The Spiritual Letters [antikvár]

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION The reception given to this volume on its appearance in April, 1935, proved so favourable that the first edition was exhausted three months after publication. The issue of a second edition not only enables me to add a supplement of Letters which have come into my hands since the first one was published, but also gives an opportunity for dealing with certain criticisms of Abbot Chapman's teaching made by Reviewers, which seem to me—and if I may judge by the very considerable correspondence which such comments have brought me, to others also—less than just to Abbot Chapman, if not an actual misrepresentation of his views. It goes without saying that a compilation such as this, which consists of letters written to a variety of correspondents, at considerable intervals during many years, is very different from a formal treatise which professes to set out the author's teaching in a complete and orderly way. In one of his letters (p. 211) the Abbot writes: " It was written at least devoutly, and wants reading devoutly, and in a kindly and uncritical spirit." It seemed to me not unreasonable to expect that those who read the book would read it in such a spirit, recognising that such a collection is peculiarly liable to misunderstanding unless certain fairly obvious considerations are kept in view. Thus the reader must remember:—First, that we get one side only of the correspondence, and so are largely in the dark as to the exact nature of the letters replied xiii