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Front cover

The Callisto and the Comet (Page 145)

A JOURNEY IN OTHER WORLDS

A ROMANCE OF THE FUTURE

BY JOHN JACOB ASTOR

with Ten Illustrations

PREFACE.

The protracted struggle between science and the classics appearsto be drawing to a close, with victory about to perch on thebanner of science, as a perusal of almost any university orcollege catalogue shows. While a limited knowledge of both Greekand Latin is important for the correct use of our own language,the amount till recently required, in my judgment, has beenabsurdly out of proportion to the intrinsic value of thesebranches, or perhaps more correctly roots, of study. Theclassics have been thoroughly and painfully threshed out, and itseems impossible that anything new can be unearthed. We mayequal the performances of the past, but there is no opportunityto surpass them or produce anything original. Even themuch-vaunted "mental training" argument is beginning to pall; forwould not anything equally difficult give as good developingresults, while by learning a live matter we kill two birds withone stone? There can be no question that there are many forcesand influences in Nature whose existence we as yet little morethan suspect. How much more interesting it would be if, insteadof reiterating our past achievements, the magazines andliterature of the period should devote their consideration towhat we do NOT know! It is only through investigation andresearch that inventions come; we may not find what we are insearch of, but may discover something of perhaps greater moment.It is probable that the principal glories of the future will befound in as yet but little trodden paths, and as Prof. Cortlandtjustly says at the close of his history, "Next to religion, wehave most to hope from science."

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