Excerpt from Introduction: "James Balmes is well and favorably known to the public by his excellent work on European civilization, —a work which has been translated into the principal languages of Europe. In that work he proved himself a man of free and liberal thought, of brilliant genius, and varied and profound learning. But his work on the bases of philosophy is his masterpiece, and, taken as a whole, the greatest work that has been published on that important subject in the nineteenth century."

Jaime Luciano Balmes (1810-1848) was a Spanish thinker, theologian, sociologist and political author. Conversant in the doctrines of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Balmes was an innovative philosopher not acquiescing to any distinct school of thought, to whom Pius XII accredited as the Prince of Modern Apologetics.