I know not whether I shall have sufficient life and strength to complete a plan so vast.  I shall be satisfied if, after having written the Life of Jesus, I am permitted to relate, as I understand it, the history of the apostles, the state of the Christian conscience during the weeks which followed the death of Jesus, the formation of the cycle of legends concerning the resurrection, the first acts of the Church of Jerusalem, the life of Saint Paul, the crisis of the time of Nero, the appearance of the Apocalypse, the fall of Jerusalem, the foundation of the Hebrew-Christian sects of Batanea, the compilation of the Gospels, and the rise of the great schools of Asia Minor originated by John.  Everything pales by the side of that marvellous first century.  By a peculiarity rare in history, we see much better what passed in the Christian world from the year 50 to the year 75, than from the year 100 to the year 150.

The plan followed in this history has prevented the introduction into the text of long critical dissertations upon controverted points.  A continuous system of notes enables the reader to verify from the authorities all the statements of the text.  These notes are strictly limited to quotations from the primary sources; that is to say, the original passages upon which each assertion or conjecture rests.  I know that for persons little accustomed to studies of this kind many other explanations would have been necessary.  But it is not my practice to do over again what has been already done well.  To cite only books written in French, those who will consult the following excellent writings[1] will there find explained a number of points upon which I have been obliged to be very brief: 

     Etudes Critiques sur l’Evangile de saint Matthieu, par M.
     Albert Reville, pasteur de l’eglise Wallonne de
     Rotterdam.[2]

     Histoire de la Theologie Chretienne au Siecle Apostolique,
     par M. Reuss, professeur a la Faculte de Theologie et au
     Seminaire Protestant de Strasbourg.[3]

Des Doctrines Religieuses des Juifs pendant les Deux Siecles Anterieurs a l’Ere Chretienne, par M. Michel Nicolas, professeur a la Faculte de Theologie Protestante de Montauban.[4]

     Vie de Jesus, par le Dr. Strauss; traduite par M. Littre,
     Membre de l’Institut.[5]

Revue de Theologie et de Philosophie Chretienne, publiee sous la direction de M. Colani, de 1850 a 1857.—­Nouvelle Revue de Theologie, faisant suite a la precedente depuis 1858.[6]

[Footnote 1:  While this work was in the press, a book has appeared which I do not hesitate to add to this list, although I have not read it with the attention it deserves—­Les Evangiles, par M. Gustave d’Eichthal.  Premiere Partie:  Examen Critique et Comparatif des Trois Premiers Evangiles.  Paris, Hachette, 1863.]