The aim of the series is to give the best text which the examination of the manuscripts in their relation to each other affords, and to provide in a brief _apparatus criticus_ sufficient information to show the evidence on which the editor has based his decision. Conjectural emendations are mentioned in the notes when they are considered plausible, but are not admitted to the text except where they reach a high degree of probability. This principle, which is mainly due to the authority of the late Ingram Bywater, has commended itself in the course of years even to those who were at first disposed to think it too austere, and has greatly enhanced the permanent value of the series, which before the war was finding its way into Germany itself. A famous German publisher went so far indeed as to address to Oxford (on the eve of the war) a letter of remonstrance on the price of the series, which was described as too low for its value. The _Oxford Library of Translations_ consists mainly of prose versions of Greek and Latin authors. These have not been made to order or in accordance with any single principle of translation, but have been produced at the instance of scholars unable to deny themselves the satisfaction of translating a favourite author. This, which is perhaps the best guarantee of excellence, accounts for the miscellaneous constitution of the series, which has been enlarged by degrees as a happy conjunction of author and translator chanced to present itself, and from the same cause admits some interesting authors seldom or never included in series of translations made upon a less elastic plan. Another series of translations is the great collection of the _Sacred Books of the East_, which was begun many years ago by the late Max Müller and reached its fiftieth and concluding volume in 1910. The value of these translations to Orientalists is shown by the steady sale, which after forty years is still increasing, and by the high prices asked for the few volumes which are now unfortunately out of print.