re-writing the whole, and that was impracticable under the
circumstances. Critics need not trouble themselves about its defects
as a literary production, as I lay no claim to merit on that ground.
Having been actively engaged in the practice of an arduous and
perplexing profession for the last twenty-five years, I am aware that
my qualifications for authorship must be somewhat defective. I was
moreover forced to write, when my corporeal system was exhausted, and
my mental powers oppressed by a complication of diseases. There are
not many, I conceive, who will find any difficulty in clearly
comprehending the ideas I intended to convey; if so, my object is
accomplished.

The work was written under disadvantageous circumstances; but such as
it is, I cast it out on the great sea of public opinion to abide its
fate. If good is accomplished thereby, I shall rejoice; but if it is
destined to sink into oblivion, I shall console myself with the
reflection that I had no other object in writing, but the correction
of error and the welfare of my fellow creatures. I may err, but I
appeal to "the searcher of all hearts" for the purity of my motives
and intentions. Whatever may be the effects of this work on the public
mind; light and truth were my aim, and the best interests of my fellow
beings, my sole object.

I appear before the public with reluctance, and am exceedingly
mortified that it has fallen to my lot to treat any portion of my
fellow citizens with severity; but I am nevertheless prepared to meet
the sneers and frowns of those implicated. I shall offer no apology
for the harsh language which will be occasionally found in this
volume; as a desperate disease requires an active remedy. If I could,
however, have re-written the work, I would have changed, in some