110 PREFACE. 



comprehended better the holiness of thought ! 

 Noble and venerable shades of Beuchlin, 

 of Henry StejDhens, of Casaubon, of Des- 

 cartes, rise up and teach ns what price yon 

 pnt upon truth ; by what toil you attained 

 it ; what you suffered for it ! It was the 

 comprehensive speculations of twenty per- 

 sons in the seventeenth century which en- 

 tirely changed the notions of civilized nations 

 throughout the world ; it was the obscure 

 labours of some poor scholars of the six- 

 teenth century which founded historical 

 criticism, and opened up a total revolution 

 in ideas on the past history of man. 



I have had too sensible an experience 

 of the intellectual discernment of the 

 public, not to feel certain that all those 

 who supported me yesterday will approve 

 of my following a like course, the most 

 profitable assuredly for science and the 

 wholesome discipline of the mind. 



Paris, February 23rd, 1862. 



