those familiar with the scenes described, and especially from Miss
Fiske. In all cases, the language of others has been condensed, as
much as is consistent, with the truthful expression of their ideas;
and, in the translation of the letters of Nestorians, it has not
been deemed essential to follow slavishly every Syriac idiom, for,
instead of these letters owing their interest, as some have
supposed, to their translators, they may have sometimes rather
suffered from renderings needlessly idiomatic.

It was at one time proposed to embrace the history of both the Male
and Female Seminaries, but the proposition came too late, and the
memoir of the lamented Stoddard gives so full an account of the
former, that now we need to hear only the story of its less known
companion; but let the reader bear in mind that as much might have
been said of the one as of the other, had the design been to give an
account of both.

A strict adherence to the order of events in the following pages
would have produced a series of disjointed annals. To avoid such a
breaking up of the narrative, each subject has been treated in full
whenever introduced, though that has involved a freedom somewhat
independent of chronological order.

The notices of the revivals are mere incidental sketches. Their
complete history remains to be written.

The beautiful Illustrations introduced are all new, copied from
sketches taken on the spot by the skillful pencil of a dear
missionary brother, whose modesty, though it will not consent to the
mention of his name, yet cannot prevent a grateful sense of his