from Lady Burton's "Earthly God,"[FN#2] I have been very careful to
give chapter and verse for all my statements. The work has been
written on the same lines as my Life of Edward FitzGerald; that is
to say, without any aim except to arrive at the precise truth.
But although I have regarded it as no concern of mine whether any
particular fact tells for or against Sir Richard Burton, I do think
that when the reader rises from the last page he will feel that he
has been in the company not only of one of the greatest, noblest and
most fearless of Englishmen, but also of one who, without making
much profession of doing so, really loved his fellow-men, and who,
despite his inability to put himself in line with religionists,
fought steadily on the side of righteousness. We are aware that
there are in his books a few observations which call for vehement
and unqualified denunciation; but against them must be placed the
fundamental goodness of the man, to which all who knew him
intimately have testified. In not a few respects Sir Richard
Burton's character resembled Edward FitzGerald's. Burton, indeed,
hailed the adapter of Omar Khayyam as a "fellow Sufi."

Lady Burton, too, comes extremely well out of the fire of criticism.
The reader may object to her religious views, he may smile at her
weaknesses, he may lament her indiscretions, but he will recognise
that at bottom she was a God-fearing, noble-minded woman; and he
will, we think, find himself really in love with her almost before
knowing it.

The amount of absolutely new information in this work is very large.
Thus we are telling for the first time the history of Burton's
friendships with Mr. F. F. Arbuthnot, Mr. John Payne, and others;
and we are giving for the first time, too, a complete and accurate