Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 21, 1896 - Miscellanies, Volume IV

AN APPEAL
the way of reconciliation, and show, by some notable
action, the reality of your own desire for Peace. But
I am not unaware that there are others, and those
possibly a majority, who hold very different opinions
— who regard the old quarrel as still competent, or
have found some new reason for dissent ; and from
these the Church, if she makes such an advance as
she ought to make, in all loyalty and charity, may
chance to meet that most sensible of insults — ridicule,
in return for an honest offer of reconciliation. I am
not unaware, also, that there is yet another ground
of difficulty; and that those even who would be
most ready to hold the cause of offence as now
removed will find it hard to forget the past — will
continue to think themselves unjustly used — will
not be willing to come back, as though they were
repentant offenders, among those who delayed the
reform and quietly enjoyed their benefices, while
they bore the heat and burthen of the day in a
voluntary exile for the Truth's sake.
In view of so many elements of difficulty, no
intelligent person can be free from apprehension for
the result; and you, gentlemen, may be perhaps
more ready now to receive advice, to hear and
weigh the opinion of one who is free, because he
writes without name, than you would be at any
juncture less critical. There is now a hope, at least,
that some term may be put to our more clamorous
dissensions. Those who are at all open to a feeling
of national disgrace look eagerly forward to such
a possibility ; they have been witnesses already too
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