se defects I hope to remedy in a future
work on "Jesus of Nazareth, and the Founding of Christianity," for
which the present articles must be regarded as furnishing only a few
introductory hints. This work has been for several years on my mind,
but as it may still be long before I can find the leisure needful for
writing it out, it seemed best to republish these preliminary sketches
which have been some time out of print. The projected work, however,
while covering all the points here treated, will have a much wider
scope, dealing on the one hand with the natural genesis of the complex
aggregate of beliefs and aspirations known as Christianity, and on
the other hand with the metamorphoses which are being wrought in this
aggregate by modern knowledge and modern theories of the world.

The views adopted in the present essay as to the date of the Synoptic
Gospels may seem over-conservative to those who accept the ably-argued
conclusions of "Supernatural Religion." Quite possibly in a more
detailed discussion these briefly-indicated data may require revision;
but for the present it seems best to let the article stand as it was
written. The author of "Supernatural Religion" would no doubt admit
that, even if the synoptic gospels had not assumed their present form
before the end of the second century, nevertheless the body of tradition
contained in them had been committed to writing very early in that
century. So much appears to be proved by the very variations of text
upon which his argument relies. And if this be granted, the value of the
synoptics as HISTORICAL evidence is not materially altered. With their
value as testimony to so-called SUPERNATURAL events, the present essay
is in no way concerned.

Of all the great founders of religions, Jesus is at once the best known
and the least known to the modern scholar. From the dogmatic point of
view he is the best known, from the historic point of view he is the
least known. The Christ of dogma is in every lineament familiar to us
from early childhood; but concerning the Jesus of history we possess
but few facts resting upon trustworthy evidence, and in order to form
a picture of him at once consistent, probable, and distinct in
its outlines, it is necessary to enter upon a long and difficult
investigation, in the course of which some of the most delicate
apparatus of modern criticism is required. This circumstance is
sufficiently singular to require especial explanation. T