G. W. F. Hegel (1770 1831), the influential German philosopher, believed that human history was advancing spiritually and morally according to God's purpose. At the beginning of Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Hegel writes: "What the history of Philosophy shows us is a succession of noble minds, a gallery of heroes of thought, who, by the power of Reason, have penetrated into the being of things, of nature and of spirit, into the Being of God, and have won for us by their labours the highest treasure, the treasure of reasoned knowledge."Volume 2 of Lectures on the History of...

G. W. F. Hegel (1770 1831), the influential German philosopher, believed that human history was advancing spiritually and morally according to God's purpose. At the beginning of Lectures on the History of Philosophy, Hegel writes: "What the history of Philosophy shows us is a succession of noble minds, a gallery of heroes of thought, who, by the power of Reason, have penetrated into the being of things, of nature and of spirit, into the Being of God, and have won for us by their labours the highest treasure, the treasure of reasoned knowledge."Volume 3 of Lectures on the History of...

In their simplicity is their poignancy. On August 7, 1865, Mary Louisa Black noted in her journal that they were nooning on a nice stream in a valey in the mountains. A day later she observed that one of the men in the overland expedition had buried an infant here yesterday still born. One can only imagine her emotional turmoil she had buried her own daughter three months earlier, just as she and her husband set out for Oregon.While each diarist and letter-writer had her personal joys and sorrows, collectively these invaluable accounts demonstrate the passion and courage of these...