A collection of several philosophical writings

...them against the approval original: "good liking" of his superiors. 21. That if the philosophy which he has applied to the text of Moses is true, it is a real Restoration of the Mosaic Kabbalah The "Mosaic Kabbalah" refers to More’s belief that ancient Jewish mystical traditions originally contained the same philosophical truths as Platonism and modern science..

READER,

The Author's excuse for such alterations as he has made in this edition of his books.

A decorative woodcut initial 'T' featuring floral motifs and a central figure, beginning the word "THAT".
1. THAT these writings which you find bound up in one volume may also appear to be held together by some common purpose, I thought it appropriate to say something by way of a general preface to them all. And therefore, if your curiosity leads you to inquire what I have done in these new editions of my books, I am ready to inform you that I have taken the same liberty in this intellectual or theoretical garden of my own planting that men usually take in their natural ones: which is to plant or pluck up, to transplant and graft original: "inoculate", where and what they please. Therefore, if I have erased some things (which are actually very few), transposed others, and inserted original: "interserted" others, I hope I shall seem harmful to no man by ordering and cultivating this philosophical plantation of mine according to my own inclination and preference.

The general scope of this entire volume.

2. But these are smaller matters, and hardly any part of what I was about to say. The great bond original: "Cement" that holds these several discourses together is one main design at which they jointly aim. This design, I think, is admittedly noble and important: namely, the knowledge of God, and within that, of true happiness, so far as Reason can make its way through those darknesses and difficulties it is burdened with in this life. Although these difficulties are many and great, I would be misrepresenting original: "belie" the sense of my own success if I pronounced them insurmountable. Likewise, if I were deprived of that sense of success, I would lose many pleasures and enjoyments of mind of which I am now aware. Among these, none is so significant as that quiet reflection within myself on what real service may result original: "redound" to religion from these labors of mine. For what greater satisfaction can there be to a rational spirit than to find himself able to appeal to the strictest rules of reason and philosophy to show that those doctrines of the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are true? And what greater support original: "Establishment" for religion than to discover these two grand pillars so firm and stable, even upon those very grounds that our own faculties naturally agree are true? This cannot help but bring much honor and reverence to the priesthood More refers here to the clergy of the Church of England. and silence the mouths of shallow and profane wits who are so prone to look upon every priest as either a fool or an impostor.

The excellence and necessity of reason for maintaining the truth of the Christian religion.

3. Nor would I want it thought that I limit the reasonableness of our religion to those two main points only, as if the rest were not reasonable as well. For I conceive Christian religion to be rational throughout, and I think I have proved it to be so in my Mystery of Godliness. I must confess that this was the main, if not the only, goal of my long and anxious search into reason and philosophy. Without this goal, I would have proven to be only a lazy and careless inquirer into the nature of things. For to heap up a great deal of reading, notions, and experiments without such a noble and important design would have been, as I imagined original: "phansied", to make my mind or memory a shop of trinkets original: "small-wares". But having this eminent goal in my view, and taking up that noble resolution of