INTRODUCTION 



been necessary, amongst other things, to state 

 such observations on the individual chapters as 

 shall enable the reader, while he goes through 

 the book, to appreciate at each step how Fiske 

 is related to his sources and guides, as well as 

 how far he is speaking for himself. In addition, 

 my own occasional footnotes, printed along with 

 the text of this edition and enclosed in brackets, 

 are principally meant to enable the reader to re- 

 fer back, from the various chapters of Fiske, to 

 the relevant parts of this Introduction. A few 

 other footnotes, also printed in brackets, accom- 

 pany the text of this edition, and are intended, 

 not as any adequate commentary on the book, 

 but as an occasional aid to the reader in looking 

 up references, and in becoming aware of places 

 where what Fiske says would probably have 

 been modified had he lived to rewrite these vol- 

 umes. Some of these notes refer in very gen- 

 eral terms to changes such as the recent pro- 

 gress of science would have made advisable. 

 But in a work where Fiske so frequently uses 

 illustrative material drawn from the most vari- 

 ous sciences, whose special researches have be- 

 come so complex since he wrote, no attempt 

 can be made to criticise or to correct in detail 

 all of his references to the special departments 

 of research. It is enough if one gives, in this 

 field, occasional aid and warning that, if Fiske 

 XXV iii 



