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SHORT

7. 1830

COLLECTIONS;

OR,

EXCERPTA,

FROM

Antient and Modern Authors,

FOR THE USE OF

SCEPTICS,

IN THE

GREAT TRUTHS OF NATURAL RELIGION;

OR

SOCIAL AND MORAL DUTIES.

Est quoddam prodire tenus."

BY A LAYMAN.

London:

CALKIN AND BUDD,
BOOKSELLERS TO HIS MAJESTY,

PALL-MALL.

1829.

LONDON:

A

PRINTED BY W. G. STRATFORD, 27, MIDDLETON-STREET, SPA-FIELDS.

NOTICE.

WHOEVER has mixed much with the World, must have often met with many, who disapproving perhaps of some speculative Tenets, or certain practices in the systems of Faith and Religion, in which they may have been educated, have fallen by degrees, first into a general scepticism as to religious truths, and then from engaging deeply in the business or pleasures of life, have either lost the opportunity, or the relish for serious inquiries; and thus float down the stream of life, and advance towards the end of their career, plunged into all the mental discomfort which attends uncertainty and doubt, on those points which most concern and conduce to their relative or ultimate happiness.

Whatever may be the march of intellect, and whether forward or retrograde, it seems but too obvious, that few willingly sit down in the present day to a long book of close and continued reasoning on serious topics, even from the pen of the most popular or able Writer. It has

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therefore occurred to the Author of the following Collections, that such a selection from Writers of the highest authority, both antient or modern, and of various countries and ages, might be of some utility to the Sceptic and Indolent, since the perusal would require no long continued reading, or plan of study, and would obviate the too common objection of priestcraft or private interest thrown out by the Infidel, against all Systems and Treatises on Religious and Moral Subjects.

If the Work thus submitted to the Public, should awaken in the Thoughtless a turn for deeper Inquiry, or confirm the Wavering in a settled Belief of those Opinions, which must in truth form the basis of all Religion, whether natural or revealed, the Compiler's labour would be amply compensated; and it might lead to results of still higher importance to the individual.

Ζητώ γαρ την αληθειαν, ύφ' ής εδεις εβλάβη.

MARC. ANTON.

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