arose between them. Without being debaters, they were accomplished
talkers. They did not argue for the sake of conquest, but to strip off the
mists and perplexities which sometimes obscure truth. These men--who lived
long ago--had a great share of my regard. They were all slandered, chiefly
by men who knew little of them, and nothing of their good qualities; or by
men who saw them only through the mist of political or religious
animosity. Perhaps it was partly for this reason that they came nearer to
my heart.

All the three men, Lamb, Hazlitt, and Hunt, were throughout their lives
Unitarians, as was also George Dyer; Coleridge was a Unitarian preacher in
his youth, having seceded from the Church of England; to which, however,
he returned, and was in his latter years a strenuous supporter of the
national faith. George Dyer once sent a pamphlet to convert Charles to
Unitarianism. "Dear blundering soul" (Lamb said), "why, I am as old a One
Goddite as himself." To Southey Lamb writes, "Being, as you know, not
quite a Churchman, I felt a jealousy at the Church taking to herself the
whole deserts of Christianity." His great, and indeed infinite reverence,
nevertheless, for Christ is shown in his own Christian virtues and in
constant expressions of reverence. In Hazlitt's paper of "Persons one
would wish to have seen," Lamb is made to refer to Jesus Christ as he "who
once put on a semblance of mortality," and to say, "If he were to come
into the room, we should all fall down and kiss the hem of his garment." I
do not venture to comment on these delicate matters, where men like
Hazlitt, and Lamb, and Coleridge (the latter for a short time only) have
entertained opinions which differ from those of the generality of their
countrymen.

During these years, Mary Lamb's illnesses were frequent, as usual. Her
relapses were not dependent on the seasons; they came in hot summers and