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The text is taken from the plain-text version typed and proofread by Sacred Writings Project in 1982-90 and parsed for web posting at BCCA by Michael Kalantar in 1994-95.

The pagination follows the printed text exactly, except that words that are hyphenated over two pages in the original are shown unbroken on the first of the two pages.  The frontispiece and title page have been transcribed from the printed version.

2. Diacriticals

Diacriticals have been manually copied from the printed text.

One type of diacritical used in the Bahá'í system of transliteration has no equivalent in HTML: dots placed under certain letters.  The emerging consensus among Bahá'ís on the Web is that these should be represented by underlining the letters.  While I have followed this convention, it may cause some confusion with the underlined characters that are also used in transliteration.  In the following words in the text, the underlining in my version indicates a dot under each letter underlined:
 

Bathá	Fátimih	Husayn	Mufaddal	Sádiq	Taff
Bihár	Hájí	Ibn-i-Súríyá	Muhammad	Sálih	Vahíd
Biháru'l-Anvár	Hijáz	Kázim	Ridván	Sirát	Yahyá

Only one word in the text has both a dot and underlining in transliteration:

     Husayn-i-Turshízí

in which only the initial H has a dot.

3. Index and Glossary

The Index and Glossary have been manually transcribed from the printed version.

4. Paragraph Numbers

Paragraph numbers are shown in red.  They are bracketed because they are not part of the 1994 text; they will, however, be incorporated into future printed versions.  They conform to Hooper Dunbar's system.  Note that paragraphs 84, 100, and 124 each include two paragraphs of the printed version.

5. Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks connect each word in the text that is found in the glossary to the definition of that word in the glossary, and from the page numbers in the index to the corresponding pages in the text.  Separate pages link all page numbers and paragraph numbers to the corresponding pages..

6. Historical Documents

The following documents, which do not appear in the 1994 edition, have been transcribed:

Foreword to the 1929 edition by '`Abdu'l-Bahá'.
Introduction to the 1929 edition by Ali Kuli Khan.
Introduction to the 1950 edition by Helen Reed Bishop.

This hypertext version is dedicated to Mrs. W., whose understanding of the Bahá'í Writings has always complemented my own.  I was blessed to marry a professional psychologist, having courted so many amateur psychologists.

A special note of thanks is due to Jonah Winters for his wise commentary on all of my contributions, and to both Jonah and Kari for brightening our home one day in April.
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