opies are to be had for the
modest equivalent of twopence, as a matter of fact, it did not come
under my notice for a long time after it was made. May I further
venture to point out that (reckoning postage) the expenditure of
twopence-halfpenny, or, at the most, threepence, would have enabled
Dr. Wace so far to comply with ordinary conventions as to direct my
attention to the fact that he had attacked me before a meeting at
which I was not present? I really am not responsible for the five
months' neglect of which Dr. Wace complains. Singularly enough, the
Englishry who swarmed about the Engadine, during the three months that
I was being brought back to life by the glorious air and perfect
comfort of the Maloja, did not, in my hearing, say anything about the
important events which had taken place at the Church Congress; and I
think I can venture to affirm that there was not a single copy of Dr.
Wace's pamphlet in any of the hotel libraries which I rummaged, in
search of something more edifying than dull English or questionable
French novels.

And now, having, as I hope, set myself right with the public as
regards the sins of commission and omission with which I have been
charged, I feel free to deal with matters to which time and type may
be more profitably devoted.

I believe that there is not a solitary argument I have used, or that I
am about to use, which is original, or has anything to do with the
fact that I have been chiefly occupied with natural science. They are
all, facts and reasoning alike, either identical with, or
consequential upon, propositions which are to be found in the works of
scholars and theologians of the highest repute in the only two
countries, Holland and Germany,[65] in which, at the present time,
professors of theology are to be found, whose tenure of their posts
does not depend upon the results to which their inquiries lead
them.[66] It is true that, to the best of my ability, I have satisfied
myself of the soundness of the foundations on which my arguments are
built, and I desire to be held fully responsible for everything I say.
But, nevertheless, nay position is really no more than that of an
expositor; and my justification for undertaking it is simply that
conviction of the supremacy of private judgment (indeed, of the
impossibility of escaping it) which is the foundation of the
Protestant Reformation, and which was the doctrine accepted by the
vast majority of the Anglicans of my you