To make his book more complete and

To make his book more complete and substantial, he had revised it thoroughly three times. Each revision was almost a complete re-writing of the previous draft. Notes and draft-copies lay on his writing-desk in piles several feet high. Part of this material he had paraphrased from old manuscripts, and part he had taken from records or narrations by other people. There was also a third part consisting of the record of his own studies, the results of his own critical judgment after years of research in the numerous, confused writings of old masters. Through repeated study, scrupulous discrimination and checking, he had finally succeeded in digesting and organizing material and notes that ran to nearly 10 million words and had compressed them into a masterpiece of well over a million words.