PREFACE

- v -It is a high privilege to have been allowed to provide a translation of the Demonstratio; for in default of a better it must for some time fill the vacant place in English bookshelves beside the noble edition of the Praeparatio, which was the work of Archdeacon Gifford's declining years.

Yet it is an appalling thought that this translation, continuing as it does the work of Gifford, should in any sense be thought to seek comparison with it. The writer has but endeavoured according to his powers, and amid other absorbing duties, to fill a recognized gap, by giving a faithful rendering of the words of Eusebius, so that it may be possible for the English student to become acquainted with all that remains of the work to which the Praeparation was the Introduction.

He has erred perhaps rather in the direction of literal exactness than of free paraphrase, especially in doctrinal sections, thinking it primarily necessary to make it clear what Eusebius actually said.

Limitations of space have made it impossible to reproduce the long passages from the Old Testament upon which Eusebius based his arguments. To have retained them in full would have been interesting because of their variations from the text of the LXX : but this consideration was hardly important enough to make their inclusion essential.

The translator would gratefully record his indebtedness to the Rev. W. K. Lowther Clarke, the Secretary of S.P.C.K., for his constant interest, scholarly guidance, and invaluable suggestions during the progress of the work: but for his help it would be far more imperfect than it is.

W. J. FERRAR.

East Finchley. 
Easter, 1920.