_despair_ about our Church, if anyhow caused, would at once develop
into a state of conscious approximation and _quasi_-resolution to go
over. 2. Those who feel they can with a safe conscience remain with us,
_while_ they are allowed to testify in behalf of Catholicism, and to
promote its interests; _i.e_. as if by such acts they were putting our
Church, or at least a portion of it, in which they are included, in the
position of catechumens. They think they may stay, while they are moving
themselves, others, nay, say the whole Church, towards Rome. Is not this an
intelligible ground? I should like your opinion of it....

Ever yours sincerely,

JOHN H. NEWMAN.

_J. R. Hope, Esq. to the Rev. J. H. Newman_.

6 Stone Buildings, Linc. Inn: Nov. 4, '43.

Dear Newman,--... As to the Roman leaning, no doubt your 'Lives,' at least
many of them, must evince it; no doubt also that, unless carefully managed,
it will give offence. But may not caution obviate the latter? Is it not
possible to _commence_ by lives which will not at once bring the whole
set into popular disrepute? the less palatable ones being kept for a more
advanced stage. May it not also be provided that in an historical work, a
purely historical character shall be given to what as matter of fact cannot
be denied, and which can only be objected to when it is adopted by the
writers as a matter of principle in which they themselves concur? To the
asceticism, devotion, and anti-secular spirit of the English saints we are,
under every point of view, entitled to refer; and if any part of these
virtues was displayed in necessary relation to Rome, or to Roman