[8] The Bishop of Manchester exactly expressed the general opinion, when he said,--"Nor will I for a single moment, however my personal feelings might interfere, conceal my deliberate conviction that every partner in that work is equally guilty."--(_Guardian_, Ap. 10, 1861, p. 341.) But the most faithful language of all came from the Bishop of Exeter in his crushing reply to an inquiry put to him by Dr. Temple. "I avow that I hold every one of the seven persons acting together for such an object to be alike responsible for the several acts of every individual among them in executing their avowed common purpose." [9] A letter from Dr. Rowland Williams, which has appeared in the newspapers, contains the following language with reference to the American reprint of "Essays and Reviews:"--"I confess myself personally gratified that my own work, and that of my far more distinguished coadjutors, with whom it is sufficient honour for me to be included in the same volume, should have obtained the honour of a reprint in another hemisphere. Still more would I hail the circumstance as an auspicious token of the sympathy which should prevail between kindred nations, as regards subjects of the highest import, and as a sign of the prospects of Christian freedom beyond the Atlantic.... "I have not yet discovered any community or individual possessing the right to cast the first stone at those who interpret the Bible in freedom, and who subordinate its letter to its spirit, or its parts to its whole. Even if Holy Scripture were, as is popularly fancied, the foundation,--and not, as I believe, the expression and the memorial,--of Religious Truth in man, it would be absurd to render it honours essentially different from those which it claims for itself, or to make it a master, where it claims only to be a servant." [10] Serm. V. [11] See Sermon VII. [12] _Essays and Reviews_, p. 166. [13] See p. clxxvii. to p. clxxxiii. [14] Mr. Jowett in _Essays and Reviews_, p. 433. [15] Article XX. [16] _Essays and Reviews_, p. 45. [17] It should perhaps be stated that the edition of "Essays and Reviews" which I have employed is _the Third_ (1860.) [18] pp. 72-3. CONTENTS. DEDICATION. PREFACE. I. Some account of the present Volume. II. Growth of irreligious Opinion. III. 'Essayists and Reviewers' to be as 'freely-handled' as the Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostles of CHRIST. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON "ESSAYS AND REVIEWS." PAGE I. Examination of the contribution of Rev. F. Temple, D.D. ii II. Rev. Rowland Williams, D.D. xxx III. Rev. Professor Baden Powell, M.A. xlvi IV. Rev. H. B. Wilson, M.A. lxiv V. C. W. Goodwin, M.A. lxxxvi