us as the characters of
men. As a matter of fact we have the latter; suggesting to my mind
that the common religion, professed and defended by these different
people, is merely the accidental conduit through which they pour their
own tempers, lofty or low, courteous or vulgar, mild or ferocious, as
the case may be. Pure abuse, however, as serving no good end, I have,
wherever possible, deliberately avoided reading, wishing, indeed, to
keep, not only hatred, malice, and uncharitableness, but even every
trace of irritation, far away from my side of a discussion which
demands not only good-temper, but largeness, clearness, and
many-sidedness of mind, if it is to guide us to even provisional
solutions.

It has been stated, with many variations of note and comment, that in
the Address as subsequently published by Messrs. Longman I have
retracted opinions uttered at Belfast. A Roman Catholic writer is
specially strong upon this point. Startled by the deep chorus of
dissent which my 'dazzling fallacies' have evoked, I am now trying to
retreat. This he will by no means tolerate. 'It is too late now to
seek to hide from the eyes of mankind one foul blot, one ghastly
deformity. Professor Tyndall has himself told us how and where this
Address of his was composed. It was written among the glaciers and
the solitudes of the Swiss mountains. It was no hasty, hurried, crude
production; its every sentence bore marks of thought and care.

My critic intends to be severe: he is simply just. In the 'solitudes'
to which he refers I worked with deliberation, endeavouring even to
purify my intellect by disciplines similar to those enjoined by his
own Church for the sanctification of the soul. I tried, moreover, in
my ponderings to realise not only the lawful, but the expedient; and
to permit no fear to act upon my mind, save that of uttering a single
word on which I could not take my stand, either in this or in any
other world.

Still my time was so brief, the difficulties arising from my isolated
position were so numerous, and my thought and expression so slow,
that, in a literary point of view, I halted, not only behind the
ideal, but behind the possible. Hence, after the delivery of the
Address, I went over it with the desire, not to revoke its principles,
but to improve it verbally, and above all to remove any word which
might give colour to the notion of 'crudeness, hurry, or haste.'

In connection with the charge of Atheis