May not he hope, that this Work, child of his gray hairs, will furvive, and bear teftimony for him to good men, that even a laborious calling, which left him not many leisure hours, never banished from his mind, that he would little deferve to be of the human fpecies, were he indifferent about his fellow-creatures : Hemo fum; humani nihil a me alienum puto. Moft of the fubjects handled in the following sheets, admit but of probable reafoning; and, with refpect to fuch reafonings, it is often difficult to fay, what degree of conviction they ought to produce. It is cafy to form plaufible arguments; but to form fuch as can ftand the test of time, is not always eafy. I could amuse the reader with numerous examples of conjectural arguments, which, fair at a diftant view, vanish like a cloud on a near approach. Several examples, not to go farther, are mentioned in the preliminary difcourfe. 1 difcourfe. The hazard of being misled by fuch arguments, gave the author much anxiety; and, after his utmost attention, he can but faintly hope, that he has not often wandered far from truth. Το To the READER. As one great object of the Editor is to make this a popular Work, he has, chiefly with a view to the female fex, fubjoined an English tranflation of the quotations from other languages, |