NOTE

BY THE EDITOR OF THE ABRIDGEMENT

MR. TOYNBEE’S Study of History presents a single continuous argument as to the nature and pattern of the historical experience of the human race since the first appearance of the species of societies called civilizations, and that argument is illustrated and, so far as the nature of the material allows, ‘proved’ at every stage by a diversity of illustrations drawn from the whole length and breadth of human history, so far as human history is known to the historians of our day. Some of these illustrations are worked out in great detail. That being the nature of the book, the task of the editor of an abridgement is in essentials perfectly simple, namely to preserve the argument intact, though in an abbreviated statement, and to reduce in some degree the number of illustrations and, in a much greater degree, the detail of their exposition.

I think that this volume makes an adequate presentation of Mr. Toynbee’s philosophy of history in so far as it is set forth in the six published volumes of his yet unfinished work. If it did not do so Mr. Toynbee would obviously not have approved its publication. But I should be very sorry if it came to be regarded as an entirely satisfactory substitute for the original work. For ‘business purposes’ it is perhaps an adequate substitute: for pleasure surely not; for a large part of the charm of the original resides in the leisured amplitude of its illustrations. Only the big book, one feels, is aesthetically worthy of the bigness of its subject. I have been able to use to such a very large extent the actual sentences and paragraphs of the original that I have no fear that this abridgement will be found dull, but I am equally certain that the original will be found much more entrancing.

I made this abridgement for my own amusement, without Mr. Toynbee’s knowledge and without any idea of publication. It seemed to me an agreeable way of passing the time. Only when it was finished did I tell Mr. Toynbee of its existence and place it at his disposal if at any time he cared to make any use of it. Such being its origin I allowed myself occasionally to interpolate a little illustration of my own not found in the original work. After all, it is written ‘Thou shalt not muzzle the ox which treadeth out his master’s corn’. These intrusions of mine are small in extent and smaller in importance. As the whole of my manuscript has been carefully revised by Mr. Toynbee and they have received his imprimatur along with all the rest, there is no need to indicate them either here or by means of footnotes to the text. I mention them merely because a careful reader who discovered them by comparing this book with the original might feel that, in respect of them, the game of abridgement was not being played according to the strictest rules. There are also one or two places where a few sentences have been interpolated, either by Mr. Toynbee or by myself, in view of events that have occurred since the original work was published. But on the whole, seeing that the first three volumes were published in 1933 and the others in 1939, it is amazing how little work of that kind was called for.

The ‘Argument’ which appears as an Appendix to the work is in effect an abridgement of an abridgement. Whereas this work presents an original of over 3,000 pages in 565, the ‘Argument’ presents the same in a mere 25. Read as a ‘thing in itself it would prove extremely indigestible, but it may prove useful for purposes of reference all the way through. It is, in fact, a kind of ‘Table of Contents’, and the only reason for not putting it at the beginning is that it would constitute a rather large and ugly object in the foreground of the picture.

For readers who wish to refer from this book to the original volumes the following equations will be useful.

Pages	1-79	represent Volume	I	of the original work.
”	80-164	”	II	”
”	165-243	”	III
’·	244-359	”	IV
”	360-494	”	V
”	495-565	”	VI

D. C. SOMERVELL