17. I have been asked again, why I shun discussion on the subject. I
answer, I have never done so. When those who invite me to lecture wish
me to allow discussion, I comply with their wishes. I agreed to a public
discussion at Northampton; but the person who was to have met me drew
back. Again, if any one really wishes to discuss with me, he can do so
through the press. I published my views in my _Review_ thirteen or
fourteen years ago. I have published many of them since in a number of
pamphlets, giving all as good an opportunity of discussing them as they
can wish. And there is not the same necessity for a man who has
published his views through the press, to invite discussion on the
platform, as there is for a man who has _not_ given his views through
the press.
The following letter, written to a friend in Newcastle-on-Tyne, may
explain my views on this point a little more fully:--
MY DEAR SIR,--In answer to your question whether I will meet
the Representative of Secularism in debate, I would say, that I had
rather, for several reasons, spend what remains of my life and strength
in peaceful labors as a preacher, a lecturer, and an author. I seem to
have done enough in the way of public discussion. And I have not the
amount of physical or nervous energy, or the strength of voice and
lungs, which I once had.
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