ABSTRACT
In the ensuing volume I have attempted to give a defined and permanent form to a variety of thoughts, which have occurred to my mind in the course of thirty-four years, it being so long since I published a volume, entitled, the Enquirer, – thoughts, which, if they have presented themselves to other men, have, at least so far as I am aware, never been given to the public through the medium of the press.a During a part of this period I had remained to a considerable degree unoccupied in my character of an author, and had delivered little to the press that bore my name. – And I beg the reader to believe, that, since I entered in 1791 upon that which may be considered as my vocation in life, I have scarcely in any instance contributed a page to any periodical miscellany.
