It would seem that having rejected the belief of the ancients in man's subjection to the Deity and in a predetermined aim toward which nations are led,
modern history should study not the manifestations of power but the causes that produce it.
The place of manufacture was taken by the giant,
Modern Industry, the place of the industrial middle class, by industrial millionaires, the leaders of whole industrial armies, the
modern bourgeois.
In my time, the encouragers of
modern painting were limited in number to a few noblemen and gentlemen of ancient lineage, who, in matters of taste, at least, never presumed to think for themselves.
"I am a noble preserver," said the
Modern Swain, thoughtfully moving away; "the life that I have saved is indeed mine."
It is I, the
modern, who look back across the centuries and weigh and analyze the emotions and motives of Big-Tooth, my other self.
As a child I had not been content with the results promised by the
modern professors of natural science.
In a word, a child of the
modern time--with the merits of the age we live in, and the failings of the age we live in--and a substance of sincerity and truth and feeling underlying it all.
I had the curiosity to inquire in a particular manner, by what methods great numbers had procured to themselves high titles of honour, and prodigious estates; and I confined my inquiry to a very
modern period: however, without grating upon present times, because I would be sure to give no offence even to foreigners
Still the severer antiquary may think, that, by thus intermingling fiction with truth, I am polluting the well of history with
modern inventions, and impressing upon the rising generation false ideas of the age which I describe.
The different elements contributed to the
modern English character by the latest stocks which have been united in it have been indicated by Matthew Arnold in a famous passage ('On the Study of Celtic Literature'): 'The Germanic [Anglo-Saxon and 'Danish'] genius has steadiness as its main basis, with commonness and humdrum for its defect, fidelity to nature for its excellence.
As the summer months advanced, the transformation of the Venetian palace into the
modern hotel proceeded rapidly towards completion.
