In order that the book may serve as a guide to students, the names of those to whose researches our present knowledge of the subject is due have frequently been introduced, and it will be found, I trust, that I have been fair to all.1 At the same time, I have naturally not hesitated to indicate my dissent from views advanced by this or that scholar, and it will also be found, I trust, that in the course of my studies I have advanced the interpretation of the general theme or of specific facts at various points. While, therefore, the book is only in a second ary degree sent forth as an original contribution, the discus sion of mooted points will enhance its value, I hope, 'for the specialist, as well as for the general reader and student for whom, in the first place, the volumes of this series are intended.
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