12 1900

сс

•M 36

PREFACE.

1890.

THE critical reader may possibly discover that this book has not taken shape at once aus einem Gusse; and he will at least excuse a few words in explanation of its origin and formation.

At the request of a literary friend in New England, editing a monthly periodical, I wrote, between 1872 and 1875, a series of theological papers which were designed, when complete, to present a compendious survey of the ground both of Natural and Historical religion as accepted in Christendom. Before the plan had been half worked out (i.e., after the appearance of fourteen papers), the periodical came to an end; and in the absence of the motive of a fixed engagement, the further materials which I had collected were thrown aside, to free me for the studies in another field which have occupied me since. But the forlorn rudiment of an intended structure, with its scaffolding still standing and its roof rotting on the ground, never ceased to haunt and reproach me; and when released from preoccupation with philosophy two years ago, I at once rushed to the fair field which I had uselessly deformed, and, with no little dismay, appraised the tumbled bricks and unhewn stone so long abandoned by the builder. Crumbling and weatherstained, they could no longer be trusted or wrought; and nothing remained but to mould and quarry as well as. build anew, accepting only the working plans from the past.

So great in the interval had been the gains of historical research, in regard especially to the growth of the Church in the first two centuries, that it was impossible to resume my task till I had overtaken the movement in advance by follow