right; and this book, like all
books which I have ever written, is written to tell him so; and, I
trust, has not been written in vain. But it is not this book, or
any man's book, or any man at all, who can tell Esau the whole truth
about himself, his powers, his duty, and his God. Woman must do it,
and not man. His mother, his sister, the maid whom he may love; and
failing all these (as they often will fail him, in the wild
wandering life which he must live), those human angels of whom it is
written--'The barren hath many more children than she who has an
husband.' And such will not be wanting. As long as England can
produce at once two such women as Florence Nightingale and Catherine
Marsh, there is good hope that Esau will not be defrauded of his
birthright; and that by the time that Jacob comes crouching to him,
to defend him against the enemies who are near at hand, Esau,
instead of borrowing Jacob's religion, may be able to teach Jacob
his; and the two brothers face together the superstition and anarchy
of Europe, in the strength of a lofty and enlightened Christianity,
which shall be thoroughly human, and therefore thoroughly divine.

C. K.
February 17th, 1859.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

This little tale was written between two and three years ago, in the
hope that it might help to call the attention of wiser and better
men than I am, to the questions which are now agitating the minds of
the rising generation, and to the absolute necessity of solving them
at once and earnestly, unless we would see the faith of our
forefathers crumble away beneath the combined influence of new
truths which are fancied to be incompatible with it, and new
mistakes as to its real essence. That this can be done I believe
and know: if I had not believed it, I would never have put pen to
paper on the subject.

I believe that the ancient Creed, the Eternal Gospel, will stand,
and conquer, and prove its might in this age, as it has in every
other for eighteen hundred years, by claiming, and subduing, and
organising those young anarchic forces, which now, unconscious of
their parentage, rebel against Him to whom they owe their being.

But for the time being, the young men and women of our day are fast
parting from their parents and each other; the more thoughtful are
wandering either towards Rome, towards sheer materialism, or towards
an unchristian and unphilosophic spiritualism.