Book excerpt: Excerpt from Memoir of the Abbe Lacordaire We live in an age not indifferent to, although not prolific in, individual greatness. The race of those giants of olden times, whose stately forms stand out upon the dim horizon of history and awe us, seems to have died out. To account for this would involve a difficult but interesting study. The most we can do is to endeavour to perpetuate the memory of those among us who come nearest to this ideal. The subject of this Memoir seems to have been of this cast. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com 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.