PREFACE. Vil 
those first beginners whom a manual has principally 
in view. 
In the carrying out of these extensive transforma- 
tions the editor has kept two distinct aims before 
him—to modernise everything that was really out of 
date, and yet to retain every possible vestige of the 
individuality of Mr. Henry Taylor. The adherence 
to these sometimes conflicting lines of procedure 
has necessarily caused the book to exhibit some 
literary iregularities, particularly where the “I” of 
the original author is followed somewhat closely 
by the “we” of his reviser. But it was felt that 
blemishes like these would be readily pardoned by 
the reader as a preferable alternative to sacrificing 
the only evidence of the presence of Mr. Taylor’s 
own hand. ‘There are a host of remarks and recom- 
mendations which are essentially his own, and in 
which it will be a satisfaction to the reader to 
know from whom they proceed, and not less so 
to the editor to feel that they are so known. 
More especially is the means to this distinction 
felt desirable, as the editor most expressly dis- 
claims the slightest idea of erecting himself into 
an authority. In a literary and not a_ practical 
sense consists his connection with the book, and 
when he takes upon him to correct a master of 
the standing of Henry Taylor, he does it distinctly 
and exclusively in reliance upon the statements of 
others equally esteemed. And thus, he ventures to 
