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by David C. Whitney (Author)
There is nothing quite so vital in this life as a timely idea. Obversely, there is nothing as futile as an idea proposed before people are ready to accept it. The civilized world was ready for Martin Luther when he nailed his ninety-five theses on the front door of Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517; but Galileo, being born fifty years too soon, would have been burned at the stake had he not recanted his theory of a round world in 1632.
And so it is in the world of books. After Charles Darwin had finished his Voyage of the Beagle, and published his Origin of Species in 1859, the wrath of the theological world descended upon his head. While now no scientist or thinking man questions his well-proved theories, there are still fundamentalist enclaves of dissent. Which brings us down to the book you are now holding in your hands. First published by the J. G. Ferguson Publishing Company of Chicago, in 1964, it had an enthusiastic but limited reception. It was simply ten years too soon. It needed to wait for the Bicentennial to find its place in the sun. Now it becomes one of the most timely and useful books of the decade, if not the half century. Brilliantly researched and beautifully written, it is the definitive treatment of the subject. Note the array of talented scholars who have produced it. The picture treatment is outstanding, and the wealth of illustration, particularly the color work, is magnificent. Had The Masonic Book Club undertaken such a project, it would have cost thousands of dollars, and have been hopelessly beyond its budget. Thus, we have been most fortunate in securing permission from the publisher to purchase the unsewn and unbound sheets, add our own Introduction, bind the volume in our own distinctive club binding, and distribute the book to our own anxiously waiting members for the annual modest membership fee.
However, since the book was designed for general distribution, there are no Masonic references in the text. We have therefore provided the connective material in a Foreword written by a noted Masonic historian, 111.'.James R. Case, 33 , of Bethel, Connecticut, who is well known for his studies and articles on Revolutionary subjects. Steeped in the history of both Masonry and the beginnings of our Country, he has furnished us with a brief survey of the connection of the Signers of the Declaration to our Fraternity.
