Excerpt from Alarms and Discursions That far more serious problem. I had pur posed to call this book Gargoyles traces of such an intention can still be detected (i fear) in the second essay. Some time ago I tried to write an unobtrusive sociological essay called What Is Wrong. Somehow or other it turned into a tremendous philippic called What's Wrong with the World, with a photo graph of myself outside; a photograph I swear I had never seen before and am far from anxious to see again. Such things arise from the dul ness and languor of authors, as compared with the hope and romantic ardour of publishers. In this case the publisher provided the title: and if he had provided the book too I dare say it. 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.