Excerpt from Cecile, Vol. 1 of 3: Or Modern Idolaters<br><br>I don't allow it,' retorted Slane (he never did allow anything, and was invariably in opposition to his companion of the hour). Civilisation advances, bosh! The ancients had all we have, exceeded us in virtue, eclipsed us in vice. What can you claim for us? I give you the electric telegraph and railways; the latter the ancients no doubt would have had, but they foresaw the inconvenience that would arise from them, a fact we are slowly opening our eyes to. It's no use going anywhere now, you can't see anything when you get there for the crowd. The Derby is a dream of the past, a thing to read of in the papers, not see. Telegraphs the same. N 0 use attempting to relate a story or communicate a bit of news.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>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.