tian Church. These matters are essential preliminaries to the study of the Middle Ages. I have also dealt frequently with the history of European law and with the chief medieval forms of government.
As an undergraduate the author received high grades in a course in English history without the thought occurring to him that the statements of the textbook or of the instructor concerning the Anglo-Saxon period rested on any less ample and solid foundation than did their accounts of the nineteenth century. History seemed a seamless robe instead of a worn garment full of holes and patches. True it is that a textbook or general history is chiefly intended to tell what we do know, and that its space does not permit detailed discussion of the sources. Yet one of the most important things for the student or reader of history to realize is the old lesson of Socrates that there are many things which we do not know and many more which we only half know. Therefore in the introductory chapter I have discussed history's task and obstacles, and throughout the volume have every now and then informed the reader briefly as to the quantity and quality of the source material.
But a stern effort has been made to avoid fine print and footnotes, which in this kind of a book are objectionable alike from the typographical, the literary, and the pedagogical standpoint. I hope that all quotations are so marked, but I have not felt it necessary to mention the name of the author in each case at the bottom of the page. In place of cross-references the teacher and student are referred to the unusually full index, which is intended to serve somewhat the same purpose that a vocabulary does in the teaching of a language. In the text I have rather made it a point to repeat the names of important men and places as often and in as many historical contexts as possible, in order that they may gradually grow familiar to the reader and in order that he may not forget them when he has once learned them. By reference to the index one can tell how many times the name or topic in question has already been mentioned or discussed. The index should also prove useful for topical reviews.
