Mr. Albury examined the contents of the several papers, and judging that they contained some salutary admonitions and observations for youth, had decided upon preparing them for publication, when he was seized with an illness, terminating in his death. He therefore bequeathed them to a confidential friend, with a recommendation to fulfil his intention. They now form the contents of this small volume, are evidently dictated by a fond and deeply attached heart, and a mind of correct principle, imbued with such an humility, as to render the possessor jealous of herself, and making her to dread the perversion or ruin of those principles, if exposed to the constant influence of a being regarded with devoted love; yet of firmness and courage to avow those principles, and to withstand that tenderness, which, if yielded to, would lead them into danger of contamination. The person addressed appears to have been of a character generous, manly, and impassioned, but with that fatal self-confidence, and loftiness of spirit, which so often is found to plunge the young, the ardent, and the fearless into the gulph of error; and thence, from spurning human control, to deny the existence of the Being whose B laws they have violated, and whose precepts they consider as cruel and unnecessary restraints upon the free-agency of a rational being: an individual, whose unfixed principles had yielded to the blandishments of sophistry, and the force of vicious example, offered to him under the fascinating guise of brilliant talent, and insinuating manners: one whose pride of heart, rejecting the frequent monitions of conscience, sought to strengthen it's sometimes wavering convictions, by making proselytes to his bewildering and gloomy system. With the purest motives, are these Letters now offered to the public eye, and to the consideration of all those placed in a similar situation with the persons of whom they treat. They profess not to exhibit any thing new, but they contain truths of vital importance to all; truths which cannot too often be reiterated, when infidelity walks unblushingly abroad, follows us into our most retired recesses, and in a thousand Proteus shapes meets our view. That they may, when read and reflected upon by the young, the too credulous, and self-confident, be found useful, is the unfeigned desire of the Relator of this Narration. Then shall not the Writer have lived, then shall not the unfortunate unknown have died, in vain : not in vain have been so wonderfully discovered,— ere his remains became food for the "beasts of the field!!" "Pardon, O Master of the World! if not sufficiently sensible of my own weakness, and abandoning myself only to the emotions of my heart, I undertake to speak of thy existence, thy grandeur,—and thy goodness!" NECKAR. "These vain and futile declaimers, go forth on all sides, armed with fatal paradoxes, to sap the foundation of our faith, and eradicate the principles of virtue. They contemptuously deride the antiquated names of patriotism and religion, consecrating their talents and philosophy to the debasement and abolition of every thing that is held sacred among mankind; not that they bear any real hatred to religion or virtue,-they are enemies only to the public opinion, and would perhaps readily become Christians, if banished to a country of Atheists. "What extravagances will not a rage for singularity induce men to commit!" (Dict. Sciences.-ROUSSEAU.) "O Thou! Thou who canst melt the heart of stone, (Adapted from MILMAN.) THE YOUNG INFIDEL. LETTER I. EUGENIA to ALBERT.* LITTLE did I think the period of your return to your native country, my dear friend,—that moment which has, during the interval of your absence, formed my nightly dream, my constant waking thought,-ah! little did I think, the blissful moment of our meeting was to be, like a strong and dazzling beam of the sun emerging from a dark cloud, but the har These names are substituted for the initials that appear in the manuscript. |