TO LEWIS CAMPBELL, Esq.

                                                                 Glenlair, 15th September 1853.

I see that Principal Jelf is going to "have up" Maurice for heresy published in his Theological Essays. The   consequence will probably be that some others unconnected with Maurice will be set upon, and will perhaps join  with him in self-defence, or at least be associated with him in popular opinion.

If the row becomes general it will be the controversy of the day. They have no firm and dogmatic statements to   grapple with, but they will soon make them. All the ordinary disputes have been revivals of the letter of old  contests. Here we have the very spirit of all reformations; an attempt must be made to find what is requisite to a  Christian system, and whether the "variables" of such a system ought to remain constant, as they were at some   arbitrary epoch (that of sect-founders, Fathers, General Councils, Reformers, etc.), and not rather to be trusted to  the true and approved Christians of every age.

But he that is misty let him be misty still, and the same for him that is shallow; but let him that is active not mar his   activity by "tearing his neighbours in their slime," or by ascending into the thick mist and walking with "Death and   Morning on the silver horns."