ADVERTISEMENT.

He who reads this book only superficially will at once see that it is not all fiction; and he who reads it more than superficially will as easily see that it is not all fact.  In what proportions it is composed of either would probably require a very acute critic accurately to determine.  As the Editor makes no pretensions to such acumen,—­as he can lay claim to only an imperfect knowledge of the principal personage in the volume, and never had any personal acquaintance with the singular youth, some traits of whose character and some glimpses of whose history are here given, —­he leaves the above question to the decision of the reader.  At the same time, it is of no consequence in the world.  The character and purport of the volume are sufficiently disclosed in the parting words of the Journalist.  “It aspires,” as is justly said, “to none of the appropriate interest either of a novel or a biography.”  It might have been very properly entitled “Theological Fragments.”

March 31, 1852.

INTRODUCTION

A GENUINE SCEPTIC

A VERSATILE BELIEVER

PURITAN INFIDELITY

LORD HERBERT AND MODERN DEISM

SOME CURIOUS PARADOXES

PROBLEMS

A dialogue showing that “That may be possible with
man which is impossible with god”

SCEPTIC’S FAVORITE TOPICS

UNSTABLE EQUILIBRIUM

A sceptics first catechism
some light on the mystery

BELIEF AND FAITH

THE “VIA MEDIA” OF DEISM

A SCEPTIC’S SELECT PARTY

How it was that infidelity prevented my becoming an
infidel

SKIRMISHES

CHRISTIAN ETHICS

THE BLANK BIBLE

A dialogue in which it is contended “That miracles are
impossible, but that it is impossible to prove it”

The analogies of an external revelation with the laws
and conditions of human development

ON A PREVAILING FALLACY