Page:Neatby - A history of the Plymouth Brethren.djvu/5



present work is partly based on a series of articles that I contributed to the British Weekly at the close of last year and the beginning of this, under the title of Darby and Darbyism. Perhaps about half the matter of the articles has been incorporated in the book, and the book is about three times as long as the whole of the articles. Readers of the British Weekly may therefore count on finding about five-sixths of this work fresh matter.

In the articles, enough narrative was supplied to make the description intelligible. In the book these relations are precisely reversed. An entirely fresh study of all the materials for the history, so far as they have proved accessible, (and the author has had comparatively few disappointments), has been made. I am not aware of any previous attempt to thoroughly sift and harmonise them.

Indeed, this book has one great advantage: it takes the field without rivals. No general history of the Plymouth movement has ever been undertaken. In introducing my articles, I argued