cause it dreads conviction." To remove prejudice, would be making great, progress towards the destruction of error, and the triumph of truth.

If I have not essayed to support this Temple with the pillar of human authorities, it is not, because there are not many to whose exalted genius and talents I most cheerfully bow with deference and respect: but, if what I submit be not sanctioned by much higher authority, let it perish in deserved oblivion; if it be, the Sun needs no satellites and human authorities, after all, prove nothing, except it be, that great men, as to earthly science, are not always wise in that, which it most concerns them to understand *. The Lux evangelica is the light and guide, I implicitly follow, through all the darkness of benighted reason, false philosophy, counterfeit virtue,

Who is there, that is not well read enough to know, that authorities, equally ingenious and learned, full of the most laborious trains of reasoning, may be adduced for twenty systems of opinions, various, opposite, and contradictory?

and fictitious morals.

I have weighed

them all in a just balance, and offer the result to public inspection. Should the learned frown upon it with contempt, there may be those of my own intellectual standard, who will secretly smile their approval: they may deplore the insufficiency of the powers employed in so arduous an undertaking, but they will accept the goodness of the intent.

I have taken a prospective view of every thing that can await me in this bold attack on that self-satisfaction, that vain conceit, and those stubborn prejudices, with which the comprehensive nature of my subject obliges me to combat: and my courage would certainly have failed me in the encounter, were I not deeply impressed with the idea, that the cause is worthy the contest; and that though

"The works of man inherit, as is just,
"Their author's frailty, and return to dust;
"Yet TRUTH DIVINE for ever stands secure,
"Its head is guarded, as its base is sure.

"First in the rolling flood of endless years
"The pillar of TH' ETERNAL PLAN appears;
"The roaring storm and dashing wave defies,
"Built by that architect, who built the skies."

There is nothing indeed so much to be dreaded, as the merciless tomahawk of those modest and humble characters, who will fly, like vultures, at the four first Assertions of the following synopsis, and pay no more attention to those which succeed, than if they were not essential branches of it! Such is their excessive attachment to their own ideas of practical goodness, that they can pass over all the pitiful minutiæ, which appertain to integrity and honour! Such too were the Pharisees of other times. Happy had it been for our Religion, had they left no imitators, who tread too closely in their self-opinioned steps.

As a private Individual, in search of Truth and Good; as an obscure Scribbler, too insignificant to excite envy or jealousy, and desirous to remain so; conscious, too, of that deficiency, which must not presume

to think of being enrolled among the heroes of literary renown, and yet, ambitious of rendering some service to his generation; let me once more deprecate that unamiable apathy to the sensibilities of others, that malignity of abuse, by which many a brighter glow-worm has been crushed. For, I affect not to illuminate those, who are already enlightened, but only to shine in a dark place and many such places, I know, there are in this unrivalled nation. And if so, however the nicety of fastidious criticism may be irritated, will not the spirit of public benevolence approve such a sentiment as this? "I would rather incur the censure of be ing tedious and dull, so that I was thoroughly intelligible, than, by aiming at elegance, to sacrifice perspicuity at the shrine of conciseness *." As I covet no

* « A certain brilliancy of thought, and prettiness of style, might be fit enough to surprize and delight the mind with transient glimpses of truth; but is by no means adapted to convey that full and permanent conviction, which is due to truths of the first rank. The mind must be allowed to judge of them with impartiality and cool

D

plaudits, let me flatter myself, that no illiberality of heart will ascribe to me either Principles or Designs, at the farthest distance from those I avow. Of this, however, I have some apprehensions; for, I have seen enough of this strange world, to know, that, "under all possible circumstances, every man has his enemies; and those, who wish to injure, never want protectors."

As an Apology to those, who might otherwise expect to meet with something like Oratory, or Pathos, in these pages, I shall interpose a few remarks from a su

ness, proceeding, not upon sentiments suddenly raised by striking views of truth, but on a deliberate judgment, formed by a familiar acquaintance with the object: and, in order thereto, the same truths must be presented again and again, with no great variation, and with as little adventitious ornament as possible. This manner of treating a subject may indeed disappoint us of the attention of some, whose assent and approbation we should otherwise value: but, we trust the merits of the cause to those, who can with patience and pleasure entertain themselves with the steady view of obvious and interesting Truth."