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xii me, have not been made on the basis of documents at second hand. They are fitted anyhow to give to those who have only a slight acquaintance with the details of our studies, some idea at least of the immense amount of labour which has within the century been expended on the subject of India. With the view of making this evident I have been careful to supply a rather extensive bibliography, in which the reader will perhaps remark a greater array of references than was necessary to justify my statements. I have, however, prescribed here certain limits to myself. I have not, for instance, except when absolutely necessary, mentioned any books which I did not happen to have by me (in which category I include a host of native publications, with the titles of which I could have easily amplified my references) ; neither have I referred to works, which, though doubtless not without their value at the time when they appeared, are now out of date, and in which the true and the false are to such an extent intermingled that the citation of them, without considerable correction in an elementary treatise such as this, would have only served to confuse and mislead the uninitiated reader. But except in these cases, and such as I may have omitted from want of recollection, I have endeavoured as much as possible to point out the place of each, especially that of those who led the van in this interesting series of investigations. In fine, as I have already explained, a good many of the notes are simple additions, and ought to be accepted as a sort of appendix in continuation of the text.

Having said this much of the general conditions under which this work was undertaken and drawn up, I have still, with the reader's indulgence, some explanations to make in regard to a matter or two belonging to the contents, in regard to questions which I have thought I ought to waive as being in my opinion not yet ripe for solution, and also as regards the restriction I have imposed on