grace, believe me, as the worthy Doctor used to say, with great propriety and truth, that it is for the sole purpose of rendering that lucid and clear, which might otherwise, if contained in one continued homily or discourse, be confused and dull. The three heads, therefore, whereupon I mean to dilate- and let not the word alarm you, for, following the example of the said worthy Dr. Listento, I shall not transgress due bounds the three heads, I say, are, first, To justify the fact of mine own name, now appearing, in totidem verbis-(I have not forgot my Latin) — on the titlepage hereof, contrary to what might have been deemed an express, or at least a tacit agreement on my part to the contrary,

Secondly, To explain that I am not, as has been supposed, and as you, dear Public, I doubt, have been led to believe, a nonentity—a creature of the imagination, without being and without existence, but really of flesh and blood-one, in short, who, with the man in the play-book, may truly ask, "Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed ? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

Thirdly, Having satisfied you of my actual existence, to expatiate a little farther upon that endearing subject, self in the doing whereof, you shall have a brief summary—an expression which, by some, might be construed into tautology, or unnecessary repetition of words possessing the same meaning, but whereby I mean to shew forth the extreme brevity of my intended exposition on this subject — a brief summary, I say, of the change which hath taken place in my situation and circumstances since I last had the pleasure of addressing you. And, finally, If I conclude without a practical application, it is because I leave each and all of you, dearest Public, to make that practical application, and indulge in

those reflections, which are fitting and suitable to his or her own case.

First, then, dear Public, to justify the fact of mine own name appearing on the titlepage hereof, contrary to what might have been deemed an express, or at least a tacit agreement on my part to the contrary, it is no doubt in your recollection, that at the period to which I have alluded that is, when I first ventured to appear before you-I did so in the character of sleeping partner of one whose greatness is in the dustwhose life now is as a tale that hath been told.* I might moralize at great length upon the fate of the best and greatest of mankind-these

* Vide Introductory Epistle to " The Monastery."

terms I use advisedly, for none knew him better than I did—but it becomes not me to interfere with the province of the preacher, and I leave each of you to take the lesson, that death levels his dart at the highest, as well the lowest, home to your own heart.

It was, then, dear Public, as you are aware, one of the conditions of our copartnery, that being merely a sleeping partner in the concern, and in that case assuredly a species of nonenity, I should not be allowed to subscribe or use the firm of the copartnery a condition or stipulation, I have been assured, perfectly legal in itself; yea, so much so, that I am given to understand it hath been ruled in the case of Bitem