Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. It is at this point of view that We now take our stand. I shall hope to continue the narrative in the same manner as that already' employed in the two preceding volumes. Albeit, the matter is now much changed from the character which it bore in the Classical Ages, and even more changed from the char acter which it bore in the Epochs of Darkness. In historical narrative every such change in subject-matter must needs be reflected to a cer tain extent in the style and treatment. The thought, when fixed intently on any event takes by sympathy much of the form, and some thing of the substance, of the thing considered.
