If humble heroes are not popular, shall I therefore leave their noble actions in obscurity? Shall I limit myself henceforward to bringing princes and kings on the stage, with statesmen, cardinals, armies, treaties, and empires? No: I cannot do so. I shall have to speak, indeed, of Francis I. and Charles V., of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII., and other great personages; but I shall still remain faithful to little people and little things. It is indeed a petty city whose struggles I am relating; but it is the city that for two centuries made head against Rome, until she had resigned the task entrusted to her into the hands of more powerful nations—England, Germany, and America. Let the liberals despise her who at this very time most enjoy the fruits of her severe struggles.... Be it so.... As for me, I have not the courage to follow them. I call to mind the refugees she has entertained ... the asylum they found there, and which their children still enjoy ... and I desire to pay my debt. Oh! if she would only understand that she cannot exist with honour in the future, unless, while loving liberty, she loves the Gospel more than everything else. Let me say a few words more on the principles which have guided me in composing this history. What it is necessary for us to study above all things is, in my opinion, the beginnings. The formation of beings, the origin of the successive phases of humanity, possess in my eyes an importance and interest far surpassing the exhibition of what these things have afterwards become. The creative epoch of Christianity, in which we contemplate Christ and His apostles, is to me far more admirable than those which succeeded it. Similarly the Reformation, which is the creation of the evangelical world in modern times, has greater attractions for me than the Protestantism which comes after. I take a pleasure in watching life in its commencement. When the work is done, its _summa momenta_ are over. In the first lines of the first volume of my first work, I said that I should follow this rule. I shall not be reproached for remaining faithful to it. An objection has been raised that this history is too full of details. I might reply that it is not good to leave facts in vagueness; that they must be analysed and described. The surrounding circumstances can alone give an accurate knowledge of events, and impress on them the stamp of reality. The author may here quote an authority which no one will dispute. He remembers, that being in Paris at M. Guizot's, just as the first volume of the _History of the Reformation_ appeared—about thirty years ago—that illustrious writer said to him: 'Give us DETAILS, the rest we know.' We do not think that many of our readers will fancy they know more than he does.