OF ATHEISM. 2། BY JAMES DAVIES. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, SHAKESPEARE. PUBLISHED BY R. B. SEELEY AND W. BURNSIDE: FLEET STREET, LONDON. PREFACE. If a sincere desire to preserve or rescue our fellowcreatures from fatal error, may be pleaded as an apology for writing and publishing a book, I am not destitute of apology, were any such necessary, for composing, and placing before the public, the following pages. I have endeavoured, throughout, to avoid prolixity. But the man who should contribute a single plank, or spar, to a life-boat, might be allowed to flatter himself, with having performed a humane and commendable action. It is confidently asserted, that there are not less than half a million of persons, in this country, who have renounced all religious belief. Individuals of this description have, in several instances, of late, made themselves conspicuous; and obtained an unenviable publicity. I have often found myself in company with persons, who either denied, or discovered an inclination to deny, the existence of God. And such is the subtlety and sophistry of these persons-their craft in proposing objections, and their adroitness in urging them, that I have, now and then, felt it difficult to furnish a prompt refutation. I wished to obtain some small treatise, on the simple fact of the Divine Existence, concise and comprehensive, argumentative and yet plain, that I could put into |