Autograph letter signed : Leeds, to William Angus Knight, [1873] June 14.

Reporting, at length and in detail, on the "grand Unitarian battle"; saying "The question seemed to me so very small, it was hardly worth fighting about: but Mr. Martineau regarded it as in effect one of fundamental principle, involving the permanent endowment of a distinct form of theological doctrine, & to that extent implying a certain finality of thought. Against this he contended with all the combined force of his intellectual & moral energy & his personal influence. It was indeed disavowed by the opposite side, and repudiated with something like indignation; but he insisted that the practical effect of their proposal would be to prop up what may become a withered & decaying opinion. The details of the controversy are not worth repeating. The result was that Mr. Martineau's amendment was lost, 55 voted for it, and 61 against;" commenting on Martineau's speech saying "After expressing his conviction of a future that will carry us far beyond the limits of Unitarian Christianity, 'I do not, at all events', he said, 'expect to see it. I know that my hour is drawing high, & if it be needful, I am ready to retire from the sectarian contentions that are becoming in our country the scorn of intellectual men & the life long affection of the earnest & the pious, to dream, for the rest of my time, of that kingdom of God, for which I have ever prayed, but which has ever seemed to recede from behind, & to lie only within the folds of the dark future.' This contains in truth the secret of much of the sadness that lurks in so many of his writings: no man perhaps has suffered more than he from the conflict between his intellect & his affections: no one has been a more devoted follower of truth; no one has felt more keenly the isolation which such single minded pursuit involved. All the more must we, who tread so far behind, honour the sacrifices he has made;" discussing at length Matthew Arnold's new book "Literature & Dogma" and offering his opinions on the views expressed in it; saying "His presentation of the inwardness of Christianity is full of beauty and subtle turns of expression as well as applications of texts. But the book will not make an epoch as Ecce Homo did for so many genuine students of Christianity & it is too much disfigured with a running comment of satire, which in spite of its exquisite delicacy & point in many passages, becomes irritating in the discussion of great questions. Moreover in his merciless scorn for the Bishops of Winchester and Gloucester, he altogether loses sight of that method & secret of Christ which he elsewhere so beautifully unfolds;" wishing him well on the remainder of his travels in Switzerland and inviting him to visit on his return.