A decorative woodcut headpiece featuring a central basket of flowers and leaves, flanked by symmetrical scrolling acanthus-like foliage and floral flourishes.

Preface.

Since humans have lived upon the earth, perhaps no age has been as remarkable as our own, in which things are converging that have rarely been seen together in such diversity and abundance. Without even mentioning the striking revolutions—which perhaps appear as a prelude to a great palingenesis From the Greek palin (again) and genesis (birth); this term refers to a doctrine of rebirth or world-renewal, often used in 18th-century philosophy to describe a total spiritual or physical transformation of the human race. of the earth and the human race within the realms of nature and morality—this age distinguishes itself particularly through the opposing—