Supplements to the
Encyclopaedia Britannica; "Herbert Spencer: The Evolutionary
Philosophy," and "Charles Darwin: His Place in Modern Science," both
by Mayo W. Hazeltine, literary editor of the New York Sun, whose
book reviews over the signature "M.W.H." have for years made the
_Sun's_ book-page notable; "John Ericsson: Navies of War and
Commerce," by Prof. W.F. Durand, of the School of Marine
Engineering and the Mechanic Arts in Cornell University; "Li Hung
Chang: The Far East," by Dr. William A. P. Martin, the distinguished
missionary, diplomat, and author, recently president of the Imperial
University, Peking, China; "David Livingstone: African Exploration,"
by Cyrus C. Adams, geographical and historical expert, and a member
of the editorial staff of the _New York Sun_; "Sir Austen H. Layard:
Modern Archaeology," by Rev. William Hayes Ward, D.D., editor of
The Independent, New York, himself eminent in Oriental exploration
and decipherment; "Michael Faraday: Electricity and Magnetism," by
Prof. Edwin J. Houston of Philadelphia, an accepted authority in
electrical engineering; and, "Rudolf Virchow: Modern Medicine and
Surgery," by Dr. Frank P. Foster, physician, author, and editor of the
New York Medical Journal.
The selection of themes must be arbitrary, amid the numberless lines of
development during the "New Era" of the Nineteenth Century, in which
every mental, moral, and physical science and art has grown and
diversified and fructified with a rapidity seen in no other five centuries.
It is hoped, however, that the choice will be justified by the interest of
the separate papers, and that their result will be such a view of the main
features as to leave a distinct impression of the general life and
advancement, especially of the last half of the century.
It is proper to say that the preparation and issuance of Dr. Lord's
"Beacon Lights of History" were under the editorial care of Mr. John E.
Howard of Messrs. Fords, Howard, and Hulbert, the original publishers
of the work, while the proof-sheets also received the critical attention
of Mr. Abram W. Stevens, one of the accomplished readers of the
University Press in Cambridge, Mass. Mr. Howard has also supervised

the new edition, including this final volume, which issues from the
same choice typographical source.
NEW YORK, September, 1902.

CONTENTS.
RICHARD WAGNER.
MODERN Music.
BY HENRY T. FINCK.
Youth-time; early ambitions as a composer.
Weber, his fascinator and first inspirer.
"Der Freischütz" and "Euryanthe" prototypes of his operas.
Their supernatural, mythical, and romantic elements.
What he owed to his predecessors acknowledged in his essay on "The
Music of the Future" (1860).
Marriage and