memoirs, by unpublished manuscripts, by autograph letters, which the
families of the most conspicuous persons have confided to our care, or
by oral and well confirmed statements gathered from the lips of the last
survivors of this great epoch.

If some errors in fact or judgment have, notwithstanding, escaped us, we
shall be ready to acknowledge them, and repair them in sequent editions,
when the proofs have been transmitted to us. We shall not reply one by
one to such denials and contradictions as this book may give rise to; it
might be a tedious and unprofitable paper-war in the newspapers. But we
will make notes of every observation, and reply _en masse_, by our
proofs and tests, after a certain lapse of time. We seek the truth only,
and should blush to make our work a calumny of the dead.

As to the title of this book, we have only assumed it, as being unable
to find any other which can so well define this recital, which has none
of the pretensions of history, and therefore should not affect its
gravity. It is an intermediate labour between history and memoirs.
Events do not herein occupy so much space as men and ideas. It is full
of private details, and details are the physiognomy of characters, and
by them they engrave themselves on the imagination.

Great writers have already written the records of this memorable epoch,
and others still to follow will write them also. It would be an
injustice to compare us with them. They have produced, or will produce,
the history of an age. We have produced nothing more than a "study" of a
group of men and a few months of the Revolution.

A. L.