Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/14

 In the preparation of Chapters XII-XXVIII the writer has made free use of the corresponding matter in his Introduction to the History of Western Europe. But a good deal in the older book has been omitted, new matter has been introduced, many fundamental readjustments have been made, and the method of presentation has been reconsidered from beginning to end.

Great attention has been given to the illustrations, especially in Part I, where the vastness of the field to be covered and the necessary brevity of the text render it absolutely essential to reenforce the written word by reproductions of the actual ves- tiges of the past. Not only have the illustrations been carefully chosen with a view of corroborating and vivifying the text but under each picture a sufficiently detailed legend is given to ex- plain its significance, and these often add materially to the in- formation given in the letterpress. The pictures consequently give a sort of parallel narrative and furnish a helpful supple- ment and corrective to the text itself. Everything which does not obviously bear upon the chief matters under consideration is sedulously excluded. These volumes meet the growing demand for a /w^-year course in European history in the high school and the prepara- tory schools. The great achievements of the oriental peoples and of the Greek and Roman periods are brought into immediate relation with later European development, without devoting a whole year's study to them. English history, if somewhat briefly treated, is given its proper association with that of the neigh- boring nations on the Continent. By devoting the whole second year to the history of the last two centuries, the student will be in a position to grasp the more immediate causes of the con- ditions in the midst of which we live. In the preparation of Part I the authors have received great aid from Professor David S. Muzzey in the difficult task of pre- senting the development of Greece in a brief form ; valuable suggestions and emendations have also been contributed by Dr. Cari F. Huth and Mr. A. F. Barnard of Chicago. To