XV111 PREFACE TO with unnecessary rigour. Yet what en- lightened conscience will deny that some of the habits to which allusion is made, militate as much against the self-denying spirit of our religion as more ostensible faults. They would not, however, have been noticed, had they been confined to trifling and common characters ; but the least error that grows into a habit, and that habit sanctioned by the countenance of the worthy and respectable, becomes more important than even the vices of ordinary men or frivolous women. In lamenting the probably injurious conse- quences to a large proportion of the myriads who are still, with unabated eagerness, crowding to a foreign shore, the author is fully persuaded that many amongst them carry out principles too deeply rooted, to be shaken by unprofit- able intercourse, and morals too correct to be infected by the fascinations of plea- sure. But who will deny that the counte- nance ofthose who escape the injury gives an authority to those who receive it ? In
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