It has long been the fashion to invoke languages which lack the terms for expressing such a concept as ‘tree’ or ‘animal’, even though they contain all the words necessary for a detailed inventory of species and varieties.

To avoid misunderstanding, I should note at once that my point of view is here not that of the mere logic of ideas and doctrines, but that of the concrete logic of the events of history.

It seems beyond question that the documents collected by Professor Laura Hibbard Loomis and Professor Roger Loomis invite the historian of the mediaeval stage to revise a current opinion founded on an incomplete citation of texts and many preconceptions.

France, the nation having the second largest colonial empire in the world, is the country bearing the largest responsibility in Africa.