to discern, had leisure to investigate the truth, and candour enough to confess it, may serve to confute the mistake, and it is not a very uncommon one,-of those who think to shelter their own infidelity under the supposition, that men of genius and abilities who have had any intercourse with the world, any penetration of mind, or intrepidity of character,-are all ranged on their side, and have been sceptics or unbelievers.

Though authorities, even of the greatest names, are not arguments, and have no claim to be admitted as the standard of private opinions, yet the examples recorded in the following pages, may, with the strictest propriety, be employed to combat such prejudices as have no other support than the association of names. They may suggest, moreover, useful reflections to various classes of readers. They may inspire persons of inferior learning or discernment, to repose some degree of confidence in opinions which have been submitted to the most rigorous processes of demonstration. They may teach bold and superficial declaimers not rashly to condemn, as the off

spring of ignorance and credulity, that belief which has been cherished by men of the greatest celebrity, and embraced on the ground of rational and deliberate preference. Those who doubt or disbelieve, may perhaps be induced to weigh with impartiality, or consider with a greater degree of attention, arguments which have produced conviction, under circumstances so unfavourable, and on minds so refractory; which have been found to accord with the profoundest researches into the works of nature, with the -conclusions of historical inquiry, and the deductions that have been drawn from the most enlightened observations on human life.

To the curious in moral speculations, it may be gratifying to observe the progress and operation of libertine principles, to see the fountains of infidelity explored and laid open, not merely by the discoveries of those who have carried the probe of examination into the hearts of others, but by the confessions of penitents themselves, when brought to a proper knowledge of their own malady. They will perceive on what hollow and dangerous ground those fabrics of delusion

have been reared, when the mists that concealed them are dispersed; and how very frivolous the petulant cavils of many unbelievers are, who have owned that they had never read, even with the slightest attention, those Scriptures which they affected to deride; and knew nothing of their evidences, except the popular and common-place objections, which have been repeated at the twentieth hand, and as often confuted.

With regard to the execution of this Work, the Compiler arrogates little merit to himself, beyond that of selecting and arranging his materials. The student of biography will perhaps find little that is new; but he may not be displeased to see brought within his reach in so small a compass, what he had gathered from the wide field of general reading; or to have his attention recalled to subjects which he remembers to have perused, and may not be unwilling to reconsider.

EDINBURGH,

April, 1827.