Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed. In particular, spelling variations in quotations of archaic text and poetry were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to the corresponding illustrations.
The phrase “to face page” have been removed from the List of Illustrations and the caption area of the illustrations, as the illustrations are positioned within or adjacent to the pages referenced in the List of Illustrations.
The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references.
Footnotes, originally at the bottoms of pages, have been collected, renumbered, and placed after the Index.
A painter’s name is spelled “van Eyck” in most of this book, but as “van Eyke” on pages [279-281]. Both variants have been retained here.