tions had found their way into the plates, and have remained, because it was not deemed worth while to correct them.
For my introductory chapter I cannot claim any other importance than as laying before the readers some preliminary information which a certain class of them will need, while others will not. All this comes out, indeed, in the course of the Author’s work; but many a reader might have suffered misconceptions for want of these explanations. I cannot but hope that the concluding chapter which I have added will be found to have some distinctive value as an attempt to indicate the place which the Thirty Years’ War occupies in the world’s progressive course of education.
It is proper to say that this American Edition has been prepared under arrangement with, and with the full sanction of, the author and his German publishers.
The American publishers of the American Edition will be found, I think, in their part of the undertaking, to have maintained their well-earned reputation. I have no relations with any others in the matter, my obligations to critics being as yet future and uncertain; and with these statements, therefore, submit the work to the judgment of candid readers, with the hope that it may meet a just and generous appreciation.
