d into the world might
thus be rendered less undeserving of the public eye. Meanwhile life is
wearing away, and he daily becomes more and more convinced, that he
might wait in vain for this season of complete vacancy. He must,
therefore, improve such occasional intervals of leisure as may occur to
him in the course of a busy life, and throw himself on the Reader's
indulgence for the pardon of such imperfections, as the opportunity of
undiverted and more mature attention might have enabled him to discover
and correct.

But the plea here suggested is by no means intended as an excuse for the
opinions which he shall express, if they be found mistaken. Here, if he
be in an error, it is however a deliberate error. He would indeed
account himself unpardonable, if he were to intrude his first thoughts
upon the Public on a question of such importance; and he can truly
declare, that what he shall offer will be the result of much reading,
observation, and inquiry, and of long, serious, and repeated
consideration.

It is not improbable that he may be accused of deviating from his proper
line, and of impertinently interfering in the concerns of a Profession
to which he does not belong. If it were necessary, however, to defend
himself against this charge, he might shelter himself under the
authority of many most respectable examples. But surely to such an
accusation it may be sufficient to reply, that it is the duty of every
man to promote the happiness of his fellow-creatures to the utmost of
his power; and that he who thinks he sees many around him, whom he
esteems and loves, labouring under a fatal error, must have a cold
heart, or a most confined notion of benevolence, if he could refrain
from endeavouring to set them right, lest in so doing he should be
accused of stepping out of his proper walk, and expose himself on that
ground to the imputation of officiousness.

But he might also allege as a full justification, not only that Religion
is the business of every one, but that its advancement or decline in any
country is so intimately connected with the temporal interests of
society, as to render it the peculiar concern of a political man; and
that what he may presume to offer on the subject of Religion may perhaps
be perused with less jealousy and more candour, from the very
circumstance of its having been written by a Layman, which must at least
exclude the idea (an idea sometimes illiberally suggested to take off
the effe