Excerpt from Is Polite Society Polite?: And Other Essays Theodore Parker the desire which I began to feel to give liv ing expression to my thoughts, and to lend to my written words the interpretation of my voice. Parker, who had taken a friendly interest in the publication of my first volumes, Passion Flowers and Words for the Hour, gave his approval also to this new project of mine. The great desire of the age, he said, is for vocal expression. People are scarcely satisfied with the printed page alone: they crave for their instruction the living voice and the living presence.' 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.