Excerpt from Considerations on Some of the Elements and Conditions of Social Welfare and Human Progress: Being Academic and Occasional Discourses and Other Pieces The pieces contained in this volume are now collected and published at the request of many of my friends, particularly among my former pupils, attendants on my lectures in the New York University. The title under which they appear, has been given them as being a sufficiently appropriate indication of their general scope and purport. The reader will find some repetitions - naturally enough occurring in pieces written at intervals during so long a period on topics so nearly related.