t of habit with me. If I have ever
trifled with my subject, it was a more serious fault. I never used
arguments which I saw clearly to be unsound. The nearest approach
which I remember to such conduct, but which I consider was clear of
it nevertheless, was in the case of Tract 15. The matter of this
Tract was supplied to me by a friend, to whom I had applied for
assistance, but who did not wish to be mixed up with the publication.
He gave it me, that I might throw it into shape, and I took his
arguments as they stood. In the chief portion of the Tract I fully
agreed; for instance, as to what it says about the Council of Trent;
but there were arguments, or some argument, in it which I did not
follow; I do not recollect what it was. Froude, I think, was
disgusted with the whole Tract, and accused me of _economy_ in
publishing it. It is principally through Mr. Froude's Remains that
this word has got into our language. I think I defended myself with
arguments such as these:--that, as every one knew, the Tracts were
written by various persons who agreed together in their doctrine, but
not always in the arguments by which it was to be proved; that we
must be tolerant of difference of opinion among ourselves; that the
author of the Tract had a right to his own opinion, and that the
argument in question was ordinarily received; that I did not give my
own name or authority, nor was asked for my personal belief, but only
acted instrumentally, as one might translate a friend's book into a
foreign language. I account these to be good arguments; nevertheless
I feel also that such practices admit of easy abuse and are
consequently dangerous; but then again, I feel also this,--that if
all such mistakes were to be severely visited, not many men in public
life would be left with a character for honour and honesty.

This absolute confidence in my cause, which led me to the imprudence
or wantonness which I have been instancing, also laid me open, not
unfairly, to the opposite charge of fierceness in certain steps which
I took, or words which I published. In the Lyra Apostolica, I have
said that, before learning to love, we must "learn to hate;" though I
had explained my words by adding "hatred of sin." In one of my first
sermons I said, "I do not shrink from uttering my firm conviction
that it would be a gain to the country were it vastly more
superstitious, more bigoted, more gloomy, more fierce in its religion
than at present it shows