cannot distinguish it with perfect precision, as some of my
memoranda were scattered by my imprisonment) I enjoyed one of those
very rare trips into the country which my engagements allowed. I
was accompanied by two old friends, Mr. J. M. Wheeler and Mr. John
Robertson, the latter being then on a brief first visit to London. We
went up the river by boat, walked for hours about Kew and Richmond,
and sat on the famous Terrace in the early evening, enjoying the lovely
prospect, and discussing a long letter from Italy, written by one of our
best friends, who was spending a year in that poet's paradise. How we
chattered all through that golden day on all subjects, in the heavens
above, on the earth beneath, and in the waters under the earth! With
what fresh delight, in keeping with the scene, we compared our favorite
authors and capped each other's quotations! Rare Walt Whitman told Mr.
Conway that his _forte_ was "loafing and writing poems." Well, we loafed
too, and if we did not write poems, we startled the birds, the sheep,
the cattle, and stray pedestrians, by reciting them. I returned
home with that pleasant feeling of fatigue which is a good sign of
health--with tired limbs and a clear brain, languid but not jaded.
Throwing myself into the chair before my desk, I lit my pipe, and sat
calmly puffing, while the incidents of that happy day floated through my
memory as I watched the floating smoke-wreaths. Casually turning round,
I noticed a queer-looking sheet of paper on the desk. I picked it up and
read it. It was a summons from the Lord Mayor, commanding my attendance
at the Mansion House on the following Tuesday, to answer a charge
of Blasphemy. Strange ending to such a day! What a tragi-comedy life
is--how full of contrasts and surprises, of laughter and tears.

Two others were summoned to appear with me: Mr. W. J. Ramsey, as
publisher and proprietor, and Mr. E. W. Whittle, as printer. Mr.
Bradlaugh, who was not included in the prosecution until a later stage
of the proceedings, rendered us ungrudging assistance. Mr. Lickfold, of
the well-known legal firm of Lewis and Lewis, was engaged to watch the
case on behalf of Mr. Whittle. As for my own defence, I resolved from
the very first to conduct it myself, a course for which I had excellent
reasons, that were perfectly justified by subsequent events. In the
_Freethinker_ of July 30, 1882, I wrote:

"I have to defend a principle as well as myself. The most
s