PREFACE.

...so as not to make their readers resemble those in the Prophet Jeremiah A reference to Jeremiah 14:3, describing a drought where people find no water in the cisterns. who, having come to draw water, returned empty-handed, all confused and afflicted. And just as it belongs only to elevated, transcendent souls—those who possess something above the common sort—to give us their conceptions pure, naked, alone, and with no other escort than the truth; and just as it is a mark of a low and debased spirit to undertake nothing of one's own; so too is it the true character of one who is as far removed from vainglory as from ignorance and stupidity, to follow the track and the path beaten by the most learned and sensible men. Such a person does not amuse himself so much with what might trick or tickle the ears of the Readers that he comes to neglect what is necessary for the full and entire satisfaction of their minds. This is what I have particularly endeavored to do in this Apology Apology: a formal written defense of a belief or doctrine, rather than an expression of regret, of which, if you wish to judge while being disinterested from passion and with all sincerity, I assure myself and promise myself so much from your benevolence, that you will not wish to deny it what it has always hoped for: and this principally when you have considered