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contradicts it, even though it be received upon the authority of a St Paul or a St John-i.e. the Gospel is to be employed practically as the canon and standard for all its later historical accretions. He who cannot see eye to eye with me in these two conditions had better leave my book unread; for even if he were to read it, he would not understand why I have been obliged to write so many passages in the style of a polemical pamphlet rather than in that of a purely historical essay.

BASEL, December 1900.

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION

THE publication of my work in an English translation is especially gratifying to me, for it is indebted in more than one place to English thought. I consider myself fortunate in having made the acquaintance of Thomas Carlyle while I was still a student at the University. He has become my leader and the leader of many of my friends. Here and there in this book the English reader will perhaps catch an echo of certain passages in Carlyle's writings.

The translation strictly follows the German edition of 1900. It is only the first two chapters about Jesus which have been altered, and that merely so far as to make them correspond with statements contained in the author's later publications.

BASEL, February 1903.

THE AUTHOR.

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