CORRESPONDENCE.

Norwich, Feb. 13th, 1871.

Rev. Sir,—I received with extreme pleasure your circular letter of 7th inst., relating to, and defining the objects of the Discourses intended to be delivered next month in the Cathedral, by the Bishop of Peterborough, and I am induced to reply to it by the conviction that great good may result from “the scheme,” if you can be induced to modify it in some particulars.

The circular states that the Discourses are to be “directed against modern forms of infidelity,” and have for their object the “vindication and establishment of the Christian faith,” but I assume your ultimate object is the vindication and establishment of truth—no matter what the truth may be. If my assumption be correct, I heartily sympathise with your object, and as a Sceptic or Infidel, will co-operate with my Christian brethren if permitted.

May I call your attention to a practical difficulty in the way of the scheme, which I fear you have not sufficiently considered? In the present state of opinion, or rather in the absence of real opinion, on these subjects, Sceptics or Infidels cannot always insure the attention of Christian hearers, or of persons indifferent to the subject of their discourses, but these and not the confirmed Infidels, are the persons the zealous Sceptic most desires to reach. I imagine your difficulty is the same. You want to get at the mighty mass who know and care nothing about these questions, and also at the Infidel whose opinions you deem so mischievous. The fact is, the great mass and the Infidel are not likely to attend unless their attention be in some manner especially drawn to the Discourses, but you will probably have a large congregation of believing Christians, whose faith may be confirmed, but yet who do not hold opinions you wish to change.

I beg to suggest a mode by which I think the difficulty may be removed, and an interest created that will be useful to the cause of truth—to Christian truth, if Christianity be true—but to truth, whether Christianity be true or false.

I intend to invite to Norwich some person who shall be well known as a representative exponent “of modern forms of Infidelity,” and request him to deliver a course of lectures at about the same time, and on the same subject as that chosen by the Bishop of Peterborough, and if you think it would be useful to give the public the opportunity of reading as well as hearing the discourses, both expositions of the subject might be published together, and more extensively circulated and read, in consequence of the greater interest that would be thus created.

I have always scrupulously abstained from doing anything to influence the politics or religion of persons in my employment, but in accordance with your wish, I will take care to inform them all of the Discourses, and also acquaint them with the high reputation which the Bishop of Peterborough enjoys as a preacher.

I should be willing to subscribe for 200 copies of the joint publication, which will enable me to present one to every man and boy in my employment, who is willing to accept it, and the remainder I shall be happy to distribute according to the suggestion of the circular.

I am, Rev. Sir, your obedient servant,

Robert A. Cooper.

The Very Rev. E. M. Goulburn, Dean of Norwich.

The Deanery, Norwich, Feb. 15th, 1871.

Sir,—I beg to acknowledge your letter of the 13th inst., and to thank you for the readiness you express to circulate among persons in your employment, the announcement of the Bishop of Peterborough’s Sermons.

I regret that I cannot meet this kindness on your part by assisting in any way in the circulation of tracts by a representative exponent “of modern forms of infidelity,” and I will explain in few words the reason why I must decline the joint publication suggested by your letter.

Professing yourself (as you do) a “Sceptic,” by which I conceive is meant (according to the derivation of the word) one who has doubts as to religious truth, and, therefore, is engaged in an inquiry, having for its object the resolution of those doubts and the arrival at a conclusion; it is (under your view of the subject) perfectly consistent and reasonable that you should do all in your power to get both sides of the religious question ably and fairly expounded, in order to give yourself and others an opportunity of forming a right conclusion.

But my conclusion on the momentous question has long since been made up. I am as firmly convinced that Christianity is God’s own message to the world, the truth and the only truth, the way, and the only way, of happiness and peace, as that the sun is now shining in the heavens. I cannot, therefore, help regarding any attempt to throw doubt or discredit on Christianity as a treason against the highest well-being of my fellow-creatures. And you will see, therefore, that (under my view) I could not properly join in disseminating publications, which, at the very least, will insinuate a doubt as to that revealed religion which I hold to be the only means of raising and saving our fallen race.

I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

E. Meyrick Goulburn.

Mr. Robert A. Cooper.

Norwich, Feb. 25th, 1871.

Rev. Sir,—I have to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 15th inst. (which came to hand on the 22nd), and to regret that you can engage in the circulation of only one side of the important question you propose to expound. And I regret it for these reasons, because by so restricting your action, you, while attacking, prevent the fair expression of that form of thought which you seek to destroy, and allow those who hold such opinions to shelter themselves, if need be, under the assumption that your exposition of the case is not theirs. And, also, because your expression of the unqualified certainty of your own conviction of the truth of Christianity (obtained, doubtless, from a consideration of all sides of the subject), is open to the objection that you fear to trust the impartial examination of the evidence of that truth to the minds of others, and implies a latent, though unconscious, doubt of the certainty of the proof of that truth of which you speak so positively.

I cannot accept your description of my position as a “Sceptic or Infidel,” but let that pass.

I am still disposed to subscribe for 200 copies of the Bishop’s sermons, and if you desire me to distribute more, I have no doubt I can dispose of a considerable number.

I am, Rev. Sir, your obedient servant,

Robert A. Cooper.

The Very Rev. E. M. Goulburn, Dean of Norwich.

The Deanery, Norwich, Feb. 25th, 1871.

Sir,—In reply to your letter of to-day, in which you say, “I cannot accept your description of my position as a ‘Sceptic or Infidel,’” I hasten to assure you that I should never have presumed to describe your position as such, had I not imagined I had your own authority for doing so. The words of your letter of the 13th inst., from which I drew this inference, are:—

“If my assumption be correct, I heartily sympathise with your object, and as a Sceptic or Infidel, will co-operate with my Christian brethren if permitted.”

I am thankful and rejoiced to find that my inference was an incorrect one; but I trust you will acknowledge that there was some ground in the wording of the sentence for my making it.

I shall be happy to request your acceptance of 200 copies of the Bishop’s Discourses, and am much obliged to you for your offer of circulating them.

Yours very faithfully,

E. M. Goulburn.

Mr. Robert A. Cooper.

Norwich, March 1st, 1871.

Rev. Sir,—I am sorry that in the sentence you refer to, I did not express my meaning with sufficient clearness to be understood; though I am unable to see that it will bear the construction you put upon it.

In the circular letter, you speak of the prevalence, in large cities, of “sceptical views,” and also of “modern forms of infidelity,” evidently using the words “sceptical” and “infidelity” in their popular and ordinary, and not in their strict, grammatical sense.

I say evidently, because the phrases “sceptical views,” and “modern infidelity” appear to be intended as equivalent, and I therefore assume that you use them in their popular sense, because if I am to suppose you use the word “sceptical” in its strict etymological meaning, I must also that you do the word “infidelity,” and I am reluctant to think that you would, in speaking of the opinions of people who you must know are as sincere and honest as yourself, deliberately and intentionally do that.

By “sceptical views” and “modern forms of infidelity,” I understood you to mean both doubt and disbelief of the truth of religion in general, and Christianity in particular, and I therefore accepted in substance your own phraseology in the popular sense in which you appeared to use it, and I speak of myself as a “Sceptic or Infidel,” meaning thereby that I am not merely a doubter, but a disbeliever—a disbeliever not of “religious truth,” but the truth of any religion. It is so common for religious people to speak of disbelievers in general as “sceptics” or “infidels,” without regard to the derivation or strict meaning of the words, that I think it would have been pedantic to appear to have understood them in any other than their common, and I deem not very correct, meaning.

You were, therefore, perfectly entitled to say you had my authority for describing me as a “Sceptic:” what I demurred to was your description of my position as a “Sceptic” as I had adopted the term in the sense in which you seem to use it in your circular, but not in the sense of your letter. I think the misconception would have been avoided had you used the whole instead of the half of my expression—viz., “Sceptic or Infidel,” instead of “Sceptic” only; as your description, if correct, of the position of a “Sceptic” will clearly not apply to a “Sceptic or Infidel.”

And here I will endeavour to state “my conclusion on the momentous question.” I am quite convinced that the history of Jesus Christ, as recorded in the New Testament, is a fable entirely unworthy of credence, and that the Christian and all other systems of religion are but mischievous delusions, but the nature of the evidence by which I arrive at these conclusions, is so different from that which convinces me that the sun is shining in the heavens (space?) that I could not use that form of words as correctly expressing the strength of my convictions.

I regret it is necessary to occupy your time with so long an explanation. Although I could not agree with what you said, I did not wish to trouble you further on that point, and thought it would be sufficient to indicate a dissent without going into detail. Brevity was a failure, and I apologise.

I am, Rev. Sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Robert A. Cooper.

The Very Rev. E. M. Goulburn, Dean of Norwich.