Ebook Albert the Great, of the Order of Friar-Preachers

To those of our readers who are acquainted with Sighart's Life of Albert the Great, it may appear somewhat singular that, in presenting it to the public in an English dress, we should have suppressed that portion of the work which deals with the "Science" of the great Master. Such a reflection is natural enough. We own that our first intention was to have given the whole of the work entitled, "Albert the Great: his Life and Science;" and that, so far as our own individual tastes are con cerned, nothing would have been more agreeable thereto. But considering, on the one hand, that to the generality of our readers the Science of the Schools could afford but small interest, while, on the other, to increase a work already necessarily large would be also to increase its price to the public, we have been induced to put aside the Science of Blessed Albert, and to confine our labours to a careful reproduction of his Life in English. We have moreover omitted here and there a few unimportant extracts from his writings, for the twofold purpose of avoiding useless and wearisome repetition and of reducing the work as far as is convenient within a narrower compass. We therefore trust that these reasons will appear to those who read these pages sufficient to justify the liberty we have taken with the work before us.