Excerpt from Ridpath's History of the World, Vol. 7 of 9 At first view it will appear to the student of history that the Ancient and the Modern World are, in their historical records, of about equal duration and importance. The begin nings of Ancient History are set, in a general way, about as far beyond the Christian Era as our own times are placed thereafter. To Ancient History belong the Classical Ages an epoch of achievement and glory which may well challenge the most brilliant periods of the recent era. But a closer judgment of the rel ative importance of Ancient and Modern His 'tory will show the great preponderance of the latter. This is one of the more important facts which have impressed themselves upon the writer's mind in the preparation of these Volumes. He has come to believe in the great preeminence of the Modern Era over the most brilliant epochs of Antiquity. This is said of the aggregate and total achievements of mod ern times as compared with the aggregate and total achievements of any given period in the history of the Ancient World. 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.