t part the last time I read
them has been when I revised their last proof sheets.

Under these circumstances my sketch will of course be
incomplete. I now for the first time contemplate my course as a
whole; it is a first essay, but it will contain, I trust, no
serious or substantial mistake, and so far will answer the
purpose for which I write it. I purpose to set nothing down in
it as certain, of which I have not a clear memory, or some
written memorial, or the corroboration of some friend. There are
witnesses enough up and down the country to verify, or correct,
or complete it; and letters moreover of my own in abundance,
unless they have been destroyed.

Moreover, I mean to be simply personal and historical: I am not
expounding Catholic doctrine, I am doing no more than explaining
myself, and my opinions and actions. I wish, as far as I am
able, simply to state facts, whether they are ultimately
determined to be for me or against me. Of course there will be
room enough for contrariety of judgment among my readers, as to
the necessity, or appositeness, or value, or good taste, or
religious prudence, of the details which I shall introduce. I
may be accused of laying stress on little things, of being
beside the mark, of going into impertinent or ridiculous
details, of sounding my own praise, of giving scandal; but this
is a case above all others, in which I am bound to follow my own
lights and to speak out my own heart. It is not at all pleasant
for me to be egotistical; nor to be criticized for being so. It
is not pleasant to reveal to high and low, young and old, what
has gone on within me from my early years. It is not pleasant to
be giving to every shallow or flippant disputant the advantage
over me of knowing my most private thoughts, I might even say
the intercourse between myself and my Maker. But I do not like
to be called to my face a liar and a knave; nor should I be
doing my duty to my faith or to my name, if I were to suffer it.
I know I have done nothing to deserve such an insult, and if I
prove this, as I hope to do, I must not care for such incidental
annoyances as are involved in the process.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

History of my Religious Opinions up to 1833

CHAPTER II.

History of my Religious Opinions from 1833 to 1839

CHAPTER III.

Histor