have also endeavoured to tell my story so that it may leave some distinct memories in the minds of my readers after they have closed the work. For this reason I have avoided details as far as possible and have tried to develop, fully and clearly, the leading facts and features of each succeeding age. Repetition has not been avoided, where such repetition seemed necessary to impress the cardinal facts—the salient features of the story of Hindu civilization.
The copious extracts which I have given (in translation) from the Sanskrit works may, at first sight, seem to be inconsistent with my desire for conciseness. Such extracts, however, have been advisedly given. In the first place, on a subject where there is so much room for difference of opinion, it is of the highest importance to furnish the reader with the text on, which my conclusions are based, to enable him to form his own judgment, and to rectify my mistakes if my conclusions are erroneous. In the second place, it is a gain to the cause of historical knowledge to familiarize the reader with the texts of these ancient authors. It is scarcely to be hoped that the busy student will spend much of his time in reading the ancient and abstruse works in the original, or even in learned translations, and the historian who seeks to familiarize his readers with some portions at least of these ancient works, adds in so far to the accurate knowledge of his readers on this subject. And lastly, it has been well said, that thought is language, and language is thought; and if it be the intention of the historian to convey an idea
