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PREFACE xliii P. L., t. 182. M. Grabmann, fitienne Gilson and P. Mandonnet belong to the 'star chamber' of modern critics and commenta- tors. For the beginner, who may find the text slightly obdurate, I recommend: An Introduction to Philosophy, by Jacques Mari- tain, Sheed and Ward, 1933. Because of the parallel doctrine, not to speak of its excellent conception, I also mention: The Logic of William of Oc1(ham 9 Ernest Moody, Sheed and Ward, 1935- According to Dante in The Convivio Latin is a conventional language, especially designed for stability and catholicity in order to reduce the confusion of the Tower of Babel. The vulgar tongue follows fluid usage, but the Latin follows pre- meditated art. This places a special charge upon the translator. The De Ente is an argument in the strictest sense. Its object is to demonstrate propositions and to invoke concepts. One may expect the restrained severity of demonstration, the repetitive convention of basic propositions as in a geometrical proof, and finally the cumulative persuasion of expanded meaning result- ing from ordered syllogisms. In such expositions stylish word variations, pleonasms, and in short the whole apparatus by which modish writers puff the contours of their writings ob- scure the clarity and integrity of principles. Accordingly, the translator has confined paraphrase to the preface and has sought to adhere to the precise meaning of the text and thus to render a metaphrase even at the expense of awkward expression. In general the Latinity of St. Thomas, inherited from Cicero and Boethius, passes with a just retention of meaning into English. I have rendered all of the technical terms by English equivalents, thus avoiding a certain esoteric manner of trans- lators which makes for obscurantism, since not the words as such, but the concepts promoted by the context, "the discourse within the soul", are the proper vehicles of intelligence. In sundry places where the word ratio appears, it has been trans-