In his introduction to The Scarlet Letter , Nathaniel Hawthorne descants feelingly upon his incapacity for literary effort during the years in which he held an appointment in the Custom House. But there are spheres of work in the Public Service compared with which the Custom House might seem almost a sanctuary! And having regard to the circumstances in which the present volume was written, the demand for a new edition within a few weeks of its first appearance gives striking proof of deep and widespread interest in the subject of which it treats.

Conflicting criticisms have been passed upon the structure of the book. In the opinion of some the middle chapters embarrass the argument, and ought to be omitted or curtailed. Others, again, have strongly urged that these very chapters should be amplified, and definite additions made to them. These seemingly contradictory suggestions are both alike legitimate.

To a very limited class such incidental dissertations seem unnecessary, and the mere critic turns from them with impatience; but in the estimation of the great majority of readers they are of exceptional interest. The ninth and eleventh chapters, for example, which might perhaps have been excluded, seem to have attracted special notice.

It must not be forgotten, moreover, that, unlike those doctrines which belong to the Christian dispensation in common with that which preceded it, the great characteristic truth of Christianity is ignored by the religion of Christendom, and receives but scant attention even in our best religious literature. It is of vital moment, therefore, to unfold here its character and scope, and to emphasize its transcendent importance. Indeed it will probably be found that the reader’s appreciation of the argument will be precisely in proportion to his apprehension of this truth.

One of the leading daily papers, for instance, informs its readers that the author “finds the sufficient cause of the silence in the doctrine of the Atonement.” And another journal — a Review of the highest class — indicates as the “main contention” of the book, “that the Christian facts supply an adequate explanation of the ‘Silence of God.’” It might a priori seem impossible that any one could so misread these pages; but the preceding paragraph may perhaps account for the phenomenon. “The Atonement” is not a specially Christian doctrine at all: it holds as prominent a place in Judaism as in Christianity. And the author’s “contention,” most plainly expressed, is that “the Christian facts,” so far from explaining the silence of Heaven, seem only to render it still more inexplicable.

In the judgment of this last-cited critic the intensely Protestant and Christian position maintained throughout this volume is nothing more than a “peculiar view of Scripture as a supreme guide in matters of faith and speculation.” And writing from the standpoint this indicates, his strictures are, of course, unsympathetic and severe. Nor can the author complain of this; for one who deals hard blows should expect hard blows in return. But there should be no “hitting below the belt.” The impartial reader can decide whether these pages afford even a colorable pretext for the charge of “occasional departures from reverence.” And no less unwarrantable is the allegation that Mr. Balfour is here referred to in “a patronizing tone.”