*24 These comments on Mr. Henry Rogers’s review of M. Renan’s Les Apotres, contained in a letter to Mr. Lewes, were shortly afterwards published by him in the Fortnightly Review, September 15, 1866,

It is the lot of every book which attempts to treat the origin and progress of Christianity in a sober and scientific spirit, to meet with unsparing attacks. Critics in plenty are always to be found, who, possessed² with the idea that the entire significance and value of the Christian¹ religion are demolished³ unless we regard it as a sort of historical monstrosity, are only too eager to subject the offending work to a scathing⁴ scrutiny⁵, displaying withal a modicum⁶ of righteous indignation at the unblushing heresy⁷ of the author, not unmixed with a little scornful pity at his inability to believe very preposterous⁸ stories upon very meagre evidence. “Conservative” polemics⁹ of this sort have doubtless their function. They serve to purge¹⁰ scientific literature of the awkward and careless statements too often made by writers not sufficiently¹¹ instructed or cautious, which in the absence of hostile criticism might get accepted by the unthinking reader along with the truths which they accompany. Most scientific and philosophical

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