In presenting this work, we are not unmindful of the great depth, extent, and importance of our subject, and that some of the best students and brightest intellectual minds of the ages have devotedly studied and extensively written of the humanity and divinity of man; but we have been encouraged to study independently, and are emboldened to write, by the prayerful statement of the greatest of teachers, to the effect, that the things we have been studying and are writing about have been hid from. The wise and revealed unto babes. And we know that, in View of the great number and unbounded extent of the writings of a similiar nature extant, our effort will not be appreciated unless we have something new, interesting, and instructive to offer to thinking men and women.