ght of even the most prominent personalities of that
time. In everything, even in relation to many of the leading questions of
the Christian religion, we are obliged to rely on combination and
construction. Not only in the Evangelists, but in many of the church
fathers, feeling overcomes reason, and their expressions admit but too
often of the most varied interpretations, as the later history of the
church has only too clearly proved. Nevertheless we must endeavour to
enter not only into their emotions, but also into their thoughts, and not
believe that they used words without thoughts. I do not say that this is
impossible. Unthinkable as it is, that words arise and exist without
ideas, yet we know only too well that words become mere words, that they
grow pale and die, and that they may finally become _vox et proeterea
nihil_. It is, however, the duty of the historian and especially of the
philologist to call back to life such words as have given up the ghost.
May what I have here written about the meaning of the Logos fulfil this
aim, and at the same time make it clear that my desire for the discovery
of the original text of the _Sermo Verus_ was not an idle one. I have
since learned that the same wish was expressed at an earlier date by no
less a person than Barthold Niebuhr.

CHAPTER II.

The Pferdebuerla (Horseherd)

A contributor to a periodical, which, like the _Deutsche Rundschau_, has a
world-wide circulation, receives many letters from every corner of the
earth. Many of them are nothing more than the twitter of birds in the
trees; he listens and goes his way. Others contain now and then something
of use, for which he is thankful, usually of course in silence, for a day
and night together contain only twenty-four hours, and but little time
remains for correspondence. It is interesting to note how radically one is
often misunderstood. While one person anonymously accuses the writer of
free thinking and heresy, another, and he generally gives his name,
complains of his orthodox narrow-mindedness, hypocrisy, and blindness,
which for the most part are attributed to poor Oxford, which, in foreign
countries at least, still has the reputation of high church orthodoxy.

Yet, in spite of all this, such letters are useful, for they give us a
knowledge of the public which we desire to influence, but which for the
most part goes its own way, as it may find most convenient. Often such
o