when i was a young man (i.e., nearly forty years ago), i once did what those who know the ground would declare a very risky, indeed, a fool-hardy thing. i was at the highest point of the gemmi pass in switzerland, above the[xix] rhone valley; and being in a hurry to get down and overtake my party i ran from the top to the bottom. the path in those days was not so good as it is now, and it is so near the precipice that a few years afterwards a lady in descending lost her head and fell over. no doubt i was in great danger of a drop of a thousand feet or so. but of this i was totally unconscious. i was in a thick mist, and saw the path for a few yards in front of me and nothing more. when i think of the way in which this book was written three and twenty years ago i can compare it to nothing but my first descent of the gemmi. i did a very risky thing without knowing it. my path came into view little by little as i went on. all else was hid from me by a thick mist of ignorance. when i began the book i knew next to nothing of the reformers, but i studied hard and wrote hard, and i turned out the essays within the year. this feat i now regard with amazement, almost with horror. since that time i have given more years of work to the subject than i had then given months, and the consequence is i find i can write fast no longer. the mist has in a measure cleared off, and i cannot jog along in comfort as i did when i saw less. at the same time i have no reason to repent of the adventure. being fortunate in my plan and thoroughly interested by my subject, i succeeded beyond my wildest expectations in getting others to take an interest in it also. the small english edition of 500 copies was, as soon as i reduced the price, sold off immediately, and the book has been, in england, for twenty years “out of print.” but no less than three publishing firms in the united states have reprinted it (one quite recently) without my consent, and, except in the edition of messrs. r. clarke & co., cincinnati, with omissions and additions made without my knowledge. it seems then that the book will live for some years yet,[xx] whether i like it or not; and while it lives i wish it to be in a form somewhat less defective than at its first appearance. i have therefore in a great measure re-written it, beside filling in a gap here and there with an additional essay. perhaps some critics will call it a new book with an old title. if they do, they will i trust allow that the new book has at least two merits which went far to secure the success of the old, 1st, a good title, and 2nd, a good plan. my plan in both editions has been to select a few people who seemed specially worth knowing about, and to tell concerning them in some detail just that which seemed to me specially worth knowing. so i have given what i thought very valuable or very interesting, and everything i thought not particularly valuable or interesting i have ruthlessly omitted. i have not attempted a complete account of anybody or anything; and as for what the examiner may “set,” i have not once given his questions a thought.
as the book is likely to have more readers in the country of its adoption than in the country of its birth, i have persuaded my friend dr. william t. harris, the united states commissioner of education, to put it into “the international education series” which he edits. so the only authorized editions of the book are the english edition, and the american edition published by messrs. d. appleton & co.
r. h. q.
earlswood cottage, redhill, surrey, england, 28th july, 1890.
