It will, doubtlea, be objected to this work that it is, in part, mere speculation; and it will, further, be urged that it is absurd in presupposing the pomibility of. A condition of affairs so extreme as that foreshadowed in its pages; but I have onlyto my, in explanation, that I am not responsible for the result any more than I should be for the product of the multiplication of two given numbers. In the one case, the numbers are submit ted to the process of multiplication according to the rules oi arithmetic, and a third, or additional number, is produced. It would be folly to quarrel with thisresult. In the second case. The data of thirty years of observation and experiment have been taken and submitted to a deductive examination — multiplied, as it were, by the hopes. The fears, the experience, the passions and prejudices of men, as well as by the example of history, and I am contpelled to abide the result.
