ld lead to such confusion
that all unity of design would disappear.

4. Some extracts from the editor's Report to the Syndics will
show the principles on which the Cambridge History has been
undertaken.

"The entire bulk of new matter which the last forty years have
supplied amounts to many thousands of volumes. The honest
student finds himself continually deserted, retarded, misled by
the classics of historical literature, and has to hew his own way
through multitudinous transactions, periodicals, and official
publications, where it is difficult to sweep the horizon or to
keep abreast. By the judicious division of labour we should be
able to do it, and to bring home to every man the last document,
and the ripest conclusions of international research. . . .

"All this does not apply to our own time, and the last volumes
will be concerned with secrets that cannot be learned from books,
but from men. . . .

"The recent Past contains the key to the present time. All forms
of thought that influence it come before us in their turn, and we
have to describe the ruling currents, to interpret the sovereign
forces, that still govern and divide he world. . . .

"By Universal History I understand that which is distinct from
the combined history of all countries, which is not a rope of
sand, but a continuous development, and is not a burden on the
memory, but an illumination of the soul. It moves in a succession
to which the nations are subsidiary. Their story will be told,
not for their own sake, but in reference and subordination to a
higher series, according to the time and the degree in which they
contribute to the common fortunes of mankind. . . .

"If we treat History as a progressive science, and lean specially
on that side of it, the question will arise, how we justify our
departure from ancient ways, and how we satisfy the world that
there is reason and method in our innovations. . . .

"To meet this difficulty we must provide a copious, accurate, and
well-digested catalogue of authorities. . . . "

"Our principle would be to supply help to students, not material
to historians. But in critical places we must indicate minutely
the sources we follow, and must refer not only to the important
books, but to articles in periodical works, and even to original
documents, and to transcripts in libraries. The result would
amount to an ordinary volume, presenting a conspectus of
historical literature, and enumerati