Excerpt from The Assault on Humanism In the common lot of physical mortality, Nature has discriminated against the maga zine. Less ephemeral in essential things than the newspaper, it follows the daily journal close in the race for, oblivion. Like other liv ing creatures, however, the magazine adapts itself instinctively to the circumstances of its being, and lives its time, taking on Zthe vivid colors of the world about it, careless how soon they fade after the last fatal days of the month have heralded the birth of a successor. But it is The Atlantic's happy experience to enjoy, now and again, a kind of posthumous satis faction in a continuing public interest in contributions which, thanks to the spirit of the times, or to the genius of an author, are read, reread, and saved with painful care. To these occasional and unusual contribu tions, The Atlantic has determined to offer a less precarious immortality by publishing them now and again in editions of its own, selecting a form we consider appropriate. 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.