The Preface.

happiness, I would prefer a small, peaceable society in which men, neither envied nor esteemed by their neighbors, should be contented to live upon the natural products of the spot they inhabit, rather than a vast multitude abounding in wealth and power that would always be conquering others by their arms abroad and debauching themselves by foreign luxury at home.

I had said this much to the reader in the first edition, and I have added nothing by way of a preface in the second. But since then, a violent outcry has been made against the book, exactly matching the expectation I always had regarding the justice, wisdom, charity, and fair dealing of those whose goodwill I despaired of obtaining. It has been presented by the grand jury and condemned by thousands who never saw a word of it. It has been preached against before my Lord Mayor, and a complete refutation of it is daily expected from a reverend divine, who has called me names in the advertisements and threatened to answer me in two months' time for over five months together. What I have to say for myself, the reader will see in my vindication at the end of the book, where he will likewise find the grand jury’s presentment and a letter to the Right Honourable Lord C., which is very rhetorical but lacks argument or connection. The author shows a fine talent for invectives and great sagacity in discovering atheism where others can find none. He is zealous against wicked books and points at the Fable;