PREFATORY NOTE.


The present publication is the only literary work left by its author.
Unfortunately it lacks a few pages which, as his manuscript shows, he
intended to add, and it also failed to receive his final revision. His
friends have nevertheless deemed it expedient to publish the result of
his studies conducted with so much ardor, in order that some memorial of
his life and work should remain for the wider public. To those
acquainted with him, no written words can represent the charm of his
personality or give anything approaching an adequate impression of his
ability and strength of character.

Conrad Hjalmar Nordby was born September 20, 1867, at Christiania,
Norway. At the age of four he was brought to New York, where he was
educated in the public schools. He was graduated from the College of the
City of New York in 1886. From December of that year to June, 1893, he
taught in Grammar School No. 55, and in September, 1893, he was called
to his Alma Mater as Tutor in English. He was promoted to the rank of
Instructor in 1897, a position which he held at the time of his death.
He died in St. Luke's Hospital, October 28, 1900. In October, 1894, he
began his studies in the School of Philosophy of Columbia University,
taking courses in Philosophy and Education under Professor Nicholas
Murray Butler, and in Germanic Literatures and Germanic Philology under
Professors Boyesen, William H. Carpenter and Calvin Thomas. It was under
the guidance of Professor Carpenter that the present work was conceived