INTRODUCTION.

ALL the histories of the Human Race have, as yet, been external and physical. That part in which man's distinctive nature dwells,—his mind and heart,—has either been passed by entirely, or empirically handled. Neither is the time yet come for doing what the time past has failed even to attempt. Men do not even know what the mind is, what are its constituent powers, what are those faculties which produce the endless results of human experience. The body has been explored; every function watched, and the organs closely studied. The nerves have been traced, the veins and arteries have been mapped down accurately, the most secreted passages and tissues have been revealed, and all those silent changes which are going on in the dark laboratory of Vital Forces have been guessed or found out. It is no longer what a man performs that is known, but what it is that performs. Effects have been traced back to their causes, and thus these causes have been studied in all their history, both by induction and by experiment.

Not even what the Mind does is yet studied. But what

are the primary forces which produce the endless phenomena of mentality, men are only beginning to inquire. When each of the constituent powers of the human mind shall have been scientifically ascertained; its laws, its combinations, its modifications registered, then a new era will dawn upon the Science of History. The History of Man, not alone the external elements of his life, but the life and history of each faculty of the human mind, as they have been developed in every period of time, from the earliest dawn to the present; under all diversities of climate, civil institution, social usage, secular occupation, under all methods of teaching, of restraint, of incitement, will yet be written. And the history of the development of each faculty of the human Soul will be the highest ground of true history, and the last to be occupied. When that day shall arrive, the most profoundly affecting chapter will be the history of man's Religious nature. The blind outreaching of the human soul toward purity, toward rest, toward strength; the aspirations of earnest men for divine life, their conflicts with fear, with doubt, with passions, will constitute a history in the presence of which all outward events, all changes of kingdoms, or movements of commerce, of art, or diplomacy, will be both coarse and tame. The single record of the struggles of great souls with a legitimate doubt, will be a history of itself. In every church, in every age, there have been men who made their way up out of error, formalism, or death, as seeds do, lifting up the dirt and forcing their way to the light by the irresistible might of growth. The conflicts of such, usually accompanied by reproach without, and by pains and deep sufferings within, would be more