ΤΟ THE AUTHOR OF JOHN WILDGOOSE, A TALE IN WHICH THE EVILS OF LOOSE COMPANY AND CONTEMPT OF THE LAWS ARE FORCIBLY EXEMPLIFIED, This little Volume IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. ADVERTISEMENT. SHOULD it occur to the reader of the following little narrative that it comes too late to do any good, since the effervescence of public opinion has already in great measure subsided, the Author would beg leave to answer in the words of Paley. 66 "I am not ignorant of an objection that has "been advanced against. all abstract speculations concerning the origin, principle, or limitation " of civil authority, viz. that such speculations possess little or no influence upon the con"duct either of the state or of the subject, of "the governors or of the governed; nor are "attended with any useful consequences to "either; that in times of tranquillity they are not "wanted; in times of confusion they are never "heard. This representation, however, in my opinion, is not just. Times of tumult, it is true, are not the times to learn; but the choice "which men make of their side and party in "the most critical occasions of the common"wealth may nevertheless depend upon the "lessons they have received, the books they "have read, and the opinions they have imbibed, "in seasons of leisure and quietness." See Paley's Preface to his Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, page 29. edit. 11. |