28 Introduction. 



refers, everything is system and consistent systematization, and each 

 object and the idea illustrated by it must be perceived in close relation 

 to, and in permanent context with, the entire system of the peculiar 

 world-conception of that period. My prospective critics will doubtless 

 appreciate this state of affairs and recognize that it would be vain to 

 select at random the one or other object or point for ready attack, if 

 not taken up and properly understood in connection with the whole 

 subject; whoever is willing to further these studies, must consent, I 

 regret to say, to digest first this material in its entirety. 



The following pages contain only a small portion of my notes on 

 jades. It would have been easy to increase them to double and more 

 of their present extent, and to present them in a more readable form, 

 if I had the privilege of the leisure of an author. The daily demands 

 made by the immediate task of cataloguing and installing a large 

 collection are not favorable to literary activity, and the necessity of 

 working up in the near future an appalling quantity of other materials 

 did not allow me to delve in this particular subject with that copious- 

 ness of detail which would have been desirable. Though dealing with 

 polished jade, these notes will be found more crude than polished, 

 and indeed pretend to be nothing more than chips and shavings from 

 a workshop. May others take up and pursue the threads where they 

 dropped from my hand. 



