GEORGE BELL & SONS LONDON: YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN NEW YORK: 66 FIFTH AVENUE, AND BOMBAY 53 ESPLANADE ROAD CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON BELL & CO. Brant 7-31-35 30776 ADVERTISEMENT. WHEN this volume was first projected, the Publisher's intention was merely to reprint the best edition of Ray's Proverbs, which had become a scarce book, and to add thereto that manifest desideratum, an Alphabetical Index. This alone would have been giving for a few shillings something more complete than had ever been given before. But on testing the Index, while it was yet in progress, he discovered that although many of the proverbs in Ray were duplicate, and even triplicate, under shades of difference, some of those now most current were entirely omitted. This gave rise to a diligent examination of other printed collections, of which the publisher has a considerable number, and the additions inserted in alphabetical order are the result. The first 280 pages contain the text of Ray intact, the remainder of the volume (more than one half) is occupied by the Index; in which the additions are distinguishable by the absence of numerical references. It has been found convenient, in some instances, to make one line in the Index serve as a reference to several in the body of the book, although there may be slight differences between them. In such cases, the most current English form of the proverb is usually adopted as the key. |