Rev. Mr. D.--".... To this I will never consent [renewing left off discussions], being satisfied (as I have before stated to you) that every man who is able and willing and sincerely endeavouring to learn and practise his duty, ought to be left in the quiet and undisturbed possession of his own conscience, and not forced from it against his will by others who happen to form a different judgment. In our former conversations, you told me, as plainly as language could well do, though perhaps not entirely at one interview, that you considered me to be an unconverted sinner, as destitute of the truth as any heathen could be, and in a state of perdition; and you seemed to think that I could be recovered from that fearful condition by that horrid system of indiscriminate condemnation and terror which prevails (I find) at Northampton in its most odious form, and which I believe to be essentially opposed to the principles of the Christian religion, as it is repugnant to those natural feelings of kindness and benevolence which God has implanted in the human breast." It might be fairer to transcribe his entire letter; but then the other letters have the same claim, and that would make a new volume, for some of the letters extend over fifteen pages of foolscap paper, closely written. The sum of the remaining part is this, that he is twenty-one years in holy orders, and that God could not have allowed him to be in error all that time. He says that, "I never can for one moment admit that any one is more anxious for my happiness than I am myself, nor that any person has a greater right to decide than I have by what means that happiness shall be sought. A man's own conscientious judgment is the proper guide in such cases." He then refers Mr. Spencer to others more learned than he for the discussion of those matters, and mentions the Bishop of Chester and John Rose, "whose qualifications for the task are incomparably superior to mine." This gentleman seems to hesitate between Mr. Spencer's opinions and his own, and is rather uneasy lest he might be wrong, yet does not see {136} the use of troubling himself, as it is all the same in the end, when one tries to do what his conscience tells him is right. Rev. Mr. E. is a doctor, so let us listen to him. After a rhetorical preface, in which he would make excuses but would not, because they were such friends and did not want them, for handling his friend so summarily, he thus launches forth:-- "Although there can be but _one_ line of duty marked out in the situation of _every_ clergyman, and although, before God, the humblest and the loftiest in that profession are equally bounden to _pursue_ the same line of duty, and are, moreover, equally frail and 'found wanting,'--yet I cannot bring myself to consider yours as by any means an _ordinary_ case."