either here or by means of footnotes to the text. I mention them
merely because a careful reader who discovered them by compar-
ing this book with the original might feel that, in respect of them,
the game of abridgement was not being played according to the
strictest rules. There are also one or two places where a few
sentences have been interpolated, either by Mr. Toynbee or by
myself, in view of events that have occurred since the original work
was published. But on the whole, seeing that the first three volumes
were published in 1933 and the others in 1939, it is amazing how
little work of that kind was called for.

The 'Argument' which appears as an Appendix to the work is in
effect an abridgement of an abridgement. Whereas this work pre-
sents an original of over 3,000 pages in 565, the 'Argument' presents
the same in a mere 25. Read as a 'thing in itself' it would prove
extremely indigestible, but it may prove useful for purposes of
reference all the way through. It is, in fact, a kind of 'Table of
Contents', and the only reason for not putting it at the beginning
is that it would constitute a rather large and ugly object in the fore-
ground of the picture.

For readers who wish to refer from this book to the original
volumes the following equations will be useful.

D. C. SOMERVELL

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