Set up and electrotyped. Published July, 1896.



Norwood Press
J.S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.





PREFACE.


In the selection of authorities which have been consulted in the
preparation of this work, and to which reference is made in the following
pages, great care has been taken. Original sources have been drawn upon in
the majority of cases, and nearly all of these are the most recent
attainable. Whenever it has not been possible to cite original and recent
works, the author has quoted only such as are most standard and
trustworthy. In the choice of orthography of proper names and numeral
words, the forms have, in almost all cases, been written as they were
found, with no attempt to reduce them to a systematic English basis. In
many instances this would have been quite impossible; and, even if
possible, it would have been altogether unimportant. Hence the forms,
whether German, French, Italian, Spanish, or Danish in their transcription,