Chapters I. to VII. of this book were originally given in the form of
addresses, in the Kensington Town Hall, on successive Sunday evenings in
1921. They were taken down _verbatim_, but have been revised and even to
some extent rewritten. I do not like reports in print of things spoken, for
speaking and writing are two different arts, and what is right when it is
spoken is almost inevitably wrong when it is written. (I refer, of course,
to style, not matter.) If I had had time, I should have re-shaped what I
have said, though it would have been the manner only and not the substance
that would have been changed. This has been impossible, and I can therefore
only explain that the defective form and the occasional repetition which
the reader cannot fail to mark were forced upon me by the fact that I was
speaking--not writing--and that I felt bound to make each address, as far
as possible, complete and comprehensible in itself.

Chapters VIII., IX., and X. were added later to meet various difficulties,
questions, or criticisms evoked by the addresses which form the earlier
part of the book.

I desire to record my gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Sladen, but for
whose active help and encouragement I should hardly have proceeded with the
book: to Miss Irene Taylor, who, out of personal friendship for me, took
down, Sunday after Sunday, all that I said, with an accuracy which, with a
considerable experience of reporters, I have only once known equalled
and never surpassed: and to my congregation, whose questions and speeches
during the discussion that followed each address greatly helped my work.

A. MAUDE ROYDEN.

_September_, 1921.