kind
feeling. Some said I ought to remain silent a few years; but as I did
not know what a few years or even a few days might bring forth, I
thought it best to speak at once. I had spoken freely enough on the
wrong side, and I saw no reason why I should not speak as freely and at
once on the right side. Nor do I regret the course I took. It was the
best. Some that thought otherwise at first, think as I do now. For
instance, when Mr. Everett first heard that some of his friends had
invited me to preach for them, he was very angry, and said I ought never
to speak or show my face again in public as long as I lived. In less
than four years he came to hear me, was much affected, shook me by the
hand, thanked me, invited me to his house, showed me his library, and
his museum of Methodist antiquities and curiosities, offered me a home
in his house, and was as kind to me as a father.

I never quarrelled with people for regarding me with distrust or fear,
though I often checked my over-zealous friends, who were disposed to
quarrel with all who did not regard me with the same amount of love and
confidence as themselves.

I have never defended myself against slanderers, either by word or
writing, except when justice to my friends has seemed to require it.

I have never complained of any disadvantages under which I have labored.
It is right that a man who has erred as I have, should have something
unpleasant in his lot to remind him of his error, and render him more
careful and prayerful for the time to come: and there is to me a
pleasure in doing penance for my faults.

26. I have never thrown the whole blame of my errors on others, nor have
I ever seen reason to take the whole to myself. God alone is able to
distribute praise and blame, rewards and punishments, according to men's
deserts, and to Him I leave the task. At first I was disposed to be very
severe towards myself: but two years' experience in the religious body
that I first joined, of a kind of treatment resembling that of my early
days, satisfied me that I ought to judge myself a little more leniently.
I would not however be unduly severe towards others. I cannot tell, when
a man does me wrong, how far he may be under the influence of
unavoidable error, and how far he may be under the influence of a wicked
will. I may be able to measure the injustice of the act, but not the
wickedness of the actor. God alone can do that. A man's treatment of me
may satisfy me that