1849.--"I think the notion a good one (referring to other work for the paper which he had been asked to do), but I feel no inspiration at all that way; and I dread being tempted to more and more bitterness, harsh judgment, and evil speaking. I dread it. I am afraid sometimes I shall end in universal snarling. Besides, my whole time is taken up with my book, and _that_ I do feel inspired to write. But there is something else which weighs awfully on my mind--(the first number of _Cooper's Journal_, which he sent me the other day). Here is a man of immense influence openly preaching Strausseanism to the workmen, and in a fair, honest, manly way which must tell. Who will answer him? Who will answer Strauss? [Footnote: He did the work himself. After many interviews, and a long correspondence with him, Thomas Cooper changed his views, and has been lecturing and preaching for many years as a Christian.] Who will denounce him as a vile aristocrat, robbing the poor man of his Saviour--of the ground of all democracy, all freedom, all association--of the Charter itself? _Oh, si mihi centum voces et ferrea lingua!_ Think about _that_." _January, 1850_.--"A thousand thanks for your letter, though it only shows me what I have long suspected, that I know hardly enough yet to make the book what it should be. As you have made a hole, you must help to fill it. Can you send me any publication which would give me a good notion of the Independents' view of politics, also one which would give a good notion of the Fox-Emerson-Strauss school of Blague-Unitarianism, which is superseding dissent just now. It was with the ideal of Calvinism, and its ultimate bearing on the people's cause, that I wished to deal. I believe that there must be internecine war between the people's church--_i.e._, the future development of Catholic Christianity, and Calvinism even in its mildest form, whether in the Establishment or out of it--and I have counted the cost and will give every _party_ its slap in their turn. But I will alter, as far as I can, all you dislike."