Excerpt from Fifty Years: Or Dead Leaves and Living Seeds Though I am asked to pen a preface to this little volume, I do so with a feeling that nothing seems likely to come of it beyond a remark that, having committed myself to an utterance which is unavoidably personal, I might have drawn upon early and college memories. But since I purposed to say a word about such as were mainly of a clerical nature, these would have been out of place, and tempted me to write at greater length. And thus, as the air of publication has grown thick with reminiscences of many sorts, I can submit these to the severity of critics with the reflection that, at any rate, they are not initially deterrent by reason of their bulkiness, whatever fault may be found with what I have ventured to set down in the following pages, now laid before my friends and such Of the reading public as may care to glance at some written experiences and thoughts of a private in the ranks of town and country parsons. I might add that, being a minister of the English Church, which holds together good men of many minds, I have been moved with a desire to recognise its toler ance, and with a feeling that eyes to see fairly those facts which concern all are more needed than views, however honestly taken, of the different sides which they present. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.