Advertisement IN 1886 the Author published a work in two volumes entitled Chapters in European History. It has long been out of print, and, for several reasons, he has not seen well to republish it in its original form. In this book a considerable portion of it finds place: viz. the Chapters on The Christian Revolution, The Turning-point of the Middle Ages, and The Age of Faith-all being more or less rewritten as well as the Introductory Dialogue on the Philosophy of History. The Chapters on The Nascent Church, The Inquisition, and Holy Matrimony have been reclaimed, by the kind permission of Mr. James Knowles, from the Nineteenth Century, where they originally appeared, and have received various alterations and additions. The Chapter on The Age of the Martyrs, with the exception of a few pages, is now published for the first time. The Dedicatory Letter prefixed to the original work is retained, in an abridged form, as a tribute of gratitude and affection to a friend now no more. January 1, 1903. b ΤΟ THE REV. JAMES PORTER, D.D., MASTER OF PETERHOUSE, CAMBRIDGE. MY DEAR Master, IN asking permission to inscribe this book to you, I desire to pay a tribute to a friendship extending from the days when, as a Scholar of Peterhouse, I enjoyed the advantage of your tuition. I desired also to associate a work, the fruit of studies then begun, with the "dear and dedicated name of the College which, besides much else, owes chiefly to your unflagging energy and unwearied zeal, the architectural restorations so admirably conceived and so effectively carried out. I could wish, indeed, that these Chapters in European History were less unworthy of Peterhouse and of you. I am well aware that each of them, for the adequate treatment of its subject, should be expanded into a volume. But I think that readers who bestow upon them a more than superficial examination, will find that they are informed by a real unity of thought. The well-known dictum of Hegel-profoundly true, it seems to me—that the philosophy of viii history is the supreme end of philosophy, may serve to indicate the spirit in which I have written. And while I must not anticipate your agreement with all that is said in these pages, I am assured, from experience, of finding in you a critic like the counsellor of his youthful Muse commemorated by Pope-a |