hope men
of every tongue and every nation.

ERNEST NAVILLE.

GENEVA, _May, 1865_.

NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR.

The appearance of this translation so long after that of the original
work is in contradiction to the foregoing statement of the Author, that
it would appear at nearly the same time with it. The delay has been due
to causes beyond the translator's control--in part to the difficulty of
revising the press at so great a distance from the place of publication,
the translator being resident at Geneva. This latter circumstance causes
an exception in another particular as regards this translation, the
proposal to translate the Lectures having been made to the Author, and
kindly accepted by him, during the course of their delivery at Geneva.

The mere statement by the Author of the numbers, large as they were, of
those who formed the auditories, can give but a small idea of the
enthusiasm with which they were received by the crowds which thronged to
hear them, and which were composed of all classes of persons, from the
most distinguished savant to the intelligent artisan.

It is not to be expected that the Lectures when read, even in the
original, and still less in a translation, can produce the vivid
impression which they made on those, who, with the translator, had the
privilege of hearing them delivered,--the Author having few rivals, on
the Continent or elsewhere, in the graces of polished eloquence; but the
subjects treated are, it is to be feared, of increasing importance, not
abroad only, but in England; and in fact one Lecture, the fourth, is in
a large measure occupied with forms of atheism which owe their chief
support to English authors. In that Lecture the Author shows that the
spiritual origin of man cannot "be put out of sight beneath details of
physiology and researches of natural history," and that these not only
"cannot settle," but "cannot so much as touch the question."

The same Lecture is occupied in part by a practical refutation of the
prejudice against religion drawn from the irreligious character of many
men of science. The Author's subject has led him in the present work to
confine his illustrations on this head to the question of natural
religion: but the translator will avow that a main motive with him to
undertake the labor of this translation has been the wish to prove, in
the instance of the distinguished Author himself, tha