As it was the first, so also it seems to be the last and greatest of the products of the human mind. As it was the earliest endeavor of the conscious race to express its concepts of itself, so also is it the latest endeavor of that same race to explain, interpret, and elucidate the true course and character of human affairs in the earth. In doing so the science — if science it may be called — draws within its compass all the results which have been reached in all the fields of human inquiry.
— JOHN CLARK RIDPATH