[Introduction]

The anonymous fragment ‘On the Toleration of Deists’, published in the last issue, made a particular impression on one or two of my readers, to whose approval I am by no means indifferent. The less I expected it here, the more agreeable it was, ‘like a green oasis unexpectedly encountered in a desert’. The image is not my own, as can well be imagined: it was used by one of the readers in question, who wrote to reward and encourage my efforts. For he adds that he would regard it as true pedantry if I, as a librarian, were now to put aside completely a set of thirty-year-old papers merely because they were perhaps not yet sufficiently decayed and illegible. He even begs me to provide the public with further extracts in the next issue, including, if possible, the boldest and strongest sections, so as not to lead those of weak faith to suspect that all sorts of unanswerable objections were being kept secret.

Now I fear the charge of pedantry too much, and am too convinced that the good cause can stand up to the above suspicion, to hesitate for one moment in fulfilling this request, which I know is supported by other like-minded readers. But I can hardly come up at once with the boldest and strongest material, for the papers are still too disorganised, and the continuity is often lost where one least expects it.