Any attempt, indeed, to tell the story of the Aryan race, even in outline, during the recent age of mankind would be equivalent to an attempt to write the history of civilization, — which is far from our purpose. But in the comparison of the intellectual conditions and products of the several races of mankind, and in the consideration of the evolution of human institutions and lines of thought and action, we have a field of research which is by no means exhausted, and with which the general world of readers is very little con versant. Our work will therefore be found to be largely comparative in treatment, the characteristics and conditions of the other leading races of mankind being considered, and contrasted with those of the Aryan, with the purpose not only of clearly showing the general superiority of the latter, but also of point ing out the natural steps of evolution through which it emerged from original savagery and attained to its present intellectual supremacy and advanced stage of enlightenment.