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LOSS AND GAIN:
THE STORY OF A CONVERT.


BY
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN,
OF THE ORATORY.


ADHUC MODICUM ALIQUANTULUM,
QUI VENTURUS EST, VENIET, ET NON TARDABIT.
JUSTUS AUTEM MEUS EX FIDE VIVIT.


Eighth Edition.


LONDON: BURNS AND OATES.
1881.




TO THE VERY REV.
CHARLES W. RUSSELL, D.D.,
PRESIDENT OF ST. PATRICK'S COLLEGE, MAYNOOTH,
&c. &c.


My dear Dr. Russell,--Now that at length I take the step of printing my
name in the Title-Page of this Volume, I trust I shall not be
encroaching on the kindness you have so long shown to me, if I venture
to follow it up by placing yours in the page which comes next, thus
associating myself with you, and recommending myself to my readers by
the association.

Not that I am dreaming of bringing down upon you, in whole or part, the
criticisms, just or unjust, which lie against a literary attempt which
has in some quarters been thought out of keeping with my antecedents and
my position; but the warm and sympathetic interest which you took in
Oxford matters thirty years ago, and the benefits which I derived
personally from that interest, are reasons why I am desirous of
prefixing your name to a Tale, which, whatever its faults, at least is a
more intelligible and exact representation of the thoughts, sentiments,
and aspirations, then and there prevailing, than was to be found in the
anti-Catholic pamphlets, charges, sermons, reviews, and story-books of
the day.

These reasons, too, must be my apology, should I seem to be asking your
acceptance of a Volume, which, over and above its intrinsic defects, is,
in its very subject and style, hardly commensurate with the theological
reputation and the ecclesiastical station of the person to whom it is
presented.

    I am, my dear Dr. Russell,

                          Your affectionate friend,

                                                  JOHN H. NEWMAN.

THE ORATORY, _Feb. 21, 1874_.




ADVERTISEMENT.


The following tale is not intended as a work of controversy in behalf of
the Catholic Religion; but as a description of what is understood by
few, viz. the course of thought and state of mind,--or rather one such
course and state,--which issues in conviction of its Divine origin.

Nor is it founded on fact, to use the common phrase. It is not the
history of any individual mind among the recent converts to the Catholic
Church. The principal characters are imaginary; and the writer wishes to
disclaim personal allusion in any. It is with this view that he has
feigned ecclesiastical bodies and places, to avoid the chance, which
might otherwise occur, of unintentionally suggesting to the reader real
individuals, who were far from his thoughts.

At the same time, free use has been made of sayings and doings which
were characteristic of the time and place in which the scene is laid.
And, moreover, when, as in a tale, a general truth or fact is exhibited
in individual specimens of it, it is impossible that the ideal
representation should not more or less coincide, in spite of the
author's endeavour, or even without his recognition, with its existing
instances or champions.

It must also be added, to prevent a farther misconception, that no
proper representative is intended in this tale, of the religious
opinions which had lately so much influence in the University of Oxford.

_Feb. 21, 1848._




ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SIXTH EDITION.


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