These, then, are the sources from which the following pages have been compiled. The facts related may therefore be relied upon as perfectly authentic. We possess the originals of the matter quoted—vouchers for every opinion advanced, and the anecdotes can be corroborated by half a dozen of witnesses.
Seeing that his life had been so diverse, and that the changes of thought which influenced the early portion of it were so various, it was thought best to divide it into four distinct books. The first book takes him to the threshold of the Anglican ministry; the second into the fold of the Church; the third into the Passionist novitiate; and the fourth follows him to the grave.
We shall let the details speak for themselves, and only remark that there is an identity in the character as well as in the countenance of a man which underlies all the phases of opinion through which he may have passed. It will be seen that, from childhood to old age, Father Ignatius was remarkable for earnestness and reverence. Whatever he thought to be his duty he pursued with indomitable perseverance. He was not one to cloak over a weak point, or soothe a doubt with a trumped-up answer. He candidly admitted every difficulty, and went with unflagging zeal into clearing it up. This was the key to his conversion. He had, besides, even in his greatest vagaries, a reverential spirit with regard to his Creator, which formed an atmosphere of duty around him, outside which he could not step without being stung by conscience. A sting he never deadened. These were the centripetal and centrifugal forces that kept his life balanced on an axis that remained steady in the centre during his every evolution.
We have endeavoured to be faithful to his memory. We have tried, as far as we could, to let himself tell his life; we have only arranged the materials and supplied the cement that would keep them together. Whether the work has suffered in our hands or not is immaterial to us. We have tried to do our best, and no one can do more. If any expressions have escaped us that may appear offensive, we are ready to make the most ample apology, but not at the sacrifice of a particle of truth. If, through ignorance or inadvertence, errors have been committed, we hold ourselves ready to retract them; and retract, beforehand, anything that may, in the slightest degree, be injurious, not to say contrary, to Catholic doctrine, and submit ourselves unreservedly in this point to the judgment of ecclesiastical authority.
St. Joseph's Retreat, Highgate, London, N., Feast of the Epiphany, 1866.