



Produced by Kris Marissens and Marc D'Hooghe at
http://www.freeliterature.org (Images generously made
available by the Internet Archive.)





MAJOR PROPHETS

OF TO-DAY

BY

EDWIN E. SLOSSON, M.S., PH.D.


LITERARY EDITOR OF "THE INDEPENDENT"

ASSOCIATE IN THE COLUMBIA SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM

AUTHOR OF "GREAT AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES," ETC


BOSTON

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY

1916



                              TO MY WIFE
                          MAY PRESTON SLOSSON
                WHO WAS THE COMPANION OF MY PILGRIMAGE
                           TO THE OLD WORLD
                       IN SEARCH OF NEW PROPHETS
                              THIS VOLUME
                      IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED




[Illustration: Maeterlinck]



PREFACE


Each age has its own prophets, men who bring to it distinctive messages
and present them in such effective form as to sway the currents of
contemporary thought. No age perhaps has had more diverse theories
of life and the meaning of things presented to it than our own, and
certainly none has ever given such an opportunity for the original
thinker to reach quickly a world-wide audience as he can now through
the medium of cheap books and free schools.

This volume originated in my own desire to find out what was being
said by certain persons who, I had reason to believe, were worth
attention. But unless one is abnormally selfish, he always wants to
introduce others to an interesting acquaintance. It is then simply as
introductions that I would wish the following chapters to be taken.
In one way or another such men are influencing the thought of all of
us, but since we mostly get their philosophy at second hand--or at
third, fourth, or nth hand--we fail to