xiv PREFACE. 



powers so infinitely below theirs, he may hope to have 

 obtained some little success, and done some small 

 service to the good cause, he can only ascribe this 

 fortune to the intrinsic merits of that cause which he 

 has ever supported.* He ventures thus to hope that 

 no one will suspect him of being the less a friend to 

 religion, merely because he has not permitted his 

 sincere belief to make him blind regarding the literary 

 merit of men whose opinions are opposed to his 

 own. His censures of all indecorous, all unfair, all 

 ribald or declamatory attacks, however set off by wit or 

 graced by eloquence, he has never, on any occasion, 

 been slow to pronounce. 



Chateau Eleanor- Louise (Provence), Jan. 8, 1845. 



* It has given me a most heartfelt satisfaction to receive many 

 communications from persons both at home and abroad, which inti- 

 mated their having been converted from irreligious opinions by the 

 ' Commentaries and Illustrations of Paley,' published in 1835 and 

 1 838. It must be noted that the passage of the present work in 

 which Dr. Lardner is mentioned as an orthodox writer, refers to the 

 great question between Christians and Infidels. He was an Uni- 

 tarian, undoubtedly ; but his defence of Revelation forms really the 

 groundwork of Dr. Paley's 'Evidences.' 



