INTRODUCTION xxxvii

bad attack of influenza or the slightest attack of low fever; and so far as I can trace the effects of the illness on my mental powers, it leaves them only weaker in the patience of application, but neither distorts nor blunts them, so long as they can be used. I cannot now write so long as I could, nor deal with any questions involving laborious effort; but in ordinary faculties of judgment, modes of feeling, or play of what little fancy I ever had, I cannot trace more than such slackness or languor as age itself accounts for; and my friends flatter me unkindly and unjustifiably, if they perceive more failure in my work than is manifest to my own sense of it-never an extremely indulgent one. More pages have been cancelled by me as foolish, or ill-done, in my most healthy days, than most readers would believe, judging either by the tone or the number of the rest.

“But of one thing-and that, it seems to me, the chiefly important one-my readers may rest assured, that these morbid attacks, whatever diminution of power they have caused, have in no jot or tittle changed me, nor made me lose a single line or thread of the plan laid down, long years ago, for the collateral structure of my books. I never thought the religious part of them would ever become so important as it has in late years, partly in consequence of the above-noted studies in Italy, but more in compelled antagonism to the atheistic teaching of modern schoolmen. My own proper teaching has never sought to exalt itself above the declaration of facts which common human intelligence might ascertain to be true, and the assertion of principles of honour and industry which the daily human experience of all ages has proved beneficial to mankind. The so-called arrogance of my books-let me repeat but this once more-is simply the necessary tone of a writer who never points to anything which a child cannot see, or advises anything which is not also counselled by the wisdom of six thousand years.¹ But with this assurance, there is also in the general tone of my late writings a faith which to many readers must have borne the colour of insanity, long before any such accusation was supported by attacks of definite disease. In that faith, nevertheless, I am neither ashamed nor shaken, it being simply that what is visible in creation will one day be clearly seen; and what is rational in action, one day commonly done, by the Governors and Councils of Nations. I have so much faith in the power of Truth, and the passion of honour, as to feel certain that one day, gentlemen will not lie to each other, even though they may be kings, diplomats, or merchants; and I have so much faith in the laws of Life and the power of Love, as to feel certain that one

¹ Compare Vol. XXXIV. pp. 546-547.

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