viii I'KKKACE 



character) begin with a section devoted to the points of theory 

 involved in that division of the subject. These readings are followed 

 by others which present data for verification, illustration, or disproof. 

 The principles quoted are not in all cases such as meet with the 

 compiler's full assent, but careful effort has been made to include 

 only such statements as are worthy of serious consideration and are 

 likely to be of service in arriving at an understanding of the various 

 problems. 



Clearly, the use of more and shorter readings, the greater stress 

 upon organization of this selected material, and the chapter introduc- 

 tions cause a book of this sort to be less a source book in the older 

 and stricter sense, and to combine many of the desirable features of 

 a text, while escaping its most serious drawbacks. For myself, I 

 should call this a "composite textbook," and add that the material 

 is presented in this form, not because native laziness has made the 

 editor shirk the task of literary composition, but because of a belief 

 that in this form it has the greatest teaching value. The author of 

 a text aims to reduce to a single compact line of statement all the mass 

 of fact and interpretation that he has marshaled together, and to 

 give to his work a finished form in short, to make a compelling 

 statement of the one true gospel. But the first task for any compe- 

 tent instructor, using that textbook so carefully organized for "clear- 

 ness, force, and elegance," is to expand and supplement and alter 

 according to his needs the material there presented. The text- 

 writer constructs, as it were, a smooth, straight highway of thought, 

 down which the student whizzes to his appointed destination without 

 getting much benefit from the journey. He needs to tarry and visit, 

 to wander back and forth, to explore the country and learn the whole 

 region, if he is to be a well-informed traveler when he dismounts at 

 his journey's end. 



The readings here presented have been taken from many settings 

 and retain evidences of their points of contact, thus showing the rela- 

 tions of the different portions of our subject to other phases of the 

 life of which it is a part. Many spots of the ground are covered more 

 than once in different connections and from different avenues of 

 approach. This is not mere needless reiteration. Every experienced 

 teacher knows that teaching consists largely in such repetitions, by 

 which the student is led all around a subject in order to learn its 

 different aspects and its many bearings. This is the purpose for 

 whirh tin- teacher commonly us< ncd readings." Hut the 



