Cambridge: PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. & SON AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. BODLEIAN LIBRARY 27 MAY 31 60 UNIVERSITY PREFACE. A number of papers bearing the title Natural Religion were contributed by the present writer to Macmillan's Magazine at irregular intervals from 1875 to 1878. Upon those papers this work is founded, but it is by no means a reprint of them. About two thirds of it may be said to be a reprint in respect of substance, though even here correction has been applied throughout, large additions and omissions made, and in some parts the original matter completely recast. The remaining third part is wholly new in substance as well as in style. The reader must be cautioned not to enter upon this book with the expectation of finding in it anything calculated to promote either orthodoxy or heterodoxy. The author is one of those simpletons who believe that, alike in politics and religion, there are truths outside the region of party debate, and that these truths are more important than the contending parties will easily |