t shall I say of the upshot of
all this talk of my economies and equivocations and the like? What is
the precise _work_ which it is directed to effect? I am at war with
him; but there is such a thing as legitimate warfare: war has its
laws; there are things which may fairly be done, and things which may
not be done. I say it with shame and with stern sorrow;--he has
attempted a great transgression; he has attempted (as I may call it)
to _poison the wells_. I will quote him and explain what I mean.

"Dr. Newman tries, by cunning sleight-of-hand logic, to prove that I
did not believe the accusation when I made it. Therein he is
mistaken. I did believe it, and I believed also his indignant denial.
But when he goes on to ask with sneers, why I should believe his
denial, if I did not consider him trustworthy in the first instance?
I can only answer, I really do not know. There is a _great deal_ to
be said for _that_ view, _now that_ Dr. Newman has become (one must
needs suppose) _suddenly_ and _since_ the 1st of February, 1864, a
convert to the _economic_ views of St. Alfonso da Liguori and his
compeers. I am _henceforth_ in doubt and _fear_, as much as any
honest man can be, _concerning every word_ Dr. Newman may write. _How
can I tell that I shall not be the dupe of some cunning
equivocation_, of one of the three kinds laid down as permissible by
the blessed Alfonso da Liguori and his pupils, even when confirmed by
an oath, because 'then we do not deceive our neighbour, but allow him
to deceive himself?' ... It is admissible, therefore, to use words
and sentences which have a double signification, and leave the
hapless hearer to take which of them he may choose. _What proof have
I, then, that by 'mean it? I never said it!' Dr. Newman does not
signify_, I did not say it, but I did mean it?"--Pp. 44, 45.

Now these insinuations and questions shall be answered in their
proper places; here I will but say that I scorn and detest lying, and
quibbling, and double-tongued practice, and slyness, and cunning, and
smoothness, and cant, and pretence, quite as much as any Protestants
hate them; and I pray to be kept from the snare of them. But all this
is just now by the bye; my present subject is Mr. Kingsley; what I
insist upon here, now that I am bringing this portion of my
discussion to a close, is this unmanly attempt of his, in his
concluding pages, to cut the ground from under my feet;--to poison by
anticipation the public min