republication of the Essays on _Supernatural Religion_ affords decided
evidence, and I hope that no refutation of this inference at least may
be possible, however little we may agree on other points.

It was natural that Dr. Lightfoot should not be averse to preserving
the more serious part of these Essays, the preparation of which cost
him so much time and trouble; and the republication of this portion
of his reply to my volumes, giving as it does the most eloquent and
attractive statement of the ecclesiastical case, must be welcome to
many. I cannot but think that it has been an error of judgment and
of temper, however, to have rescued from an ephemeral state of existence
and conferred literary permanence on much in his present volume,
which is mere personal attack on his adversary and a deliberate attempt
to discredit a writer with whom he pretends to enter into serious
argument. A material part of the volume is composed of such matter.
I cannot congratulate him on the spirit which he has displayed.
Personally I am profoundly indifferent to such attempts at detraction,
and it is with heretical amusement that I contemplate the large part
which purely individual and irrelevant criticism is made to play
in stuffing out the proportions of orthodox argument. In the first
moment of irritation, I can well understand that hard hitting, even
below the belt, might be indulged in against my work by an exasperated
theologian--for even a bishop is a man,--but that such attacks should
not only be perpetuated, but repeated after years of calm reflection,
is at once an error and a compliment for which I was not prepared.
Anything to prevent readers from taking up _Supernatural Religion_:
any misrepresentation to prejudice them against its statements.
Elaborate literary abuse against the author is substituted for the
effective arguments against his reasoning which are unhappily wanting.
In the later editions of my work, I removed everything that seemed