Xll PREFACE. 



the object both of the Life of D'Alembert, and of the 

 Analytical View of the Principia.* 



The course of this work kept me for the most part, 

 at a distance from questions touching political affairs, or 

 the constitution and progress of society, but not always. 

 The reader will find that no opportunity has been left 

 unimproved, as far as I was capable of seizing it with 

 any- effect, for inculcating or illustrating the great doc- 

 trines of peace, freedom, and religious liberty. The 

 observations on historical composition in the Life of 

 Robertson, I especially consider as pointing to an improve- 

 ment in that department of letters, highly important to 

 the best interests of mankind, as well as to the character 

 of historians. 



But although I had no political animosities to encoun- 

 ter, I feared my historical statements and my commentaries 

 on some lives, as those of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Hume, 

 might find enemies among the two great parties whose 

 principles came in question. The Free-thinkers might 

 object to the blame which I ventured to pronounce 

 upon their favourite authors ; the friends of the Church 

 might take exception to the praises occasionally bestowed. 

 It may, however, be expected from the justice of both these 

 conflicting bodies, that they will read with attention and 

 with calmness before they condemn. From the former 

 class I could expect no favour beyond what every one has a 



* The Analytical View, first published in 1839, omitted the Second 

 and part of the Third Book. The whole is now nearly completed. The 

 object was to enable persons having little mathematical knowledge, beyond 

 elementary geometry and algebra, to follow the demonstrations of the fun- 

 damental propositions, and to understand by what kind of reasoning the 

 others are proved. That it was successful in this respect, there were un- 

 doubted proofs ; but the discussions with which the investigations were 

 interspersed had also a very material effect. 



