ΤΟ

MRS. HANNAH MORE,

THE FOLLOWING

ESSAYS

ARE AGAIN, IN THIS SECOND EDITION,

RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED,

WITH AUGMENTED

ESTEEM FOR HER CHARACTER,

VENERATION FOR HER TALENTS,

AND

GRATITUDE AND REGARD

FOR THE PLEASURE AND IMPROVEMENT DERIVED FROM

HER WRITINGS AND CONVERSATION,

BY

HER GREATLY OBLIGED FRIEND,

AND MOST FAITHFUL SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

St. John's Wood, Regent's Park,

January 1, 1828.

CHRISTIAN ESSAYS.

TRUE AND FALSE REPOSE IN DEATH.

If the conduct of men be a just criterion of their feelings, it would appear to be the first desire of human nature that death might never arrive; the second, we might therefore conclude, would be, that seeing death is inevitable, we may become duly prepared for its reception. This, however, though a very natüral desire, is no means always followed by a corresponding system of conduct; so that while men in general wish, with Balaam, to "die the death of the righteous," few live that life which they imagine ought to be attended with so auspicious a result.

There is but one modification of human existence which we have any good reason to believe will be accompanied with either safety or repose at our departure into another world. What is the nature of that peculiar modification

B