  In this book there will be found an introduction to transcendental number
theory, starting at the beginning and ending at the frontiers. The emphasis is
on the conceptual aspects of the subject, thus the effective theory has been
more or less completely ignored, as has been the theory of $E$-functions and
$G$-functions. Still, a fair amount of ground is covered and while I take
certain results without proof, this is done primarily so as not to get bogged
down in technicalities, otherwise the exposition is detailed and little is left
to the reader.
