Itself [the Faith] undergoing a period of incubation during
its primitive age, it has, through the emergence of its slowly-crystallizing
system, induced a fermentation in the general life of mankind designed to shake
the very foundations of a disordered society, to purify its life-blood, to
reorientate and reconstruct its institutions, and shape its final destiny.
- Shoghi Effendi (Preface to ‘God Passes By’)