Some will blame the writer for publishing such letters, on the ground that they cast shadows on young Wesley’s character; but it ought to be borne in mind that the work of a biographer is not to hide facts, but to publish them. Why such an unwillingness to look at the specks as well as sunshine in John Wesley’s history? Is it necessary, in order to establish the high position which has been assigned to Wesley, that the reader should be made to think that from first to last he was _sui generis_, and altogether free from the infirmities, faults, and sins of ordinary men? If it were, we would rather lower the position than pervert the facts; but we maintain, that no such necessity exists. When we say, that from the age of eleven to the age of twenty-two, Wesley made no pretensions to be religious, and, except on rare occasions, habitually lived in the practice of known sin, we only say what is equally true of many of the greatest, wisest, and most godly men that have ever lived. The fact is humiliating, and ought to be deplored; but why hide it in one case more than in another? Wesley soon became one of the holiest and most useful men living; but, except the first ten years of his childhood, he was up to the age of twenty-two, by his own confession, an habitual, if not profane and flagrant sinner; and to his sin, he added the inconvenient and harassing infirmity of his honest but imprudent father, and thoughtlessly contracted debts greater than he had means to pay. His letters are without religious sentiments, and his life was without a religious aim. We yield to no man living in our high veneration of Wesley’s character; but, at the same time, we cannot hide it from ourselves and others, that, being human, he was frail, and, like all his fellows, had need to repent as in dust and ashes, and to seek, through Christ, the forgiveness of his sins and a change of heart. But leaving this, we turn to another important matter. There is no evidence to show, that, when Wesley went to Oxford, he intended or wished to become a minister of the Established Church; it might be so, but it might be otherwise. It is true that, by obtaining ordination, he would become entitled to one of the Church livings at the disposal of the Charterhouse governors; but Wesley was far too noble and too high principled to seek admission into so sacred an office as the Christian ministry merely to secure for himself a crust of bread. He might intend to devote himself, like his brother Samuel, to tutorship; or he might contemplate some other mode of maintenance. Certain it is, that it was not until about the beginning of 1725, when he had been more than four years at college, that he expressed a wish to become a minister of Christ. The matter was properly submitted to his parents, and both gave him the best advice they could.