It is fortunate that each generation does not comprehend its own ignorance. We are thus enabled to call our ancestors barbarous.

1904. [A description of Southern California. Harvard UP 1950.

Charles Dudley Warner (September 12 1829 – October 20 1900) was an American essayist novelist and friend of Mark Twain with whom he co-authored the novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today.