Your letter to the Reverend H.
B.Gage is a document which, in my sight, if you had filled me with bread when I was starving, if you had sat up to nurse my father when he lay a-dying, would yet absolve me from the bonds of gratitude.

You know enough, doubtless, of the process of canonisation to be aware that, a hundred years after the death of Damien, there will appear a man charged with the painful office of the _devil's advocate_.

After that noble brother of mine, and of all frail clay, shall have lain a century at rest, one shall accuse, one defend him.

The circumstance is unusual that the devil's advocate should be a volunteer, should be a member of a sect immediately rival, and should make haste to take upon himself his ugly office ere the bones are cold; unusual, and of a taste which I shall leave my readers free to qualify; unusual, and to me inspiring.

If I have at all learned the trade of using words to convey truth and to arouse emotion, you have at last furnished me with a subject.