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PREFACE,

ΒΥ THE EDITOR.

I

AM happy that in presenting the following letters to the public, I am not exhibiting scenes, or communicating opinions, that can wound delicacy, or pervert sentiment. And though I too well know, that to avoid licentious description, and to reject fashion-` able ideas, is to wander far from the road that leads to wealth and fame in the literary world

world, yet I am not willing to acquire either one or the other at the expence of my reader's happiness. If amusement only is to be found in the Letters of Charlotte, it will at leaft be innocent amusement. If opinions are advanced which may appear uncommon, they will not be found to militate against the precepts of religion. If the mind of the reader is not expanded by additional knowledge, it will not be contracted by the subtleties of fcepticism.

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Whether these negative recommendations will carry any weight, I know not; but I am forry to find any book published, in favour of which even thefe cannot be advanced; and I am ftill more forry that a book fo univerfally read as the Sorrows of Werter, fhould fall under this predicament; a book which is not fimply an apology for

the

the horrible crime of Suicide, but in which, as far as the author's abilities would go, it is juftified and recommended!

But the author, not satisfied with recommending a specific crime, has aimed a violent blow at all religion. In the language of those men who, if they would, cannot, avoid venerating revelation, he says: “ I revere our religion; you know I do: I am fenfible that it often gives ftrength to the feeble, and comfort to the afflicted.-But has it," he continues "fhould it have this effect on all men equally? confider this vast univerfe, and you will find millions for whom it never has exifted; and millions, whether it is preached to them or not, for whom it never will exift." This is meant as a pretext for totally rejecting it. Upon the fame principle, we might reject almost

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