A tale, directed against the Oxford converts to the Catholic Faith,
was sent from England to the author of this Volume in the summer of
1847, when he was resident at Santa Croce in Rome. Its contents were as
wantonly and preposterously fanciful, as they were injurious to those
whose motives and actions it professed to represent; but a formal
criticism or grave notice of it seemed to him out of place.
The suitable answer lay rather in the publication of a second tale;
drawn up with a stricter regard to truth and probability, and with at
least some personal knowledge of Oxford, and some perception of the
various aspects of the religious phenomenon, which the work in question
handled so rudely and so unskilfully.
Especially was he desirous of dissipating the fog of pomposity and
solemn pretence, which its writer had thrown around the personages
introduced into it, by showing, as in a specimen, that those who were
smitten with love of the Catholic Church, were nevertheless as able to
write common-sense prose as other men.
Under these circumstances “Loss and Gain” was given to the public.
Feb. 21, 1874.
LOSS AND GAIN.