“My dear Miss Cobbe,
“I am much obliged by your note and by the article in the Contemporary, which is perfectly fair in itself and full of kind things about myself personally.
“The subject is too large to write about, and I am only too glad to take both the letter and the article in the spirit in which they were written and ask no further discussion.
“It seems to me very possible that there may be a good deal of truth in what you suggest as to the nature of the difference between the points of view from which we look at these things, but it is not unnatural that I should think you rather exaggerate the amount of suffering and sorrow which is to be found in the world. I may do the opposite.
“However that may be, thank you heartily for both your letter and your article.
“I am sure you will have been grieved to hear of poor Henry Dicey’s death. His life had been practically despaired of for a considerable time.
“I am, ever sincerely yours,
J. F. Stephen.”
Several of these books of mine, dealing with religious subjects, were translated into French and published by my French and Swiss fellow-religionists, and also in Danish by friends at Copenhagen. Le Monde Sans Religion; Coup d’œil sur le Monde à Venir; L’Humanité destinée au Salut; La Maison sur le Rivage; Seul avec Dieu (Geneva Cherbuliez, 1881), En Verden uden Tro, &c., &c.
But all the time during the intervals of writing these theological books, I employed myself in studying and writing on various other subjects of temporary or durable interest. I contributed a large number of articles to the following periodicals:—