Page:Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment.djvu/19

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INTRODUCTION.
ix

nothing but darkness or false lights wherever the divine flame does not penetrate;—and, lastly, above all these thoughts, subsists that which embraces all the rest—that “Faith is life.” "We behold in his correspondence, a soul superior to seduction as well as to terror; a firm and upright reason which penetrates every subtilty;[1] originates in the conscience alone; clings tenaciously to what appears to it to be the truth as to man’s most precious possession, as to the treasure which has nothing to fear, neither from rust nor robber. (Matt. vi. 20.)

Huss was one of those spirits, more contemplative than practical, which, after having recognised an idea as true, admit of no medium or arrangement in propagating it, and concern themselves for the consequences not more for others than for themselves. The inflexibility of his character equalled his probity of feeling; and it may be affirmed that, in all respects, both by the heart and the intelligence, Huss was of the

  1. Consult, in particular, Letter xl. of the Second Series.
a 2