Excerpt from The Ellwoods That the present work is a novel with a social and political purpose it is useless to disguise; but it must be understood that it has been the author's desire simply to indicate the most glaring obstructions in the paths of reform. These barriers once broken down, there then may be avenues Opened for the elevation of national ideals and for the purification of society. The age of the revival of learning Will be at hand. Those virtues and graces and that physical and metaphysical development which animated the ancients will be revived; but on a more world-wide scale. The brotherly love of Christi suity Will become the burden of legislation, instead of greed and fratricidal strife. Empires will no longer be upheld upon the points of millions of bayonets; but that grand Commonwealth of peace on earth and good Will towards men, heralded by Christ, will have been in augurated. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.