period, and the third volume the modern period. The second scheme so underwent slight changes, as the second volume, as it is now printed, contains selections from the fourth period. The printing of the second and third volumes was first undertaken, as the matter for the first volume could not be got ready before all the other volumes were printed off. Sir Asutosh was to write a preface to the third volume, but unfortunately we find only his scheme for the typical selections with special reference to the volumes on Assamese literature inserted at the beginning of the third volume.
Mr. Goswami's original idea was to make every volume self-contained, i.e, complete in itself, with preface, intro- duction, contents, text and glossary. He wrote in & letter from Jorhat, dated July 10, 1923,—“The Preface will give only an account of the preparation and the printing of the book; the Introduction will give the history of Assamese literature showing the progress and development of the language with the distinctive characteristics of the periods dealt with in the volume; and the Glossary would give the archaic words with their interpretations. The modern period being almost devoid of archaic words, the Glossary of the third volume would be necessarily small. In my opinion, this would be a much better arrangement than to have a separate volume of Glossary for all the periods. This would have been certainly the ideal method of publishing the selections, but Mr. Goswami's official preoccupations, his gradually failing health, coupled with the inconvenience of printing the book from a distance, did not permit it to be brought out on the lines of modern critical compilations.
I would, therefore, suggest that arrangements should be made for compiling and publishing & supplementary volume which will contain a critical introduction dealing with the history of Assamese language and literature with special reference to the periods into which the selects have been grouped; it should also have illustrations, a glossary, an
