Preface to the first Edition

This little tale was written between two and three years ago, in the hope that it might help to call the attention of wiser and better men than I am, to the questions which are now agitating¹ the minds of the rising generation, and to the absolute necessity of solving them at once and earnestly, unless we would see the faith of our forefathers² crumble³ away beneath the combined influence of new truths which are fancied to be incompatible⁴ with it, and new mistakes as to its real essence. That this can be done I believe and know: if I had not believed it, I would never have put pen to paper on the subject.

I believe that the ancient Creed⁵, the Eternal Gospel, will stand, and conquer, and prove its might in this age, as it has in every other for eighteen hundred years, by claiming, and subduing⁶, and organising those young anarchic forces, which now, unconscious of their parentage, rebel against Him to whom they owe their being.

But for the time being, the young men and women of our day are fast parting from their parents and each other; the more thoughtful are wandering either towards Rome, towards sheer materialism⁷, or towards an unchristian and unphilosophic spiritualism. Epicurism⁸ which, in my eyes, is the worst evil spirit of the three, precisely⁹ because it looks at first sight most like an angel of light. The mass, again, are fancying that they are still adhering to the old creeds¹⁰, the old church, to the honoured patriarchs of English Protestantism. I wish I could agree with them in their belief about themselves. To me they seem — with a small sprinkling of those noble and cheering exceptions to popular error which are to be found in every age of Christ’s church — to be losing most fearfully and rapidly the living spirit of Christianity, and to be, for that very reason, clinging all the more convulsively — and who can blame them? — to the outward letter of it, whether High Church or Evangelical; unconscious, all the while, that they are sinking out of real living belief, into that dead self-deceiving belief-inbelieving, which has been always heretofore, and is becoming in England now, the parent of the most blind, dishonest, and pitiless bigotry¹¹.

In the following pages I have attempted to show what some at least of the young in these days are really thinking and feeling. I know well that my sketch¹² is inadequate¹³ and partial: I have every reason to believe, from the criticisms which I have received since its first publication, that it is, as far as it goes, correct. I put it as a problem. It would be the height of arrogance¹⁴ in me to do more than indicate the direction in which I think a solution may be found. I fear that my elder readers may complain that I have no right to start doubts without answering them. I can only answer — Would that I had started them! would that I was not seeing them daily around me, under some form or other, in just the very hearts for whom one would most wish the peace and strength of a fixed¹⁵ and healthy faith. To the young, this book can do no harm; for it will put into their minds little but what is there already. To the elder, it may do good; for it may teach some of them, as I earnestly hope, something of the real, but too often utterly¹⁶ unsuspected, state of their own children’s minds; something of the reasons of that calamitous¹⁷ estrangement¹⁸ between themselves and those who will succeed them, which is often too painful and oppressive to be confessed to their own hearts! Whatever amount of obloquy¹⁹ this book may bring upon me, I shall think that a light price to pay, if by it I shall have helped, even in a single case, to ‘turn the hearts of the parents to the children, and the hearts of the children to the parents, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come,’— as come it surely will, if we persist much longer in substituting denunciation for sympathy, instruction for education, and Pharisaism for the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

1851.

1 agitating   

搅动( agitate的现在分词 )； 激怒； 使焦虑不安； （尤指为法律、社会状况的改变而）激烈争论

参考例句：

• political groups agitating for social change 鼓吹社会变革的政治团体
• They are agitating to assert autonomy. 他们正在鼓吹实行自治。

2 forefathers   

n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left. 它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All of us bristled at the lawyer's speech insulting our forefathers. 听到那个律师在讲演中污蔑我们的祖先，大家都气得怒发冲冠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 crumble   

vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁

参考例句：

• Opposition more or less crumbled away.反对势力差不多都瓦解了。
• Even if the seas go dry and rocks crumble,my will will remain firm.纵然海枯石烂，意志永不动摇。

4 incompatible   

adj.不相容的，不协调的，不相配的

参考例句：

• His plan is incompatible with my intent.他的计划与我的意图不相符。
• Speed and safety are not necessarily incompatible.速度和安全未必不相容。

5 creed   

n.信条；信念，纲领

参考例句：

• They offended against every article of his creed.他们触犯了他的每一条戒律。
• Our creed has always been that business is business.我们的信条一直是公私分明。

6 subduing   

征服( subdue的现在分词 )； 克制； 制服； 色变暗

参考例句：

• They are the probation subduing the heart to human joys. 它们不过是抑制情欲的一种考验。
• Some believe that: is spiritual, mysterious and a very subduing colour. 有的认为：是精神，神秘色彩十分慑。

7 materialism   

n.［哲］唯物主义，唯物论；物质至上

参考例句：

• Idealism is opposite to materialism.唯心论和唯物论是对立的。
• Crass materialism causes people to forget spiritual values.极端唯物主义使人忘掉精神价值。

8 epicurism   

n.贪口福，美食主义

参考例句：

9 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

10 creeds   

（尤指宗教）信条，教条( creed的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• people of all races, colours and creeds 各种种族、肤色和宗教信仰的人
• Catholics are agnostic to the Protestant creeds. 天主教徒对于新教教义来说，是不可知论者。

11 bigotry   

n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等

参考例句：

• She tried to dissociate herself from the bigotry in her past.她力图使自己摆脱她以前的偏见。
• At least we can proceed in this matter without bigotry.目前这件事咱们至少可以毫无偏见地进行下去。

12 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

13 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

14 arrogance   

n.傲慢，自大

参考例句：

• His arrogance comes out in every speech he makes.他每次讲话都表现得骄傲自大。
• Arrogance arrested his progress.骄傲阻碍了他的进步。

15 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

16 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

17 calamitous   

adj.灾难的，悲惨的；多灾多难；惨重

参考例句：

• We are exposed to the most calamitous accidents. 我们遭受着极大的灾难。 来自辞典例句
• Light reveals the subtle alteration of things, the sly or calamitous impermanence or mortal life. 事物的细微变动，人生的狡猾，倏忽无常，一一都在光中显露出来。 来自辞典例句

18 estrangement   

n.疏远，失和，不和

参考例句：

• a period of estrangement from his wife 他与妻子分居期间
• The quarrel led to a complete estrangement between her and her family. 这一争吵使她同家人完全疏远了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 obloquy   

n.斥责，大骂

参考例句：

• I have had enough obloquy for one lifetime.我一辈子受够了诽谤。
• I resent the obloquy that you are casting upon my reputation.我怨恨你对我的名誉横加诽谤。