6. It
was to have consisted of almost 300 Lives, and I was to have been the
editor. It was brought to an end, before it was well begun, by the
act of friends who were frightened at the first Life printed, the
Life of St. Stephen Harding. Thus I was not responsible except for
the first two numbers; and the advertisements distinctly declared
this. I had just the same responsibility about the other Lives, that
my assailant had, and not a bit more. However, it answers his purpose
to consider me responsible.

Next, I observe, that his delusion about "hot-headed fanatic young
men" continues: here again I figure with my strolling company. "They
said," he observes, "what they believed; at least, what they had been
taught to believe that they ought to believe. And who had taught
them? Dr. Newman can best answer that question," p. 20. Well, I will
do what I can to solve the mystery.

Now as to the juvenile writers in the proposed series. One was my
friend Mr. Bowden, who in 1843 was a man of 46 years old; he was to
have written St. Boniface. Another was Mr. Johnson, a man of 42; he
was to have written St. Aldelm. Another was the author of St.
Augustine: let us hear something about him from this writer:--

"Dr. Newman," he says, "might have said to the Author of the Life of
St. Augustine, when he found him, in _the heat and haste of youthful
fanaticism_, outraging historic truth and the law of evidence, 'This
must not be.'"--p. 20.

Good. This juvenile was past 40--well, say 39. Blot _seventeen_.
"This must not be." This is what I ought to have said, it seems! And
then, you see, I have not the talent, and never had, of some people,
for lecturing my equals, much less men twenty years older than
myself.

But again, the author of St. Augustine's Life distinctly says in his
advertisement, "_No one but himself_ is responsible for the way in
which these materials have been used." Blot _eighteen_.

Thirty-three Lives were actually published. Out of the whole number
this writer notices _three_. Of these one is "charming;" therefore I
am not to have the benefit of it. Another "outrages historic truth
and the law of evidence;" therefore "it was notoriously sanctioned by
Dr. Newman." And the third was "one of the most offensive," and Dr.
Newman must have formally connected himself with it in "a moment of
amiable weakness."--p. 22. What even-handed justice is here! Blot
_nineteen_.

But to return to the juvenile author of St. Au