Whenever there exists a difference of opinion about a man during life, it requires some length of time after he has departed, for prejudice to settle to the bottom, and allow his genuine character to be seen through clearly.
These facts, and the experience of history, lead us to conclude that a man's life cannot be impartially written when his memory is yet fresh in people's minds. Thousands have had opportunities of judging, and bring their impressions to compare them with the page that records the actions from which they were taken; and if they be different from the idea the biographer intends to convey, it is not probable that, in every case, their possessors will be content to lay them aside. It is supposed, moreover, that a biographer owes a kind of vassalage to his subject— that he is obliged to defend him through thick and thin—in good and evil report. He is obliged, according to traditionary, though arbitrary laws, to suppress whatever will not tell in his favour, to put the very best face upon what he is compelled to relate, and to make the most of excellencies. His opinion, therefore, must be received with caution, for it is his duty to be partial, in the most odious sense of that word, and it would be a capital sin to deviate from this long-established rule.
These difficulties do not beset the life that is here presented to the public. Father Ignatius had his alternations of praise and blame during life; but those who thought least of him were forced to admit his great sanctity. If this latter quality be conceded, apology has no room. An admitted saint does not require to be defended; for the aureola of his own brow will shed the light through which his actions are to be viewed. We see, therefore, no wrong impressions that require to be removed—no calumnies that have to be cleared away—nothing, in fact, to be done, except to give a faithful history of his life. For this reason, we venture to publish this work before the second anniversary of his death; and it would have been published sooner, if the materials from which it is composed could have been arranged and digested.
Again, he was heedless of the praise or blame of men himself, and it would be an injustice to his memory to wait for a favourable moment for giving his thoughts publicity.
Those who expect to find nothing in the lives of holy people but goodness and traits of high spirituality, will be disappointed when they read this. Those who are accustomed to read that some saints indeed have lived rather irregularly in their youth, but find themselves left in blessed ignorance of what those irregularities were, will also be disappointed. They shall find here recorded that young Spencer was not a saint, and they shall be given data whereon to form their own opinion too. They shall see him pass through various phases of religious views, and shall find themselves left to draw their own conclusions about his conduct throughout.
And now, perhaps, it is better to give some reasons why this course was adopted in writing his life, rather than the usual one. Besides that already given, there are two others.
In the first place, ordinary, well-meaning Christians feel disheartened when they find saints ready to be canonized from their infancy, and cannot think of the Magdalenes when they find the calendar full of Marys, and Agneses, and Teresas. Neither will they reflect much on an Augustin, when the majority are Sebastians and Aloysiuses. Here is an example to help these people on; and they are the greater number. We have therefore shown Father Ignatius's weak points as well as his strong ones; we have brought him out in his written life precisely as he was in reality.
He comes before us with a mind full of worldly notions, he traces his own steps away from rectitude, he makes his confession to the whole world. How many will see in the youth he passed, far away from God and grazing the edge of the bottomless precipice, a perfect illustration of their own youth. Let them then follow him through life. They shall find him a prey to the worst passions, anger, pride, and their kindred tendencies. They shall see him put his hand to the plough, and, according to the measure of his grace and light, subduing first one, and then another of his inclinations. They can trace his passage through life, and see that he has so far overcome his passions that an equivocal warmth of temper is a thing to be wondered at in him. There is a servant of God that gives us courage, we need not despond when he leads the way for us. Occasional imperfections are mentioned towards the latter part of his life. These only show that he was a man and not an angel, and that a defect now and again is not at all incompatible with great holiness.
There was a reality about the man that can never leave the minds of those who knew him. He hated shams. He would have the brightest consequences of faith realized. He would not have the Gospel laws be mere matter of sentimental platitudes, but great realities pervading life and producing their legitimate effects. He went into them, heart and soul; and the few points in which he seemed to go this side or that of the mean of virtue in their observance, we have recorded, that others may see how he observed them. Exceptions show the beauty of a rule; and this is the second reason why we have written as a historian and not as a panegyrist.
And now for an account of the materials from which the memoir has been compiled. He wrote an account of his life about the year 1836. He was then on a bed of sickness from which he scarcely expected to rise; but we shall give his own reasons for writing what he has written. The autobiography begins thus:—