vi PREFACE AND GUIDE. 



In the third place, there is also a list of the books from which 

 various important facts have been culled, and an explanation 

 of those abbreviations which are used throughout these pages to 

 indicate the respective responsible authorities. 



It is to be distinctly understood that no author whom I have 

 quoted is ever responsible for any illustration, symbol, analogy, 

 deduction, inference, or comment which I have anywhere made, 

 The references, which for convenience are placed at the end of 

 the topics, leave all such responsibility with me, and only indi- 

 cate the source whence the facts are derived. 



In every instance except that of merely common knowledge 

 I designate by the abbreviation the name of some authority to 

 whom I am indebted for my information, and who may be re- 

 garded as eminently trustworthy. Wherever it has seemed 

 necessary I have given his very words. I thought it better to 

 do so than to curtail them ; because, whilst it is unnecessary that 

 any application of a particular fact should be more than a few 

 hints, it certainly is requisite, in an important instance, that the 

 fact itself should be stated with precision by the most competent 

 person, so that any speaker who uses it may be thereby made 

 master of his subject. 



With a view to condensation I have, whenever possible, com- 

 pressed the moral application of my facts into the denoting 

 headings of the paragraphs. 



