er
husband, and her anxiety that everyone should think well of him. Her
faults were all of the head. Of the heart she had absolutely none.

As the Richard Burton whom I have to pourtray differs considerably
from Lady Burton's "Earthly God," [2] I have been very careful to give
chapter and verse for all my statements. The work has been written on
the same lines as my Life of Edward FitzGerald; that is to say, without
any aim except to arrive at the precise truth. But although I have
regarded it as no concern of mine whether any particular fact tells for
or against Sir Richard Burton, I do think that when the reader rises
from the last page he will feel that he has been in the company not only
of one of the greatest, noblest and most fearless of Englishmen, but
also of one who, without making much profession of doing so, really
loved his fellow-men, and who, despite his inability to put himself in
line with religionists, fought steadily on the side of righteousness. We
are aware that there are in his books a few observations which call for
vehement and unqualified denunciation; but against them must be
placed the fundamental goodness of the man, to which all who knew him
intimately have testified. In not a few respects Sir Richard Burton's
character resembled Edward FitzGerald's. Burton, indeed, hailed the
adapter of Omar Khayyam as a "fellow Sufi."

Lady Burton, too, comes extremely well out of the fire of criticism.
The reader may object to her religious views, he may smile at her
weaknesses, he may lament her indiscretions, but he will recognise that
at bottom she was a God-fearing, noble-minded woman; and he will, we
think, find himself really in love with her almost before knowing it.

The amount of absolutely new information in this work is very large.
Thus we are telling for the first time the history of Burton's
friendships with Mr. F. F. Arbuthnot, Mr. John Payne, and others; and we
are giving for the first time, too, a complete and accurate history of
the translation of The Arabian Nights, The Scented Garden, and other
works. Hundreds of new facts are recorded respecting these and other
absorbing topics, while the citations from the unpublished letters of
Burton and Lady Burton will, we are sure, receive a welcome. We are
able to give about fifty entirely new anecdotes--many of them extremely
piquant and amusing. We also tell the touching story of Burton's brother
Edward. In our accounts of Burton's travels wi