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tions of the most scurrilous nature gain the sanction of an unsuspecting public, and no discovery is made till the deleterious influence is too deeply rooted in the heart for human efforts to eradicate.

To attract the attention of those who as yet have fixed no standard to rest their opinion, is the design of the work your Royal Highness gives me the permission to dedicate.

In gratitude for the unmerited honour conferred on me, and penetrated with the most lively sentiments of deference and profound veneration,

allow me, madam, to subscribe my

self

Your Royal Highness's

Truly obliged, devoted,

And very humble servant,

THE AUTHORESS.

PREFACE.

THE purport of this compendious Work, is to shew the origin and genuine ensign of our several inclinations, pleasures, and obligations, by which we arrive at an explanation of the whole theory of humanity and morals. Our Divine Creator having given us abilities corporeal and ideal, in order to promote our happiness, and has likewise been pleased to lead

us to this exalted end, not only by the deductions of reason, but also by of instinct and sensation,

the

power

a still more powerful principle. Thus nature, by a perception of pain, immediately informs us of what might become injurious to our body; on the contrary, a pleasing sensation gently conducts us, to whatever leads to the preservation or good state of our mental faculties, the two points on which our felicity depends. Our abilities can neither be of use nor exhibit themselves, farther than we employ them. Motion is therefore so requisite to us, that without it we must inevitably fall into a lamentable

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