The Fair Haven | Page 3

of a Second Edition of The Fair Haven enables me to

thank the public and my critics for the favourable reception which has
been accorded to the First Edition. I had feared that the freedom with
which I had exposed certain untenable positions taken by Defenders of
Christianity might have given offence to some reviewers, but no
complaint has reached me from any quarter on the score of my not
having put the best possible case for the evidence in favour of the
miraculous element in Christ's teaching--nor can I believe that I should
have failed to hear of it, if my book had been open to exception on this
ground.
An apology is perhaps due for the adoption of a pseudonym, and even
more so for the creation of two such characters as JOHN PICKARD
OWEN and his brother. Why could I not, it may be asked, have said all
that I had to say in my own proper person?
Are there not real ills of life enough already? Is there not a "lo here!"
from this school with its gushing "earnestness," it distinctions without
differences, its gnat strainings and camel swallowings, its pretence of
grappling with a question while resolutely bent upon shirking it, its dust
throwing and mystification, its concealment of its own ineffable
insincerity under an air of ineffable candour? Is there not a "lo there!"
from that other school with its bituminous atmosphere of exclusiveness
and self-laudatory dilettanteism? Is there not enough actual exposition
of boredom come over us from many quarters without drawing for new
bores upon the imagination? It is true I gave a single drop of comfort.
JOHN PICKARD OWEN was dead. But his having ceased to exist (to
use the impious phraseology of the present day) did not cancel the fact
of his having once existed. That he should have ever been born gave
proof of potentialities in Nature which could not be regarded lightly.
What hybrids might not be in store for us next? Moreover, though
JOHN PICKARD was dead, WILLIAM BICKERSTETH was still
living, and might at any moment rekindle his burning and shining lamp
of persistent self-satisfaction. Even though the OWENS had actually
existed, should not their existence have been ignored as a disgrace to
Nature? Who then could be justified in creating them when they did not
exist?

I am afraid I must offer an apology rather than an excuse. The fact is
that I was in a very awkward position. My previous work, Erewhon,
had failed to give satisfaction to certain ultra-orthodox Christians, who
imagined that they could detect an analogy between the English Church
and the Erewhonian Musical Banks. It is inconceivable how they can
have got hold of this idea; but I was given to understand that I should
find it far from easy to dispossess them of the notion that something in
the way of satire had been intended. There were other parts of the book
which had also been excepted to, and altogether I had reason to believe
that if I defended Christianity in my own name I should not find
Erewhon any addition to the weight which my remarks might otherwise
carry. If I had been suspected of satire once, I might be suspected again
with no greater reason. Instead of calmly reviewing the arguments
which I adduced, The Rock might have raised a cry of non tali auxilio.
It must always be remembered that besides the legitimate investors in
Christian stocks, if so homely a metaphor may be pardoned, there are
unscrupulous persons whose profession it is to be bulls, bears, stags,
and I know not what other creatures of the various Christian markets. It
is all nonsense about hawks not picking out each other's eyes--there is
nothing they like better. I feared The Guardian, The Record, The John
Bull, etc., lest they should suggest that from a bear I now turned bull
with a view to an eventual bishopric. Such insinuations would have
impaired the value of The Fair Haven as an anchorage for
well-meaning people. I therefore resolved to obey the injunction of the
Gentile Apostle and avoid all appearance of evil, by dissociating
myself from the author of Erewhon as completely as possible. At the
moment of my resolution JOHN PICKARD OWEN came to my
assistance; I felt that he was the sort of man I wanted, but that he was
hardly sufficient in himself. I therefore summoned his brother. The pair
have served their purpose; a year nowadays produces great changes in
men's thoughts concerning Christianity, and the little matter of
Erewhon having quite blown over I feel that I may safely appear in my
true colours as the champion of orthodoxy, discard the OWENS as
other than mouthpieces, and relieve the public from uneasiness as to
any