Page:Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment.djvu/18

viii The man is completely revealed in his correspondence; and I here publish all that the friends of Author:Jan Hus have handed down to us.

These Letters, which are translated now for the first time into our tongue, were never intended for the public eye, having been addressed by Huss to his disciples and friends, to be perused far from the view of his enemies, and under the shade of the domestic roof. They furnish most precious documents to history, and are unquestionable testimonies of the spirit and character of their author. Though they are not remarkable either for profundity of thought, or for style and singularity of doctrine, there, nevertheless, exhales an innocent candour and an angelic piety, like a fragrant perfume, from every page. What especially pervades them, are the Christian thoughts on the fall of man, and his regeneration through Jesus Christ;—the conviction that all the things of this world pass away, and are but the shadows of things eternal;—that man is nothing without God;—that there is