(1) This epistle is the true chief of the New Testament, and the most pure gospel, which is well worthy and worthy that a Christian man should not only know it by heart from word to word, but should handle it daily, as the daily bread of the soul. For it can never be read or considered too much and too well, and the more it is handled, the more delicious it becomes and tastes great.
2 Therefore I will also do my service to it, and prepare an entrance to it through this preface, as much as God has given me, so that it may be understood all the better by everyone. For it is hitherto darkened with glosses and various gossip, which is nevertheless a bright light in itself, almost sufficient to illuminate the whole of Scripture.
First of all, we must know the language and what St. Paul means by these words: law, sin, grace, faith, righteousness, flesh, spirit, and the like, otherwise there is no use in reading them.
4 You must not understand the word "law" here in a human way, that it is a teaching what works are to be done or not to be done, as it is with human laws, since one does enough for the law with works, if the heart is already not there. God judges according to the heart. Therefore, his law also demands the heart's reason and does not allow him to be satisfied with works, but rather punishes works done without the heart's reason as hypocrisy and lies. Therefore all men are called liars, Ps. 116:11, because no one can keep God's law out of his heart, for everyone finds in himself a reluctance to do good and a desire to do evil. Where there is no free desire to do good, there is no reason in the heart to keep the law of God; there is certainly sin and wrath deserved by God, even though there are many good works and honorable deeds in the heart. Therefore St. Paul concludes Cap. 2, 12. 13. that the Jews are all sinners, and says that only the doers of the law are righteous.
*This preface is found in the Leipzig edition, vol. XII, p. 56 and in the Erlangen edition, vol. 63, p. 119. Justus Jonas translated it into Latin. His translation is included in the Latin Wittenberg edition (1554), torn. V, toi. The same is also inserted into the Latin Bible translation of 1529 attributed to Luther, Walch, old edition, vol. XIV (second part), Col. 905.
by God. He means that no one is a perpetrator with works of the law, but rather says to them, v. 22: "You teach that one should not commit adultery, and you break marriage"; item, v. 1: "In which you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you do the same thing that you judge. As if to say, "You live outwardly in the works of the law, and judge those who do not live this way, and know how to teach everyone; you see the mote in another's eye, but you are not aware of the beam in your own eye [Matt. 7:3].
(6) For though you keep the law by heart with works, out of fear of punishment or love of reward, yet you do everything without free desire and love for the law, but with unwillingness and compulsion, 'would rather do otherwise if the law were not. From this it is evident that you are hostile to the law from the bottom of your heart. What is it, then, that you teach others not to steal, if you yourself are a thief in heart, and outwardly would gladly be one if you could? Even though the outward work does not last long with such hypocrites. So you teach others, but not yourself; you do not know yourself what you teach, you have never understood the law. Yes, the law increases sin, as he says in the fifth chapter, v. 20, so that man only becomes more hostile to it the more it demands that he cannot do.
Therefore, in the seventh chapter, v. 14, he says: "The law is spiritual. What is this? If the law were corporeal, works would be enough for it; but since it is spiritual, no one does enough for it, unless everything you do is from the heart. But no one gives such a heart except God's Spirit, which makes a man like the law, so that he gains air to the law from the heart, and henceforth does everything not out of fear or compulsion, but out of a free heart. Thus the law is spiritual, which wants to be loved and filled with such a spiritual heart, and demands such a spirit. Where this is not in the heart, there remains sin, unwillingness, enmity against the law, which is good, just and holy.
8 Get used to the idea that "doing the work of the law" and "fulfilling the law" are two different things. The work of the law
is everything that man does, or can do, by the law, out of his own free will and powers. But because under and beside such works there remains in the heart unwillingness and compulsion to the law, such works are all lost and of no use. This is what St. Paul means Cap. 3, 20, when he says: "By the work of the law no man is justified in the sight of God." Therefore, you see that the school-baiters and sophists are deceivers when they teach that they prepare themselves for grace by works. How can one prepare himself for good by works who does no good work without unwillingness and displeasure in his heart? How can a work please God if it comes from an unenthusiastic and unwilling heart?
(9) But to fulfill the law is to do one's works with love and love, and to live freely without the constraint of the law, divinely and well, as if there were no law or punishment. The Holy Spirit gives such a desire for free love into the heart, as he says in Cap. 5, 5. But the Spirit is not given only in, with and through faith in Jesus Christ, as he says in the preface. So faith does not come without God's word or gospel alone, which preaches Christ, as He is the Son of God and man, dead and risen for our sake, as he says in the third [v. 25], fourth [v. 25] and tenth chapters [v. 9].
(10) Hence it is that faith alone justifies and fulfills the law, for it brings the Spirit out of Christ's merit. But the Spirit makes the heart merry and free, as the law requires; so then good works proceed from faith itself. This is what he means Cap. 3, 31, after he had rejected the works of the law, that it reads as if he wanted to abolish the law through faith. No (he says), "we establish the law by faith," that is, we fulfill it by faith.
11 In Scripture, "sin" means not only the outward work of the body, but all the business that is involved in and leads to the outward work, namely, the foundation of the heart, with all its strength. So that the word "do" means when a person completely falls away and goes into sin. For there is no outward work of sin, for a man goes completely down with body and soul. And especially the scripture looks into the heart,
and to the root and main source of all sin, which is unbelief at the bottom of the heart. So that as faith alone makes righteous, and brings the spirit and desire to good outward works, so unbelief alone sins, and brings up the flesh, and desire to evil outward works, as happened to Adam and Heva in paradise, Gen. 3:6.
(12) Therefore Christ alone calls unbelief sin, when he says John 16:8, 9: "The Spirit will punish the world for sin, because they have not believed in me. Therefore, before good or evil works are done, as the good or evil fruit, there must first be faith or unbelief in the heart, as the root, sap and main force of all sin, which in Scripture is also called the head of the serpent and the head of the old dragon, which the seed of the woman, Christ, must crush, as Adam was promised. Genesis 3:15.
13 "Grace" and "gift" are distinguished by the fact that grace actually means God's grace or favor, which He bears to us in Himself, from which He is inclined to pour Christ and the Spirit into us with His gifts, as is clear from the fifth chapter, v. 15, where He says: "Grace and gift in Christ" etc. Although the gifts and the spirit in us increase daily, and are not yet perfect, so that evil desires and sin still remain in us, which fight against the spirit, as he says Rom. 7, 14. f. 23. and Gal. 5, 17. and as Gen. 3, 15. proclaims, the strife between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, yet grace does so much that we are counted completely and fully righteous before God. For his grace does not divide and separate itself, as the gifts do, but receives us wholly into 1) grace, for the sake of Christ our Advocate and Mediator, and [because] the gifts have begun in us.
14 So you understand the seventh chapter, where St. Paul still calls himself a sinner, and yet in the eighth, v. 1, he says that there is nothing condemnable about those who are in Christ, because of the imperfect gifts and the Spirit. For the sake of the undying flesh
1) "in" is in the Weimar Bible, but is missing in the Erlangen edition.
we are still sinners; but because we believe in Christ and have the beginning of the Spirit, God is so favorable and gracious to us that He will not regard such sin nor judge it, but will continue with us by faith in Christ until sin is put to death.
(15) "Faith" is not the human delusion and dream that some take for faith. And when they see that no improvement of life nor good works follow, and yet they can hear and speak much of faith, they fall into error, and say: Faith is not enough; one must do works if one is to become pious and blessed. That is why, when they hear the gospel, they fall, and by their own efforts make a thought in their hearts, saying, I believe. They consider this to be a true faith. But as it is a human thought and thought, which the reason of the heart never knows, so it does nothing, and no improvement follows after it.
But faith is a divine work in us, which transforms us and gives us new birth from God, John 1:13, and kills the old Adam, makes us completely different people in heart, courage, mind and all powers, and brings the Holy Spirit with it. Oh, there is a living, busy, active, powerful thing about faith, that it is impossible that it should not work good without ceasing. Nor does he ask whether good works are to be done, but before he asks, he has done them, and is always doing them. But he who does not do such works is a faithless man, groping and looking about for faith and good works, and knowing neither what faith nor good works are, yet washing and babbling much talk of faith and good works.
17 Glanbe is a living, bold confidence in God's grace, so certain that he would die a thousand times over. And such confidence and knowledge of divine grace makes one cheerful, defiant and merry toward God and all creatures, which the Holy Spirit does in faith. Therefore, man 2) becomes willing and joyful without compulsion to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer all kinds of things.
2) "Man" is missing from the Erlanger, but is in the Weimar Bible.
100 Erl. 63, 125-128. prefaces to the German Bible translation. W. XIV, II5-II8. 101
For the love and praise of God, who has shown him such grace, so that it is impossible to separate works from faith, indeed as impossible as burning and shining can be separated from fire. Therefore, beware of your own false thoughts and useless talkers, who want to be wise in judging from faith and good works, and are the greatest fools. Ask God to work faith in you, otherwise you will remain eternally without faith, you will be dense and do what you want or can.
18. "Righteousness" then is such faith, and is called God's righteousness, or that which is valid before God, because it gives God, and counts for righteousness, for the sake of Christ, our Mediator, and makes man give to everyone what he owes. For by faith man becomes sinless, and gains pleasure in God's commandments; thereby he gives his glory to God, and pays Him what he owes Him; but to men he willingly serves what he can, and thereby also pays everyone. Such justice cannot be achieved by nature, free will, and our powers. For as no one can give him faith by himself, so he cannot take away unbelief; how then will he take away a few small sins? Therefore everything that happens apart from faith or in unbelief is false, hypocritical and sinful, Rom. 14:23, however good it may be.
19. You must not understand "flesh" and "spirit" here to mean that "flesh" alone refers to unchastity and "spirit" to the inner part of the heart, but flesh is called by St. Paul, like Christ, John 3:6.Therefore, you should also know to call him "carnal" who, without grace, writes, teaches and prattles much about high spiritual things; as you can well learn from the works of the flesh, Gal. 5:20, since he also calls heresy and hatred the works of the flesh. And Rom. 8:3 says that the law is weakened by the flesh, which is not said of unchastity, but of all sins, but mostly of unbelief, which is the most spiritual vice.
20 Again, also call "spiritual" him that worketh in the most outward works, as Christ when he washed the disciples' feet, and Peter when he led the ship and fished. So that the flesh is a man who lives and works inwardly and outwardly for the benefit of the flesh and temporal life, and the spirit is a man who lives and works inwardly and outwardly for the benefit of the spirit and life to come.
Without such an understanding of these words, you will never understand this epistle of St. Paul, which is not yet a book of holy scripture. Therefore, beware of all teachers who use these words differently, whoever they may be, whether they be Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, Origen, and their like, and even higher. Now let us turn to the epistle.
(22) Since it behooves an evangelical preacher, first of all, by revealing the law and sins, to punish and make sinful everything that is not lived out of the spirit and faith in Christ, so that men may be led to their own knowledge and sorrow, that they may become humble and desire help, St. Paul also does this, beginning in the first chapter and punishing the gross sins and unbelief that were public in the day when the Gentiles were and are still sinning without God's grace. Paul also begins in the first chapter and punishes the gross sins and unbelief that are public in the day when the sins of the Gentiles were and still are, those who live without God's grace, saying that God's wrath from heaven is revealed through the gospel against all men because of their ungodly nature and unrighteousness. For although they know and daily recognize that there is one God, yet their nature is so evil in itself, apart from grace, that they neither thank nor honor Him, but blind themselves, and fall into wickedness without ceasing, until, after idolatry, they also commit the most shameful sins with all vices, unashamedly, and in addition leave others unpunished.
In the second chapter, he also extends such punishment to those who seemed outwardly pious, or who secretly sinned when the Jews were, and are still all hypocrites who live well [and respectably] 1) without lust and love,
1) The words "und ehrbarlich" are missing in the Erlangen edition, - but are in the Weimar as well as in the Altenburg Bible. The Latin does not give any information about this.
and are hostile to God's law in their hearts, and yet like to judge other people, as is the way of all sinners, that they consider themselves pure, and yet are full of avarice, hatred, pride and all filthiness, Matth. 23, 25. They are the ones who despise God's goodness and heap wrath upon themselves according to their hardness, so that St. Paul, as a right lawyer, leaves no one without sin, but proclaims the wrath of God to all who want to live well by nature or free will. Paul, as a true lawyer, lets no one remain without sin, but proclaims the wrath of God to all who by nature or free will want to live well, and lets them be no better than public sinners; indeed, he says they are hard-hearted and impenitent.
24) On the third day he threw them both into one heap, saying: "Let one be like the other, all sinners before God, without the Jews having had God's word; although many did not believe it, yet God's faith and truth are not finished. And by chance he introduces the saying from the 51st Psalm, v. 6, that God remains righteous in his words. After that he comes back to it, and also proves by scripture that they are all sinners, and by the work of the law no one is justified, but the law was only given to recognize sin.
25. After this he begins and teaches the right way how one must become pious and blessed, and says: "They are all sinners, and lack the glory which they ought to have in God, 1) but must be justified without merit" through faith in Christ, who has merited this for us through His blood, and has become for us a mercy seat from God, forgiving all our former sins; so that He may prove that His righteousness, which He gives by faith, alone helps us, which was revealed at that time through the Gospel, and testified beforehand through the Law and the Prophets. So the law is established by faith, although the works of the law are put down with it, along with their glory.
26) On the fourth, when sin is revealed through the first three chapters, and the way of faith to righteousness is taught, he begins to meet with some pleas and claims, and first of all he takes the one whom
1) In the first edition instead of: "and lack - should": "and without God's glory".
All who hear of faith do commonly, how it justifies without works, saying, Shall one do no good works? So he himself holds up Abraham, saying, What did Abraham do with his works, was it all in vain? Were his works of no use? And he condemns that Abraham was justified by faith alone, without any works, so that even before the work of his circumcision he is justified by the Scriptures because of his faith alone, Genesis 15:6. If the work of circumcision did nothing for his righteousness, which God commanded him to do, and was a good work of obedience, then certainly no other good work will do anything for righteousness, but as the circumcision of Abraham was an outward sign, so that he proved his righteousness in faith, so all good works are only outward signs that follow from faith, and prove, as the good fruits, that man is already righteous before God inwardly.
With this, St. Paul confirms his previous teaching in the third chapter, v. 27, about faith, as with a strong example from Scripture, and also cites a witness, David, from the 32nd Psalm, who also says that a man is justified without works; although he does not remain without works when he has been justified. Then he sets the example against all the other works of the law, and concludes that the Jews cannot be Abraham's heirs because of blood alone, much less because of the work of the law, but must inherit Abraham's faith if they want to be true heirs, since Abraham was justified by faith before your law, both Mosiah and circumcision, and is called the father of all believers. For this cause also the law worketh wrath rather than grace, because no man doeth it with pleasure and love, that rather disgrace than grace cometh by the work of the law. Therefore faith alone must obtain the grace promised by Abraha. For these examples also are written for our sakes, that we also should believe.
28) In the fifth place, he comes to the fruits and works of faith, which are peace, joy, love toward God and toward everyone, as well as security, defiance, joyfulness, courage and hope.
ntribution in affliction and suffering. For all these things follow, where faith is right, because of the abundant good that God has shown us in Christ, in that he sent him to die for us before we could ask him, even while we were still enemies. So then we have that faith without all works justifies, and yet it does not follow from this that one should therefore do no good works, but that the righteous works do not remain outside, of which the saints of works know nothing, and seal up their own works, in which there is neither peace, joy, security, love, hope, nor defiance of any right Christian work and faith.
29) After this, he makes an airy departure and walk, and tells where both sin and unrighteousness, death and life, come from; and holds the two finely against each other, Adam and Christ. This is why Christ had to come, another Adam, who inherited his righteousness on us through a new, spiritual birth in faith, just as that Adam inherited sin on us through the old fleshly birth.
(30) This proves and confirms that no one can help him even from sins to righteousness with works, as little as he can prevent himself from being born in the flesh. This is also proven by the fact that the divine law, which was supposed to help righteousness, has not only come without help, but has also increased sin, so that the more the law resists it, the more the evil nature becomes hostile to it, and the more it wants to atone for its lust. So that the law makes Christ even more necessary, and demands more grace to help nature.
(31) On the sixth, he sets before him the special work of faith, the contending of the Spirit with the flesh, to put to death the rest of the sins and lusts that remain after righteousness, teaching us that we are not so freed from sins by faith that we should be idle, slothful, and secure, as if sin were no more. There is sin, but it is not counted for condemnation because of the faith that contends with it. Therefore we have enough to do with ourselves all our lives, that we tame our body, kill a lust, and its members.
To the extent that they are obedient to the Spirit and not to the lusts, that we may be conformed to the death and resurrection of Christ, and complete our baptism (which also means the death of sins and new life of grace), until we are completely clean from sins, also bodily resurrected with Christ and live forever.
32 And this we can do, saith he, because we are in grace, and not under the law. Which he himself interprets, that to be without law is not so much to say that one has no law, and may do what anyone desires, but to be under the law is when we deal with law works without grace. Then sin certainly reigns through the law, since no one is naturally fond of the law; but this is great sin. But grace makes the law pleasant to us; so there is no more sin, and the law is no longer against us, but one with us.
But the same is the right freedom from sin and from the law, of which he writes to the end of this chapter, that it is a freedom to do only good with pleasure, and to live well without the constraint of the law. Therefore freedom is a spiritual freedom, which does not abolish the law, but gives what is demanded by the law, namely lust and love, so that the law is satisfied, and has no more to drive and demand. As if you owed a feudal lord and could not pay. You would like to get rid of him in two ways: first, so that he would not take anything from you and would break his register; and second, so that a pious man would pay for you and give to you, so that you would do enough for his register. In this way Christ has set us free from the law. Therefore it is not a wild, carnal liberty, which should do nothing, but which does much and all things, and is free from the law's demand and guilt.
34 On the seventh, he confirmed this with an equality of conjugal life. When a husband dies, the wife is also unmarried, and is thus free of one another. This does not mean that the wife may not or should not take another husband, but rather that she is now free to take another husband, which she could not do before she was free from that husband.
So our conscience is connected to the
Law, under the sinful old man; when he is killed by the Spirit, the conscience is free, and one is rid of the other. Not that the conscience should do nothing, but that it should first of all cling to Christ, the other man, and bear fruit of life.
(36) Then he goes on to describe the nature of sins and the law, how through the law sin now becomes quite active and powerful. For the old man becomes only the more hostile to the law, because he cannot pay what is demanded by the law. For sin is his nature, and nothing else can come from him; therefore the law is his death and all his torment. Not that the law is evil, but that the evil nature cannot suffer good to be demanded of it, just as a sick person cannot suffer to be demanded to run and jump and other works of a healthy person.
(37) Therefore St. Paul here concludes that where the law is rightly discerned and well understood, it does no more, for it reminds us of our sin, and by the same kills us, and makes us guilty of eternal wrath, as all this is finely taught and experienced in the conscience when it is rightly met with the law, so that one must have something else and more than the law to make man godly and blessed. But those who do not rightly recognize the law are blind, they go there presumptuously, they think they have done enough with works, because they do not know how much the law requires, namely a voluntary, merry heart; therefore they do not see Mosi rightly under their eyes, the cloth is put in front of them and covered.
(38) Then he shows how the spirit and the flesh contend with each other in one man, and sets himself as an example, that we may learn to know the work (to kill sin in ourselves) aright. He calls both the spirit and the flesh one law, because just as the divine law drives and demands, so also the flesh drives and demands and rages against the spirit, and wants its pleasure. Again the spirit drives and demands against the flesh, and wants to have its pleasure. This quarrel lasts in us as long as we live, in one more, in the other less.
1) Jonas: in uno et eodem homine.
after which the spirit or flesh becomes stronger. And yet the whole man himself is both spirit and flesh, contending with himself until he becomes wholly spiritual.
39) In the eighth place, he comforts such fighters that such flesh does not condemn them, and further shows what is the nature of the flesh and the nature of the Spirit, and how the Spirit comes from Christ, who has given us his Holy Spirit, who makes us spiritual and subdues the flesh, assuring us that we are nevertheless children of God, however hard sin rages in us, as long as we follow the Spirit and resist sin to kill it. But since nothing is so good to deceive the flesh as the cross and suffering, he comforts us in suffering by the help of the Spirit of love and of all creatures, namely, that both the Spirit groan in us, and the creature longs with us, that we may be rid of the flesh and of sins. So we see that these three chapters, 6., 7., 8., are driving towards the one work of faith, which is called killing the old Adam and forcing the flesh.
In the ninth, tenth and eleventh chapters, he teaches about the eternal providence of God, which is why it originally begs who should believe or not believe, who can be freed from sins or not; so that it may ever be taken out of our hands altogether and placed in God's hand alone, that we may become godly. And this is also most necessary. For we are so weak and uncertain that, if it were up to us, not one person would be saved, but the devil would surely overpower them all. But now that God is certain that He will not fail in His providence, nor can anyone resist Him, we still have hope against sin.
But here a mark is to be put on the wicked and arrogant spirits, who first lead their minds here and start up to search the abyss of divine providence beforehand, and in vain worry about whether they are provided for. They must then fall themselves, that they either despair, or strike themselves into the open redoubt.
42. but follow this epistle in its order, first be concerned with Christ and the gospel, that you may know your sin and his grace, then contend with sin, as taught here in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th chapters. After that, if you
When you have come to the eighth chapter, to the cross and suffering, the verse in the 9th, 10th [and] 11th chapters will teach you rightly how comforting it is. For without suffering, the cross and the hardships of death, the verse cannot be acted without harm and secret anger against God. Therefore Adam must first be dead before he suffers this thing and drinks the strong wine. Therefore, beware that you do not drink wine while you are still an infant. Every teaching has its measure, time and age.
In the twelfth, he teaches the right worship, and makes all Christians priests, that they should sacrifice, not money nor cattle, as in the law, but their own bodies, with the killing of lusts. He then describes the outward conduct of Christians in spiritual government, how they should teach, preach, govern, serve, give, suffer, love, live and do toward friend, foe and everyone. These are the works that a Christian does. For, as has been said, faith does not celebrate.
44 On the thirteenth, he teaches the secular government to honor and obey, which was established for this reason: although it does not make people righteous in the sight of God, it does so much that the righteous have outward peace and protection, and the wicked cannot freely do evil without fear, or with peace and tranquility. Therefore it is to be honored, even for the pious, whether they may not be. Finally, however, he puts everything into love, and infuses it into the example of Christ, as he did to us, that we also do likewise and follow him.
In the fourteenth, he teaches to guide the weak consciences in faith carefully and to spare them, so that the freedom of Christians is not used to harm but to promote the weak. For where this is not done, discord and contempt for the gospel follow, in which all need lies; that it is better to give way a little to the weak believers until they become stronger, than that the teaching of the gospel should perish. And such a work is a special work of love, which is also necessary now, since the weak consciences are shaken with meat-eating and other freedom, boldly and harshly, without any need, 1) before they recognize the truth.
1) Thus the first edition. Weimar Bible: "shattered". Jonas: laedunt.
46. on the fifteenth he sets Christ as an example, that we also tolerate the other weak, as those who are otherwise infirm, in public sins, or of unpleasant manners; whom it is not necessary to cast down, but to bear until they also become better. For so Christ hath done with us, and doeth daily, that he beareth unto us much iniquity and wickedness, beside all imperfection, and helpeth without ceasing.
47. After this, in conclusion, he prays for them, praises them, and commends them to God, and shows his ministry and preaching, and asks them very neatly for taxation to the poor of Jerusalem; and is all love, which he speaks of and deals with.
48. 2) The last chapter is a greeting chapter; But under it he mixes a noble warning against the doctrines of men, which invade alongside the evangelical doctrine and cause trouble, just as if he had certainly foreseen that from Rome and through the Romans would come the seductive, annoying Canons and Decretales, and the whole canker and worm of human laws and commandments, which have now drowned all the world, and have destroyed this epistle and all holy Scripture, together with the spirit and faith, so that nothing is left but the idolatrous belly, whose servant St. Paul here chides them. Paul chides them. God deliver us from them, Amen!
In this epistle, then, we find in abundance what a Christian should know about the law, the gospel, sin, punishment, grace, faith, righteousness, Christ, God, good works, love, hope, the cross, and how we should behave toward everyone, whether pious or sinner, strong or weak. Friend or foe, and against ourselves. In addition, all of this is well founded in scripture, with examples from himself and the prophets, so that nothing more is to be desired here. Therefore it seems as if St. Paul in this epistle wanted to summarize the whole Christian and evangelical doctrine and to prepare an entrance into the whole Old Testament. Without a doubt, whoever has this epistle in his heart has the light and power of the Old Testament with him. Therefore, let every Christian keep it in common and constant practice. God grant His grace, amen.
2) This section is in the first edition only after the following, and forms there the conclusion of the preface.