CHAPTER III

33. I MUST leave the chronology of Dilecta to be arranged by its final index,¹ for the choice of the letters printed in the course of it must depend more on topic than date; and, besides, it will be needful sometimes to let it supply the place of my ceased Fors, and answer in the parts of it under my hand, any questions that occur in an irritating manner to the readers of Præterita.

For instance, my morning post-bag has been lately filled with reproaches, or anxious advice, from pious persons of Evangelical persuasion, who accuse me of speaking of their faith thoughtlessly, or without sufficient knowledge. Whereas there is probably no European writer now dealing with the history of Christianity, who is either by hereditary ties more closely connected, or by personal inquiry more variously familiar, with the characteristic and vitally earnest bodies of the Puritan Church.

34. The following letter from her uncle to Mrs. Arthur Severn,-(for whose sake the complexities of our ancient and ramifying cousinships have long since been generalized into the brief family name for me, the Coz,)-contains, with as much added genealogy as the most patient reader will be likely to ask for, evidence of the position held by my great grandfather among the persecuted Scottish Puritans.

“1, CAMBRIDGE STREET, HYDE PARK, W.

“August 25th, 1885.

“MY DEAR JOANNA,-The only thing that I can think of that has historical interest for the Coz, in connection with his father’s relations, is that his great grandfather, the Rev. James Tweddale, of Glenluce, had in

¹ [This was never compiled, nor was Dilecta carried further by Ruskin himself than chapter ii.; this third chapter, prepared by him for the press, was not published till 1900.]

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