PREFACE Vli 



I too have reached the term at which the still, 

 small voice, more audible than any other to the 

 dulled ear of age, makes its demand ; and I have 

 found that it is of no sort of use to try to cook the 

 accounts rendered. Nevertheless, I distinctly de- 

 cline to admit some of the items charged ; more 

 particularly that of having " gone oat of my way " 

 to attack the Bible ; and I as steadfastly deny 

 that " hatred of Christianity " is a feeling with 

 which I have any acquaintance. There are very 

 few things which I find it permissible to hate ; and 

 though, it may be, that some of the organisations, 

 which arrogate to themselves the Christian name, 

 have richly earned a place in the category of 

 hateful things, that ought to have nothing to do 

 with one's estimation of the religion, which they 

 have perverted and disfigured out of all likeness 

 to the original. 



The simple fact is that, as I have already more 

 than once hinted, my story is that of the wolf and 

 the lamb over again. ' I have never " gone out of 

 my way " to attack the Bible, or anything else : 

 it was the dominant ecclesiasticism of my early 

 days, which, as I believe, without any warrant 

 from the Bible itself, thrust the book in my way. 



I had set out on a journey, with no other 

 purpose than that of exploring a certain province 

 of natural knowledge ; I strayed no hair's breadth 

 from the course which it was my right and my 

 duty to pursue ; and yet I found that, whatever 



