I
did so; but even that did not please him. He stared and squalled, as if
it had been raining red-hot shot, as thick as it once poured hailstones
and fire in Egypt, killing every beast that was out in the fields. And
thus he has gone on. He never seems to have been satisfied, either with
his own position or mine. I might have pleased him, no doubt, by giving
in before the battle, and surrendering at discretion; but that is not my
custom. Well, now the battle draws near its close; and no one, I trust,
has lost anything, but what is better lost than found. I am satisfied
with my own position, and nearly so with my share of the fight. With a
manlier foe, I should have had a pleasanter fight; but soldiers cannot
always choose their antagonists, nor can they keep, in all cases, to
their own best mode of warfare. The hunter cannot always find the
noblest game; and perhaps it is better for his neighbour, if not so
pleasant to himself, that he should sometimes be obliged to employ his
dogs and rifles in destroying vermin.
"I feel that an apology is due from me to you and the public, for
entering the lists with my opponent. It is soon given. When I first
offered to meet him in discussion on the Bible, I supposed him to be a
well-informed and respectable man, and the representative of the
highest intellectual and moral culture, combined with superior talent
and experience as a debater, that the orthodox world could boast.
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