Peoples and countries visited in a winding journey around the world / by O. W. Wight.

  • Wight, O. W. (Orlando Williams), 1824-1888.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Peoples and countries visited in a winding journey around the world / by O. W. Wight. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    persons of the past generation, whom it was my good for- tune to meet. Personal sketches that might have been im- proper, in bad taste, or in violation of hospitality, if written concerning the living, are now in place as a part of history. The leading purpose of the book, however, is political and social. I have aimed to draw faithful portraits of the leading civilized nations of the world as they exist to-day. Of course, the features of the great peoples of the earth can be drawn only in outline on the small pieces of canvas that constitute the brief chapters of a single volume. Yet generalizations, if true to fact, if they are the results of accurate observation, if, above all, they embody the real laws that govern the development of humanity in time and space, are the best aids to a fruitful study of detailed history. The reader may or may not accept my philosophical definition of a nation, yet it will certainly reveal to him that underlying every independent national existence is a problem wider, deeper, than form of government, territorial possession, succession of events, or transition of passing generations of men. Whether my particular theory is ac- cepted or not, my object will be gained if I succeed in convincing the reader that the Providence of history has a rational basis. Travel among the peoples of the world may well have a higher aim than personal amusement or material pleasure. What shapest thou here at the worlds 'Twas shapen long ago; The Maker shaped it, And thought 'twere best even so.