ever judgment my readers
may eventually form of me from these pages, I am confident that they
will believe me in what I shall say in the course of them. I have no
misgiving it all, that they will be ungenerous or harsh with a man
who has been so long before the eyes of the world; who has so many to
speak of him from personal knowledge; whose natural impulse it has
ever been to speak out; who has ever spoken too much rather than too
little; who would have saved himself many a scrape, if he had been
wise enough to hold his tongue; who has ever been fair to the
doctrines and arguments of his opponents; who has never slurred over
facts and reasonings which told against himself; who has never given
his name or authority to proofs which he thought unsound, or to
testimony which he did not think at least plausible; who has never
shrunk from confessing a fault when he felt that he had committed
one; who has ever consulted for others more than for himself; who has
given up much that he loved and prized and could have retained, but
that he loved honesty better than name, and truth better than dear
friends.

And now I am in a train of thought higher and more serene than any
which slanders can disturb. Away with you, Mr. Kingsley, and fly into
space. Your name shall occur again as little as I can help, in the
course of these pages. I shall henceforth occupy myself not with you,
but with your charges.

Part II

True Mode of Meeting Mr. Kingsley

What shall be the special imputation, against which I shall throw
myself in these pages, out of the thousand and one which my accuser
directs upon me? I mean to confine myself to one, for there is only
one about which I much care--the charge of untruthfulness. He may
cast upon me as many other imputations as he pleases, and they may
stick on me, as long as they can, in the course of nature. They will
fall to the ground in their season.

And indeed I think the same of the charge of untruthfulness, and I
select it from the rest, not because it is more formidable, but
because it is more serious. Like the rest, it may disfigure me for a
time, but it will not stain: Archbishop Whately used to say, "Throw
dirt enough, and some will stick;" well, will stick, but not stain. I
think he used to mean "stain," and I do not agree with him. Some dirt
sticks longer than other dirt; but no dirt is immortal. According to
the old saying, Praevalebit Veritas. There are virtues indeed, which
t