I Consider A Decent Respect For Christianity

All Sober Inquirers After Truth, Ancient And Modern, Pagan And Christian, Have Declared That The Happiness Of Man, As Well As His Dignity, Consists In Virtue.

It Is Folly To Anticipate Evils, And Madness To Create Imaginary Ones.

I Sometimes, In My Sprightly Moments, Consider Myself, In My Great Chair At School, As Some Dictator At The Head Of A Commonwealth. In This Little State I Can Discover All The Great Geniuses, All The Surprising Actions And Revolutions Of The Great World In Miniature. I Have Several Renowned Generals But Three Feet High, And Several Deep-projecting Politicians In Petticoats. I Have Others Catching And Dissecting Flies, Accumulating Remarkable Pebbles, Cockleshells, Etc., With As Ardent Curiosity As Any Virtuoso In The Royal Society.

I Pray Heaven To Bestow The Best Of Blessing On This House, And On All That Shall Hereafter Inhabit It. May None But Honest And Wise Men Ever Rule Under This Roof!

Griefs Upon Griefs! Disappointments Upon Disappointments. What Then? This Is A Gay, Merry World Notwithstanding.