EUROPEAN HISTORY A collection of extracts from the sources chosen with the COPYRIGHT, 1909 BY JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON AND CHARLES A. BEARD ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 523.4 327270 The Athenæum Press GINN AND COMPANY PRO- PREFACE This volume agrees precisely with the previous one in purpose and arrangement. It has, however, been necessary, on account of the ever-increasing diffuseness of the material upon which we have had to draw, to resort more frequently to condensation. Parliamentary speeches, state papers, pamphlets, books of travel, magazine articles, and treatises on important phases of our modern life rarely yield their best in the succinct form essential, considering the space at our disposal. Moreover, with the class of readers we have in view it seemed wise to avoid all digressions and obscure allusions which could hardly fail to increase the difficulties in the student's path. We have, however, always plainly indicated in the margin those cases in which a speech, treaty, constitution, or extract from a book or article is "condensed" or "much condensed." While we have struck out sentences and paragraphs where there was not space for them, and they could be spared, we have only in the rarest instances ventured to change a word, excepting always in the case of translations, which commonly solicit amelioration either from the standpoint of sense or taste. The critical student who suspects that he is missing something can always, by means of our Table of Contents and List of Citations, readily turn to the text upon which we have relied. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NEW YORK CITY J. H. R. C. A. B. |