Scotland/Scots > Life of John Knox ; and, The life of Alexander Henderson

PREFACE.
great, perhaps with unnecessary labour. The princi¬
pal facts respecting the Reformation and the Reform¬
er are already known. I flatter myself, however,
that I have been able to place some of them in a new
and more just light, and to bring forward others which
have not hitherto been generally known.
No apology, I trust, will be deemed necessary for
the freedom with which I have expressed my senti¬
ments on the public questions which naturally occur¬
red in the course of the narrative. Some of these are
at variance with opinions which are popular in the
present age; but it does not follow from this that
they are false, or that they should have been sup¬
pressed. I have not become the indiscriminate pane¬
gyrist of the Reformer, but neither have I been de¬
terred, by the apprehension of incurring this charge,
from vindicating him wherever I considered his con¬
duct to be justifiable, or from apologising for him
against uncandid and exaggerated censures. The
attacks which have been made on bis character from
so many quarters, and the attempts to wround the
Reformation through him, must be my excuse for
having so often adopted the language of apology.