Taranaki. 17th. May 1847. My dear Sir, Since you left here last week, every successive day has brought along with it, its various duties that required so much of my time; that I have been obliged till now to postpone a reply to your letter; which, from your being the bearer of it yourself, was anything but carefully perused during your stay here. But since then, I find it contains a great deal connected with our present researches, both interesting and instructive; and though I fear I cannot enter on a review of its voluminous contents in the present letter, they will not certainly be the less appreciated by me; as I must frequently have recourse to them throughout our investigations. But my object at present is to express the views I entertain as a child of nature, that is, without books, or any foreign aid, of No. 1 proposition of your plan as to the relationship of Christianity to man, and what it is. Christianity, therefore, is a doctrine governed by the indisputable evidence of the existence of its Original Founder; and the connection of that Founder with the Almighty Creator of the great and boundless Universe; Who took upon Himself the nature of man, living and suffering persecution for the doctrine he professed and taught; leaving behind him, immoveable traces of the purity and truth of that doctrine; and its having been designed and originated