OR, Modes of Faith and Practice. A TALE, IN THREE VOLUMES. BY A LADY. There is no virtue more amiable in the softer sex, than that To be good and disagreeable, is high treason against virtue. SECOND EDITION. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, IN THE STRAND; AND W. BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH. PREFACE. "ALL is said," says La Bruyere, "and we come too late; since it is more than five thousand years that men have reflected." In the age when this complaint was made, the path of literature was comparatively unbeaten; many beautiful and unfrequented spots remained to reward the diligent traveller; many portions of terra incognita' might still be found rich in golden fruit. But, though more than a hundred and fifty years have elapsed since this discouraging sentence was pronounced, it has neither fettered the pen of the author, nor restricted the expectations of the reader; the charm of novelty is still sought with avidity. ' If such be the hapless lot of authors; if, as a witty writer has observed, their best thoughts have been stolen from them by the ancients,' they are to be applauded for the dexterity with which they contrive to work up old materials; for the gloss, beauty and variety with which they invest them. It is certainly true that a picture of human nature, if faithful, must fundamentally be similar to that which has been exhibited a thousand and a thousa ~, but may not the grouping be varied, the figures presented in new attitudes, the light and shade differently managed? Until error has laid aside its Proteus character; until it ceases to assume an infinite variety of forms, an attentive observer of morals and manners, will probably find something in both, to counteract, and to combat. It has been suggested to the author of the following tale, that the gravity of her title-page may alarm the gay, she is quite ready to allow that dulness must be fatal to a work of fiction, and she has been as anxious as the gayest of the gay could desire, to recommend the truths which she has at heart, without being guilty of this unpardonable sin. If The pious reader, if any such should honour this trifling work with their attention, will not, she trusts, mistake the motives by which the writer has been influenced. she has touched upon those modes of faith or religious belief, which produce errors of practice, it has no been for the unhallowed purpose of depreciating religion itself. The narrow, intemperate, injudicious zeal, pourtrayed in one of her characters, is totally distinct from that holy and humble earnestness, without which religion is little more than a form. Infidelity, indeed, has resumed its malignant activity; and our feelings have been outraged by hearing all that is sacred in the doctrines, all that is dear and venerable in the institutions, of our religion, pro |