men, manners and matter on this earth fifty, a hundred or a thousand years front now.
"'By this time, like one who had set out on his way by night, and travelled through a region of smooth and idle dreams, our history now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though at far distance, true colors and shapes.'
"Although I am strong and lusty for my years, the span of my life is drawing to a close, and I have so far been able only to record as a test prophecy, the conditions which will prevail half a century from now.
"With a portion of this history, impartially written in advance of the events therein recorded, I now entrust you, that you may the better enter into the spirit of my life work. The roll which I here hand you, contains a fragment of history which will be true when you have attained my age of three score years and ten.
"I am desirous of a helper who shall not only aid me during my lifetime, to record events, but carry on the wonderful work, when these eyes shall long have been sightless, these hands
