Excerpt from Scotland's Influence on Civilization Erskine and Chalmers, Scott and Burns, Living stone and Alexander Duff! It is instructive to notice the part which the little nationalities of the earth have played in the grand drama of civilization. We hear much about the great powers and how they Shape the destiny of the world. History, both ancient and modern, has much to tell us Of their maj esty, their broad domain, their almost omnipo tent sway. The Old world powers Of the Orient Assyria, Chaldea, Egypt, medo-persia, Macedonia, Rome - all figure largely on the pages of the past, each claiming in its turn the mastery of the world. In more recent times the great races Of Germany, France, Spain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, Turkey, England, have almost monopolized the map of Europe, where they still struggle for the balance of power. IS this the sum of the Old-world civilized history? The whole tale is not told until we have looked at the little nationalities Palestine, Greece, Venetia, Switzerland, the Neth erlands, Scotland - each on its narrow strip of soil and with its wide influence on the world. Where has the human race risen to higher glory in the prowess of the individual man or in the achieve ments of the body politic than in these pent-up Uticas Of the rocks or seas? Here is a belt of once-independent states, small isolated nations, stretching diagonally across the very heart of the Civilized world from south-east to north-west. 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.