the
Editor discovered in me some divergence from his own line of thought;
for at length he sent a very civil letter, apologising for the
non-appearance of my sixth communication, on the ground that it
contained an attack upon "Temperance Societies," about which he did
not wish a controversy in his columns. He added, however, his serious
regret at the character of the Tracts. I had subscribed a small sum
in 1828 towards the first start of the _Record_.

Acts of the officious character, which I have been describing, were
uncongenial to my natural temper, to the genius of the movement, and
to the historical mode of its success:--they were the fruit of that
exuberant and joyous energy with which I had returned from abroad,
and which I never had before or since. I had the exultation of health
restored, and home regained. While I was at Palermo and thought of
the breadth of the Mediterranean, and the wearisome journey across
France, I could not imagine how I was ever to get to England; but now
I was amid familiar scenes and faces once more. And my health and
strength came back to me with such a rebound, that some friends at
Oxford, on seeing me, did not well know that it was I, and hesitated
before they spoke to me. And I had the consciousness that I was
employed in that work which I had been dreaming about, and which I
felt to be so momentous and inspiring. I had a supreme confidence in
our cause; we were upholding that primitive Christianity which was
delivered for all time by the early teachers of the Church, and which
was registered and attested in the Anglican formularies and by the
Anglican divines. That ancient religion had well nigh faded away out
of the land, through the political changes of the last 150 years, and
it must be restored. It would be in fact a second Reformation:--a
better reformation, for it would be a return not to the sixteenth
century, but to the seventeenth. No time was to be lost, for the
Whigs had come to do their worst, and the rescue might come too late.
Bishopricks were already in course of suppression; Church property
was in course of confiscation; sees would soon be receiving
unsuitable occupants. We knew enough to begin preaching upon, and
there was no one else to preach. I felt as on a vessel, which first
gets under weigh, and then the deck is cleared out, and the luggage
and live stock stored away into their proper receptacles.

Nor was it only that I had confidence in our cause, both