the matériel and personnel, or of the story of the more peaceful yet still active triumphs of the service; and that it would be roomy enough to contain such illustrations as would be requisite for the due supplementing of the text.
But I confessed myself unwilling to embark alone upon the business. I had, for many years previously, made a special study of our naval history; but I had studied some periods more attentively than others, and in most periods there were very many events into the records of which I had made no very deep researches. I therefore deemed it advisable to seek for assistance if I was to set about the preparation of such a history as we had spoken of.
And as to the scope and plan of the work I determined, if possible, to attempt the difficult task of combining some proportion of the various qualities which, as above noted, have rendered the works of James, Nicolas, and Mahan, each in its own way, peculiarly acceptable. This scheme involved the separation of the civil and the military history of the Navy, as Nicolas has separated them, and the full treatment of both; the recourse on every possible occasion to first-hand and official sources of information, after the example set by James and by Nicolas; the pointing of such broad lessons as seem to be plainly taught by the events of the past, and to be applicable to the events of time to come, after the fashion begun by Mahan and Colomb; and, finally, the scrupulous suppression of international or personal prejudice. The importance, as a factor in the building up of the Empire, of maritime discovery and its intimate association with the Royal Navy, obliged me to enlarge the scheme, so as to include special chapters dealing with that also. And, for convenience, I determined to break up the general story into parts.
Thus digested, the plan of the History stands as follows: The work is divided into fifteen historical sections, each of which corresponds either with the duration of a dynasty or a political period, or with the endurance of a great war. The first section (Chapters I.-III.) covers the period previous to 1066; the second section, the Norman Age—1066-1154; the third section, the Angevin Age—1154-1399; the fourth section, the Lancastrian and Yorkist Age—1399-1485; the fifth section, the Tudor Age—1485-1603; the sixth section, the first Stuart Age—1603-1649; the seventh section, the time of the Commonwealth—1649-1660; the eighth section, the age of the Restoration and the Revolution
