THIS book aims to trace the development of Europe and its civilization, from the decline of the Roman Empire to the opening of the sixteenth century, for the benefit of the college student and the general reader. It is almost needless to say that such a work makes little claim to originality in method and still less in subject-matter, which it has shamelessly borrowed from numerous sources. Indeed, in a book of this sort it is more fitting to apologize for anything new that one says than for following in old and beaten tracks. The author, of course, hopes that without making too radical departures he has introduced some improvement in selection and presentation of material, and that he has made few mistakes of fact and interpretation.
