Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 4.djvu/13

 NOTE.

completion of this second edition of Professor Darmesteter's translation of the Avesta has been interrupted by the sudden and untimely death of the author. Fortunately, he had already revised the proof-sheets of his translation of the Vendîdâd, and completed his manuscript of the Introduction and Fragments. And, as the original manuscripts and collations, from which the text of the Fragments was derived, are mostly in my possession, the revision of the remaining proof-sheets has been chiefly in my hands, but has been carried out strictly in accordance with the author's views, as ascertained from his French translation of the Avesta. I have only to add that, though differing from my lamented friend in some of his more speculative opinions, I am convinced that it would be difficult to find a sounder scholar, a more brilliant writer, and a more estimable man, all united in the same individual.

E. W. WEST.


 * May, 1895.