THE first four of these tables are reproduced as they stand in Mr. Toynbee’s original work. They give a conspectus of the mighty works that are the by-products of social disintegration. The fifth table is reprinted from Theology To-day, volume i, Number 3, by the kind permission of the Editor, Dr. John A. Mackay, and of Dr. Edward D. Myers, by whom this table was compiled to illustrate an article by him, in this number, on ‘Some Leading Ideas from Toynbee’s A Study of History’. Dr. Myers’s table gives a bird’s-eye view of the whole field of Mr. Toynbee’s first six volumes.
The reader of this abridged edition will find in these tables a number of names and facts to which he has not here been introduced. The reason is, of course, that the editor of this abridgement has, naturally and inevitably, been compelled to discard a large number of the historical illustrations presented in the original work and to prune away a large amount of detail from other illustrations that could only be retained at the price of being abbreviated. The tables, therefore, here serve not only their proper purpose of recapitulating some of the results of the author’s inquiry, but also the secondary purpose of reminding the reader of this abridgement how much he has missed by taking the easier road and following a shortened course.
