The overture that gives occasion to the present Dialogue The effects of Diffidence, and of presumption, in respect to the Page Of Dodwell's Christianity not founded on argument... What other sort of performances the Deistical writers might Easy to determine controversies about religion in a summary 438 Ophiomaches: OR, DEISM REVEALED. IN EIGHT DIALOGUES. ̓Αρχαῖος μὲν οὖν τις λόγος καὶ πάτριός ἐστι πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις, ὡς ἐκ Θεοῦ τὰ πάντα καὶ διὰ Θεοῦ ἡμῖν συνέστηκεν· οὐδεμία δὲ φύσις αὐτὴ καθ ̓ ἑαυτὴν αὐτάρκης ἐρημωθεῖσα τῆς ἐκ τούτου σωτηρίας.-ARISTOT. de Mundo. · Αλλ' οὐδ ̓ ἂν διδάξειεν, εἰ μὴ Θεὸς ὑφηγοῖτο.-PLATO in Epinom. ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY ARBELLA DENNY. MADAM, ABOUT two thousand years ago, this was an old adage, Nothing can be said which was not said before. The rectitude of a saying, which, if true, forestalls all possibility of original composition, at least in an age so late as this, might be plausibly enough arraigned by the tribe of writers, were it not for the assertion of him, who, a thousand years earlier still, on more than questionable authority, maintained, that there was, even then, nothing new under the sun. But were either of these sayings false in all other things, they must be most glaringly true of dedications. In these, vanity, adulation, interest, and sometimes indeed gratitude, have so long, so often racked and hackneyed invention, as to leave the panegyrical, the most beaten road in the world. The Appian is new to it. One thing however, a little new in the way of dedications, this pretends to, and that is, to exhibit nothing but truth, nothing, in regard to the Lady it addresses, equal to the acknowledged dignity of her character, nor to that real goodness, both of understanding and heart, which hath set her at the head of the Irish charities. On a very distant hint, thrown out some time ago, that I intended thus to address you, hardly ever have you since ceased to object the impropriety of that intention; to give every reason against it, that ingenuity could suggest; or to propose other persons, more able, in your opinion, to patronise my work, and promote the Charity, in aid whereof the profits are appropriated. In adhering to my own resolution, without your permission, and even under your disapprobation, I have acted a more disinterested part, than I could have acted, had I addressed myself to any person of |