Furthermore, he had been made aware at first hand of the cowardice with which people were ready to submit to majority opinion and the lack of respect for the integrity of the individual that was a corollary of this. With such experiences behind him, he finally discarded his previous notion of retiring to a country parish and became convinced instead that current ‘literary, social and political conditions’ required the services of an ‘extraordinarius’ who was ready to speak out in the name of the truth.
