d so extreme as to furnish
abundant ground for prosecution.

VI.

Here, gentlemen, you may very properly inquire: "Why do you not, then,
prosecute Dr. Royce in the courts, instead of bringing the case before
us?"

Briefly, because I have not yet exhausted those milder means of
obtaining redress which it befits a peaceable and non-litigious
citizen to employ before resorting to legal measures. You would have
had just cause to complain of me, if I had precipitately prosecuted
one of your professors for a "professional" attack without giving you
previously an opportunity to discipline him in your own way, and in
dignified recognition of your own ultimate responsibility. A
prosecution may not, I trust will not, prove necessary; for I have
neither malice nor vindictiveness to gratify, but only a resolute
purpose to defend my reputation effectually against a malicious libel,
and not to permit the libeller to set up a plausible claim that, by
silence and passive submission, I "tacitly confess the justice of an
official condemnation by Harvard University of my 'philosophical
pretensions.'" Except for that one phrase, "professional warning," in
Dr. Royce's attack, this appeal would never have been written, or the
least notice taken of his intrinsically puerile "criticisms." When Mr.
Herbert Spencer, whom I have more than once publicly criticised, can
yet magnanimously write to me of this very book, "I do not see any
probability that it will change my beliefs, yet I rejoice that the
subject should be so well discussed,"--and Mr. William Ewart
Gladstone, "I am very conscious of the force with which you handle the
subject,"--and ex-President Noah Porter, "I thank you very sincerely
for sending me a copy of your last book; I had already read it nearly
twice, and found much in it very admirable and timely,"--I could very
well afford to pass over Dr. Royce's ineffectual "criticisms" with
indifference. But when he insinuates to the uninformed public that
these same "criticisms" have the weighty sanction of Harvard
University, it is quite another matter. That calls upon me to defend
myself against so atrocious a calumny.

But even self-defence has its proprieties, and to these I scrupulously
submit. The first step was to send a reply to the periodical which
published the attack. This was sent. At first, Dr. Royce effusively
agreed to its publication, and wrote a rejoinder to be published
simultaneously with it. Later, in alarm,