Ernest Cushing Richardson

“ Two or three e.g. have been struck by what has seemed to them the earnest seriousness with which certain matters have been treated and one has even gone so far as to reproach the writer with "conscientious scholarship." Now to have conscientious scholarship is a high ambition but to enjoy the reputation of it on false pretenses is to prove one not a conscientious scholar. ”

“ Essays, addresses, and encyclopedia articles have however been prepared out of this material from time to time for various occasions and audiences and it has seemed worth while, in default of something better, to shape these in such way as to form a general survey or first orientation of the matter, and to publish in this form, in spite of the fact that they are incomplete as to material and have been prepared for very different audiences and in very different perspectives. Such value as they have lies chiefly in the fact that those who could do the work better do not do it at all. ”

“ Use of and reference to secondary sources are, it is believed, according to correct method for an essay of this sort. References are used only sparingly and chiefly for emphasis or to acknowledge the borrowing of some specially pointed phrase or to indicate that by exception a secondary source is used at this point because the original is not easily accessible. Often they are simply elementary guides for readers to farther reading and study. ”