{"product_id":"2940014031158","title":"LOOKING BACKWARD FROM 2000-1887","description":"Chapter 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI first saw the light in the city of Boston in the year 1857. \"What!\"\u003cbr\u003eyou say, \"eighteen fifty-seven? That is an odd slip. He means nineteen\u003cbr\u003efifty-seven, of course.\" I beg pardon, but there is no mistake. It was\u003cbr\u003eabout four in the afternoon of December the 26th, one day after\u003cbr\u003eChristmas, in the year 1857, not 1957, that I first breathed the east\u003cbr\u003ewind of Boston, which, I assure the reader, was at that remote period\u003cbr\u003emarked by the same penetrating quality characterizing it in the present\u003cbr\u003eyear of grace, 2000.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese statements seem so absurd on their face, especially when I add\u003cbr\u003ethat I am a young man apparently of about thirty years of age, that no\u003cbr\u003eperson can be blamed for refusing to read another word of what promises\u003cbr\u003eto be a mere imposition upon his credulity. Nevertheless I earnestly\u003cbr\u003eassure the reader that no imposition is intended, and will undertake,\u003cbr\u003eif he shall follow me a few pages, to entirely convince him of this. If\u003cbr\u003eI may, then, provisionally assume, with the pledge of justifying the\u003cbr\u003eassumption, that I know better than the reader when I was born, I will\u003cbr\u003ego on with my narrative. As every schoolboy knows, in the latter part\u003cbr\u003eof the nineteenth century the civilization of to-day, or anything like\u003cbr\u003eit, did not exist, although the elements which were to develop it were\u003cbr\u003ealready in ferment. Nothing had, however, occurred to modify the\u003cbr\u003eimmemorial division of society into the four classes, or nations, as\u003cbr\u003ethey may be more fitly called, since the differences between them were\u003cbr\u003efar greater than those between any nations nowadays, of the rich and\u003cbr\u003ethe poor, the educated and the ignorant. I myself was rich and also\u003cbr\u003eeducated, and possessed, therefore, all the elements of happiness\u003cbr\u003eenjoyed by the most fortunate in that age. Living in luxury, and\u003cbr\u003eoccupied only with the pursuit of the pleasures and refinements of\u003cbr\u003elife, I derived the means of my support from the labor of others,\u003cbr\u003erendering no sort of service in return. My parents and grand-parents\u003cbr\u003ehad lived in the same way, and I expected that my descendants, if I had\u003cbr\u003eany, would enjoy a like easy existence.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079864205552,"sku":"2940014031158","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014031158_p0.jpg?v=1763599340","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014031158","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}