But, independently of these considerations, the very nature of my subject supplies a reason for the choice which I have made. For I know not, in truth, to whom I could, with greater propriety, inscribe a work, whose chief end is to expose false reasoning and to maintain true religion, than to one, in whom the powers of just reasoning are so conspicuously displayed, and by whom the great principles of religion are so sincerely reverenced.
With these views, I trust, that I shall stand excused by you, my dear Sir, in having, without your knowledge, thus availed myself of the credit of your name. The following treatise, in which so many additions have been made to a former publication, as in some measure to entitle it to the appellation of a new work, I submit to your judgment; well satisfied, that if it meet your approbation, it will not find an unfavourable reception from the public.
I am, my dear Sir,
With the truest attachment,
Your affectionate Friend and Servant,