Note 1 — EDITOR’S PREFACE.

The Athenæum of September 25, 1875. In this article we find a curious anecdote which we admit, not without some reserve. It serves as a support to the considerations which follow. The writer of the article relates that he once heard a discussion between M. Merle and Professor Ranke respecting certain features in the lives of his favorite heroes. The former defended them at all points; while the German historian, with his sceptical temperament, seemed to take a malicious pleasure in bringing forward their weaknesses. At the close of the discussion M. Merle exclaimed with some impatience—‘But I know them better than any one, those men of the sixteenth century. I have lived with them. I am a man of their time.’ ‘That explains every thing,’ replied Professor Ranke, ‘I could not believe when reading your books that you were a man of the nineteenth century.’ As our own age differs so greatly in every respect from the age of the Reformation, it must be counted a very fortunate circumstance that a man of the sixteenth century has arisen to depict for us that great epoch.